Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App

[francescobaldi]

Even if I know that i’m loosing time… I want to remember that this watch have been sold with specific characteristics and features…
If you buy a car and than suddenly the producer remove the steering wheel, Well, technically you can still drive it using a wrench…
is this what you payd for? you will happily accept the compromise?

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Prenj said in Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App:

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App:

Again just to be clear.

The only basic (feature) that is gone is workout planner. That was done via the app only.

The "new " movescount will provide all route planning yadi yada but not the activity view etc.

It’s said on the announcements as well.

And of course “wireless watch customization” Well technically that’s more than one feature. It’s more like offline/online watch settings, sport modes customization, syncing of routes and POI-s with phone app. And there was also very nice second screen feature. In my book that’s a huge hit to the watch usability.

I remember the time when Suunto advertised “connected family with Ambit3”. Well it’s not that “conneccted” anymore. More like “mostly cable connected to computer family with Ambit3” now.

Hardware is still great, that was never the problem. But it’s significantly worse device now it’s feature list has shrunk.

I was reffering to Movescount as a service. Not the medium the service uses. That correct is lost the wireless “setup”.

[Prenj]

@francescobaldi said in Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App:

Even if I know that i’m loosing time… I want to remember that this watch have been sold with specific characteristics and features…
If you buy a car and than suddenly the producer remove the steering wheel, Well, technically you can still drive it using a wrench…
is this what you payd for? you will happily accept the compromise?

If I remember correctly @TELE-HO made a great analogy… Imagine buying a TV with remote control (of course) and after some time, manufacturer decides to disable it, or let’s be even closer to A3P’s case, disables all the buttons except power. So technically, you still have working remote, TV still works, but it’s significantly more inconvenient to use it than before. When you want to change channels you have to get up and use buttons on TV itself. Well maybe some of them don’t work too, but that’s ok I guess

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

For those that perhaps have come later to this discussions about “what goes away or not” we had a war here in the forum.

The first announcement was that there wont be any replacement and many devices would be bricked etc. (At least the perception)

Many users here in this forum added their voice and changed many things during this procedure.

I know that BT is a thing for syncing your route (settings can be less relevany since they dont change ofter) and this is understandable.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Prenj Yes it’s a deliberate decision due to I suppose (and we all) maintainability and economical reasons. It is what is now.

We can reopen the subject, spend a coupe of ours, change our mood,have again a fight and so on, but this wont benefit anyone of us.

[Prenj]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App:

@Prenj Yes it’s a deliberate decision due to I suppose (and we all) maintainability and economical reasons. It is what is now.

We can reopen the subject, spend a coupe of ours, change our mood,have again a fight and so on, but this wont benefit anyone of us.

Dimitrios, please don’t take this personally. I really like you and I’m grateful for your being a voice in this whole suunto silence game.

This kind of business practice is unfair and up until now, never really seen from suunto. I really like reliability and longevity of suunto equipment. That were really most important reasons to buy their products. But now it seems that they jumped in the ship of fast moving market of fashion watches lasting for 2 years at most. After that, it’s not just “no more support” from manufacturer, but planed obsolesce route. If my watch should last just 2 years, than I consider Suunto watches way overpriced. Especially when Suunto lately releases products that are essentially unfinished and it takes several years to catch up and become the product it was intended to be.

I’m really sorry for being so negative and I apologize for annoying many of users here. I’m just very disappointed in Suunto. It’s definitely not the company that it used to be. Whether it is due to new owner or not, I really don’t know. But they completely lost my trust. Such a pity. I think you could easily guess they lost me as a customer in the future. I don’t know how many A3Ps owners feel the same, but well the time will tell. Unfortunately this experience will definitely stop me from recommending Suunto to anyone anymore.

I wish you all the best.

[vinay]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Thanks for your patience. It’s been a while and a couple of months ago I was indeed under the impression that Ambit devices would lose a lot of functionality. But a lot was vague and some stuff is still vague right now. I’m only just back here. I was under the impression that soon enough, my training log from my Ambit 2S would soon enough no longer be synchronized. Last Wednesday I noticed the Ambit 3 series were discounted and decided to buy the Ambit 3 Peak. I’ve also got a Spartan for over two years now (the one that resembles an Ambit watch) but always continued using the Ambit 2S for the more intense training sessions. I received my Ambit 3 yesterday but after reading through the forum I got a bit worried that Ambit 3 would no longer be supported either, then to find out that the entire Ambit will continue to be supported over the cable. So my Ambit 2S would remain just fine. But eventually I decided that I really like some advanced features of the A3P that my Ambit 2S lacks so I think I’m keeping it and I’ll take it out for a blast on the mountainbike this evening.

I think a lot of traffic on this forum is because a lot is unclear. I’ve been going through the support articles and this is what I can make of it. There still are some questions left. Could you clear them up?

Watch:

• fitness test (does it log to Movescount or App?)
• barometric data (does it log to a webservice too?)

SuuntoLink:

• GPS updates
• upload training data
• download routes etc
• POI created in the watch, uploaded to the app or to Movescount?

Movescount:

• watch setup
• route creation
• apps? (like, the ones that actually run on the watch)

Suunto App (the phone thing)

• analysis and display of training data
• smartwatch functionality (phone notifications to the watch)

Am I correct there? Also, could you clarify something about the ones that got a question mark ;)? Some of these are unique Ambit 3 features and I haven’t found any mention of them in the articles on the Suunto website. Most notably the “apps” functionality. The ability to write and modify apps to then be run inside the watch.

I’m probably the odd one out here who isn’t worried about the (current) lack of full wireless data transfer, instead I’m more excited to learn that the data transfer over the cable will continue to exist.

Thank you!
Vinay

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

I hear you all guys. I don’t take anything personally nor do I say I don’t wont to hear you.

However, I wont argue anymore in terms of what is right or wrong.

I am with you, have always been and it just makes me also feel bad every time I have to read another person having an issue with this.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@vinay said in Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App:

Watch:

fitness test (does it log to Movescount or App?)
barometric data (does it log to a webservice too?)

SuuntoLink:

GPS updates
upload training data
download routes etc
POI created in the watch, uploaded to the app or to Movescount?

Movescount:

watch setup
route creation
apps? (like, the ones that actually run on the watch)

Suunto App (the phone thing)

analysis and display of training data
smartwatch functionality (phone notifications to the watch)

You have it right there.

I only don’t know about apps. I also don’t know (read) if they are going away. I feel positive about the apps not going away but that is 0 knowledge and just my opinion/feeling

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Prenj said in Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App:

’m really sorry for being so negative and I apologize for annoying many of users here. I’m just very disappointed in Suunto.

No need to apologize nor to say differently. I truly understand you.

[freeheeler]

@Prenj
meanwhile I gave my A3PS to a very good friend of mine and I would not have done that if my recent conviction was that A3PS is going to have functionality removed.
For an experienced A3PS user there will be some changes but neither my wife who is used to Ambits even longer than I am it was not a big deal so far and my friend is also very happy with the watch.
My wife would buy another new Suunto right away… once her Ambit breakes she is most likely up for another Suunto.

[isazi]

@TELE-HO once her Ambit breaks? So you’re saying never

[freeheeler]

@isazi
basically… yes

[lexterm77]

Ambit 3 Peak

S9B:

I think my S9B has Parkinson’s disease.

[freeheeler]

@lexterm77
S9B has a nervous sony chip set submerged somewhere in the watch…
A3PS has an I don’t remember what chip set right at your wrist with this superb antenna…
but to be honest: if you stop comparing you’ll find your inner peace with S9B and start loving it
the reason is: there are so much more important things than mm precision of GPS… e.g. a working fridge with cold beer on a hot summer night… cheers fellas

[lexterm77]

@TELE-HO said in Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App:

@lexterm77
S9B has a nervous sony chip set submerged somewhere in the watch…
A3PS has an I don’t remember what chip set right at your wrist with this superb antenna…
but to be honest: if you stop comparing you’ll find your inner peace with S9B and start loving it
the reason is: there are so much more important things than mm precision of GPS… e.g. a working fridge with cold beer on a hot summer night… cheers fellas

I don’t hate s9b, I just can’t stop liking A3P I hope next gen does not rely as much on algorithm filtering for position but in higher quality signal. You can’t have both battery life and precision. And thats why I am keeping both.
Cheers!

Chip is SirstarV

[freeheeler]

@lexterm77 said in Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App:

I just can’t stop liking A3P

that’s a nice one!!
yes, you’re right, sirfstarV…
battery of S9B is much smaller than A3PS from the capacity… hence it has to have the compromise to save energy somewhere…

[Stefan Kersting]

@TELE-HO it’s the same with cell phones nowadays. You can do everything with them but no one uses them to ring people. You can do everything with the s9, but just the a3p is the real gps watch with the Sirf antenna

[Brad_Olwin]

@lexterm77 I don’t know how these were compared but unless they were worn on the same arm on the same day the comparison is not a reasonable one. The GPS signals can differ and if worn on opposite arms that can make quite a bit of difference too. So, how were these two images generated?

[lexterm77]

@Brad_Olwin said in Ambit 3 Peak Route Support for Suunto App:

@lexterm77 I don’t know how these were compared but unless they were worn on the same arm on the same day the comparison is not a reasonable one. The GPS signals can differ and if worn on opposite arms that can make quite a bit of difference too. So, how were these two images generated?

Same arm, one day difference. I have about 40 activities that match this small climb to what used to be a rail bridge over river, stairs are narrow. Sample size is small nevertheless evidence is emerging that all my S9B activities are zig zag if you zoom in, regardless of years or months recoded. All my Ambit routes are smoother, and closer to the stairs on satellite image.

This is signal to noise ratio showing the cost of having low power chip does impact quality if signal. Specs are actually published by semiconductor manufacturers in their technical specifications, can’t find the link but at some point I will compare them just for fun

There is no such thing as a free lunch, Ambits have 500mAh battery S9B 250mAh if I remember correctly.
Ambit3 antenna is overkill, I just can’t stop admiring its conservative engineering where “good enough” is just not good enough.