By Dan Moren
November 21, 2016 1:18 AM PT
Apple issues an activity challenge to Apple Watch owners
Note: This story has not been updated for several years.
In the U.S., Thanksgiving Day is one for sitting around and eating a whole lot of food.1 But Apple’s encouraging owners of the Apple Watch to take a break from all the turkey, pie, and delicious side dishes, and get a little exercise. If you’ve got an Apple Watch, you’ll probably have already noticed that the company issued a challenge via the device: walk, run, or wheelchair 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) on Thanksgiving Day, and you’ll get yourself a special badge in the Activity app.
Personally, I think it’s a great idea. Not only for all of us to get out and get some exercise, but also to use the Apple Watch’s social elements–such as Activity Sharing, which I think is a sadly overlooked part of watchOS 3–to add a little bit of peer-pressure incentive. If you’ve already signed up for your turkey trot then maybe you don’t need the extra push, but for the rest of us, well, who doesn’t want a virtual medal in the shape of a turkey, huh?
- To distinguish it from the other holidays in which we, uh, sit around and eat a whole lot of food? ↩
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the supernatural detective story All Souls Lost, is out now.]
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