Roger Fingas
Apple this week shared a recorded interview with model and activist Christy Turlington Burns, hosted by Apple Fitness and Health director Jay Blahnik at the Regent Street Apple Store in London.
The interview consists mostly of Burns discussing her experiences with marathons and fitness in general, as well as her charity Every Mother Counts, which is dedicated to improving the safety of pregnancy and childbirth.
Towards the end of the interview she discusses exercising with the Apple Watch. She notes for example that she never used a fitness tracker prior to the Watch, and that some of the things she enjoyed most were being able to monitor her performance accurately and get constant rewards for progress.
Turlington Burns has been Apple's primary celebrity spokesperson for the Watch. She appeared on-stage during the company's March 9 press event, and contributed a diary to Apple's website praising the product. In exchange for being used in marketing, Turlington Burns has been able to promote her charity.
She ran the London Marathon on Sunday, and yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook posted a photo to Twitter showing her after the race with a Watch on her wrist. She beat her personal goal with a time of 3:46:45.
In her final diary update, posted Tuesday, Turlington Burns promoted Watch features like Siri, Maps, and Digital Touch, and described the experience of running the marathon. She also used the opportunity to talk about Every Mother Counts and her new film Every Mile, Every Mother.
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12 Comments
Christy should be loudly applauded for what she has achieved for her charity. She set a race target of 4.00 hours and came in around 3.45 hours. What an achievement. This is a great advert for the good that an Apple watch can do to help improve health. It has been reported that Goerge Clooney said if Christy did less than 4.00 hours he would run the marathon next year on behalf of Every Women Counts.
I find it interesting that Turlington Burns escaped all the criticism leveled at Apple when they gave early watches to people in the fashion industry. She is a former fashion model. I would like to hear from the trolls who called the fashion industry shallow people. Do you think that applies to Ms. Turlington Burns?
I am enjoying the Fitness and Activity apps on the watch as much as anything. I, too, have never used a fitness band. But my wife tried to use the Weight Watchers ones they gave us when we re-upped our memberships. It was so confusing that I decided to just wait for the ?Watch that I knew was coming in the spring. In fairness to WW they have since dropped their tracker in favor of the Fit Bit. I will be very pleased if WW comes out with a full-on app for the watch. I use their iOS app daily, and one of the real pains is figuring out the points value of activities and exercise. The watche's Fitness app is already recording all the metrics; it should a pretty straightforward to use whatever proprietary algorithm WW uses to convert these values into points. Currently, their iOS app has some nominal data connection to the Health app on the iPhone. Only about nutrition, though. Did I tell you I'm liking the watch so far? Best surprise? The turn by turn prompts via the watch while using maps navigation in the car. Until I get a CarPlay aftermarket unit, it's much better than the phone alone. Drove my wife crazy that I kept looking down at the phone. Now I am prompted to turn by clicks (and haptic feedback) that sound like a turn indicator in a car! Very clever, Apple. And while the directions on the phone via Siri always seem to come too late to make a turn, they are timed just right on the ?Watch. How could that be?
While I can't relate to Turlington on many levels (especially income), I can relate to what it takes to finish a marathon. Finishing is one thing, but to do it well under 4 hrs is exceptional. I'm not sure if the Apple Watch truly played a significant role in achieving this, as there's are no shortcuts in training.
Apple seem to be touting this woman as some sort of fitness expert. I've never heard of her before and don't really care what she thinks of the Apple Watch. Couldn't they get a professional athlete to comment instead. I would take their opinion a lot more seriously than some ugly ex-model.