Altitude GPS vs. Barometric: How obtain GPS-Altitude (if possible at all) on Fenix 3

"Class: Toybox::Position::Info" altitude seems to report on the barometric altitude. Explicit information on that could not be found, but looking at the reported values suggests that strongly.
Is there, and if yes, how, a way to obtain the "hard" GPS Altitude? Intention is to implement something like an InFlight-App.
Beyond that: The overall impression is, that the F3 UI-wise and SDK-wise hides (or does not expose) all the technical "atrocities" from(to) the user. Another evidence: Satellite View gone from UI, SDK abstracts any technical information down to (just) five "Position.QUALITY_*" values. Coming from a Fenix 1 and a Tactix (98% a Fenix 2), the ability to program the F3 is a outstanding and fantastic asset - but hopes to compensate the differences between those watches by adding own technical functionallity (data fields, apps) are slowly fainting away. The very nature of this watch series has not been upgraded, but rather changed radically. No complaints, just finding out the hard way that non-triathletic-tekkies, car drivers, flight monitoring junkies and the like don't seem to be anymore the target audience of neither this (wonderful) watch nor, for worse, the (cute) SDK. Until being teached otherwise :-) ...

Brandon.ConnectIQ over 10 years ago

The position module aggregates all available sources behind the scenes, so there isn't a way to isolate the GPS altitude in a Connect IQ app right now. This may be available in the future, but I don't know for certain. I will file a request to have this considered for future connect IQ releases.

I can understand why you might feel like the fenix 3 is a step back from the fenix and fenix 2, but I don't see it that way. There has been a definite shift in the product toward refinement and an easier-to-use UI, but the intent isn't to narrow the target audience. In fact, I think we'll end up widening the audience to include people that wouldn't necessarily be interested in the fenix or fenix 2.

I think a good parallel might be Apple's MacBook Air. When the first Air came out, it felt a little underwhelming compared to the MacBook Pro--a less powerful processor, fewer ports, no optical drive, much less storage, etc. But now I'd argue that the MacBook Air is the primary MacBook line: it's fast, very capable, and refined, and affordable. Apple appears to be using the same strategy with the newly announced MacBook. It's seems to have a less capable processor, has no traditional ports, and has this new-fangled touch pad. It's more expensive, too. But I think it's a hint at what Apple has in mind for future products, just like the first MacBook Air was.

At first glance, the fenix 3 may seem like it's less capable than the previous fenix models. For example, like you mentioned, some items like the satellite view aren't available in the UI now. But you have this beautiful color screen, a better industrial design, and growing possibilities to expand the capabilities of the device with Connect IQ. Developers are already coming up with novel ways to leverage the capabilities we've made available so far to do things like open their garage door with their watch. The potential will keep growing as we expand the features of Connect IQ.

I wish I could share more more--Garmin has some exciting things on the horizon, and it's all starting with the Forerunner 920XT, vivoactive, and the fenix 3.

crmayer over 10 years ago

Thank you for this open answer and deep insight. I'm on the Garmin train since Garmin GPS+/II/II+/... and always have been impressed by the passion, perfectionism and technology each the device showed as well as the evolution stream across devices. I've no doubt this will continue, one feels that people at garmin love what they do and use what they sell. The F3 is a masterpice. Encouraged by your words, I'm looking curiously forward to the future of the F3 (and a F3 TEC Edition with "GPS Altitude" and "Array[] getSatelliteData()" and a speed alarm with a value bigger than 160kmH :-) or a F4 then).

crmayer over 10 years ago

Beyond that: Provisioning of more technical data/data field(s) would not taint a potential strategic repositioning. It went, right now, from a sports oriented multi-purpuose-device to a 100% sports enthusiast device in business-look-disguise, from my limited point of view. But yes, I'm now quite OT.

crmayer over 10 years ago

And, with respect to the metaphoric reference to Apple products: Evolved, simplified, ease-of-use, but: They do still Feature a terminal shell/command prompt, a powerful scripting language, all the ls /dev info, full access to all operating system data and functionallity. Mentioned just for reasons of completeness :-)