Apple Watch

foxtrapper wrote: GPS. Maybe. I'm very interested in a coded wrist tap about turns or such coming up. I get easily distracted and miss things otherwise. Not so sure about trying to look at my wrist when driving. Battery life. If it can go all day, that's crucial. Seems it can. Supposedly you have to be wearing your iphone to make the watch work. That seems absurdly redundant if true. Supposedly the glass is not Gorilla glass or other hardened glass. Price. Lordy that thing is expensive.

I was amazed that the GPS app does NOT code the turn direction in terms of # of taps or something. You do have to look at the screen. Bummer. I suspect this will be changed almost immediately.

It goes all day and then some. Went all day yesterday, I wore it overnight, now it's charging while I get ready for work. Suits me fine.

You don't have to be wearing your phone to use it - I leave my phone in the kitchen, wander around the house, it works fine - but for most things you'd want to do, it does need to be connected to your phone.

From what I've seen, the glass is quite hardened, and the mid-market and up-market versions have sapphire crystal instead.

As far as price, I wouldn't be surprised if, well after the initial buzz wears off, cell carriers start subsidizing them the way they've subsidized smart phones. I wouldn't hold my breath though. I would expect them to plummet in price the way all electronics do.

Dick Tracy had the watch years ago.

Nothing new here.

SWMBO wants one just because. I don't understand the concept. I stopped wearing a watch a few years ago because of cell phone. Now they want me to wear a watch that is only fully functional in conjunction with my phone?

When they make a watch that replaces my phone, then I'll be interested. As an expensive add-on gadget and a watch that has a battery life measured in hours instead of years it has no interest from me.

I'm randomly replying to various posts, not necessarily in order.

Beer Baron wrote: They made an interesting point about brand new Apple tech that it is sort of (my words) like buying the first model year of a brand new car model. They haven't had the opportunity to fully test it out in the field yet and figure out what is going to really work and what doesn't. The first iteration tends to really be for the true fans with the proclivity and money to enjoy playing around with the latest and greatest tech. For some people, being part of that initial pioneering to refine a new technology to make it fully practical is part of the experience. If you want a more polished and useful tool/toy, you're generally best off waiting until the 2nd iteration is released in 6-12 months.

This is 100% spot on, IMHO. If you buy an Apple Watch and don't understand and want to participate in this phase of the product, I think you're making a mistake.

What pushed me to get the watch is not knowing exactly how it could be useful. I intuitively know that having our app information on your wrist will be an amazing feature for our patients, but how to deliver that experience in a meaningful way, and what we bring to the table by leveraging the watch form factor ... that's the big question I'm looking to answer, and I think that can only be done by living with the watch.

T.J. wrote: I stopped wearing a watch a few years ago because of cell phone. Now they want me to wear a watch that is only fully functional in conjunction with my phone?

I did the same thing, no watch, check cell phone when I need to know the time. I'm carrying my cell phone all the time, or within 10 yards or so of it when I'm in the house/office, so that's not a problem. The watch is mainly a shortcut to some of the phone features, at the moment. I still have my phone for the complicated interactions, but the basic ones, especially quick glances, those are watch actions.

I don't see a need for the watch, even though I've got an iPad and have had iPhones since Gen 3. I'm invested in Apple, obviously, even bought a MAC a couple years ago after owning nothing but PC products since the 80's.

Here's the thing:- I don't want to spend my hard-earned dollars on yet another Apple device that Apple is doing its level best to make useless as quickly as possible. I have an iPhone 5 that I have yet to "upgrade" to IOS 8 because I know it will only screw something up and the upgrade is geared towards making me buy a 6 (not to mention I HATE the size of the 6 'cause I like to carry my phone in my pocket). Regrettably, I did upgrade my iPad to 8.3 when it came out recently. Turns out I had to repurchase at least one app because it ran on 7 and wouldn't run on 8 (that's the app supplier's fault, I know), but I've yet to see any benefit from the upgrade besides cosmetic changes with a few new swipe functions.

This isn't total Apple hate, I find the products I have wonderful to use as they stand, but I just don't like the planned obsolescence and the constant reaching into my pocket.

For me, the biggest thing is battery life. Will it go all day? I regularly wear a watch and have been an Apple person since 1988. Not sure I'm ready for an iWatch, but color me intrigued. I doubt I'm a customer, but this makes way more sense than the Google Glass.

I have an iPhone it's an iPhone 3s if that tells you anything about my need to have the latest and greatest. My old iPhone isn't able to download any apps---as it's obsolete, and Apple wants me to buy a new one. It allows me to get my email, talk on the phone, text, and look something up on the inter webs if I need to. I don't need it to do much else.

So, judging by how Apple operates, within 3 or 4 years, this new watch won't be able to communicate with their newer / fancier phones, and you'll have to get a new one. Gotta love our disposable society!

When I first got my smart-phone everyone told me how it would change my life, and was the most miraculous thing ever. It didn't and it's not. It's one more tool at my disposal, like having a Leatherman on my waist. Only I don't need to buy a new Leatherman every 3 years to make sure it still works.

foxtrapper wrote: I'm not willing to plunk down the cash on one yet, but Peter hit on several of the points that have my interest. A tap on the wrist to tell me I've got a call or message would be great! I can't tell you how many calls and texts I miss because I neither hear nor feel my phone going off. Especially when I'm outside. I've tried all kinds of different ringers and such, I just don't hear any of them. Not even the crazy obnoxious ones. Which really irritate co-workers when I leave my phone on my desk and it goes off. The activity app, for when I'm over-focused at my desk. Get up, walk around for a few minutes, change the frozen focus of the eyes, blink. GPS. Maybe. I'm very interested in a coded wrist tap about turns or such coming up. I get easily distracted and miss things otherwise. Not so sure about trying to look at my wrist when driving. Battery life. If it can go all day, that's crucial. Seems it can. Dunno if Pebble or others do these things. There are a few things that do give me pause. Almost all of which are unverified hearsay. Supposedly you have to be wearing your iphone to make the watch work. That seems absurdly redundant if true. Supposedly the glass is not Gorilla glass or other hardened glass. Price. Lordy that thing is expensive.

As someone who has an original Kickstarter Pebble: yes, the current Pebble can do pretty much all of those things.

Calls or text messages are great- vibration on your wrist and glance down to see either the text or who it is that is calling- and if it's a call, you can either answer or decline the call from the Pebble (though you need to pull the phone out to actually talk on it).

I have the MisFit activity tracking app on mine which does not (to the best of my knowledge) have an activity reminder function (i.e., Get up and move idiot!), but I would be quite shocked if there were not apps that did have that functionality.

Some navigation apps on the phone push their instructions to the Pebble- Apple's own maps does not seem to, but the Google Maps app does. Unfortunately, it's a similar situation to the way it sounds like the AppleWatch does it- it just buzzes to notify you of an instruction and you have to look at it to see what the instruction was. This honestly has never been a problem for me though since I'm usually in the car and using the iPhone to play music, so the instruction plays over the stereo too.

The Pebble can go multiple days without charging- I tend to charge mine for the 30 minutes or so when I take a shower each morning and it never has problems.

I will admit to being very intrigued and interested in the AppleWatch- but since like several others I still use an 'ancient' iPhone 4S I'd also have to upgrade my phone which is just way too much expense for something that doesn't offer that much more functionality over my Pebble... and honestly I'll be watching the new Pebble Time to see whether it's the better choice for me when I decide to replace my current Pebble. I've been VERY happy with the Pebble and frankly it feels odd to not have it on and able to get notifications on it. It's certainly not for everyone, but I agree that we will likely see only more 'wearables' going forward and before long they'll be as ubiquitous as smartphones.

I just want the timer watch in Gravity. Multi-timer on my wrist would be AWESOME.

Joe Gearin wrote: I have an iPhone it's an iPhone 3s if that tells you anything about my need to have the latest and greatest. My old iPhone isn't able to download any apps---as it's obsolete, and Apple wants me to buy a new one. It allows me to get my email, talk on the phone, text, and look something up on the inter webs if I need to. I don't need it to do much else.

Is that big bad Apple pushing you to update, or is it the app writers trying to take advantage of the latest OS and processors? I mean, I can't find many programs that run on my Windows 95 computer anymore either That's a legit comparison, as the OS has moved on quite a bit. And, of course, the Win95 box still runs all the programs it always did as well as it always did, so it's not useless. It's just not any different than it was when I bought it. Same with your 3s. It does what it's always done. It just hasn't evolved - which, if this is a complaint, is an interesting peek into consumer expectations.

Interesting read about the thinking behind the Apple watch - it's as I suspected, a way to divorce short, immediate interactions from the phone itself. If you're someone interested in human interface design, you might find it a worthwhile read.

http://www.wired.com/2015/04/the-apple-watch/

Keith Tanner wrote:

Joe Gearin wrote: I have an iPhone it's an iPhone 3s if that tells you anything about my need to have the latest and greatest. My old iPhone isn't able to download any apps---as it's obsolete, and Apple wants me to buy a new one. It allows me to get my email, talk on the phone, text, and look something up on the inter webs if I need to. I don't need it to do much else.

Is that big bad Apple pushing you to update, or is it the app writers trying to take advantage of the latest OS and processors? I mean, I can't find many programs that run on my Windows 95 computer anymore either That's a legit comparison, as the OS has moved on quite a bit. And, of course, the Win95 box still runs all the programs it always did as well as it always did, so it's not useless. It's just not any different than it was when I bought it. Same with your 3s. It does what it's always done. It just hasn't evolved - which, if this is a complaint, is an interesting peek into consumer expectations. Interesting read about the thinking behind the Apple watch - it's as I suspected, a way to divorce short, immediate interactions from the phone itself. If you're someone interested in human interface design, you might find it a worthwhile read. http://www.wired.com/2015/04/the-apple-watch/

I'd say a more accurate comparison would be to Windows 7. Since they were both released at around the same time, sometime in 2009. That isn't that long for a consumer. The fact that the versions are evolving so much faster now doesn't really matter because my paycheck is not evolving at the same rate.

Keith Tanner wrote: And, of course, the Win95 box still runs all the programs it always did as well as it always did, so it's not useless. It's just not any different than it was when I bought it. Same with your 3s. It does what it's always done.

The catch here is that app updates not only fix bugs @ whatnot (like Win95 days), they also take advantage of new smartphone sizes & speeds. So an app that used to work great on my iPhone4S 3 years ago is now slow as hell.

I maintain that Win95 is a better comparison to the 3s. Smartphones have been evolving faster than PCs, and we're looking at around the same number of generations of operating system. Windows 7, generationally speaking, is about equivalent to iOS 7. And like iOS 7, still a valid option in the current marketplace in my experience. But whether you want to compare it to Win7 or Win95, the point stands.

If you update to newer versions of apps, then yes. Performance can change as the new versions will be taking advantage of current hardware. That's the case with PCs as well, especially with games. But if you just leave things alone, then the phone will stay static. I think most of the "slow as hell" thoughts come from comparison to newer hardware and a device that's getting a bit overloaded and running out of memory. The biggest change I've seen in performance with my devices comes from a change in OS.

Back to the watch - if you want to use the newest peripheral, it's not surprising that you need a newer device. It'll work with an iPhone 5, which is an old enough platform that you can get one for free from Verizon these days.

I don't have plans to pick one up myself. I wear a watch for the time and date, my life is not so connected that I'm always hauling out my phone. But I'm definitely intrigued in what one of the leaders of human/computer interaction have devised.

mtn wrote: I'd say a more accurate comparison would be to Windows 7. Since they were both released at around the same time, sometime in 2009. That isn't that long for a consumer. The fact that the versions are evolving so much faster now doesn't really matter because my paycheck is not evolving at the same rate.

No offense, but the fact that they both came out in 2009 is about the most irrelevant comparison you can make. Windows debuted in 1981. iOS debuted in 2007. In other words, by 2009 Windows was a very mature product and new versions have small, incremental improvements. In 2009, iOS was 2 years old and Android was just coming on the scene to start pushing it toward improvement. Only now have smart phone OS's started reaching the shallower part of the improvement curve. A 6-year-old phone OS is ancient. If it still works for you, then great, but understand that there is a LOT more functionality in newer phones and their operating systems.

I just realized I have nothing to say without coming across as a crotchety old man.

enjoy your tech....... until sky-net finishes us all!

Reviving this thread to see if the opinions have changed into the past two years.

I've been thinking about getting one, so I'm wondering what difference two years has made.

I'm sure there will be some apple hate, dismissing of them as toys, and some advocates. I'm interested in hearing all sides.

I've got a few friends who really like them. I was toying with getting one as I wanted some sort of fitness tracker/watch/sleep tracker but in the end I settled for a Fitbit Blaze, mainly because I couldn't justify the cost of an Apple Watch.

The handiest thing i've seen is a vibration alarm - more discrete that a phone vibration so sort of nice for a timekeeper thing with meetings. Still look dorky to me and not enough benefit to spring for one.

I know about 10 people who have them.

I know about 3 people who where them everyday.

I've worn mine everyday for a few years now. It's awesome. It's not world changing, but my wrist feels naked without it. The killer app? As it turns out, it's Siri. She's just so handy right on your wrist.

I recently got a timex iq+.

It's an analog looking watch but does activity tracking and sleep tracking. Bonus over Fitbit? It's classy enough to pass as an actual watch, and the battery supposedly lasts a year, vs charging the Fitbit every couple days.

Been good to me so far in the first week.

BoxheadTim wrote: I've got a few friends who really like them. I was toying with getting one as I wanted some sort of fitness tracker/watch/sleep tracker but in the end I settled for a Fitbit Blaze, mainly because I couldn't justify the cost of an Apple Watch.

I've got $150 in gift certs for BB I can use towards it, so my out of pocket cost would be $150 for the sport.

I try to use gift cards for things I normally wouldn't buy, so the watch falls in that category.

In reply to jstand:

If the actual cost were $150 (which is what I ended up paying for my Fitbit at Costco), I would've gone Apple Watch, no contest.

I'm not an iGuy but I really want a smart watch. Unfortunately (or, fortunately according to Mrs. APEowner) I haven't been able to justify it based on utility and the ones that are nice looking enough for me to want to replace my Tag would take a huge bite out of the tire budget. There's also the fact that the Tag is the only watch I've ever owned that's survived for any lenght of time on my wrist. Since I'm not smart enough to take it off all of the time before working on stuff I apparently need a SS case and sapphire crystal.

The turn instructions on the wrist while motorcycling or driving a rental car is one feature that I could see being really useful.

I think I'll give the gift cards to SWMBO to use towards the watch as a Father's Day gift.

Now the only questions is series 1 or 2?

I had concluded that $100 more for the GPS and waterproofing wasn't necessary since I typically have my phone with me when running or hiking and won't wear it while swimming.

But the current sale ad that was just emailed to me makes the difference $30. I think the added features may be worth the $30, but not the original $100.