“How often do you pull your phone out of your pocket or your bag and glance at it? I do this simple but annoying task upwards of fifty times a day. I love my iPhone, but in this respect I also hate it,” Adams Hopper writes for Thought Catalog. “I hate how rude it looks when I have to turn my ringer off while in conversation with somebody. I hate having to take my backpack off in order to get my phone out to simply check my notifications. I hate the constant buzzing and ringing necessary in my day-to-day existence.
“Apple just presented us with the solution to the problem they helped to create. A simple, tiny screen that fits on our wrists in place of our Timexs and Rolexs that can give us a discreet way of dealing with the digital world when we’d rather be out in the physical one,” Hopper writes. “The genius of the Apple Watch is much like the now ubiquitous headphone remotes we employ to skip tracks and answer calls when our phone are buried away in our pockets or slipped into armbands. It’s biggest feature is how little we’ll have to use it. Raise your arm, make the adjustment to your digital life in a couple quick taps, and get on with the real world.”
“What should Apple’s ads look like? A couple in the middle of an important conversation,” Hopper writes. “One of the pair gets a call during it and, using the new Apple Watch, simply and discreetly swipes it away for later.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back on January 31st: All phones are cumbersome to the same degree. They have to be pulled out, woken up, and poked at. Apple created… a world of iPhone/iPhone knockoff addicts. Apple will change the world again with Apple Watch, replacing iPhone zombies and iPhones on and under dining tables and everywhere else (you know, the stuff the older set complain about: “People nowadays, always looking at their gizmos, nobody can even have a conversation”) with quick glances of the wrist – like in the days of yore.
As we wrote on January 30th: With iPhone, Apple changed the fabric of our everyday lives: All around the world today, you see people constantly pulling phones from pockets and staring at them. With Apple Watch, Apple will change behavior worldwide once again. A quick glance at your Watch and you’re off. No more smartphone zombies. Watch and see.
I get texts from my wife when I’m driving. I’m not stupid enough to try to text back, but I will wrestle my phone out of my pocket to glance at the message. I would love it if the message were on my wrist.
——RM
A simple Siri response also an added convenience.
This article is BS. The Apple Watch is interesting BUT… in no way whatsoever does it solve any of the problems really that are present with a smartphone. Here’s the reality:
-You will be distracted MORE with the Apple Watch because it’s on your wrist being worn. You’ll keep looking at it. You’ll be a slave to notifications, and will be sending back dumb, canned, Apple templated responses. You’ll be fiddling with that tiny screen trying to communicate a response. This is no better than a smartphone;
-If you think your Apple Watch will magically be sitting there in view of your field of vision, you’re delusional. Most of us mere mortals wear something called clothes, and the watch will be covered up by sleeves. We’ll have to pull our sleeves back to get a view of the tiny screen. And we’ll have to bend and raise our arms in positions that get tiring quickly to view the little screen. Anyone who doesn’t understand these usability issues is delusional;
-It simply is NOT clear that the Apple Watch does much of anything better than a smartphone. What we need is less interface and more intelligent power. Siri is our go to. You want to send a text to your wife? Use Siri on your iPhone! “Hey Siri”… handsfree. One and done. You simply do not need yet another device to accomplish stuff like this.
The Apple Watch has some utility but because of it’s tiny screen, battery life constraints, position worn on your body, LCD that will be washed out in the sun, to mention but a few, it’s a problem in search of a solution.
Imagine sitting in a meeting where people have Apple Watches on. You’ll see the notifications pop up on their little screens. You want to talk about distracting…
The solution is simply a powerful smartphone with intelligence like Siri for handsfree interfacing and a device like a smartphone that serves the purpose of a solid communications device. You’re not going to write Emails or any real text messages on the Apple Watch. Yes, Siri could get working but voice operations in terms of dictating an Email or text message aren’t something you’re going to do when you’re out and about.
1. If you are in a texting marathon with someone then the appropriate device to use is probably an iPhone, but to quickly see who is texting, emailing, calling, instagraming, twittering, facebooking, etc. a watch is muuuuuuuuch more convenient to use compared to a phone that located in a pocket, purse, backpack, briefcase, center console, back seat or different room.
2. The Watch is perfect for quick responses like “Hey Siri, tell God – thanks for the beautiful day”. If the conversation continues then take it to an iPhone, iPad or Mac.
3. If you are being distracted too much then you can pair down the number of apps sending messages to the Watch.
4. In a meeting or public setting it is much more distracting and annoying to be fiddling with an iPhone compared to quickly glancing at a Watch.
5. It sound like you have invented a head-mounted iPhone holder and your iPhone is always in front of your face, but for the rest of us, that don’t want to go cross-eyed from optigrab iPhone cases the Apple Watch will provide much needed convenance.
Solutions:
1. You say a watch is much more convenient, yet it’s not clear that it is. The reality is that checking the watch for notifications will result in a much more one sided affair: you check but it isn’t a device that you’re going to be able to communicate much from. Further, you have to remove your sleeve from covering it, bend your arm and wrist, etc. It simply is not clear that this is any more convenient than using a smartphone in many situations. Most of us have our smartphones in our pockets, or in front of us on a desk/table, etc. You’re engaging in hyperbole here. And for those driving, they can mount their iPhones right on the dash in front of them. Don’t even get me started on that ugly, byzantine crown scrolling thing.
2. I agree with this, except there’s one major problem: INPUT. You’re going to talk to your watch, right? Well, I’d rather talk to my phone because there’s something called headphones with a mic built in and appropriate controls. I don’t even have to touch my phone and I can interface with it using the headphone/Siri combo. Don’t even bother talking about Bluetooth headsets: this is totally superfluous and now you’ve got an expensive watch, a bluetooth headset, and an iPhone that’s needed for much of the watch’s functionality. The watch itself is superfluous in many respects and talking to it in live environments with in some cases no headphones is an issue.
3. In terms of being distracted, just kill the watch and look at your smartphone less frequently. Problem solved.
4. BS it is more distracting having phones in a meeting. I am in many, many meetings every month. Most people shut their phones off, cover the screen, or put it in their pocket. Yes, these mobile devices can be distracting, but the watch will also be distracting as people look at them: they going to get “rubbed” by their watch during the meeting, be distracted, and in some cases bend their arms and look at it. It’s like someone in a meeting looking at their watch several times to check the time because their bored…
5. Um hmmm…
I haven’t even gotten to the fact that the Watch REQUIRES an iPhone to do much of anything, let alone 1 day battery life. Watch, wait and see what happens. My money’s on the watch not doing that well. Apple will move some units, to be sure. It does have some cool tech and some Apps will be interesting, but because of its many problems, I predict that people simply will not use it en-mass because it’s not better at much of anything over and above a smartphone.
No, I won’t “keep looking at it”, because I’m not an obsessive. And I don’t claim that looking at my watch doesn’t mean taking my eyes off the road, only that the distraction is over much quicker. This is because I can quickly lift my wrist, which is already on the steering wheel, for a quick glance, rather than having to look down at the phone.
As for the messages being read by Siri, sure that’s a better idea… if you plan to drive with a headset all the time just on the off-chance you get a text. Otherwise, there’s no guarantee you’ll hear it in a noisy car.
Really, I think you’re overanalyzing this.
——RM
This is the thing I don’t understand. My phone doesn’t bother me all the time. When I get an email it just vibrates so I don’t get annoying noise. Work email show up on my Mac during the day and I turn them off when I’m not in a position to not do anything with them. Putting my phone on silent can be done in my pocket, so I don’t have to do it in front of anyone or be rude or anything. I don’t use it my personal phone for work and if I did I would take the call, I don’t screen them. I’ve turned off most apps notifications because they either weren’t useful at all or were so frequent so as to become noise. I only get important notifications.
I can imagine wearables being huge, I can see that it will be a big complement to other devices, but I’m just not sold on how indispensable it will be in the same way I was with the iPod and iPhone. I saw them and new instantly that they would be brilliant, that I would use their main functions and the scope for expansion as they improved. Apple Watch is something that I’m happy to give it a year or two. Maybe I’m unusual in that I try and make my phone work for me rather than being beholden to it.
“…but I’m just not sold on how indispensable it will be in the same way I was with the iPod and iPhone. I saw them and new instantly that they would be brilliant…”
How do you know you won’t have the same reaction when you actually SEE the Watch?
Even for you Watch will be useful since you will never miss important reminder, message or call just because you had iPhone sound off and it laying deep in your bag, or because it is on your work table and you were mentally called to quickly come elsewhere and did not grab the phone with you and many other situations.
With Apple Watch, at home you can forget your phone on table in one room and still being connected in the other, never missing anything.
I’m getting it so I can use Apple Pay with my nice small 5S, which I find quite sufficient for my phone needs right now. Might also install a smart lock on my side door since I don’t like carrying a bunch of keys. And I love the idea of letting my wife know I’m thinking of her more subtly than phone or texts. I also like the navigation aspects, where a tap alerts you to an upcoming change in direction. These are just the tip of the iceberg.
Here’s why I am looking forward to the Apple Watch. I listen to books, podcasts, music from my iPhone almost all the time. My iPhone goes in my pants pocket and my headphones snake up under my shirt and through my collar. When I’m not listening, the earbuds just dangle from my collar. The problem is that if my phone isn’t on vibrate and a phone call or text message comes in, I don’t know about it because the sound is going through my earbuds that I can’t hear when they are not in my ears. I find out later that I missed calls and messages. The Apple Watch will allow me to keep my headphones plugged in like I like, yet still be made aware of incoming calls and messages. Just this one thing makes the Apple Watch great for me.
Oh thank goodness. For a while I was afraid my right arm would need to someday be amputated due to overuse from checking my smartphone too much. I can’t tell you how often I have to put it in a sling just to give the joints and ligaments a brief rest. No more Aleve for me. No more chiropractor visits for my overworked limb.
Let’s face it, the overwhelming majority of males have been training their dominate arm/hand for just such an occasion, since puberty. Just sayin’
Apple doesn’t need to “explain” it to the masses. Enough existing customers of iPhone (5 and later) already “get it,” and they will buy an Apple Watch in the tens of millions (as the “early adopters”). And they will provide “demonstrations,” just by using their Apple Watch normally, to everyone else.
BINGO!
will sell all that they can make.
Apparently, bigger part of “technoblogs” need demonstration, since just as with iPad, and with iPhone, and everything else they “don’t get it”.
Or you could just try restraint. Somebody that had to look at their phone every single minute definitely has a mental problem. It’s unhealthy and unsafe. And don’t give me the BS about missing important stuff. Life itself is more important.
I stopped reading as soon as I came across the word “should” in the headline.
The problem is that so many people mistake it for being an iPhone Notification Center for your wrist. If that were the case, then yes it would be a mere solution to a upper-first-world problem of being too lazy to pull the iPhone from your pocket. However, the watch does much more than that, and for the people who will only realize that after its release, they’ll pay in the form of months of delays in shipping.