“I’ve never spent more than $200 on a watch. Over the course of my life, most of my timepieces have been made by Timex, with an emphasis on function over form,” Blair Hanley Frank writes for GeekWire. “And yet here I am, getting ready to plunk down $700 on an Apple Watch when it becomes available for pre-order on April 10.”
“My Pebble helps keep my fear of missing out in check, keeping my phone in my pocket, and letting me discreetly check notifications when the opportunity presents itself without having to light up my iPhone 6’s massive screen,” Frank writes. “So why not just stick with my Pebble?”
“Siri has come a long way since the iPhone 4S days, when Apple’s virtual assistant was arguably closer to a novelty than an actually useful assistant,” Frank writes. “These days, I find the system to be remarkably accurate and very responsive, especially with the addition of real-time dictation feedback in iOS 8. Having all of that literally on hand throughout the day will be a boon to my productivity.”
MacDailyNews Take: This is something that really doesn’t get said enough: Siri has made remarkable strides. Siri works now, right out of the box, and it only gets better the more you use it. If you gave up on Siri in the early days, you should revisit Siri today. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
“As a current Pebble owner, I know how powerful it is to view content from third-party apps on my wrist,” Frank writes. “With the Apple Watch and WatchKit, I’m looking forward to getting even more of that, since it should be easier for developers to monetize their experiences for the Apple Watch.”
MacDailyNews Take: You can count on much more of that, Blair – magnitudes more.
“While most of my reasons for being interested in the Apple Watch have to do with its functionality, I’d be remiss to leave out the device’s design,” Frank writes. “To my eye, it’s the best-looking of the current crop of smartwatches. That’s not a high bar to clear, but it looks like the sort of device I’ll be happy to have on my wrist.”
MacDailyNews Take: Jony Ive strikes again!
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
FOX Business: Apple Watch will be a game changer – March 11, 2015
Vogue Paris: Apple Watch is a ‘revolution’ – February 27, 2015
The Apple Watch is about to change everything – February 26, 2015
Analyst: 100,000 Apple Watch apps in App Store by April 10th; 42 million Watches sold by year end – February 24, 2015
Apple Watch, the world’s first real smart watch, will be a massive hit – September 9, 2014
Ask SIRI to set an alarm and set it to vibrate. SIRI will find the nearest adult toy store. No joking.
Just tried it.
Works perfectly!!
ME: Siri, set the alarm to 2pm.
SIRI: “I set you alarm to 2PM”
ME:Siri, set my alarm to vibrate
SIRI: I changed your alarm. (“Vibrate” now showing)
ME: Siri, set Alarm for 3PM to Vibrate
SIRI:I changed your Alarm to 3PM. (“vibrate still showing)
So where did you dig up your “made up” story from. Oh. I know…your arse!
The “I” in IStepChild stands for Idiot, right?
the j in jon stands for sense of humor?
The dddd means you love enormous boobs?
The yuk in spyintheskyuk means you like the three stooges?
Here are the problems I see with a “computer watch” like the Apple Watch:
-Using it as a phone doesn’t seem good: tiny speakerphone. No, I don’t want a bluetooth earpiece, they suck and it’s yet another device.
-Requires iPhone: without the iPhone, it’s close to a stillborn product missing many types of functionality.
-Wifi isn’t great on a watch: it is so portable it needs constant connectivity, specially in places like remote areas (e.g., jogging). Wifi can come in handy sometimes, but without the phone and LTE connectivity this is not good.
-The screen is very small cramping everything and limiting what can be done on the device to the point where it appears that many applications will be worse here than on the smartphone. At the least there are many limitations.
-It’s got an LCD screen. That means direct sunlight is going to completely wash it out and make you crank up the brightness, which in turn will result in decreased battery life. Further, the glass will be reflective compounding the problem.
-Battery life. Can’t get past one day of solid use without charging it. That means no sleep monitoring like a Fitbit does. That means taking it off every night, blah blah. Sorry, but this is not good.
-Oh those many input modalities! The crown for scrolling and pressing, the other button for “what was that for again?”, and the actual screen for touching. This is jury rigged design at its finest… but it appears to be a confusing mix of input methods that’s unnecessarily complicated.
The whole computer watch thing is based on the premise that people WANT to live a life subservient to NOTIFICATIONS. That’s the real paradigm here. However, if you’re like me, you hate notifications and think they’re old school and a crappy way to compute and live your life. I turn my phone off when I’m working to focus and concentrate. We’ve got people bumping into telephone polls who are looking at notifications, crashing their cars, etc. The watch does not in anyway fix this. It just makes people even more of a slave to notifications.
For this main reason alone, I will not be buying an Apple Watch. I simply don’t need the constant barrage of notifications. I’d rather check less and when I do have a larger screen to interact with.
And when it comes to those stupid canned Apple Watch text responses, I can only imagine a world where text messages become “Sorry, can’t talk right now”, “Be there shortly”, blah blah.
siri is effing AWESOME now, she is super reliable. i love her dearly
Isn’t the new pebble steel color going to retail at $299 so $100 for a watch to work with my iPhone as it should I think its worth it.
“This is something that really doesn’t get said enough: Siri has made remarkable strides. Siri works now, right out of the box, and it only gets better the more you use it. If you gave up on Siri in the early days, you should revisit Siri today. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
It’s true. She works as advertised. And she’s almost 100% accurate.
I’ve played Early Adopter with Apple once or twice. Not my game.
By the time a product like Apple Watch is available, they already know how they’re going to change it, and when.
If people want to spend so much money for it, fine, but I’m happy being a Late Adopter. For the time being, my iPhone is my Apple Watch.
I’ve played early adopter with Apple since 1985 and have never regretted it. I almost always end up buying a later generation version as well, but I’ve had the pleasure of using it while others looked on.
MaxBay, you are spot on with your comment. I’m an early adopter myself by nature, but not when it comes to Apple products.
Waited on the iPhone until the 3G was released. Glad I did.
Waited on the 2nd gen iPad to be released. Glad I did.
Waiting on the 2nd gen watch to be released this time next year.
I’ll be glad I did. It will be faster, have a better battery life, probably be thinner (hope so! The 1st gen is too thick!) and get this… it will be priced the same as the 1st gen!!!!!!!
I would like to thank all the early adopters though. They fuel the profit margins and keep Apple in “refine and release mode”
I also know the 2nd generation will be a big improvement. But that won’t stop me from getting the first one. Why would I want to go a year without the benefits just so I can save a little bit of money? That’s what money is for, to make one’s life better.
The first gen won’t be worthless. Like any Apple product it will have strong resale value. And whatever extra bands I buy will carry over. Only the watch itself will “need” replacing.
“Waited on the iPhone until the 3G was released. Glad I did.
This was probably a bad call. Had you purchased the original iPhone on launch day you would’ve been able to early upgrade with AT&T when the 3G came out. Buying the 3G would’ve let you sell the original iPhone to someone who wanted to buy it out of contract and unlock it. Most people who did this yielded a slight net profit ($50 or so) on the original iPhone. The only way this wouldn’t have worked out for someone is if they felt the original iPhone and the 3G was worse than whatever other phone they could’ve gotten at the time the original iPhone came out.
Also, don’t be surprised if the Apple Watch isn’t upgraded next year. It’s been highly optimized already, way beyond what the iPhone or iPad were in their 1st generations.
I don’t think you want your watch to be faster. Just saying
I’m normally a 2.01 adopter. Never version 1. And never even the major point releases of software updates – the .01 means they have now fixed whatever they broke with the main release.
But this time… See my comment below. I’ll be pre ordering online unless a local store can guarantee me a pick up on release day.
Well, I was on the fence. Then daylight savings time came along and I discovered that the “adjust” button on my Casio G-Shock has died. I guess that’s my excuse to spend money on the watch.
Sadly, I tend to kill watches over time (the G-Shock has done pretty good, lasting almost 4 years). So the non-upgradeability of the Apple Watch is almost a non-issue for me; I’ll break it by the time they have a compelling upgrade for me.
Get 3 solar powered, self correcting G-shocks for the price of one A-watch. The A-watch will be obsolete in 2 years while you will 12-years worth of G-Shocks.
I’ll tell you why I’m buying an Apple Watch.
Last night, as my wife explained to my son that she would be able to glance at her watch to see what her blood sugar is, she broke down crying. It will be such a life changer (and life saver, likely) for her. No, the Watch doesn’t do that natively, but with the gadgetry from DexCom communicating with it, it will. She finally realized last night just how big a deal this was going to be. I can’t wait for her to have one!
Is she a dexcom warrior?
Not yet! I do want to get her started just connecting to her iPhone soon, then the step to the Watch should be a snap.
if you are human and don’t like the extra step of carting your iPhone from room to room at home when you are expecting a call and are in your PJs, making something in the kitchen or exercising, etc, you are going to love the apple watch.
If you are like my gf and you constantly are misplacing your iPhone- this apple watch is for you.
Some Folks are saying something like “Don’t / Won’t buy the Apple watch, because it will be obsolete with the first upgrade in One year.
WHAT will be obsolete on the Watch?
The only thing that would really be new, is that the watch might have more sensors built in.
The other things, oh it’s a little thinner and the battery lasts longer, do not make it obsolete.
That’s all. Everything that the watch is capable of now, is great for the next five years.
After that, maybe the whole phone electronics will fit in it by then. New sensors, that’s all to “update”.
Apple got rid of the “bottom 40” years ago. 😉
How will the iwatch check blood glucose?
It won’t. But paired with the goodies from DexCom (and likely others, but they appear to be the front runner, and FDA approved), it will give you a chart mapping your glucose levels over time. As always, it is all about the apps! (And sensors, in this case.) See DexCom.com for more info…
There are devices that continuously monitor glucose which can communicate with an iPhone / Apple Watch.
Siri has become a pleasure to use!
I wish I could share his glowing review of Siri…she is a major disappointment for me. Literally every Saturday AM around 8:00 she missunderstands my request to call the same coffee shop (which is in my contact list)…heres how it went last saturday (with carplay):
Me: Call Bomdia
Siri: I don’t see bon dia in your contact list. Would you like me to check the internet?
Me: Siri, you’re killing me
Siri: You’re certainly entitled to that opinion
Me: Call Bomdia
Siri: I don’t see bong di in your contact list. Would you like me to check the internet?
Me: $&^$#&^^O!
I mean, come on! there needs to be a little bit of artificial intelligence that says “master has called Bomdia 45 times in the last year at about this time on nearly every saturday. I bet he was saying Bomdia- not asking for a web search of bon dia.”
Tim, please take a billion bucks and fix this!
(And yes, I’ll take watch too!)
While I agree with you that there should be a shorter learning curve, Just change the name in your address book to ‘coffee shop’, or something she can pronounce. Be proactive.
I appreciate the suggestion- I will add coffee shop to the name- but in reality this is the heart of artificial intelligence (or lack thereof) Siri needs to understand context, probability and habits to be a real assistant. Hell, she should be asking me if I want to call the coffee shop as soon as I get in the car!
In the alternattive just ask the Coffee Shop to change it’s name to Coffee Plus, or another simple name!
“Siwi, can you wecommend a westauwant?”
Wascally Wabbit!
Just yesterday:
“Take me to Olive Garden.”
“There are these lawn and garden businesses.”
“Take me to Olive Garden.”
“I don’t see any businesses matching all of garden.”
“Take me…. To, Olive… Garden…”
“Getting directions to Olive Garden.”
Well, for what it’s worth, when I was a young teenager I had a summer job in a travel agency.
A client called and wanted to go to Hot Foot, Connecticut. This was before things were computerized, and I hauled out the big routing book (the size of a large phonebook) and looked up Hot Foot. No luck. I kept searching, but finally had to tell him there was no Hot Foot Connecticut.
He laughed and repeated slowly, in his thick New England accent, “Hot Foot, not Hot Foot”, and then it (finally) dawned on me he was saying Hartford.
I was a bad Siri.
Yeah, except I have no accent.
Funny story though!