“The Apple Watch puts the iPhone in its proper place—your pocket,” Geoffrey A. Fowler writes for The Wall Street Journal. “I’ve got a utilitarian view of the year’s most-hyped piece of bling. Sapphire crystal and $10,000 gold alloy aren’t what make the Apple Watch the first smartwatch worth buying. What’s valuable is your time. The Apple Watch is a computer built to spend it better. ”
“Smartphones gave us the wondrous ability to take the Internet anywhere. But they’re not always productive. In fact, they’ve become like cigarettes, leaving us itching for the latest affirmation from Instagram or Twitter. I found I spend 4.3 hours each day looking at my phone—good grief, even on vacation,” Fowler writes. “So the company that invented the iPhone has a solution… I’ve found the Apple Watch isn’t a replacement for the iPhone, but it’s the right screen for many important things… It has made me more present. I’m less likely to absent-mindedly reach for my phone, or feel compelled to leave it on the table during supper.”
MacDailyNews Take:
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.
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.
“I won’t pay the $1,000 it would cost for the model I tested, only to see a significant improvement roll in before too long,” Fowler writes. “But I plan to pay $400 for the 42mm Sport version once it’s on sale. That’s worth paying for a front-row seat for what’s next in tech.”
Read more in the full review here.
Related articles:
Yahoo Tech’s Pogue reviews Apple Watch: ‘Magical’ – April 8, 2015
New York Times’ Manjoo reviews Apple Watch: ‘A power you can’t live without’ – April 8, 2015
Bloomberg’s Topolsky reviews Apple Watch: ‘The world’s best smartwatch’ – April 8, 2015
USA Today’s Baig reviews Apple Watch: ‘Second to none; I want one’ – April 8, 2015
It should be noted that since it is WSJ, Fowler also had to give a backhanded slap “if you can tolerate its flaws, you can wear the future on your wrist and keep your iPhone in your pocket.” Still, I am impressed he was able to get as much good about it as he did past his editors!
Don’t think I will be inviting him to a dinner party if he spends over 4 hours a day on his phone or leaves it on the table.