“My Apple Watch came Friday,” Jason Snell writes for Six Colors. “I spent two and half days with the Apple Watch without writing a word about it. I was talking to my mother on the phone today, and she asked what I thought of it—and I told her I couldn’t really say. It’s complicated.”
“This is a new product. Like, a really new product. It’s not like any product I’ve used before, though it has echoes of my old Pebble and of iOS devices, of course,” Snell writes. “But my built-up skills in using iOS were no use to me when I started using the Apple Watch. This is not a tiny iPhone on my wrist. This is something new.”
“It might be good. It’s certainly impressive. But it’s new, and it’s going to take some time to figure out quite what it all means,” Snell writes. “So, in the absence of that sort of revelation, what am I to write about? Let’s take my rapid-fire observations and present them in a hail of bullets…”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Apple Watch’s learning curve is a bit steep, but after 2+ days with it, experienced iPhone users (people who’ve used Settings, downloaded apps, paired to their vehicles, etc.) will be pretty comfortable with it.
Early on, we found that we kept forgetting to firmly press (Force Touch) the Watch’s face while in apps to access options and additional functionality. You do quickly learn, though, that the gestures of swiping down from the top of the screen while on the Watch face for Notifications and swiping up from the bottom of the screen while on the Watch face for Glances, are going to be important things.
Also, besides just showing Friends (that you set up in your Apple Watch app on your iPhone – an Apple Watch user’s most important iPhone app) the side button next to the Digital Crown also is what you double-click for Apple Pay and also provides access to a number of app quitting, watch restarting, resetting and other important operations.
And, yes, battery life is simply not an issue. The first two nights, after heavy use from the first weekend (including tracking long runs while playing music from the Watch’s onboard storage), the Watch was placed on the charger the first night with 36% and the second night with 44% charge remaining. Apple Watch battery life is a non-issue.
The only thing I need is basically an Mp3 player that I can wear on my wrist, one that also has a built-in external speaker. If the Apple Watch could play music without headphones (I don’t use them when jogging because I have had tinitus in the past- which is gone now that I ditched headphones for good), then I probably would’ve bought one just for working out and jogging.
Having said that, I truly believe that this is a worthless, pointless device, that can do nothing but serve up notifications and perform basic health band functions. My phone and a fitbit can do all of the above for a fraction of the price. People who bought this thing give new meaning to the Apple Fanboy stereotype!
You want to bring your music with you, without using headphones?
Three words: 20 “D” Batteries
Perhaps your samdung S4 will last you a good long time, but I doubt it. Your trolling is now up to speed, you need to work on it.
Let me be the first to call you a fucking liar!
Your Fuckbit cannot make
phone calls,
maps on a wrist,
taptic stuff,
texting,
heart rate monitor,
Siri,
remote control (Apple TV, lights, Tesla, Camera and more),
tell time,
need I go on!!!
A built-in external speaker? Wouldn’t a speaker be either built-in or external, in a mutually exclusive sort of way?
he’s probably looking for a 25-watt speaker that is tethered to the watch that he can hang around his neck while he’s running.
And a 100 watt sub-woofer that he shoves up his ass so he can get that tingly rectal stimulation while listening to his rap music.
I agree somewhat! I don’t think that the AppleWatch is worth the price Apple is asking. I’m actually ashamed that I paid $640 for a SS WSB. I think this is going to be like the iPad and sales will start falling with Gen 4 AppleWatch. Of course, AppleWatch 2 will sell a lot more than 1st Generation. I really think that those people that bought the Edition AppleWatch will regret spending all that money.
iPad sales are decreasing YoY because it is a high quality product that lasts a long time, thus resulting in longer refresh cycles, and because the iPad market is somewhat cannibalized by large smartphones/phablets.
If you are already having buyer’s regret, then you should be ashamed. Please return it to Apple so that we do not have to hear your bellyaching about your purchase. There are plenty of other people waiting for their chance to own one. The Apple Watch is not for everyone, and certainly not for you.
I would agree there is absolutely a learning curve. I’ve had it only a few days and I’m getting used to it. I’m sure I’m still missing some of the features.
The biggest help to me was knowing that Swipe Down gives you a list of all notifications.
An excellent point by point personal article of the watch, pros and cons that a lot of people are going to be able to go through. This is a fantastic device overall, a new era of wearable technology has begun and Apple has taken the lead.
Lot of stuff in a tiny package. I’m digging it!
Agreed – force touch is going to get some getting use to.
I don’t know that I’d call the learning curve “steep.” I’d say the software is a little different than iOS. When I first started using it, I didn’t like that I was continually having to enter the security code. Then I realized it’s function and how it was triggered by taking it off my wrist. They were smarter than I was. I suspect that much of this will be that way. It’s not unlike learning iOS when it first came out compare to the Mac OS. As I get to know the watch better, it is becoming more intuitive.
As I am in front of a desk all day with my iPhone perched in front of me, I still don’t know how much the watch will change how I do things. But away from my desk, I really like it. I rarely have to get iPhone out of my pocket.
With a 5S, I couldn’t use Apple Pay until now. I really like that. That alone justifies the expense.
Overall, I like it and while I am not sure it will be as revolutionary as the iPhone, I think it could be. Too soon to tell. And I still haven’t download any non-OEM apps yet.
Hey MDN, what happened to all the previous comments? This was up to 60 comments at one point.