Interesting things happen when you use new technology in public for the first time.
We bought some coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts’ drive-thru last week with our Apple Watch via Passbook (Dunkin’ Donuts cards use QR codes).
The DD employee just looked at the arm being held out for her to scan and didn’t know what to make of it, even though the QR was visible right there. We just stared at each other for a bit until asking her, “Can you just shoot the Watch?” Then she got it.
While scanning the QR code, she said, “Hey, that’s cool! That’s the first Apple Watch we’ve ever seen here.” The Passbook transaction worked perfectly and, usefully, when the Apple Watch displays a QR code, the display stays on until it’s dismissed by the wearer. It would be an awful experience otherwise with the display turning off before or during a scanning attempt. Whatever small battery hit is incurred by leaving the display on until the user turns it off is well worth the convenience.
Yet another example of Apple sweating the user experience and making sure “it just works.”
(BTW, there has to be a better way for drive-thru’s to operate than by having people lean out of windows with corded scanning guns. Some company is going to get rich making a simple shaded weather-proof scanner that can be attached outside drive-thru windows. Customers just hold their Watch or iPhone under it and voilà!)
So, did anything interesting happen when you used your Apple Watch to pay for something?