“While there have been many reviews of the Apple Watch since it officially emerged in April, few of them have tackled the question of how a user might feel about the highly touted device after wearing it every day for an extended period,” Walt Mossberg writes for Re/code. “So I decided to wear one for about a month and see how I felt about it after the initial novelty wore off.”
“I started wearing my loaner unit from Apple four weeks ago, and I’m still wearing it as I type this. The only time it has been off my wrist for more than a few minutes was when I charged it overnight,” Mossberg writes. “It’s been much more of a constant digital companion than my iPhone, iPad or computers.”
“So, after a month, is it thumbs-up, or thumbs-down?” Mossberg writes. “I like the Apple Watch. It’s a gorgeous piece of hardware with a clever and simple user interface and some fine built-in functions.”
“But it’s a fledgling product whose optimal utility lies mostly ahead of it as new watch software is developed. I got the strong feeling that third-party app developers taking their first swing at the thing simply hadn’t yet figured out how best to write software for it — especially since Apple, for now, is requiring that watch apps basically be adjuncts of iPhone apps,” Mossberg writes. “But that will change, and Apple’s own core apps are already rich examples of what the watch can do. It reminds me of the first iPhone a month after its debut. That phone had slow data, was tied to a wireless carrier that constantly dropped phone calls, and — most importantly — it had no app store yet. But I got enough value from it that I’ve never regretted buying the first model.”
Read more in the full review – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: The longer you wear Apple Watch, the more indispensable it gets.
Mossberg’s advice to resist the temptation to use the Watch while driving (beyond navigation of course) is a good one: “If you buy any smartwatch, be prepared to be more careful on the road.” We’ve found that to be very true.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Daniel N.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
BGR reviews Apple Watch: ‘A major technological achievement; you won’t want to take it off’ – May 7, 2015
The Telegraph reviews Apple Watch: Object of desire – May 7, 2015
Cult of Mac reviews Apple Watch: ‘Futuristic, fun and fan-flipping-tastic’ – April 28, 2015
PC Magazine reviews Apple Watch: ‘The best smartwatch available’ – April 28, 2015
Apple Watch owners shame so-called professional reviewers – April 27, 2015
The 2:26 Apple Watch review (with video) – April 9, 2015
Tech.pinions’ Ben Bajarin reviews Apple Watch: ‘Powerful’ and ‘completely new’ – April 8, 2015
WSJ’s Stern reviews Apple Watch: ‘Good looks and coolness’ – April 8, 2015
The Verge’s Patel reviews Apple Watch: ‘A masterpiece of engineering’ – April 8, 2015
WSJ’s Fowler reviews Apple Watch: ‘The first smartwatch worth buying’ – April 8, 2015
Yahoo Tech’s Pogue reviews Apple Watch: ‘Magical’
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″>Daring Fireball’s Gruber on a week with Apple Watch – April 8, 2015
Tech.pinions’ Ben Bajarin reviews Apple Watch: ‘Powerful’ and ‘completely new’ – April 8, 2015
WSJ’s Stern reviews Apple Watch: ‘Good looks and coolness’ – April 8, 2015
The Verge’s Patel reviews Apple Watch: ‘A masterpiece of engineering’ – April 8, 2015
WSJ’s Fowler reviews Apple Watch: ‘The first smartwatch worth buying’ – April 8, 2015
Yahoo Tech’s Pogue reviews Apple Watch: ‘Magical’
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
“Mossberg’s advice to resist the temptation to use the Watch while driving (beyond navigation of course) is a good one: ‘If you buy any smartwatch, be prepared to be more careful on the road.’ We’ve found that to be very true.”
Apple needs to integrate the Apple Watch into Car Play as much as, and maybe even more so than, the iPhone.
Car Play’s original, highly proclaimed capability to be *BOTH* hands free and eyes free is the truly the way things need to be for anyone driving a car. Being able to respond to everything from phone calls to texts to emails without having to look at any device or screen will solve a lot of this problem.
Car Play is not there yet (at least not the demonstrations I’ve seen). Hopefully it will get there. Once Car Play gets to its stated goal it won’t matter that the car has a tiny, built in screen, voice will be able to do virtually everything.
(IMHO anything less than a 10″ screen is too small to be functional while driving. Screens to be used by the driver need to be able to be easily differentiable AT A GLANCE — absolutely no reading of multiple words to be required! Absolutely no taking your eyes off the road for two or three seconds to figure out what the screen is showing in order to accomplish any task.)
I know, people will always say that answering a phone call or responding to an urgent email — even if solely done by voice — is a distraction that we should not have when driving. BUT, how is this any different from having unruly children in the car or your mother in law who is in the back seat demanding to have an in depth conversation with while you’re driving? Should we ban those too (well, maybe the mother in law 🙂 )?
What would be integrated between Carplay and Apple Watch that does not involve the iPhone, is not redundant and not distracting? Both tech seems to be the ‘limbs’ that attach to the iPhone ‘body’. I had assumed that CarPlay would already have voice interactivity to at least stay in par with current in-car systems.
MDN nice that you picked the positives but;
“I will probably buy one”
is the acid test. Walt needs to hand back the loaner and reassess after a fortnight whether he misses the functionality or not.
Those text and drivers!…’bought ran me off the road…almost made me spill my bowl of Cheerios. Tim Hawkins