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How Apple Watch Is Really a Regression In Watchmaking
Nerval's Lobster writes Apple design chief Jony Ive has spent the past several weeks talking up how the Apple Watch is an evolution on many of the principles that guided the evolution of timepieces over the past several hundred years. But the need to recharge the device on a nightly basis, now confirmed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, is a throwback to ye olden days, when a lady or gentleman needed to keep winding her or his pocket-watch in order to keep it running. Watch batteries were supposed to bring "winding" to a decisive end, except for that subset of people who insist on carrying around a mechanical timepiece. But with Apple Watch's requirement that the user constantly monitor its energy, what's old is new again. Will millions of people really want to charge and fuss with their watch at least once a day?
Will millions give a shit about an overpriced nerdlinger status symbol? Stay tuned as Bennett whateverhisface submits his thesis.
Running, for one. Not having to carry a phone is useful. Yes, there are hundreds of fitness trackers. Why not a multi-purpose tracker that also lets me reply to the wife?
Getting updates without looking like a phone zombie is useful for some scenarios.
There are reasons.
Years ago, when I wore watches, they had to be waterproof because I never took them off. One less thing to have to f' with in the morning.
Bleh
This "article" could have just been jammed in the summary, hell Bennett writes larger blog posts in the summary all the time! I can also honestly say I thought to myself "well this is really lame" before noticing it was a shameless dice self post.
I hate apple and have no interest in a "smart watch", but having to charge the damn thing all the time is a well understood problem, something which is weighed as a con vs whatever pros people find in these things. If I had any interest in the features, I doubt this would be a show stopper. It just becomes a slight addition to the list of things I do before going to bed. If value of that effort exceeds the annoyance of that effort, then it's worth it?
This article doesn’t do anything besides point out the issue and make a fairly obvious correlation (something the author probably felt was way more clever than it actually was)?
It's a big enough fuss that people stopped using mechanical watches in the first place.
No one WANTS to charge their freakin' watch every day. But they will. The hordes will buy it because it is Apple. It will be an inconvenient product, but its trendiness and Apple logo will overcome all common sense and logical thought.
Running, for one. Not having to carry a phone is useful. Yes, there are hundreds of fitness trackers. Why not a multi-purpose tracker that also lets me reply to the wife?
You still have to have the phone on you. The watch talks to the phone.
My old Nokia could go a week between charges. Yet I have to recharge my Android phone daily. Yup, it's a horrible regression in battery life. And in exchange, all I got are a ton of features that I use all the time. Oh, and my old rotary phone didn't require charging ever. Heck, it didn't even need to be connected to my household power.
Smart watches are no different. They have their pros and their cons.
You don't need to charge your landline phone (except wireless) but you pretty much need to charge your cell phone daily or at least weekly. How many people would like to go back to landline? Apple watch has similar physical dimensions as regular watch and they both show times. Similarities end there. The apple watch can do many more things that regular watch cannot and it needs battery for those functions. If you are happy with what your watch does, ignore apple watch (I am going to do that), but many folks may like to have one.
Smart watches fail on look good and discrete. They look gaudy and are designed to catch others eyes so they know how cool you are.
Cheap storage VM.
That sounds like a design flaw in the specific smartwatch as opposed to a problem with the utility of such devices in general.
Oh there's a point to requiring a different charger. More money from you.
Has there been some change over recent years that has made phones hard to get out of your pocket?
Skinny jeans.
As a train, the airplane is pitiful. It can't haul as much freight or as many passengers. It costs more. It needs to land and be refueled more frequently. And who needs an airplane anyway? Trains are safer as you are less likely to die in an accident. Trains may not be as fast, but what's the hurry? I like sitting in the car and seeing the country go by at ground level. You can't see a damn thing from an airplane and what you do see looks like little toys. Yep, only an idiot would build or buy an airplane because I like trains.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
Would people complain as much if Apple called it the Apple WristComputerWithTouchScreenAndBluetoothSpeakerAndHealthMonitoring?
I mean, that's what it is. But Apple's marketing decided on a somewhat better name.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
How much of a fuss? You can forget to charge. You could be somewhere where you have no charger. You're forced to carry a charger around when traveling.
Of course none of these are atrocities, they make me think why I would want such a device, when my existing watch does exactly what I want it to do and does it reliably. Is checking emails really worth it? Those who complain about 'first world problems' would do well to think about their own first world problems, of which the need to have your emails/messages on the wrist is one. The ability to tell time, on the other hand, is very much a universal and important problem.
A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
Nope. This iWatch is even inferior to mechanical watches.
A good mechanical watch will wind itself. All you have to do is wear it regularly.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
5) You can have class and style and look a hell of a lot better for a lot less money. You just won't look like a trendy fanboi.
This.... Anyone attributing a smart watch from Apple, or any other company for that matter, to class or style just do not understand class or style. Some people easily confuse popularity or celebrity with class and style. It's been my experience that people who have true class and style do not wear gadgets or toys that can distract from enjoying people and the event, whether intimate or in public.
Personally, as a geek I think that gadgets are cool but very few actually have class or style...
You mean because there's one drawback to the traditional watch it's regression? I guess mobile phones are a regression because I don't have to charge my landline. Oh wait, you mean the added benefits outweigh the drawbacks? Exactly.