Apple Posts Guided Tours of the Features and Functions of the Apple Watch

MojoKid writes Wondering if Apple Watch is going to be worth the money? Well, that depends on several factors, including price, features, and how eager you are to jump into the smartwatch category at this point. To help tackle the latter two, Apple has posted a handful of videos that demonstrate what an Apple Watch can do. They play out like tutorial videos and are labeled "Guided Tour," followed by what specifically the video is showcasing. Currently, there are four Guided Tour videos available, one of which is a general introduction to Apple Watch labeled "Guided Tour: Welcome." It's the longest video of the bunch at 4 minutes and 45 seconds.

Comments

Blog spam

[Anonymous Coward]

This is blog spam. Link directly to the videos: http://www.apple.com/watch/guided-tours/

Tech news?

[jandersen]

Yeah, whatever.

Is this really tech news? To me it sounds more like a fashion advert; I'm ok with people falling in a swoon over something 'cool', although I can't see what is cool about it myself, but I'd much rather hear about what engineers have to say about something difficult and technical, or even political, for that matter. I mean just imagine that we started flooding Hello magazine with loads of opinions about the merits of this GPU over that - it wouldn't go down well with the usual readers, I suspect. Hmm, now that's a thought ...

Re:Tech news?

[ColdWetDog]

Well they could at least show us some tech porn pictures of the insides..... I can't wait until iFixit complains about these things.

I lost it...

[meta-monkey]

I lost it at "The Apple Watch crown is a revolutionary new interface."

IT'S A FUCKING SCROLL WHEEL.

Re:I lost it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple mouses do not have a scroll wheel. So for them it is revolutionary ;)

What can it do?

[phizi0n]

It can tell everybody around you that you don't know fashion, you don't know tech, you like charging things every night, and you have too much money.

What are you typing on?

[SuperKendall]

Apple is the only computer supplier to attempt to give better wages, to issue constant reports on the conditions in the factory.

It's fine that you don't like Apple, I can understand how people want different things from hardware they use. What is not fine is to imply Apple is even as bad as any other computer provider as far as treating workers in factories - because it is a lie.

You are inherently a hypocrite; because whatever you are typing your messages of hate on was made under substantially worse conditions than any Apple product.

P.S. Steve Jobs has been dead a while now. If you still obsess over where he parked you may want to seek professional help. I didn't really care that much about him when he was alive; it's pretty freaky you do long after he is dead.

Re:What are you typing on?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean someone who left $0 to charity after his death? Jobs was not a nice man. He was a marketing genius... but definitely not someone who is going to win any ethics awards.

Even the evil robber barons of the 1800s like Carnegie and Frick left auditoriums, arts foundations, hospitals, and many other philanthropic works behind. Jobs? Nada. There are no schools he built, no theaters with his name on them. As far as what people see, they see his boat, and nothing but what he spent on himself.

What he is remembered by, is just rich man assholery. The tale of his new Mercedes every six months so he can park in the handicapped spots at Apple, for example. His scorched earth tactics against Google and Android.

He doesn't have much else other than that, and his marketing prowess for a legacy. Even ol' Bill Gates has a foundation which is doing a lot of good in the world. Bloomberg is doing his thing by getting the guns off the streets in the US and rallying women behind him with MDA and Everytown. Jobs's legacy isn't much compared to those.

Re:My favorite one...

[Camembert]

It can track and tell time!

Yes, but not for very long. If you really need to know the time accurately, it is recommended that you also wear a regular watch.

Actually the watch should be accurate within 50ms. Very good by anyone's standards. I assume it checks the official time once per day through the user's iPhone.

Re:My favorite one...

[Noah Haders]

Try audio quality on FaceTime. It's like the person is stanting in your ear. Also try volte.

Yawn

[markdavis]

Yawn- so looking through the info, it doesn't really do much more than my Moto 360 can do, yet the Moto 360:

1) Has been available already for 7 months.
2) Has inductive charging and the Apple watch doesn't.
3) Is far less expensive.
4) Is arguably much better looking (for those who want round).
5) Works with many different phones, not just a few iPhone models.

So what is so innovative and impressive? A button on the side? The 360 has a button. It is not a scroll wheel, but despite what Apple's video claims, I have absolutely no problems using the touchscreen to pinch zoom, swipe, or scroll and it doesn't hurt my experience and is far more intuitive.

The ONLY two things I saw of interest were variable touch sensitivity... which is certainly not a new technology, but it novel on a watch. And having a speaker, which I certainly have not missed.

I mean, it looks like a great device, but I fail to understand why people think it is some brilliant new idea or super fantastic breakthrough.

Re:Yawn

[CrashNBrn]

Because, Apple.

Re:Yawn

[PapayaSF]

I mean, it looks like a great device, but I fail to understand why people think it is some brilliant new idea or super fantastic breakthrough.

"No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." —Rob Malda, 2001

Many have said this before, but Apple's strength is really not "brilliant new ideas or super fantastic breakthroughs" (though they have those at times). There were personal computers before the Apple I and II. There were GUIs before the Mac. There were smartphones before the iPhone, and tablets before the iPad. So why were those all breakthrough products? Because Apple did them better than other companies did. Especially in the second Jobs era, and since, they do vast amounts of research and testing and refining to make the products great. They make hard design decisions, they don't just check off feature lists, and they make things that they think are good (in other words, they don't simply aim to satisfy customers). Plus, they now have an ecosystem of software that integrates well with their hardware, which is designed to work with their software. Add all that together, and you get breakthrough products, even if they may not be the first examples, or match a competitor feature for feature. Trust me: in five years, the Moto 360 will be remembered only as the Nomad of smart watches. All smart watches will soon start to look and act like Apple's in the same way that all smartphones now look like descendants of the first iPhone.

And the Apple Watch does use inductive charging, with a MagSafe cable.

Re:Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

Starting with the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhones started to look like other smartphones. Steve Jobs was dead set against larger phones, but apparently Apple risked losing market share to them. (My $100 off-brand Android is 5" diagonally and that seems like an optimal size for my hand.) Jobs was also against smaller tablets, but Apple came out with the iPad Mini.

Apple is an upmarket, trendy/fashion brand. Their products are well-made, but not necessarily the best. Their AirPort Extreme routers lack a lot features comparable routers carry by default (bandwidth management, built-in VPN server, a web interface, and other stuff). Until recently, iPhone users couldn't swipe through a virtual keyboard to write text, they had to tap each character individually (Android's had that for a bit longer). When I had an iPhone 4s, I had to use a file manager application to transfer files to or from the iPhone without using iTunes. Their new MacBook will have only a single USB-C port: it's slim and makes everything smaller, but requires more expensive adapters. Buying Apple is like buying a luxury car that requires special parts and trained mechanics.

Microsoft tries to sell expensive products, but they usually fail and end up hitting the low- or mid-tier where the bulk of their users lie. Hell, thanks to competition from Google, they may be introducing some $150 Windows notebooks this summer (using - I hope - x86 Rockchip CPUs licensed from Intel). It's a great time to be a Windows user (the Windows 8 interface not withstanding).

Apple's been great at keeping their margins high. They sold expensive products throughout the 80s and 90s. Only now is their stuff popular enough to make them filthy rich (in part thanks to the ludicrous cell phone contracts present in the United States).

Re:Yawn

[aralin]

People who never actually made any product do not fully understand how wide is the chasm between a product and good product. And that the chasm between a good product and great product is even much wider.

We do understand the concept sometimes as 80:20. The first 80% of a product takes about 20% of time to make and the remaining 20% takes 80% of the time. Well, making a good product is another 80:20 split and making a great product is yet another one if not more. So you really spend 25-30 times more time and effort on great product than on a simply working one.