Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple Watch Launches

Posted by Soulskill on from the it's-all-in-the-wrist dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The Apple Watch's release date has arrived: retailers around the world have quietly begun putting them on their shelves, and customers are beginning to receive their shipments. Reviews have been out for a while, including thoughtful ones from John Gruber and Nilay Patel. Apple has published a full user guide for the software, and iFixit has put up a full teardown to take a look at the hardware. They give it a repairability score of 5 out of 10, saying that the screen and battery are easily replaced, but not much else is. Though Apple designated the watch "water-resistant" rather than "waterproof", early tests show it's able to withstand a shower and a swim in the pool without failing. Ars has an article about the difficulty of making games for the Apple Watch, and Wired has a piece detailing its creation.

2 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Games? by nine-times · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ars has an article about the difficulty of making games for the Apple Watch

    Honestly, I think games are a bit of a stretch. Maybe I'm just a stupid old man, but I kind of feel like smart-watches should do very little, but everything they do, they should do in a simple, obvious, transparent manner. If you want to play games, just pull out your phone.

    Now of course someone is going to say, "What's wrong with extra functionality? If you don't want it, just don't use it." All I would say is, if I had my say in the design, I'd make the UI as simple as possible, and make the battery last as long as possible. Adding a bunch of unnecessary features and games that require a bunch of processing power are likely to run contrary to both of those goals. If you gave me the choice of being able to play Angry Birds on my watch, or shaving off a couple of ounces while extending battery life for 5 hours, I'd definitely choose the latter.

  2. Re:Solution looking for a problem? by boristdog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Amen, brother.

    I have a side business renting a cabin on my ranch for weekend visitors. The cabin has no internet access, and it's in a valley so there is no cell signal. Many people complain about this when they first arrive, but after they leave they ALL tell me how it was REALLY nice to be unplugged for a few days. Even the 20-somethings.

    People forget how awesome life can be without gadgetry.