Slashdot Asks: It's Been a Year Since Apple Watch Release, What's Your Thought On It?

In an op-ed, Quartz's Mike Murphy writes that Apple Watch, the Cupertino-based company's first wearable device, hasn't been the success the company was hoping it to be. Apple unveiled the Apple Watch alongside the iPhone 6 at a media conference in September 2014. It wasn't, however, until April 2015 that the company began selling it. The Apple Watch has received a mixed response from people. While some have found the design premium-looking, almost everyone has complained about the battery life. Many have found the health-centric features of Apple Watch useful. though the lack of apps, in general, is a downer for many. Apple, which usually doesn't miss boasting sales number, remains tight-lipped on exactly how many Apple Watch units it has sold. Murphy writes: Every Apple product in the last 15 years or so has been two things: desirable and useful. They've made it easier for people to be creative, listen to a lot of music on the go, communicate with anyone in the world or find out any piece of information wherever they are. The Apple Watch looks good, but from a desirability perspective, some argue that the most interesting thing about it has been the collaborations it has had with Hermes, rather than the watch itself. Apple has always prided itself on 'thinking different', and has stood out by creating differentiating products. But different in the case of the Apple Watch right now just means "weird." Apple probably doesn't want a product where using one gets you referred to as "that guy." Do you own an Apple Watch? If not, are you planning to purchase one? Those who own it, what features do you like in the Apple Watch that you think other watches cannot offer.

Comments

Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

And has been rejected as such

Re:Its useless junk

[postbigbang]

I'm not sure it's junk, but it shows that the Apple "halo-effect" is a crack in its reality distortion field. It work up the world to IoT, but just because Apple makes it, doesn't mean people will come.

Now that they're being seen dumped on the secondary market (dailysteals, woot, etc etc), it's a sign that there's a product manager with a new job in the warehouse in Cupertino.

Re:Its useless junk

[tripleevenfall]

It's not that it's useless, it's that for something that costs between $300 and $700, it's not delivering all that much value. (Plus, you need to have first spent about that much on an iPhone to even use it)

If the watch had some value over your phone, such as being able to be a phone itself, or... something, people would adopt it. People love nothing better than shiny luxury trinkets that they think will set them apart from the common rabble as looking more affluent. The problem with this trinket is that it's just that. It doesn't really deliver real-world value that a fitbit doesn't also deliver.

I'm was never a fanboy or anything, but Apple really seems to have lost its way without Jobs. Products coming out that aren't ready for prime time, quality issues... never would have happened before.

Re:Its useless junk

[ganjadude]

not the apple watch but i just got a free gear s2 with my s7 phone, Ive had it for a few days now and so far the nicest thing for me is being able to use the watch to make and receive calls when driving. notifications are nice once you set them up properly, its cool but then again i dont normally wear watches so its taking some getting used to.

long story short not something id spend 300-700 on, but cool for free

Re:Its useless junk

[Big Hairy Ian]

I think I'd rank it on a par with early MS Tablets I think they tried to bring this to market way too early. I'll stick with my binary watch http://www.trendsgal.com/p/who...

Re:Its useless junk

[plover]

I wouldn't say it's junk. My wife loves hers. Like a smartphone provides a subset of a full computer's functionality, a smart watch provides its own small set of functionality. The primary functions are really useful: time and weather at a glance; reliable notification of a phone call or SMS message in a noisy environment; health data which is very useful during exercise; Siri; and Apple Pay. Is that worth more than the cost of an iPhone? Different question.

It also shows its lack of ability in the "apps" available. Just because you can produce a "tap 17 tiny buttons in the arcane sequence and you can view the state of your coffee pot" app won't ever make it a useful or practical app. And the non-primary functions that might be of value still require some form of setup, like telling the watch you want driving directions to be signaled on your wrist.

Some of this is first-gen product limitations; some of it is inherent to a small form-factor device that simply doesn't have an interface matched to the size of human fingers. What that says to me is it's overpriced for what it can do - that doesn't make it junk, but it means they aren't going to sell like smartphones.

Re:Its useless junk

[Mashiki]

Really, the whole idea behind it was to try and jump into the luxury watch market nothing more. Personally I don't have any desire to buy one, I haven't worn a watch in 20 years(habit from an old job). To me, it doesn't add anything and seems pretty damned useless from my pov.

I'm was never a fanboy or anything, but Apple really seems to have lost its way without Jobs.

Not the first time either, but last time they had the chance he would come back and fix their mistakes. This time, it likely won't happen and we'll see Apple decline into irrelevance again just like before, but no one will be around to bail them out from their own stupidity.

Re:Its useless junk

[serviscope_minor]

weather at a glance

I've never understood this, unless that's a forecast. In which case, surely you have to select how far in advance the forecast is. If not... well, that's just one of the many tasks that windows are good for.

health data which is very useful during exercise

Personally, I've never really been convinced about that either. I mean I've played with health gadgets and they're neat and all, but ultimately, I don't need one to tell me I've been a lazy git and skipped an exercise session or taken the bus instead of walking.

But then again I don't have much interest in a fitbit either for exactly the same reasons. It provides plenty of data but not much in the way of actual information.

To each his own, I guess, but I'm kind of curious how these health devices actually help long term after the novelty has worn off.

Re:Its useless junk

[houghi]

For free and you have to change your habits? Sounds to high of a price for me.

And receiving calls while driving:
1) This is dangerous, regardless if it is done hands free
2) A car radio with Bluetooth is much cheaper if it is not already implemented.

Re:Its useless junk

[StayFrosty]

1) This is dangerous, regardless if it is done hands free

Talking to a passenger is dangerous. Changing the radio station is dangerous. Having a screaming child in the car is dangerous. Driving is dangerous, get over it.

2) A car radio with Bluetooth is much cheaper if it is not already implemented.

Cheaper than a free watch?

Re:Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, all those things you listed are dangerous, but talking on cell phones is dangerous at a level comparable to drunk driving, the others aren't.

Re:Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

Talking to a passenger is dangerous. Changing the radio station is dangerous. Having a screaming child in the car is dangerous. Driving is dangerous

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out how you all keep the gas stations from blowing up, yet you prang an airplane, and KA-BOOM!

Re:Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure it's junk, but it shows that the Apple "halo-effect" is a crack in its reality distortion field.

So did the Apple III, Apple Lisa, Apple Macintosh Portable, Apple Newton, Apple Pippen, 20th Anniversary Mac, Apple eMate, and the Power Mac g4 Cube.

Re:Its useless junk

[StayFrosty]

According to The Washington Post talking hands-free is the same level of impairment as talking to a passenger and holding the phone is negligibly more distracting. Listening to an audiobook is almost as distracting as talking.

Re:Its useless junk

[BasilBrush]

I'm not sure it's junk, but it shows that the Apple "halo-effect" is a crack in its reality distortion field.

Rather than a crack in the RDF, it's evidence that there never was an RDF. Apple has sold products hand over fist because they've been highly desirable products. When they release a product that isn't so desirable, such as the Watch or the Apple TV, then it doesn't sell so well. (Unlike what RDF theory would suggest.)

Re:Its useless junk

[Flavianoep]

Your 'free' gear was not free, no matter what they say.

Re:Its useless junk

[postbigbang]

Were it only true.

Apple is really good at directing their energy towards their intended end-user. They're not interested in businesses or bulk-buyers like the governments of the world because it's not their philosophy, counter to that of Microsoft-- which targets developers and business.

This magical layer of trust and customer schmoozing is at the very heart of what Apple does well. They are monolithic, and don't want their OS (as an example) used on other hardware, because they want to control the "experience".

The RDF that's imbued by their "just works", support mechanisms (creaking as they are), retail, are all designed to make customers trust them, and whatever they come out with next. In the case of the iWatch, and the constraints imposed on Apple TV by their media partners, they've cracked their trust. The iWatch isn't jewelry, isn't very functional (what can you do in the space of wrist-enabled device, after all?), and was poorly speculative. The reason there's no FM radio inside an iPhone is that they'd lose iTunes revenue, and the RIAA makes NO MONEY when you listen to a song on the radio, and so the radio is their odd enemy.

Apple ignores other products handily. Go ahead and try to connect it to Windows in a Windows meaningful way. Same answer with Android phones, or many, many other products. Apple is a master at controlling their ecosystems in the extreme, and making people love it because, hey, stuff works and it's "kewl". They invented zero of what they sell, but their are emperors of refinement and ecosystem. Their halo and legend and trust constitute the RDF, and that RDF is cracking because their dogged leader is gone, and they've become leaden and less able to attract outstanding talent because other organizations have figured out the means to attract really smart and enabled people.

Re:Its useless junk

[jenningsthecat]

Your 'free' gear was not free, no matter what they say.

No, but it may have been free, or at least heavily subsidized, from the standpoint of the recipient. Such offers are in the same class as loyalty / rewards programs - the 'freebies' and 'discounts' are paid for by those of us who don't drink that particular Koolaid, and/or by those who buy the product without the special offer both before and after the fact. It's all a shell game within the greater Ponzi scheme.

Re: Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

The difference is that passengers often sense when the driver needs to concentrate, and clam up. Except for kids, of course. The hands free conversationalist isn't there to see and feel those cues, and will happily talk your ear off about nonsense as you dangerously tailgate in commuter traffic.

I will not do podcasts, talk radio, or audiobooks in city traffic. I get quickly agitated, don't enjoy content I would otherwise enjoy, say on a long stretch of interstate. It's like trying to speak Japanese while jumping on a pogostick. People don't have the spare brain capacity to operate at a high conscious level and successfully guide a cruise missile down the road; myself inclusive, I am not ashamed to admit.

Re:Its useless junk

[BasilBrush]

Apple get trust because they are trustworthy. Trustworthiness is a very delicate attribute. Sony had it, and lost it. Microsoft too (many here won't be old enough to remember when).

Apple still has it because they haven' betrayed their customers. Not because of magic (the RDF).

Re:Its useless junk

[postbigbang]

They gain part of the trustworthyness deliberately. They very highly control, to the exclusion of compatibility with non-Apple *stuff*, their ecosystems, building walls around them, and letting all other competitors play second and third fiddle to their infrastructures.

It's delicate, as you mention. It's by design. It also fails smell tests in so many areas where the first bit of heterogeneity is required. They are ruled by their contracts with the media companies-- which they initially developed and evolved, to their credit. Their devices functionality, however, is directly controlled by a delicate balance of the RIAA, MPAA, their developers, and their draconian control of their supply chain.

The trustworthyness, when viewed in light of the rest of the world, is the RDF. When looked at from an outsider, or partial insider's perspective, they are quite fallible, rarely make apologies, and then blurt crap like the iWatch, Apple TV, make recent working products obsolete (like the iPad1), and their visionary halo, while very hard fought-and-won, comes at the cost of many, many problems. They control their press with military precision, and are about as open and forthcoming as their enemy, the NSA/FBI.

Re:Its useless junk

[Lumpy]

Only by the idiots like you that have never touched one. If you had owned one for even 2 weeks you would have more credibiity, but Most likely you dont even own ANY smartwatch.

It is the #2 smartwatch out there behind the Pebble. And the Pebble outsells ALL the android watch brands put together as a single number.

It's useful, but the problem is that form over function that is consumer electronics will destroy it. Apple Watch 2.0 will be thinner and lighter, Instead of making it have far better battery life and far better functionality. If phones today were only a few Millimeters thicker for more battery capacity we would have phones that easily go multiple days between charging.

I personally have owned Two Pebbles, the first and the latest Time Steel, a Motorola, and now an Apple Watch. They all have their advantages and failures. Pebble just cant stay connected to android or apple phones. Battery life on the Motorola was dismal at best. And the apple Watch integrates with apple devices the best but still has dismal battery life.

I see far more apple watches on executive arms than any other smartwatch, so it's very popular with the makes real money crowd.

Re: Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

You realise that your praising a company of being trustworthy when they've said publicly that their users are fools.

You don't even need to Google a specific company because nobody else calls their customers idiots and gets away with it: "no reasonable person would believe us"

Re: Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

And therein lies the problem.

There's only so many of them. Add to it that they won't likely add extra software to it because they tend not to play with it means the ecosystem will remain relatively small and not-as-useful as it could be.

Ecosystems need critical mass, like consoles (wii for example), Windows Phones, etc. Otherwise nobody develops for them and people start moving to other devices or just not using it any longer.

Re:Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

There is probably not an FM radio in the iPhone because apple cannot control what stations you can adequately receive at your current location. Radio is too fickle for an entity like apple to want to try.

Re:Its useless junk

[swv3752]

Frosted glass windows in the office barely let me know if it is sunny out. Today it is 47 degrees, last week it was 70. Knowing if I need to grab a jacket when I head out to lunch is nice.

how can you make meaningful changes if you do not measure what you are changing? Fitbits and the like are great at measuring exercise, then one can have a useful set of data when one makes changes to their habits. For me doing little things like parking further away and using the Bathroom on the far side of the building instead of the one that is 20 feet away has made a difference.

It is also nice to get notifications on my wrist instead of being that annoying guy whose phone chimes all the time.

Re:Its useless junk

[spire3661]

Passengers know when to STFU when needed. Driving is dangerous, you dont have to make it more so by engaging in unnecessary tasks.

Re:Its useless junk

[postbigbang]

Um, no. Try again. Other smartphones makers have plans to enable SDR on their phones. Your earphones can be used as an antenna-- no, really.

Re:Its useless junk

[Altus]

plenty of watch glances give you a forecast of some kind, most focus on very short term like 1-2 hour precipitation forecast along with temperature. If you want to see the temp tonight you can tap to launch the app itself and generally you will get the days forecast. It depends on the app you are using of course if you can get future forecast info as well but at some point you don't want to stare at your wrist anymore. Looking at next weeks weather is probably better done on your phone.

One of the tricky things about watches is that any interaction has to be quite limited in duration, it limits the number of apps that are practical on the watch. Most Watch app developers have not figured that out yet.

That said having temp, upcoming appointment and other data right on the watch face is awesome. Never missing a critical notification or call is fantastic and sometimes being able to use it to control your music playback can be extremely convenient. Using the watch to quickly set a reminder or timer without pause (using siri in this case) is fantastic, particularly since you can set location based reminder (i.e. remind me to take out the trash when I get home). Add to that the nice fitness tracking info and I think you have an excellent device. Admittedly I think the current watch could use to come down in price some because its difficult for most people to see these advantages and justify the cost to get them, but it is a very nice device once you get used to the idea that this stuff is available on your wrist instantly instead of on the locked device sitting in your pocket.

Re:Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple still has it because they haven' betrayed their customers. Not because of magic (the RDF).

Yeah, like how they unceremoniously killed the Newton 6 months after the release of the MessagePad 2100 and shafted a whole ecosystem of developers with no warnings whatsoever. That was the defining event where I felt Apple betrayed my trust as a customer. I carry an iPhone because my workplace requires it. I will personally never own another Apple product.

Re:Its useless junk

[plover]

weather at a glance

I've never understood this, unless that's a forecast. In which case, surely you have to select how far in advance the forecast is. If not... well, that's just one of the many tasks that windows are good for.

You may live in an area where weather forecasts are unimportant, like southern California. Here in Minnesota, it can mean the difference between wearing a winter coat to go walking at noon, or biking to work in shorts. And the forecast face for the Apple Watch gives you 12 hours of predicted temperatures and weather as a series of hourly icons around the clock hands. It's a really useful display. (Like everything else on the Apple Watch, if you need extended forecast info, or more detail, it's easier to grab the phone and open the weather app.)

health data which is very useful during exercise

Personally, I've never really been convinced about that either. I mean I've played with health gadgets and they're neat and all, but ultimately, I don't need one to tell me I've been a lazy git and skipped an exercise session or taken the bus instead of walking.

There's a difference between a gamified motivational device, like the Fitbit, and a fitness tool that measures your heart rate. A device that measures your pulse can tell you if your workout is within the "cardio zone". If your pulse never reaches a certain rate, you're not actually benefiting your heart enough. And if your pulse exceeds your safe threshold, you risk all kinds of problems, including a heart attack. Competitive athletes know exactly what their target heart rate is by feel; but I'm just an ordinary schlub who can't tell when I enter or exit the zone, so a device like that really helps me. Fitness-dedicated watches (like Polars and Garmins) will vibrate to let you know if you're above or below your target range, so you can work harder or rest as needed. That's a feature that may entice me to buy an Apple Watch, because I don't like the chest strap with my Polar watch. On the minus side, fitness machines like treadmills can increase or decrease the workload to keep you in your desired zone, but they only receive signals from the chest straps, not the fitness bands. And then there's the difference between Polar heart signals and ANT+ signals, meaning a Garmin may follow the most open standards but be the least connected of all. Sigh.

And yes, my wife uses her watch motivationally, like a Fitbit. She stands up and moves around every hour (seems to be some kind of popular woo-woo health thing), and gets her 10,000 steps per day. I expect that will eventually wear off, but she's kept her Fitbit going for three or four years now. (Yes, she still wears a Fitbit even though she has an Apple Watch. Please don't ask me to rationalize that one! :)

Re: Its useless junk

[plover]

That's not the limit. The Apple Watch is popular enough that there are dozens of apps out there already, but they're all way too hard to use. When you have a 38mm screen, you can only reliably recognize a very few gestures. Accurately pressing buttons is really hard (entering the unlock code on the tiny little keypad requires intense concentration and the fine motor skills of an 8 year old kid with a box of Lego bricks, something an adult rarely wants from a watch.)

It doesn't matter how good a watch app is, you still have to click and wobble around the watch's home screen to open it up, and that's just a silly amount of effort. Where any smart watch shines is in its connectivity, and in delivering alerts to the wearer. It takes no user effort to sound an alarm, so when a glance will tell you something important, that's a great app. But if you have to punch in a dozen tiny buttons to use it, it's going to suck no matter what it is.

Re:Its useless junk

[religionofpeas]

how can you make meaningful changes if you do not measure what you are changing?

You can measure the time with a regular watch. You can measure distance by checking a map before/after.. You can also exercise to a certain feeling of exhaustion. I've tried exercising with a sports watch, but in the end, it encouraged me to always try to improve on previous results which led to injuries.

For me doing little things like parking further away and using the Bathroom on the far side of the building instead of the one that is 20 feet away has made a difference.

You don't need a watch for that.

Re:Its useless junk

[Farmer Tim]

Fuel vapour inside a tank rarely has the correct oxygen mix to ignite. Rupture the tank and spray the fuel all over the place and suddenly it does. Aircraft fuel tanks (not to mention the rest of the plane) tend to rupture quite significantly on impact, while gas station tanks are usually underground and seldom fall out of the sky at a few hundred knots.

Re:Its useless junk

[macs4all]

I'm not sure it's junk, but it shows that the Apple "halo-effect" is a crack in its reality distortion field.

So did the Apple III, Apple Lisa, Apple Macintosh Portable, Apple Newton, Apple Pippen, 20th Anniversary Mac, Apple eMate, and the Power Mac g4 Cube.

Now, wanna list the products that were successful? Hint: It's a pretty damned long list.

Re:Its useless junk

[macs4all]

hey very highly control, to the exclusion of compatibility with non-Apple *stuff*, their ecosystems

With the exception of their penchant for ever-changing video connectors, Apple has an excellent track record overall (especially on the software side) of being very standards-compliant. MUCH, MUCH better than MS, for example.

Re:Its useless junk

[macs4all]

long story short not something id spend 300-700 on, but cool for free

So, this article whines about the Apple Watch supposedly not being successful; but then Slamdung is down to including theirs FOR FREE, like some sort of prize in the bottom of a box of cereal!

Now THAT's funny!

Re:Its useless junk

[postbigbang]

In some yes, but when it comes to ACTUAL interoperability, there is a long list of stuff that they simply ignore. Take for instance: NTFS. Android. NFS3.

I own and use a Mac. I have an iPhone and a Samsung S3. I have Windows servers, and Windows VMs (and many others). Direct experience says: you live in a monolithic world, and don't actually use a very wide variety of stuff on a daily basis, or you wouldn't come to this conclusion.

Re:Its useless junk

[macs4all]

If phones today were only a few Millimeters thicker for more battery capacity we would have phones that easily go multiple days between charging.

My iPhone 6 plus lasts pretty much all week (at least 4 days, often more), using it in talk mode for about 2 hours daily and with WiFi on continuously. YMMV. I don't game, but I do a fair amount of email and surfing on a daily basis, along with Apple Music streaming both over WiFi or Cellular pretty much all day at work as well as on the 45 min drive to/from work (1.5 hr total).

Re:Its useless junk

[hublan]

NTFS. Android. NFS3.

NTFS is not open, so not exactly a go for Apple there. I've had varying success with NTFS-3G on Linux to rescue Windows things throughout the years.
I'm not sure what they're not interoperating with with regards to Android, except in areas where the "interop" is based on a closed standard. The same could be said of Android. It's not exactly in either platform providers' best interest to interop much except through mandated phone standards.
I've got two NFSv4 shares mounted from my Linux server onto my MacBook. So.. that works?

Re:Its useless junk

[postbigbang]

Open? You said Open?

No, it's a license, because it's closed source. But hey, open up a flash drive on your Linux box. Reads and writes. Now, do this with the same drive on MacOS. Oh, dear, RO you say?

You can open up an Android device as a logical drive under Windows and Linux, but not MacOS. Same answer.

Yes, you can mount shares-- but that's because of SAMBA, which works because of the incredible efforts of sane people, and actual help from Microsoft, who got tired of being bashed (pun intended).

NFS3 is another long, sordid story. Wait, I'll use my Xserve! Oh, wait.....

Re:Its useless junk

[macs4all]

NTFS

OS X has had built-in read-only NTFS support since I think day one. I have definitely read NTFS drives with OS X. And since MS has never published the specs for Write or Format for NTFS, they can hardly be blamed. But apparently, you actually can enable NTFS WRITE (don't know about Formatting) on a per-Drive basis. Or, if you just want to pull out your wallet, these guys offer full NTFS support in OS X for the princely sum of $16.95.

But MacFuse brings supposedly full NTFS support (disclaimer: Never tried it) to at least Userland on OS X.

Android

Seriously?

NFS3

Not out-of-the box; but it supposedly can be fairly easily done with a little Terminal witchery.

Re:Its useless junk

[postbigbang]

You can kludge anything.

In each case, you get exactly what I stated, don't you?

Enjoy. This is Apple. If they wanted it, it would be done in a finger-snap. Note that it is not. Their hubris matches that of their competition at the top. They're all that way, and they all suck.

Linux/GNU/etc actually overcomes such things, not that they're targeted at civilians. Apple? They're fixated on their ecosystems, and screw the rest-- until a loud enough hue and cry makes them relent. Until then, they're the same monoliths as the rest. By the way, does Apple pay you or do you just rope off an arm, fill the syringe up with Apple, and inject directly into a vein each day?

Re:Its useless junk

[serviscope_minor]

Frosted glass windows in the office barely let me know if it is sunny out.

Wow OK, that's pretty grim.

how can you make meaningful changes if you do not measure what you are changing?

Well, mostly I have a reasonable handle on the exercise I'm doning. If I'm improving thigs, then the weight goes up, the distance run goes up (I don't tend to know the exact distances, but I add on extra bits to the run) or the time goes down. Otherwise, I just try to maintain the same level.

Even when I was in serious training, I found just going further or doing the tough ones faster was basically what worked.

For me doing little things like parking further away and using the Bathroom on the far side of the building instead of the one that is 20 feet away has made a difference.

That's not something I think would make a whole lot of difference to me. I guess I structure my day to get exercise in because I know if I don't I'll be too lazy to do it. I walk a good fraction of the way into work, so that's an hour of brisk walking per day. The bathroom trips wouldn't add much.

It is also nice to get notifications on my wrist instead of being that annoying guy whose phone chimes all the time.

I set mine on vibrate. I can't stand people who's phones chime, especially that astonishingly irritating whistle one. Seriously I want to find who it is and throw the phone out of my 7th floor office window, with the user still attached.

Re:Its useless junk

[macs4all]

You can kludge anything.

You're right. Just ask Linux. Afterall, the entire OS is a kludge of Unix.

Re:Its useless junk

[postbigbang]

No. Not a kludge. And has more users than Unix ever had. With Android, 4x the users that MacOS has. Remember not to OD on that Apple juice. You never wake up.

Re:Its useless junk

[thegarbz]

Yes talking is just as dangerous as talking, 15 points to Griffindor.

But my passenger doesn't make me look down at my phone and then let go of a portion of control I have over the steering wheel, doesn't make me fumble with a device in an attempt to swipe my thumb across a specific area in a specific direction, or better yet consume endless amounts of attention as I SMS back "Can't text now, I'm driving".

When I see a person on a phone driving, I don't care. The biggest risk is already over. I just hope that colossal idiot doesn't get another call while he's behind me or in the middle of merging traffic.

Re:Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

1) This is dangerous, regardless if it is done hands free

Talking to a passenger is dangerous. Changing the radio station is dangerous. Having a screaming child in the car is dangerous. Driving is dangerous, get over it.

On a side note, there is a distinction between increasing the amount of danger for yourself (which everyone should be free to do) and increasing the amount of danger for others like your passengers, pedestrians, and other motorists (not okay, actually). It's a minor point and kind of off-topic but let's not forget that.

Re:Its useless junk

[liquid_schwartz]

Driving is dangerous, get over it.

Better yet, automate it.

Re:Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

According to The Washington Post talking hands-free is the same level of impairment as talking to a passenger and holding the phone is negligibly more distracting. Listening to an audiobook is almost as distracting as talking.

The article says the opposite of both of your sentences:

Is talking on the phone more distracting than listening to an audiobook?
A small 2008 study showed that when people listened to an audiobook (in this case, “Dracula”), their performance was the same as when they drove without distraction. But when they carried on a phone conversation with one of the researchers (about hobbies and weekend activities), their performance worsened.

Is talking on the phone more distracting than talking to a passenger?
The cognitive workload for the driver is the same, according to Strayer. In his test, conversing with a passenger rated a 2.3 on the 1-to-5 scale; talking on a hand-held phone, a 2.4; and a hands-free phone, a 2.3. However, having another person in the car generally results in safer driving, because there’s often an extra set of eyes on the road. Also, passengers tend to stop talking when the demands of driving increase, Strayer says. “So passenger and cell conversations have different crash risks because the passenger helps out.”

Re:Its useless junk

[StayFrosty]

2.3=2.3 last time I checked meaning it's the same level of impairment. Also, 2.4 is negligibly more than 2.3 so it's exactly what I said.

You conveniently skipped this part of the article
[quote]Note: Teen passengers don’t have the same helpful effect with teen drivers.[/quote]

And this part about audiobooks:
[quote]radio measured 1.2 and the audiobook measured 1.75[/quote]
Again, 1.75 is almost 2.3.

Obviously you didn't bother to really read the article, you just took your pre-set conclusions, read the headline, and assumed the data supported them.

Re:Its useless junk

[ganjadude]

my cell phone bill didnt go up and i paid the same for my s7 as if i didnt get the gear, so you could argue maybe verizon could have lowered its rates by not giving out the gear, but to me, it was free

Re:Its useless junk

[ganjadude]

not really the point but if thats what you got out of it

Re:Its useless junk

[Flavianoep]

You must be paying more than a couple cell phones with your bill. Or the S7 is overpriced. No, I can't believe in free, if it's something coming from a telco. Anyway, it was very smart of you to take the Gear, because you must have paid for it someway.

Re:Its useless junk

[bingoUV]

You conveniently skipped this part of the article
[quote]Note: Teen passengers donâ(TM)t have the same helpful effect with teen drivers.[/quote]

You conveniently forgot all people in the world are not teens.

So the other live passengers physically present in the car are likely to help, whereas the on-phone conversation partner typically cannot.

Again, 1.75 is almost 2.3.

No, it is 23.9 % (or 31% looking in the other direction) different.

Re:Its useless junk

[StayFrosty]

You conveniently skipped this part of the article

Note: Teen passengers donâ(TM)t have the same helpful effect with teen drivers.

You conveniently forgot all people in the world are not teens.

So the other live passengers physically present in the car are likely to help, whereas the on-phone conversation partner typically cannot.

First of all, there is no actual data indicating a passenger is helpful affect either in the article or otherwise. Passengers who don't drive (aren't old enough (teens)), or those who are looking up directions on their phone, or are otherwise not paying attention to the road while conversing cannot help pay attention to the road and negate the supposed helpfulness. Same goes for children or other passengers in the back seat.

The point I am trying to make is that even an article from a reputable source that disagrees with my position (as per the headline) can only use conjecture to argue that talking with a passenger is safer than talking to someone hands-free on the phone. Oddly, the don't show the number on the 1-5 scale for drunk drivers anywhere in the article either. Again, more conjecture. The facts speak for themselves.

Re:Its useless junk

[bingoUV]

Irrelevant. Your statement "According to The Washington Post [washingtonpost.com] talking hands-free is the same level of impairment as talking to a passenger and holding the phone is negligibly more distracting" is not only false, it is a lie.

You could have said According to my take on The Washington Post [washingtonpost.com] talking hands-free is the same level of impairment as talking to a passenger and holding the phone is negligibly more distracting

Re:Its useless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

Way back when, I remember people buying special armbands to hold their iPhone where nobody would be able to not notice it. It was a badge of honor, that you spent $700 for a status item. Yes, it was a status item that had utility, and it was definitely a cool phone, but it was primarily a status item.

Now, nearly a decade later, people have broke two of them and are on their third. Nobody stops and says, "Is that an iPhone?" Apple is not the club for the cool kids. It's not a laggard club either, it's just mainstream.

Now who is going to put down another huge chunk of change for a product that isn't going to ooze status? If you were a fan of the cutting edge of tech, you already bought your smartwatch two years earlier (Android). If you were in love with the sex of Apple, after your three iPads, a failed iTV and three iPhones, you once-sexy products now look like buyer's remorse. With that kind of legacy, it better do a hell of a lot more than make things marginally better.

i dont have a watch, never had

[Anonymous Coward]

I never had a watch. And apple watch is useless for me. I am lazy but not too lazy to get my smartphone out to visit slashdot.

Re:i dont have a watch, never had

[EzInKy]

See now for me a watch is indispensable, and I've always dreamed of owning one that can perform other functions other than the most important one of telling the time. Of course telling the time is the most important reason to wear a watch. I also find it much more comfortable to wear a watch than to carry a phone in my pocket. Luddite here I suppose.

I don't want anything on my wrist

[HalAtWork]

I still don't want anything on my wrist. It's an interesting remote control but doesn't have that killer app/functionality you get with other apple products.

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[taiwanjohn]

I gave up on wearing a watch many years ago. Inevitably they get scraped against a wall (etc) and damaged. Bad enough when it's a 20-dollar cheap-o, let alone a "wrist computer" that cost hundreds. In a city like Taipei, you're never very far from a display of some kind, and there's always the cell phone if you're in a hurry to find out what time it is.

I've never seen an Apple Watch in real life, so they don't seem that popular, at least not around here.

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[HalAtWork]

For me I gave up on watches upon noticing: when I am constantly aware of the time, I tend to focus more on management of tasks than the tasks themselves. Instead I'd rather just set alarms for myself and never see the time. On my phone it doesn't show the time unless I specifically call up the clock app. The last thing I even want a watch for is to tell time, but with all the different things the watch does I still don't think it's such a brilliant alternative to pulling a rectangle out of my pocket. If I don't have the hands/time to do that, then I can't really be focusing on a watch face for info either. Personally no wrist things help me do anything better.

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[IMightB]

I'm not trying to denigrate your comment in anyway, but turning 40 this year, and being one of the original generation that grew up on the original home computers (TI99-4a), and pagers were the cool thing in high school. I find your comment regarding having to "pull a rectangle out of my pocket" to be very funny/sad/ironic/humorous.

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[Anonymous Coward]

That is Apple fault, for having created a very developer hostile environment on the watch. It impossible to build good or innovative apps there, only Apple can.

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[chihowa]

Inevitably they get scraped against a wall (etc) and damaged. Bad enough when it's a 20-dollar cheap-o, let alone a "wrist computer" that cost hundreds.

This is something that can be eliminated/mitigated with a better design and choice of construction materials. Sapphire lenses and good overall design will prevent damage from contact with all but the most extreme walls. You don't get that with a $20 watch, but anything over $100 should use better materials. I think (?) that the Apple watch has a sapphire lens.

I wear a watch because I have since I was a kid and I appreciate not pulling my phone out of my pocket to tell the time, but it's not a flashy piece of jewelry. That doesn't mean that it has to be a piece of junk either. (That said, I have zero interest in Apple's watch.)

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[Applehu Akbar]

I still don't want anything on my wrist. It's an interesting remote control but doesn't have that killer app/functionality you get with other apple products.

This sentiment is a common one, but I see the Watch is Apple's probe into the acceptability of wearable tech in general, with the wrist being the one place where wearing a device is already widely accepted. What happens next depends on which specific uses must Watch users have for it. Would a pendant work for some users? A sensor-packed chest mount or insole?

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[Anonymous Coward]

> The last thing I even want a watch for is to tell time

Zounds.

Of course, these days, the last thing some people want to do with their phone is make and receive telephone calls...

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[taiwanjohn]

A sapphire lens will help, but only until you brush up against a wall that's finished with rough granite. And the thicker the timepiece, the more likely you are to scuff it. I suppose the simplest fix would simply be some sort of 'clam-shell' protective cover. That would give you the convenience without the risk.

But then you're back to the 'why' question... If I were in a high-pressure job that required rapid response to incoming messages, this might be a useful tool. But for most purposes, most of the time, it's just not that big of a PITA to pull out the cell phone, just like everybody else I see on the bus, subway, etc..

Personally, I don't much care for the mini-screen form factor anyway, nor the 'fondle-slab' UI. For anything more than a tweet, I'd much rather have a full keyboard and mouse, with an eye-level display. It's easier on the neck...

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[tlhIngan]

But then you're back to the 'why' question... If I were in a high-pressure job that required rapid response to incoming messages, this might be a useful tool. But for most purposes, most of the time, it's just not that big of a PITA to pull out the cell phone, just like everybody else I see on the bus, subway, etc..

That's the problem with smartwatches in general.

They were invented to solve a problem that smartphones had - they were too f'ing HUGE.

You see, phones used to be smaller, so people put them in their pocket. Then there was this urgency to have bigger and bigger phones where we have 5-6" monsters. Of course, for some people, it makes sense. For a lot of others, it doesn't. (I've seen people with a 6"+ phone that they can barely hold onto with BOTH hands) But those people want a big screen phone, no matter how impractical it is - it won't fit in their pockets, and they can't carry it.

So they do the next best thing, put it into their purse or other bag. But this negates one of the most useful reasons for having a phone - instant accessibility because now it has to be dug out from wherever it was buried.

And once buried, people got a ton of FOMO (fear of missing out), so they get annoyed at having to dig through their bag for their phone to see what that text ding was or other thing. Or just by compulsion they need to check it every 5 minutes.

Hence, the smartwatch - it's not for "rapid response", it's to address the "problem" of FOMO for people who buy phones too large for them practically speaking. Instead of having to dig out their phone to view and possibly answer every text, they can simply use their smartwatch instead

Yes, there are some legitimate reasons for a large screen - some people use it to watch videos all the time or play games, or some have fat fingers and need a larger keyboard. But those people probably already have a way to keep such a large phone in easy reach.

The main reason people want large screen phones is just ... status. "Your phone only has 5.5 inches? Mine has 5.6 and is better!" Then they realize they can't handle it and it goes into less accessible places than their "puny" phone they could easily use. But then it's hard to text or call when you have to dig your phone out constantly, so you have the smartwatch.

No surprise that the proportion of sales of big screen phones is quite large in Asia. (Someone said the iPhone SE sales were "lackluster" despite selling 3.4M units in China and probably a ton elsewhere, and being generally sold out everywhere. I'm guessing Apple thinks people don't want a 4" phone...).

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[swv3752]

It was pain to pull my iPhone3 out of my pocket, size has nothing to do with it. Now that I am entering my 40's and on the verge of needing bifocals, a larger screen is almost a necessity. Being able to glance at my wrist when a notification comes in is nice.

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[plover]

I challenge you to turn 50 and then repeat your assertion that a large screen has anything to do with FOMO. I'm still using a small older iPhone, but every time i handle an iPhone 6+, I realize just how much less my eyes are strained using it. Many of my age-peers have swapped devices just to get the bigger display; every single one has said they'd never go back to a smaller display. This includes a Microsoftie who traded his corporate-flavored Lumia for a heretical iPhone 6+.

I've found my wife's iPhone 6+ fits all the same shirt and pants pockets that my old phone fits, so carrying it doesn't seem to be much of an issue. And she's always carried hers in her purse, where the bulk is unimportant.

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[HalAtWork]

I don't understand how that could denigrate my comment, am I missing something? If it has anything to do with this, when I was in high school pagers were things dealers had and the rectangle everyone really wanted was a Gameboy.

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[macs4all]

For anything more than a tweet, I'd much rather have a full keyboard and mouse, with an eye-level display. It's easier on the neck...

But damned hard to stick in your pocket...

Re:I don't want anything on my wrist

[david_thornley]

I frequently remove my glasses when reading things on my iPhone 5S. However, it does seem to be the largest size that will fit into my shirt pocket, so I stick with it.

No thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

I just doesn't solve a problem like their other successes.

Re: No thanks

[anegg]

The Newton didn't solve any problems, nor did the DynaBook, yet here we are with iPod Touches, iPhones, and iPads. I don't see myself buying the current gen iWatch, but I also didn't buy the first few generations of iPod, either, or the first few generations of the Macintosh. Sometimes the only way to evolve a product is to get it out in the wild and see how it adapts/is adapted/is adapted to. I don't know if this is a deliberate strategy on Apple's part, but it matches the pattern reasonably well.

Re: No thanks

[avandesande]

Just an anecdote- was purchasing a house in 1998 and our home appraiser was using a Newton- did the whole thing on it. There are all kinds of businesses now that use similar devices such as UPS. I think it was ahead of it's time but Apple doesn't market to businesses very well.

Re: No thanks

[macs4all]

nor did the DynaBook

Yes, but only one of those was ever a real product. (Much as I love the concept of the Dynabook (which begat the Mac).

This video sums up my thoughts

[Anonymous Coward]

of the Apple Watch and most of its owners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NDCJVsLh54

My reaction

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh fuck but it was yesterday and you're telling me I'm one year older?!

Meh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yawn...

I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[clickety6]

I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy when using it, but instead I just looked like a dick.

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy when using it, but instead I just looked like a dick.

That's what happens when you read and try to post on Slashdot from the Apple Watch. Channeling nerd angst on a 1.65 inch screen just looks stupid.

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[PopeRatzo]

Apple's managed to make a product that is the opposite of a status symbol. If you're wearing an Apple Watch, people think you're a tool and you bear watching.

I'm serious. I actually overheard two girls talking about some guy and one said, "He wears an Apple Watch" as if that was the equivalent of bikini briefs and socks with garters.

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[serviscope_minor]

one said, "He wears an Apple Watch" as if that was the equivalent of bikini briefs and socks with garters.

What's the watch equivalent of a mankini and sensible shoes?

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

At least you were half right.

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

AP Royal Oak.

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[BasilBrush]

Still not as much as a correlation with no sex appeal as being a slashdot reader...

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

that is because of the penis hat you always wear...

Told you that freebie from the trump rally was not a good idea.

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[irrational_design]

Banana Hammock and Crocs?

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[captaindomon]

A Moto 360.

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Timex

Re:I thought I'd look cool like Dick Tracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Its weird, when it comes to shit like jeans and hoodies, us nerds figure what we look like doesn't matter much and we should be able to wear what we want. But when it comes to something created by a company we don't like, we create straw man conversations and shit on the guy wearing it. Who gives a shit what people are wearing, especially a watch.

Long time Apple user here...

[Feral Nerd]

...even if I had the money to spare to buy an Apple watch I can't really see why I would need one.

Lack of sales figures hinders investment in apps

[tepples]

though the lack of apps, in general, is a downer for many Apple, which usually doesn't miss boasting sales number, remains tight-lipped on exactly how many Apple Watch units it has sold.

Apart from the bad grammar here, I wonder if the lack of apps is because Apple hasn't released sales figures. If a developer doesn't know the size of the market, the developer can't calculate how many people might try an app and thus can't estimate return on investment. The same is true of, for example, clip-on gamepads for phones. Companies make games for PlayStation Vita instead of iOS-with-gamepad or Android-with-gamepad because Sony at least releases sales figures that are credibly greater than zero.

Hobby watch

[Anonymous Coward]

The summary's claim that every Apple product is desirable and useful seems to overlook products like AppleTV, TrashcanPro, and Ping (sorry, meant to say Connect).

Re:Hobby watch

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, every Apple product ever made.

It isn't...

[Anonymous Coward]

A predator wrist control center.

One Day

[techmage]

The Apple Watch looks good and one day I hope to have one. Waiting for gen 2 or 3 before I commit.

Still rocking my original iPad though.

Re:One Day

[Anonymous Coward]

How did you fasten the iPad to your wrist?

Re:One Day

[techmage]

Why did the movie "Real Genius" just flash through my head?

Re:One Day

[Anonymous Coward]

Still rocking my Moto 360. It's a champ. Still does all it did, and occasionally I find it does more.

Best feature is "find my phone". Seems like it's easier for me to find my watch and then my phone.

Second best feature is "mute my phone and vibrate". Keeps my family from disrupting meetings. I can quickly acknowledge the vibration on my wrist without disrupting the flow of conversation.

And there is a whole "ecosystem" of watches. Some, like mine are now up to 3 models (360, 360 v2, 360 v2 sport). Outside those three, there's nearly a dozen to choose from.

But hey, can't fault Apple from thinking they'll just swoop in with the one model to rule them all. It worked for them last time, but mostly because the were playing against others who weren't prepared. Now that they have an opponent, it's not as easy to win.

Not Interested

[perotbot]

wasn't interested in the Apple Watch last year, still am not interested, and I'm their demographic. I own many apple products and have disposable income. I just have no interest in ANY watch, let alone one that bugs the hell out of me because I told it to do so.

Re:Not Interested

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm the opposite. I like watches ... and that's why I'm not interested in the Apple Watch.

Re:Not Interested

[brantondaveperson]

I'm their demographic.... I just have no interest in ANY watch

Then I'd suggest that you're not in their demographic.

Perhaps most damning of all...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I'm certainly not Apple's core market, so I don't expect Tim to be crying into his beer over this; but in what is probably the least-favorable outcome for Apple(and 'smartwatch' in general); I basically don't have any thoughts on it. Depending on how you prefer to phrase it, it's been out for only a year and it has already dropped below even occasional attention without explicit prompts like this one; or it's been out for an entire year and failed to attract much in the way of visible fans, foes, nor has it carved out any niche applications where it is considered an absolute must-have.

Normally, that's not how Apple products work: there is often a sharp and bitter divide between those who love and those who loath; but people care one way or the other. The watch? It's just 'meh.'

Re:Perhaps most damning of all...

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact that you don't have any thoughts on it is the least-favorable outcome for Apple?

Well I'm glad you still have your humility ;)

Re:Perhaps most damning of all...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Oh, as noted, my opinion in particular doesn't matter; it just strikes me as a very bad sign that Apple would manage to release a produce that inspires neither desire nor loathing; but enough lack of interest that it simply fades.

They've struck out now and again; but Apple's strength(in addition to solid industrial design and decent build quality) has always been their combination of willingness to discard the safe bet in favor of what they think is the right one; combined with their track record of being good enough at knowing what that is that doing what they want makes their customers happier than doing what their customers think that they want would.

That's an approach that tends to inspire adoration or howls of outrage. If the response is "Eh, it's pretty impressive that you can get a computer of that power into a watch, isn't it?" it seems as though you have good reason to suspect that you've failed to produce something that captures what has historically made your products successful.

Re:Perhaps most damning of all...

[religionofpeas]

I'm certainly not Apple's core market,

nice pun

Apple Watch

[Anonymous Coward]

But who will apple watch the watchmen?

Re: Apple Watch

[Anonymous Coward]

The watchers on the wall?

My thoughts are ....

[Anonymous Coward]

... oh yeah ... they launched an Apple watch ....... forgot about that......

well

[Anonymous Coward]

apple isnt the company it once was when steve jobs was in charge

Re:well

[Anonymous Coward]

apple isnt the company it once was when steve jobs was in charge

Chemo is a hell of a drug.

Tim Cook isn't a marketer

[Anonymous Coward]

Companies' personality and products come directly from the leadership, and seem disjointed when the leadership isn't strong. While Jobs was a tech-savvy guy, he was first and foremost an authoritarian leader, meaning Apple danced to his tune, and he was a marketer, meaning he knew how to make good products that markets wanted and he knew how to get people to believe they wanted those products.

Tim Cook is an engineer. He's a fine engineer, but he's not a marketer so he pushed for the design of the Apple Watch without thinking if people really wanted it. He's also not as strong as Jobs, and Apple is to big of a company to not have a strong personality to run it with a firm hand. The Apple Watch is a well designed product, but it was a product without a clear purpose in buyers' minds.

The iPhone is what happens under a strong CEO with a good sense of markets. The Apple Watch is what happens with a weak CEO who simply designs what he wants without any sense of the markets.

Re: Tim Cook isn't a marketer

[Anonymous Coward]

Steve Jobs was a self declared products guy. He wasn't really an engineer, or a designer, or a particularly great manager, but he had a great talent for knowing what products the market needed. He was certainly not a "marketing guy" since he spent most of time and effort developing products rather than promoting and positioning them, though he certainly liked an input into how his products were promoted, those inputs tended to be more like "bigger", "more groundbreaking", than anything more specific. In fact, I seem to remember he was sometimes quite critical of marketing folks displacing product guys like him in the decision making process.

Re:Tim Cook isn't a marketer

[chuckugly]

The last thing I want is a wearable device I have to coddle. When it can go SCUBA diving and can run for a few years on a charge (or recharges via solar or movement) I'll consider it. Until then it's as useful as a car that has to charge all day every few miles.

Worthless

[Anonymous Coward]

Worthless for me. My phone does everything and more that this "smart" watch does. Unless they put the functionality of my phone in the form factor of a watch, I have no need to add a watch to the list of things that I carry on my person each day. GPS would be a great start as I am a runner that needs map-my-run capability.

Re:Worthless

[Anonymous Coward]

Several bands from other companies have GPS built in. Garmin has a few, the MS Band 2 has it, I thought one of the higher-end Fitbits did too. I use the GPS on my MS Band for run / walk / hike and it works well for mapping. I've also found that just the ability to get notifications on the band is plenty; the other features of a "smart watch" are pretty useless to me.

Just another $800 device

[Anonymous Coward]

That you throw away after 2 years because it's obsolete.
No thanks.

Re:Lack of sales figures hinders investment in app

[SomeoneFromBelgium]

So... Apple Watch is in the same league as game pads for smartphones?
Sounds about right.

I'm not an Apple Watch owner, but I play one on TV

[mgoheen]

I bought my wife one at release. She is a big Mac user (iPhone since the iPhone 3, 4th Macbook, 2nd iMac) and although I wasn't sure about it, it seemed like a good present (it's jewelry AND tech.!). She has really tried it out as a USER, but it's a bit too difficult to really get into some of the features. She does like the health monitoring, but it really doesn't work very well at that. It doesn't seem to get her heart rate right much of the time, and it is vastly off base with her steps (it seems to totally not understand an elliptical). The ability to answer the phone is kinda ok...and she does use that occasionally, but with integrated bluetooth in her car, which would be the one time she might really use it, it ends up not being needed. She wears it only occasionally, and we may sell it. She does really like the butterflies.

cellphone pager watch

[jsepeta]

I upgraded from a watch to a pager in 1993. I upgraded from a pager to a smartphone in 2006. I have no need for a watch -- unless Apple were to deliver glucose monitoring abilities -- but Tim Cook said he wants it to be adjacent to medical devices in order to avoid the lengthy FDA approval for medical devices.

Yes on Smartwatches, no on Apple Watch

[CrankyFool]

You've already seen a plethora of comments slamming the idea of an expensive smartwatch (or in some cases slamming the idea of a wristwatch entirely). I'm a huge Smartwatch fan -- I spend virtually all my day in meetings, often not being able to use my laptop (tells you all you need to know about my job, I suppose). I was using a Pebble for years before my spouse got me an LG G Watch. Then a year later my spouse got me an Olio and as soon as I verified that it couldn't make it more than about 10 hours without needing recharging, I returned it.

When I got the LG G Watch, I made peace with the idea of charging my watch every day, which felt a bit blasphemous to begin with, but ... no big deal. I already charge my phone every day (though it's a bit annoying that there are practically no standardized Smartwatch charging standards). I just needed it to last until I go to bed at night, which is where the Olio failed.

These days, I'm using a big, chunky, Huawei Watch (http://www.gethuawei.com/huawei-watch) which I like quite a bit and makes it to bedtime with about 60% charge remaining.

So why not the Apple Watch? Simple -- I'm more interested in continuing to use my Android phone than I am using the Apple Watch. Apple, in an attempt to create a vertically integrated stack and bolster up the iPhone (or maybe just because they're lazy), has made their watch only work with the iPhone.

Re:Yes on Smartwatches, no on Apple Watch

[Anonymous Coward]

> I spend virtually all my day in meetings,

Another member of the good-for-nothing management elite.

Re:Yes on Smartwatches, no on Apple Watch

[nightfire-unique]

Same boat here.

I bought the Huawei watch a couple months ago, but only wear it when going out. I can't stand leaving my phone on the bar; I think it looks silly and of course there's always the risk of theft if you turn your back too long. But, I'm on call, and friends often message me looking to meet up, so I do need some method of notification.

Smartwatches work perfectly for this. I leave my phone in my pocket, and get a little buzz on the wrist if something comes up.

Re:Yes on Smartwatches, no on Apple Watch

[Solandri]

You experience reminds me of the story behind Post-It notes. Contrary to the faithful who believe in Jobs' divine insight into product perfection, a single person very rarely sees or can come up with the best potential use for a new invention. It's only when you distribute it to the masses that people can come up with innovative ways to use it. The inventor of the adhesive used in Post-It notes wasn't able to figure out a good way to use it and the company shelved it. A co-worker who thought of a use for it (sticking bookmarks in his choir book) could only think of that one use. It wasn't until they gave it to a bunch of secretaries to test that the myriad of possible uses for them were discovered.

Smart watches may succeed or fail. The only way we'll find out is for lots of different companies to come up with lots of different variants, which lots of different people buy and use in lots of different ways, with future iterations of that product modified to augment the popular uses that have been found. Innovation does not come from a single company creating a single product with a single vision limited to a single platform.

Re:Yes on Smartwatches, no on Apple Watch

[h4ck7h3p14n37]

So why not the Apple Watch? Simple -- I'm more interested in continuing to use my Android phone than I am using the Apple Watch. Apple, in an attempt to create a vertically integrated stack and bolster up the iPhone (or maybe just because they're lazy), has made their watch only work with the iPhone.

I wonder how many sales have been lost because the watch requires an iPhone? I would have bought my mother an Apple Watch, but she has a Moto G so it's not an option.

Re:Yes on Smartwatches, no on Apple Watch

[Altus]

Probably not enough to justify the massive expenditure developing android software for the watch to work with. Plus selling a device that works great with an iPhone but is crippled on andriod isn't going to win them a lot of users.

Not popular

[tom229]

I've only known like two people that have them and they are overly eager to tell me how wonderful they are. A surefire sign of latent buyer's remorse.

All the products of the last 15 years or so...

[Anonymous Coward]

Really, I can think of a few things that pretty much sucked:
puck shaped mouse
cube
xserve
the u2 branded ipod
apple tv
iphone 4 reception
mobileme service
itune ping social network

the pippin gaming systems was probably older but really sucked
their digital camera was probably older too.
rokr - not sure who to blame for that, apple or motorola

Re:All the products of the last 15 years or so...

[AaronW]

Just wait for the Apple car... "You're driving it wrong!"

What's this "watch" thing you keep going on about?

[frank_adrian314159]

Sounds stupid to me. I already have a phone to tell me the time and show notifications.

Very useful but very expensive

[martyros]

My wife works for Apple, and at the end of last year they had a deal to allow Apple employees to buy an Apple Watch for nearly half the retail price. She didn't really want one, so she bought one for me.

TLDR: Definitely useful, but I doubt I would pay full price to replace it.

The biggest feature for me, actually, is the notifications. Basically, with just a phone, you have the choice between cranking up the volume on notifications and having them be super-loud when you're in a quiet environment, or turning them down and miss missing them if you're in a loud environment. The watch has a dynamo that actually taps your wrist when you get a notification; so you're likely to notice it no matter how loud the environment is, but in a quiet environment the sound isn't too disruptive. (When I mention this to people they say, "But I wouldn't want to get notified all the time" -- no of course you don't, that's why you limit the notifications to only things you actually care about.) The notification aspect is handy when you're driving as well -- it gives you a little tap before you're supposed to turn to "wake you up".

The watch faces are pretty cool, with lots of pretty well thought-out features. It's nice being able, for example, to see what the temperature is like outside by just glancing at your wrist; and with the 2.2 update there's a watch face that cycles through photos from a designated photo album, so every time I look at the time I see photos of something that makes me happy.

The heart-rate monitor is pretty useful, but it seems like it's only mainly accurate for aerobic sports -- when I'm weightlifting it will often report obviously incorrect numbers (like, 40 BPM after I've just done a set of lifts and am breathing heavy).

The timer is quite handy, particularly with the "Hey Siri" feature -- "Hey Siri, set a timer for 5 mintues". The "Hey Siri" functionality is quite useful in a number of other situations as well: "Hey Siri, remind me when I get home to put the garbage out."

The Dick Tracy-style phone is a bit gimmicky, IMHO -- it's actually quite uncomfortable to try to talk to someone with your wrist held in front of you. It's almost always worth the 3 seconds of effort to just pull the phone out of my pocket / bag instead.

The awkwardness of holding up your wrist for long periods is the reason I don't use many of the other apps as well -- stocks, weather, browsing maps -- most things are much better just done by taking out your phone.

All in all, I'm glad I have it; and if it was like $150 I'd definitely recommend people buy it. But at the current price, it's a bit steep for what it provides.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[BarC0d3z]

I wish I could mod this. Perfect review.
I bought mine off ebay for about 20% off retail price right after Christmas. The two great features: notifications and status symbol (I meet with executives a lot.) However, I would've been very disappointed if I paid full price.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[whistl]

I have a gold Pebble Time Steel, and people are always asking me if this is an Apple Watch. I just tell them no, it's a Pebble, which is cheaper, the battery lasts 7 days, instead of 1, and Pebble has been around for years. It doesn't have the touch screen, but nobody cares about that useless feature anyway.

I'm addicted to wrist notifications, I can easily read short texts or see who is calling (and answer or send them to voice mail) without digging my iPhone out of my pocket. Great when you have a bluetooth earpiece.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

So, it's a very expensive vibrator that you have to recharge daily?

I still can't get over the idea of having to plug in a watch every fucking day. It's embarrassingly ridiculous. We solved this problem centuries ago.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[sh00z]

Seems like a good place for a "me too" post--I got mine for free ~6 months ago, and everything the parent post mentions is great. I also use the fitness tracker, and the best thing it does is (automatically) store data for running and cycling in the same place. Previously, I used an iPod Nano for running, so run data was in Nike+. I have a Polar bike computer/HRM, so all of that data was in their system. It took manual transfers to get it all into the same database. Now it's automatic.

The disadvantage? When I'm out running, and a car with a Bluetooth head unit drives by, pinging for a phone to pair with, it glitches my music.

All that being said, I could never have justified paying retail price.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[jittles]

I feel the same way about the watch - it's great for notifications. I keep my next calendar appointment on the face, which is also handy. It's incredibly overpriced for the utility it provides. I like a fashionable watch but I feel like this watch is anything but fashionable. As far as apps: Apple approached my company and asked us to develop some cool watch apps prior to the watch release. Every single useful idea we came up with was rejected because they planned to eventually release their own app that was similar. It's been almost 2 years since they approached us, they haven't implemented any of those apps and I still only use my watch for notifications. I still tell my friends to just wait and see if the price drops or if something more useful ever releases.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

The watch has a dynamo that actually taps your wrist when you get a notification;

So, you don't know what a dynamo is.

The heart-rate monitor is pretty useful, but it seems like it's only mainly accurate for aerobic sports

So, it's not useful.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[technomom]

Daily? Uh no. The Pebble Steel does NOT need daily charging. Once a week suffices.

Did you do any research whatsoever before posting your idiotic response?

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

The Apple Watch is beyond useless as a fitness monitor.

It's a bad pedometer, and the heart rate monitor has an accuracy of something like +10/-140 in that I frequently see it reading in the 40s after strenuous aerobic activity. (Nothing like doing a set of sprints and checking your heart rate and seeing your watch say "48." Yep. Sure it is.)

You CAN get fairly accurate heart rate readings if you stand perfectly still and don't move your arm. After about 30 seconds, the watch should finally figure it out, and give you a reading that's only +/- 10 BPM off the real answer. Of course, standing perfectly still and not moving your arm is the exact opposite of exercise.

Then there are notifications, which if you've read through are the only positives people can come up with. They're just annoying. Notifications on my phone are annoying, notifications on my watch are double-annoying. They make me an angrier person and raise my blood pressure. I hate them. I already have my phone, I don't need to get two sources of annoyance every single time anyone does anything online.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[severn2j]

Pretty much agree with all of this, however I do find answering calls on the watch useful in the times when I am not in the same room as my phone. I can answer and then go to my phone, instead of having to run for the phone and miss the call more often than not like I used to..

Also, I find it quite nice to be able to tell the time without having to dig out my phone.. Its gone full circle in that respect. :)

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[chihowa]

The notification aspect is handy when you're driving as well -- it gives you a little tap before you're supposed to turn to "wake you up".

That's a scary thought, but it explains the frustrations of commuting with other drivers pretty well. I can't wait for autonomous cars to come.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[SuperKendall]

My heart rate data seems really accurate, and I use it to jog and weight-lift all the time.

Pretty sure you do not actually have an Apple Watch and are not just trolling, especially from your descriptions of notifications (which can be explicitly controlled as to which ones go to the Apple Watch).

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

You must work for Apple. This type of "you're holding it wrong" response is what I've come to expect from Apple. It's why iOS 9.3 crashing if you tapped on links "wasn't a bug in the OS, but a bug in various apps." That persisted if you uninstalled the apps in question and required an OS update to fix.

And, yes, you can turn notifications off. But if you do that, all you're left with is a shitty, overpriced, very shiny FitBit knockoff that can't properly measure your heart rate. At that point, you might as well save $300 and get an actual FitBit.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[bingoUV]

The biggest feature for me, actually, is the notifications. Basically, with just a phone, you have the choice between cranking up the volume on notifications and having them be super-loud when you're in a quiet environment, or turning them down and miss missing them if you're in a loud environment. The watch has a dynamo

I don't understand - can't you just keep the phone in your pocket? Or are you naked, or in clothes without pockets, or in wet/strong magnetic field conditions? Not sure how well the watch behaves in strong magnetic fields, though.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[AlexSasha]

No wrist worn HR monitor will give you an accurate reading. Ideally a HR monitor should be worn below the rib cage, or you can get some fairly reliable readings from various optical HR monitors worn either right above or right below the elbow.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

There's "inaccurate" (I'm fine with it being +/- 5-10 BPM, I understand that), and then there's "I just sprinted across the track as fast as I possibly could and it's telling me my heart rate is 50BPM."

The Apple Watch doesn't just get the heart rate wrong, it gets it HILARIOUSLY wrong. And then it takes upwards of 30 seconds of standing perfectly still to find the correct heart rate.

This makes it slightly entirely useless for hitting heart rate targets while exercising, and since that's the only compelling feature it has, it makes the entire watch entirely useless.

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[stealth_finger]

Did you do any research whatsoever before posting your idiotic response?

Haha, good one. +5 funny

Re:Very useful but very expensive

[Rexdude]

Basically, with just a phone, you have the choice between cranking up the volume on notifications and having them be super-loud when you're in a quiet environment, or turning them down and miss missing them if you're in a loud environment

Don't know if iOS has evolved yet to allow automation apps like Tasker (and many others like it) that can automagically make your phone stay silent during meetings and return to regular volume afterwards (besides automating many other things, like starting my music app when I plug in headphones)

Lame

[110010001000]

No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

Re:Lame

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple Watch does work on WIFI - https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204562
That it doesn't work without a paired iPhone, that's a different matter.

I do better with my Charge HR + Smartphone

[cloud.pt]

I'm the proud owner of a 4-6day bettery-lasting Charge HR, with daily 1 to 1:30h activities/training sessions (which monitors HR every 3), with the whole 9 yards activated: sleep monitor ON; Heart Rate ON (as opposed to auto); call notifications On (with encryption); all day sync; always connected. I even have a daily silent alarms which I let ring to full most times. Every option is super battery optimized even with their warnings, and if any of these does affect performance, they're probably "all day sync" and "always connected" options, which I found to have no effect on user experience at all, so I will randomly shut them off with no real impact. For instance, all day sync's only benefit is to get immediate feedback when switching on the app, with the most updated info without sync (sync itself would last like 10 seconds without it), and "always connected" will give me a call notification 3 seconds sooner than it would provide turned off, which is a non-issue as I can always call back anyway. But even with them all On I will profit 1 day tops of battery, and that's why I digress on having them Off.

Back on topic: So, even though I can't really compare this to an iWatch's full feature set, it does compare on the "things I really need from a smart wrist wearable", with the added benefit of that unmatched Fitbit app (and web app). And man do I like having the peace of mind of a device that rarely dies on me, either on normal usage or while cycling. Add the fact that I wouldn't cry a whole lot if I lost it or got mugged because it costs 1/3 of the price of a full-fledged smartwatch.

Granted, spec-by-spec there is better stuff out there, but nothing really comes close to the usability, experience and "price-per-satisfaction" of owning a Charge HR. Except maybe a Mi Band 1S. If you really want to save big, don't mind the lack of a screen, or spending 1 dollar on a market app that does what the official one doesn't (Mi Band Tools), you can go a long way with the new Xiaomi tracker, which I happen to own and really see some benefits over that "screen gimmick" type smart bracelets like my Fitbit. The screen is only a pro until you notice you can enable vibrations for heart rate zones, and you only have to charge the Mi Band every 25-30 days or so... As compared to the 4-6 days of the Charge HR, or DAILY with [insert any iOS/Android/Tizen smartwatch here]. Maybe a Pebble with HR would also fit my needs, but I can't comment on ownership of that one.

Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple is in serious decline right now but few people have taken notice.

The iPhone 6 was a design disaster. The SE is a weird counter-cyclical throwback. The iWatch was a dud. The iPad Pro was a fail. The new iPad is meh. The Mac Pro is an overpriced disaster.

Apple needs not just one, but a series of major wins or they're done.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[postbigbang]

It would be unwise to write them off. They have more cash than imaginable, and when they secrecy around the iCar is taken off, they with Tesla will attempt to validate the driverless electric market.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

The "more cash than imaginable" isn't exactly true. They don't hold that money as cash, but as stock and equity in god only knows how many companies. This is relevant because if they were to try to pull on that money quickly, they would likely crash the market and kill the value of their "cash" (stock).

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, -1ed for stating a fact? Some Apple fanboi is really butt hurt by the statement of facts.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple is in serious decline right now but few people have taken notice.
 
Only on Slashdot; a companies market share is still growing but not as quickly as it was last quarter.... "Serious Decline!!!11111!!!!"
 
  The iPhone 6 was a design disaster. The SE is a weird counter-cyclical throwback. The iWatch was a dud. The iPad Pro was a fail. The new iPad is meh. The Mac Pro is an overpriced disaster.
 
The SE is not weird. It's people who are sick of the trend in large phones. Of course, that was all the rage when Samedung was doing it but when Apple did it? Oh, that's for old people now. Meh. iPadPro is niche, the table market is saturated and everyone is seeing the same trends there. The Mac Pro is bad but to call it a disaster is a bit of an overstatement.
 
But hey, this is Slashdot... the land of "I hate it if it'z teh Appl3sz1!1!!132!!! (even tho I claim to have never have used one, ever)"
 
Everyone here is on a crusade and most of them are wrong with everything that they say.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[stealth_finger]

It would be unwise to write them off. They have more cash than imaginable, and when they secrecy around the iCar is taken off, they with Tesla will attempt to validate the driverless electric market.

They have quite a few years before they can sell driverless cars or they are even on the market. In the mean time I guess the best they could do would attach their name to someone elses. Do apple still use google maps or did they sort their own out or anything else they can use to add value other than their logo? I do I appreciate they have a few metric fuck tons of cash but a good way to piss that away would to design, build and market a car with all associated costs.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[mattventura]

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's margins are so high that they only need one or two successful products to stay afloat to begin with. Even if a couple of their products turn out to be subpar, iPhones will always sell, not to mention Macs are snapped up like hotcakes for a variety of reasons.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple's facade is starting to show cracks:

1: Macs are not updated/refreshed in years. The Mac Pro, which is the flagship machine, is going on three years without an update. Same with the Mac Mini, which the last refresh actually made it slower than the 2012 edition (two cores instead of four.)

Apple's prices are atrocious. I was > this close to buying an iMac. However, I decided it wasn't worth the cash, bought a "deal of the day" Dell from Amazon, which had a better CPU, same amount of RAM, SSD, BlueTooth, better GPU, Wi-Fi, and so on... for less than a quarter of the price. To boot, it is far more upgradable. With how lackluster OS X has become, even Windows has crept ahead of it in virtually every single factor, so the Apple Tax for OS X isn't worth the bother.

2: The iPhone 6 SE is pretty much an iPhone 5S. It is smaller, but not really groundbreaking.

3: I see a few Apple Watches here and there, but not many. When they came out last year, people flashed them left and right, but now, the average watch I see is a basic FitBit.

4: The new iPad is just evolution. Faster CPU, stylus, two more speakers... if one has a previous gen iPad, there isn't really much reason to buy it.

5: Apple needs to start building in repairability into their Mac line.

All and all, Apple isn't in a nosedive yet... but they are resting on their laurels, putting out half-ass products that are bought because Jobs's marketing momentum was so great. However, even that can't save Apple unless they start doing something like getting into the enterprise market, making a car, or something lucrative in a new market.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[arth1]

Only on Slashdot; a companies market share is still growing but not as quickly as it was last quarter.... "Serious Decline!!!11111!!!!"

But Apple's market share is not growing.
According to IDC, Apple's market share for smartphones in Q4 2014 was 19.7%, and in Q4 2015, it was 18.7%.
Overall sales were up 0.4%, but the market share declined.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[magarity]

They have more cash than imaginable

"I don't know; I can imagine quite a bit"

Re: Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

A single company with fewer choices has held a steady potion of the market share.

Other vendors have sprung up on the Android side. But, it really hasn't affected Apple and they are holding steady. Hardly a fail.

Re: Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

Samsung has always done a large variety of sizes and even form factors (flip smartphones), just like most other major companies. It's quite funny watching people call them Samedung or the like when the company has the most variety of form factors (flip, curved edges, folding), screens types (LCD, AMOLED), camera (ISOCELL and Sony) modules, varying speeds and accessories... meanwhile you have 3 identical phones, 2 identical tablets (save for size), and one ultrabook class laptop (no desktop replacement, gaming class, etc). Samsung has more variety in one product line than the whole company. LOL

Most other companies never claimed to be the only right way of doing things. However, SJ has claimed nobody wanted a bigger phone when clearly people do. Now that APL have also migrated to bigger phones, the SE is certainly a throwback. It's also not launched at the same time as the other models, hence counter cyclical. It's not an insult but actual truth. He didn't say anything about for old people (though studies have shown younger people tend to prefer Android, due to price I assume)

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[kuzb]

Apple could fail for the next 10 years and still be floating. You seriously underestimate how much money they've accumulated.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[kuzb]

Probably because it's not a fact. They have over 200 billion in liquid assets.

Re: Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[arth1]

But, it really hasn't affected Apple and they are holding steady. Hardly a fail.

The "market share is still growing" claim was wrong - that is all I pointed out. What can be concluded from that or other things is a different matter, and not one I will take sides on, one way or another.

Re: Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am sure your deal of the day had a nice 5k screen as well?

Re: Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[roc97007]

> (though studies have shown younger people tend to prefer Android, due to price I assume)

My daughter tells me that her friends prefer Android because the models tend to be distinctly different and you can customize the desktop, making the phone "your own". Whereas every Apple phone is like every other Apple phone.

But you know, that works for some people. I have a similar argument with a friend who tends to buy "custom" motorcycles, meaning a very expensive bike whereon the vendor has fastened a standard set of upgrades. I tend to buy a model closer to base and then only change or add the parts I want to change. He asks me, why didn't I just buy the bike I wanted? I point out that I may want something different than what the vendor sells. I've pointed out that his "custom" bike is exactly the same as every other "custom" bike of the same model, but he doesn't see anything wrong with that. His phone is an iphone, and he stands in line to trade up every time Apple craps out a new one. He's really looking forward to that one with the amoled display and the curved screen. Which Samsung has had for a couple years now. But that doesn't matter because it's not an iphone.

It's a different mindset. But to circle around to the original topic, the attraction of Android is not solely about price. It's also about having some control over the look and feel of your purchase. (And being able to replace the battery is nice, too.)

Re: Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows spies on everything you do, OS X does not.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[macs4all]

The iPhone 6 was a design disaster.

Really? How so? And don't bring up "Bendgate"; that was WAAAAY overblown.

I generally love my 6 Plus. Insanely good battery life, LOUD speaker, nice camera, good WiFi. What's not to like?

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[arglebargle_xiv]

The SE is not weird.

It's not weird, but it's not exactly earthshaking either, the only significant advantage over the Plus was the optional HDD. It wasn't until the SE/30 came along that it was worth looking at.

Re: Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[macs4all]

He's really looking forward to that one with the amoled display and the curved screen. Which Samsung has had for a couple years now.

If you knew anything about embedded development, and particularly AMOLED development, you would understand why that is.

There are VERY few "glass" manufacturers in the world. Samsung happens to be one of them; but more importantly, Samsung is probably the hands-down leader in AMOLED technology. They have poured a BUNCH of development effort into fixing the inherent problems with AMOLEDs (to greater or lesser success, depending on what metric you look at); but one of the ones that they have had a hard time with is YIELD. It's a fact that when a new iPhone comes out, there is a HUGE demand for it immediately. And up until now (and maybe even still now), Samsung simply cannot supply that "burst" demand. Plus, I think that Samsung purposely priced their AMOLEDs such that Apple would not consider them (probably somewhat worried that they couldn't meet demand even IF Apple placed an Order).

But, by comparison, the demand-curve for Samsung phones (and all other phones besides the iPhone) is MUCH "flatter"; so Samsung's yield for their AMOLED panels has a much better chance of keeping up with demand.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[LostMyBeaver]

The shareholders report placed those $200 billion at much less if you play the numbers right. Apple is regularly borrowing against that cash in extremely large amount in the form of bonds. This allows them to keep most of their cash overseas. While they might have $200 billion in assets, they have a HUGE amount of liabilities to go with it. So... they probably really only have somewhere between $50 and $100 billion maybe even less as the remainder is security against the loans.

There was the other point that the holdings are of course in liquid assets, that doesn't mean that it is in cash. As the poster mentioned, if Apple were to cash out on that too quickly, it would hurt a lot of company which Apple likely depends on and therefore hurt Apple. If they could safely make more than a few billion per quarter liquid, it would be a miracle.

In reality, I don't think Apple will have cash flow problems (other than tax loopholes being closed) in the near future. But having $200 billion and being able to access $200 billion are two totally different things.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[kick6]

2: The iPhone 6 SE is pretty much an iPhone 5S. It is smaller, but not really groundbreaking.

But it IS groundbreaking as the first apple phone to get smaller instead of bigger. I, personally, am fucking sick of two-hander phones. I'm actually an apple hater and I think this was actually a good idea. That being said...why does every product brought to market HAVE to be groundbreaking? Why can't they just make a product that people want to buy? Cuz let's be honest...nothing apple does is ever groundbreaking, they just repackage everyone else's ideas and market it better.

Re: Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it came with solid gold Monster cables.

Q. What is the definition of "worse than useless"?
A. Greater than 2k on a laptop.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Saint Fnordius]

There are a few holes that could be poked in your perception, especially since you seem more enamoured of bullet points and appearances. Take for example the Mac/iMac line: Apple's update schedule for the Mac has been coupled to the Intel generation lineup ever since the switch away from PowerPC, and there Apple tends to skip a generation. As Intel has slipped on their schedule and the sales of the Mac are still strong, Apple has decided to wait a little longer. As for the iPhone SE, it may look like a 5S on the outside, but it has the same CPU and camera as the 6S, so you get dinged there as well. And to be honest, I am seeing more iWatches out there than I originally expected, as it does not work properly without an iPhone. It is more or less a fashion accessory that Tim Cook wanted for himself, and so it's made according to his needs. I also think the thing about repairability must be your personal opinion, as the Power Mac lineup used to be the easiest to open and modify, but customers prefer the all in one design of the iMac. Granted, with only the Mac Mini and the Power Mac as standalones to compare, it's not really a fair comparison, but Apple has long since figured out that those who mod or repair their own Macs are a vanishingly small number, they are not even considered any more.

I see Apple today in more or less the same position among computer makers as Daimler is among automobile manufacturers: a premium maker with a good chunk of the middle-high end market.

Re: Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

...but they specifically bought a not-iMac, so the display would be in the mid 20"

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[gadlaw]

I don't know why you would even say that. It's quite successful. I have a number of them and they are the best phone I've ever had. The design is beautiful, functional and useful. I use the phone every single day. It works, always works and is always reliable which is more than I can say for the various other phones I've had before buying iPhones. I'll be getting the watch when it's 2.0 and the very fact that they have a smart watch got me to buy a FitBit Surge for exercise and guess what I found? I found that I like wearing a watch again. I like knowing that I've got a message on my iPhone from it linking to my Surge. All these naysayers who have nothing better to do than to naysay is just curious to me. The only problem that Apple has is that many of it's products work and continue to work turning their products into durable goods instead of something you need to replace every few years. And that's a good problem for consumers. All their products are good, all have their markets, not all sell like the best selling iPhone of all time which nothing sells like that now that more players are in the market. I mean really, haters gotta have something to use that's similar to the iPhone to use.

Re:Apple is in trouble. Big trouble.

[Anonymous Coward]

They're doing an iCar? That's only like five years behind Android Auto!

A qualified like...

[Ron Goodman]

I've been generally happy with mine, and in spite of the couple of times I've become annoyed enough to switch back to the old watch, I've always come back to it after a short time. My biggest beef has been with the pulse monitoring--it's accuracy has been unpredictable enough to make it worthless for me. I don't even bother tracking it in the Health app any more. I'm hoping newer technology in a future model will fix the problem.

Pebble owner here

[Anonymous Coward]

I picked up a Pebble Time (my second Pebble), but with the sale prices on the Apple Watch, I can see myself buying at some point. I'll probably wait for the second model however. I wouldn't want to be without my Pebble, but it isn't always smooth sailing. It loses connection for notifications periodically even though Bluetooth still shows connected. I'm thinking the Apple Watch may be more reliable from that perspective. And even though it isn't "always on" like the Pebble, the Apple Watch display is very nice.

Re:Pebble owner here

[armanox]

Given the lack of interest in the Apple Watch, there may not be a second edition.

I stay away from walled gardens

[Anonymous Coward]

I admit, it's getting harder and harder, but walled gardens are bad.

The last time I owned an iOS device was the ipad2. It was astonishingly limited. Couldn't share the storage on the network, couldn't use anything other than iTunes to load files onto the device, and even then you could only load files into defined buckets that apps create. Couldn't read any file off an sdcard unless it was jpeg. Couldn't upload or download arbitrary files from the internet.

I mean, this is not something that "just works". It doesn't in fact, "just work". It barely works at all. I was able to get some functionality out of it by jail breaking. It's currently running ios7, so maybe these complaints are out dated now? Probably not. I have no idea why I would want to buy a watch, or anything of any brand or functionality, that is locked down and prevents you from doing whatever you want with it.

It's sadly becoming harder to do this.

Re:I stay away from walled gardens

[Anonymous Coward]

Buy Documents from Readdle for $5. I ftp-copy my road-trip files into that app's walled bucket on my iphone, then I use its "open in" to push files into other apps as I want to consume them, or I can airdrop xfer files to my ipad to watch/read them there. Or I can xfer files to a friend's iOS device if they have Documents too. It's not as great as full access to a SDMedia card, but I wouldn't recommend switching to Android just for that.

Niche market

[Gilgaron]

My wife has had workout GPS watches and was very excited for the latest Garmin smartwatch, but found it frustrating in use and featureset. The screen was also not as nice as she was hoping. She ended up exchanging it for the Apple watch and enjoys it. She did look sort of crazy when testing it out, wearing it and her old GPS watch to see how accurate it was and all. She'd been carrying her phone for music anyhow, so that it required a smartphone for full functionality wasn't ideal for all situations but worked for her. The biggest downside is probably battery life: the old style Garmin GPS watches can be forgotten in a drawer for months and still have enough charge to be used for a weeklong camping/hiking trip, whereas she generally charges the Apple watch each evening. The most useful feature for me is that the watch can ping her phone so she no longer needs help finding it every 4 minutes. Unlike younger folks, I actually almost always wear a watch but I've not felt compelled to get a smart watch myself.

Lots of hype, some (but not enough) substance.

[QuietLagoon]

That's my thoughts.

Ugly

[Anonymous Coward]

I own quite a few watches, including some expensive ones, and I'm a Mac person, but I don't own the watch. I think it's ugly.

Re:Ugly

[Anonymous Coward]

Forgot to mention that I own an iPhone, too. Lots of watches, Macs, an iPhone, but not an Apple watch. It's ugly.

I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried one at a store once. It did not find it intuitive. I would swipe on the screen and unexpected things would happen. I would use the dial and unexpected things would happen. It made no sense. But then again, most Millennial/Hipster-"designed" UIs don't make sense to me. I found the watch experience to be a lot like the Slashdot Beta or the GNOME 3 experiences: they check off every box in the hipster trendy-UI-effect-of-the-week checklist, but I couldn't actually use them to do what I wanted to do!

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried one at a store once. It did not find it intuitive. I would swipe on the screen and unexpected things would happen. I would use the dial and unexpected things would happen. It made no sense. But then again, most Millennial/Hipster-"designed" UIs don't make sense to me. I found the watch experience to be a lot like the Slashdot Beta or the GNOME 3 experiences: they check off every box in the hipster trendy-UI-effect-of-the-week checklist, but I couldn't actually use them to do what I wanted to do!

You remind me of my parents who would whine about how hard it was to set up a timed recording on a VCR. Do try to keep up.

(This isn't excusing bad UI design either... there's plenty of that to go around but if you can't figure out how to use the bad UI, that's on you since many/most people who use the products seem to make it work.)

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[__aaclcg7560]

I tried one at a store once. It did not find it intuitive.

At the shopping mall near my home, an Apple Store and Microsoft Store are across from each other. The Apple Store is always busy with many employees helping customers. The Microsoft Store is always empty with a few employees standing around. You might like the Microsoft Store better.

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[Applehu Akbar]

"The Apple Store is always busy with many employees helping customers. The Microsoft Store is always empty with a few employees standing around."

And note that the best Microsoft product, the Surface, costs more than the Apple equivalent.

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[magarity]

The MS store at my local mall is usually has a crowd playing free xbox games on the giant screens.

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[Lumpy]

Completely agree about the interface being a bit wierd. it took watching several videos to figure out how to get to the main menu.. it is absolutely a training required product.

My old Pebble for example pressing the center button ALWAYS brought you to the menu. the apple watch the crown button does different things based on where you are. very confusing to new owners and even apple device users.

Re: I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple doesn't have tablet-style hardware running a full desktop OS, so there is no equivalent.

Re: I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[Anonymous Coward]

People who buy other products have better things to do than hang around a store for the whole day. I always wonder why there's so many people staying in the stores.

There's little turn around, so either it takea forever to buy one or nobody is buying anything.

I, for one, would rather be out hanging with friends where there's drinks and comfortable seats... or making money... or actually buying stuff to show off.

Is it because they ran out of batteries and are using the store to charge? The vast majority of public phone charging stations I see have I devices in them...

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[radarskiy]

Have you ever tried to set a real watch?

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[spire3661]

Apple HAS no equivalent to the Surface........sent from my Surface 3. Ipads are toys, mine currently lives in the bathroom, my Surface is a Workstation.

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[roc97007]

I tried one at a store once. It did not find it intuitive.

At the shopping mall near my home, an Apple Store and Microsoft Store are across from each other. The Apple Store is always busy with many employees helping customers. The Microsoft Store is always empty with a few employees standing around. You might like the Microsoft Store better.

If you're comparing iphones or in fact practically any currently available smartphone with the Windows Phone, then yeah, point taken. At 2.8% the windows phone is pretty much a dead product, only kept afloat by Microsoft cash. The Surface is an overpriced laptop that pretends it's a tablet. No surprise there either. I suspect that Microsoft spends more on product placement than they get in sales.

But we both know that Microsoft isn't the real competition, don't we? It's like saying, yeah, Chrysler sales are down, but look how much better we are than Lada.

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[dkman]

I second this. The interface is not intuitive, though I would argue that for most iDevices. They are really only intuitive once you learn how to use them, or in other words easy to remember how to use.

I got the apple watch for free. I wasn't thrilled to find that it required a connection to an iphone, but I used the opportunity to get a new phone. By contrast the pebble I was wearing will work with android or iphone.

I have the original Pebble Steel, so I'm not speaking for the Pebble Time. I also haven't tried any other android wear.

Apple watch: Pros

• + The speaker phone is cool
• + dictating a text is cool (works like it does from your phone)
• + I prefer the sounds and wrist tap it does to the pebble

Cons

• - the 1 day batter life. (it does have a low power mode that just tells time)
• - not waterproof
• - 350-ish
• - I had to google how to put it into DND mode (do not disturb) [this falls into the "easy once you know how" category]
• - display is not always on (you need to flick your wrist to see the time)
• - the watch fits more comfortably than the original blocky pebble, but the skin sensor doesn't breathe which irritates my skin

Pebble: Pros

• + 1 week batter life (awesome for vacation)
• + display is always on
• + water resistant, so you can swim with it
• + under 150-ish

Cons

• - no heartbeat monitor (tho things like run track record distance over time, etc)
• - I would some times miss a notification due to missing the wrist tap (I don't think it has a speaker)
• - no mic, you can't dictate to/through it

PS: my ULs and LIs are not displaying, nor is my text color, so I'm going to be lazy and adjust minimally.

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[macs4all]

my Surface is a Workstation

For certain, very limited values of "Workstation".

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[macs4all]

The MS store at my local mall is usually has a crowd playing free xbox games on the giant screens.

But does anyone ever buy anything?

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[macs4all]

Completely agree about the interface being a bit wierd. it took watching several videos to figure out how to get to the main menu.. it is absolutely a training required product.

My old Pebble for example pressing the center button ALWAYS brought you to the menu. the apple watch the crown button does different things based on where you are. very confusing to new owners and even apple device users.

Doesn't clicking on the Crown always return you to the Home screen?

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[LostMyBeaver]

Mine has an i7, nVidia Graphics, 16gigs of RAM and a pretty high performance SSD. I'm not sure on what planet that's not a workstation. It's a tablet with better specs than any high end workstation I've ever used. If I need more, I plug it into my 56 Xeon core/768 gig cluster.

It is NOT however a game machine. I can play Final Fantasy XIII at 3000x2000, but the frame rate is the bare minimum before it's playable. I hope they put out a better GPU keyboard for it sooner or later

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[magarity]

Apparently they do. Interesting that MS's cash is triple Appl's but Appl's revenue is triple MS's. From Yahoo finance:

APPL
Revenue (ttm):234.99B
Total Cash (mrq):38.39B

MSFT
Revenue (ttm):88.08B
Total Cash (mrq):102.31B

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[Lumpy]

depends on the app. clicking on the crown in dark skies beings you back to the watchface for example.

clicking the crown should bring you to the home screen no matter what and violently crash whatever app wants it to do. I have always hated that phones in general dont do this, I have had iphone apps freak out and not let the home button go home, and the same on my android phone. if I push that home button I want to go home now, if an app does not release immediately crash it hard.

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[macs4all]

I have had iphone apps freak out and not let the home button go home,

Honestly, I have never seen that on iOS.

I have owned an iPad2 for several years, as well as both an iPhone 4s and 6 Plus, across several versions of iOS and quite a few Apps, and I have never seen the Home button refuse to Suspend whatever App and yank you back to Springboard. I have had my iPhone kind of go "unresponsive" once or twice, to the point that I had to do a soft-reboot; but never have I been just "trapped in an App".

And doing a quick Google search for "iOS home button won't suspend app", I find nothing that is relevant. In fact, the only thing that was even close was an article about "intermittent" home button hardware, which apparently was an occasional issue before the iPhone 5. Could this be what you were actually experiencing?

I know anecdotes are not data; and I don't doubt that an App could be coded so poorly that that could never happen; but I have to wonder on what App(s) and what iOS Version(s) (and I guess what device(s)) have you seen this happen? Not trolling or shilling; just curious.

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[Anonymous Coward]

so you're saying the Microsoft stuff is more intuitive and the sales staff can explain it quicker?

makes sense

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[adolf]

https://www.google.com/search?q=ipad+won%27t+go+home

Re:I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[macs4all]

https://www.google.com/search?q=ipad+won%27t+go+home

Wow!

Boy, you had to dig DEEP for that one!

However, Hater, your attempt is still laughable, for the following reasons:

1. This is OBVIOUSLY a person with an intermittent Home Button in HARDWARE, as referenced by the fact that using the even MORE dependent on SOFTWARE five-finger-pinch GESTURE seemed to FIX their issue.

2. Even though this Apple forum post is from FIVE YEARS AGO, there are ABSOLUTELY ZERO "ME TOO" POSTS IN THE THREAD, further underscoring that this was an extremely rare HARDWARE issue with THIS PARTICULAR IPAD.

But Haters just GOTTA Hate, I guess...

By the way, the iPad 2 that I am typing this on sees about 6 to 10 hours of usage, including MANY ?Home Button-Presses, EVERY SINGLE DAY since I got it several years ago, and I have YET to have the Home Button to even give an INKLING of intermittent behavior. I keep worrying that that may happen someday; but so far, it hasn't.

But in fact, there actually IS a fairly-rare issue with certain iPad Home Buttons becoming intermittent, But again, it ALWAYS appears to be a HARDWARE failure restricted to a particular iPad (despite some voodoo "fixes" reported by a few posters), and NOT the "App won't Suspend" SOFTWARE problem that was originally complained of by the OP.

Re: I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[adolf]

It was the first thing I searched. It was more than a zero result.

Still don't care. Never did.

Re: I couldn't figure out how it worked.

[macs4all]

It was the first thing I searched. It was more than a zero result.

Still don't care. Never did.

Then why waste all of our time with your post?

It's Better than a Fitbit

[Feneric]

It's much better for health apps than a Fitbit. Its running / walking exercise app in particular is really well thought out. Its map app is great for walking, too. Little details like the four steady beats for turning right and the four beats in a heartbeat pattern for turning left really make it stand out. The calendar interface is also decent. Some of the other apps still need more work; I'd like more mail options, for one.

Re:It's Better than a Fitbit

[cloud.pt]

I disagree. There isn't a single feature of my Charge HR I haven't come to appreciate because it wouldn't be matched by features and usability with smartphone interaction. I can't say the same for an iWatch - every feature the Charge HR does'nt match the iWatch, I would rather do on the smartphone or even a PC. And that's the potential value of a wrist wearable, and indirectly the iWatch problem. When you take the toll of "wearing" something, you have to extract the pros of its usability versus the con of actually wearing it, charging it, and buying it. That's one of the reasons Google Glass failed, and it's one of the reasons augmented/VR will take time gaining traction (as I do see a lot of the potential value I'm talking about in things like Occulus or Microsoft Hololens).

I share some thoughts on why the Charge HR makes so much sense to me as opposed to an iWatch on another comment.

"It's just 'meh'"

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it doesn't even rate THAT.

Its dead jim

[Revek]

I saw some of them around and the last time I asked someone about theirs they all told me the same thing. It doesn't really work as well as a phone. It has poor desktop real estate and what they really need at a minimum is a phone/phablet.

This was clearly not written by a Mac fan...

[NicBenjamin]

They've had quite a few products that were total market failures. I loved my Newton, especially the 130 with that cool backlight, I wanted a Pippin (console collaboration with Bandai), the original Apple TV (an all-in-one-Perfiorma with a black case and a TV Tuner card), etc. were complete failures in the market. Even in the Jobs era the new Apple TV was described by Cook as a "hobby" rather then a product. The G4 cube was incredibly cool-looking, but also more then a bit useless.

I'm sure they'd prefer to sell out of Watches in 10 minutes like they do new iPhone models, but they always take design/tech risks and those don't always pan out. In this case the tech seems to be fine, the problem is the tech is not terribly useful because nobody's figured out a way to design the tech in such a way you can actually take advantage of it.

Re:This was clearly not written by a Mac fan...

[wvmarle]

No Mac fan either, but TFS added "in the pas 15 years". Too lazy to look up the release dates of the products you mention but I think they're mostly if not all pre-iPod, which was the first in a long range of commercial successes for Apple.

Re:This was clearly not written by a Mac fan...

[NicBenjamin]

AppleTV's 2007. The G4 Cube was 15 years, 10 months ago in June 2000, and the Summary says "15 years or so."

As for the iPod, the kind of category-defining success you're talking about when you bring that up is quite rare even for them. Most of their product launches since then have been updates to existing product lines (ie: the MacBook Air is a new Mac laptop, not a totally new category of device). They're 2 for four in true-category-dxefining hardware. iPad and iPhone vs. Apple TV and Apple Watch. It's one of those things where people remember the hits, remember that when they update a hit it tends to go really well, and totally forget the failures

Nothing says "I'm a gay twat"

[Chrisq]

... like an apple watch

Re:Nothing says "I'm a gay twat"

[dave420]

So you think only gay people like shiny watches? Is that it? Or is your sense of humour so flawed you need to stoop to obvious inaccuracies and prejudices in order to make tired, unfunny Bernard Manning-esque jokes? What's next - jokes about "spastics"?

You are not painting a particularly noble picture of yourself with your xenophobia and homophobia.

Re:Nothing says "I'm a gay twat"

[Chrisq]

The point was that owning an apple watch did not necessarily enhance the perception of the wearer. Admitedley the humour was not that funny.

Re:Nothing says "I'm a gay twat"

[Anonymous Coward]

Spastic in the US is shortened to 'spaz' and means 'nerd', as in news for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic

Re:Nothing says "I'm a gay twat"

[Anonymous Coward]

You might be overinterpreting his post. Perhaps he really just said that Apple watches make you look like a gay twat, whether you're gay or not. If you're into that look, go for it and buy one!

Re:Nothing says "I'm a gay twat"

[Anonymous Coward]

So you think only gay people like shiny watches? Is that it? Or is your sense of humour so flawed you need to stoop to obvious inaccuracies and prejudices in order to make tired, unfunny Bernard Manning-esque jokes? What's next - jokes about "spastics"?

You are not painting a particularly noble picture of yourself with your xenophobia and homophobia.

Pretty prejudice post towards xenophobic and homophobic people don't you think? Thought your tact here was implying acceptance towards everybody, isn't that the stance of you SJW's?

Re:Nothing says "I'm a gay twat"

[stealth_finger]

Spastic in the US is shortened to 'spaz' and means 'nerd', as in news for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic

Spastic in the UK is someone of severe mental retardation, so yeah, apple fans.

Only works halfway

[cerberusss]

As a first-gen product, I figured I'd wait for a revision.

I think I was right. Colleagues got one but mention that lots of functions don't always just work. Examples they give, are: notifications come in very late, 30 minutes to several hours later. When you check the time, the watch usually wakes up but not always (it only wakes up 100% of the time when you make a sort of shake or special move). And they mention slowness: even the default apps appear sluggish. For lots of 3rd party apps, it's so slow that it's usually quicker to get your phone.

Re:Only works halfway

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm also waiting for the next version. I have separate iPhone apps that monitor my heartrate (cheststrap required), snoring, sleep quality, walking steps and running distance. I want my watch 2.0 battery to last over a day so it can monitor my health and all those activities continuously with the data in one place.

Obsolescence

[helveticious]

My wrist watch that I wear everyday is 6 years old. I have older ones that I wear occasionally and they function well. With Apple Watch, Apple is pushing obsolescence to the world of watches. An upgrade cycle to watches? No thanks.

My *thought*?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just allowed one? Ok...

"sucks"

Is that one thought?

My thoughts

[Anonymous Coward]

My previous watch was a Traser, purchased at a similar price point as the (very slightly used) Apple Watch Sport I currently have.
Pros (Traser):
~3 years battery time
Relatively unobtrusive "always on" light (H3 capsules)

Pros (Apple Watch):
Silent notifications that I never miss - even when I forget the phone in the other end of my house.
Never having to set the time (even a good Quartz watch will eventually go out of sync with the real world).
Activity rings (even after several months of ownership I still move a lot more than I did before, and I get regular reminders that keep this behavior up. My changed moving behavior has in turn affected my eating behavior so I'm down 5 kg compared to before getting the watch (I wasn't spectacularly fat to begin with, but now I'm getting lean)).
I can control my most used media players from my wrist.
Not having to surreptitiously fish my phone out of the pocket in the store to check my shopping list.

Both watches can be rinsed in water but shouldn't be subjected to diving or fast pressure changes (I have an old Casio beater for that).
I have never had less than 40% battery left when I put my watch on the charger for the night - battery time was what I was most afraid of before I purchased the watch, but that hasn't been an issue at all.

To be honest I don't use many apps on the phone, and no third-party apps at all on my Watch, but for what I have it do for me, it has been great. What I most like about it isn't that it changes anything radically, but rather that it makes a few very common tasks a little more convenient.

The only thing I'll do differently the next time around is that I'll go for the stainless steel/sapphire glass version to get a more resilient case, since I wear the watch at pretty much all times when awake.

Not a necessary device

[ITRambo]

With daily charging required, the Apple watch is impracticable for many people. If a charge lasted as least one week, I believe there would be more takers.

Re:Not a necessary device

[doconnor]

Wouldn't daily charging be better the weekly charging. With daily charging you just put it in a charger every night when you take it off to go to sleep. With weekly charging you would have to remember once a week it is time to charge it and half the time you would forget and it would die on you.

Ideally it should be daily or never (like my old digital watch with a solar panel).

Re:Not a necessary device

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't daily charging be better the weekly charging. With daily charging you just put it in a charger every night when you take it off to go to sleep. With weekly charging you would have to remember once a week it is time to charge it and half the time you would forget and it would die on you.

Ideally it should be daily or never (like my old digital watch with a solar panel).

So why not just set a weekly alarm to remind you?

Re:Not a necessary device

[farble1670]

Because alarms don't work when the battery is dead?

Re:Not a necessary device

[Anonymous Coward]

There's nothing stopping you from taking a watch off each night to top up. A device that lasts a week lets you go away for a weekend without worrying about bringing a charger, which is the biggest problem with these for me. I want to be able to skip a night or two without suddenly having a useless hunk of metal on my wrist.

Re:Not a necessary device

[Anonymous Coward]

It won't be, if you set it to remind you not to let the battery go dead. But then again, I guess there's no accounting for complete stupidity, huh?

Re:Not a necessary device

[farble1670]

What if it goes off when you are unable top charge your phone?

Re:Not a necessary device

[q4Fry]

Or the watch could work out when it was going to run out in the next 24 hours and encourage you to plug it in at your convenience. The Pebble's notification is "Charged until tonight."

Re:Lack of sales figures hinders investment in app

[PopeRatzo]

So... Apple Watch is in the same league as game pads for smartphones?

Actually it's in the same league as a pocket protector and holster for your PDA.

Why strap stuff to your body?

[famebait]

Ok, so the wristwatch was more practical than the pocket watch in its time. But once I realized I carried my time-telling phone at all times anyway, I was relieved to ditch the damn steampunk contrivance, and never looked back.

When a smartwatch can fully replace the smartphone (probably combination with ambient computing) it might stand a decent chance in the market. By then they will probably have solved the bulkyness as well.
But until then, smartwatches will remain a niche product, because for most people they simply don't add enough extra value compared to the phone you will still have.

And my bet is it will take a good while still to come up with something to compete in value with decent screen space for the way most people (will) use their portable smarts. Looking forward to see what it looks like, though.

I have a watch...

[Simon Brooke]

... which was about as expensive twenty years ago, when I bought it, as an Apple Watch is now.

Every four years, it needs its battery changed. And that's all.

'Smart' watches are a bit like DAB radio, or, in their day, WAP phones. They're not horrendously expensive, but the user experience is just so much worse than the technology it replaces that no-one's going to buy it. I don't want to take my watch off and recharge it every night. And there is no 'killer app' that I've seen so far that is better on a wrist display than on your phone.

The Pebble, with its low energy monochrome display, is probably a better device than the Apple, but all this generation of 'smart' watches are bulky, ugly, made of non-premium materials, and will have short life; and they're competing on price against beautifully made precision mechanical watches which do the primary job (time keeping) equally well but are built to last a lifetime and require very infrequent attention.

There may be better fourth or fifth generation smart watches in about five years time which compete on quality and charge duration; there may, one day, be a killer app. But at present I see no compelling reason to buy.

No reason to buy one

[Anonymous Coward]

I could never find a reason to buy one. Too expensive for redundant functions of my iPhone on a smaller screen. Besides, I stop wearing a watch years ago. I doubt I would ever buy a watch of any kind.

A watch that forget it's main use, being a watch?

[Eloking]

I'm a tech enthusiast.

I got a gaming PC with two screen, LG G3 cellphone (for 200 bucks on the second hand market from a mom whose son wanted a iPhone, best value for money imo), a roku, a Nest thermostat and a lot of tech stuff, you get the picture.

Still, I couldn't smell any of those Smartwatch because of a simple point, it fail at what it's supposed to be : "a watch".

I mean, a watch that you need to "wake up" to see the time? Something that you need to plug in every night? And worst, something that look like a gadget and shout "Look at me, I'm a nerds"? No thanks.

Still, my GF, thinking I wanted one, bought me a smartwatch for my anniversary I never heard of, a Pebble Steel. And I must say, she got it right.

Still, it's not perfect. It lack all of the little sensor the competition have and the black & white low resolution make most watchfaces look bad, but it's probably the only "SmartWatch" I won't mind taking to an interview in a suit.

For now it does the job, but call me back when they make a good looking watch that stay open all the time and doesn't need to be connected on a USB port every night (Yeah, unless there's a major improvement in OLED screen energy use, it won't be anytime.soon).

Original iPad?

[ashpool7]

Super insecure running iOS 5 vs current 9.

iPad pro is pretty great with the the pencil.

Re:Lack of sales figures hinders investment in app

[AmiMoJo]

The lack of apps is because of the battery. Battery life was disappointing when it launched, and poor quality apps could easily make it far worse. So Apple decided to severely restrict what apps could do and then vet them more carefully and iOS ones.

Re:Lack of sales figures hinders investment in app

[serviscope_minor]

Actually it's in the same league as a pocket protector and holster for your PDA.

Actually actually it's in the same league as a pocket protector and holster for your PDA while socks+sandals and a bumbag[*].

[*] I still can't get over that Americans call it a fanny pack.

What's my thought on it?

[Chas]

Frankly, I haven't. I concluded that it was pointless junk, and haven't given it a second thought since.

Re:What's my thought on it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny,
  the rest of us on Slashdot have the same opinion of you as well.

Re:What's my thought on it?

[Chas]

Oh noez! An AC trolled me! How EVER will I live with myself!

*SNORE*

My feedback on this experiment

[ripvlan]

I've had the watch several months - since the fall of 2015. So far - I'm not sure I need it. My calculation also includes cost and features of competing devices - including plain old watches. I keep telling myself "I'm first - this is an experiment - watch and learn - maybe it will be something cool." Short version - cool concept but not worth the money. Poor battery, poor apps, poor interface mode.

What I do like - having notifications and information right on my arm without needing to pull my (ever increasingly large) phone out of my pocket (and soon probably a napsack). Being able to quickly be alerted or acknowledge a text is nice. Monitoring my health activity (have I exercised this week?) is a nice nag. And I'll admit the Dick Tracy phone call on the arm has been unexpectedly useful. Bending your arm and taking 2 second to decided if the alert requires action is fabulous "we're waiting in lobby upstairs" - great. "reminder to pay bill (tonight)" oh thanks - almost forgot, "Twitter says multiple people retweeted same photo" - yeah Ignore.

Siri on the arm has been less than useful. Usually goes, "okay Siri ...okay Siri...OKAY Siri" (nothing)... ohh oops It's "Hey Siri" (sorry Dave - I'm not available right now). Most become "Please unlock and continue operation on iPhone." Apps on the watch are lame (and can't use Siri) - most are just extensions of the notification bar. "new podcast available" -- so what!? Twitter is lame because they notify you that "a friend liked a post" -- also ...who cares?! The arm is becoming a noise source. I'd like higher signal. I find myself uninstalling apps or turning off notifications. Even a pizza company has an app - but it doesn't show Progress. Just silly text - but the website has a progress tracker (Order recvs, making item, in oven, out for delivery). That would be a cool watch app (we order pizza for the baby sitter when we decide to stay out later). I think most are lame because the available UI is limited.

Imagine having the iOS Notification bar on your arm. Like many of you, I've turned off most notifications because there is always a notification somewhere on this planet being routed to my phone (ding - Notification that a notification is available). But the default mode of the watch and most apps are no better - if anything more noise and less signal. Google Inbox uses many characters to show message date/time/from/subject which leaves little space for the actual email. I was at the museum with friends and we'd all text "we're at the fish tank, heading to dinosaurs" and I could simply look at my arm -- Yup, got it!! Headed that way now. Didn't need to press buttons. Just done. got it. move on.

Which brings me back to...WTF is this thing supposed to do? Tell me the time? $30 Timex does that. What else? Text messages - yeah that's cool. Health monitor ? okay but can't swim with the watch ($30 Timex is water resistant to 10atm). Rubber Band on the basic sport model stinks - only $200 to replace it with a metal one. Bands for the $30 Timex cost ~$20. Can't wear it to the beach. So it isn't a watch replacement. Okay - Not a Watch.

Plus having battery charge anxiety at the end of the day. $30 Timex is still using the same battery it came with 6 years ago.

So why am I paying $400 for a device that can't replace a $30 Timex? $400 buys a very nice plain old watch - Solar powered, dive watch, deflects bullets. Seriously - if a high end watch company came out with a watch that showed text messages it would put an end to Apple Watch.

If it cost under $100 my ROI would be justified. A useful toy. I fear this may be another Newton.

Re:My feedback on this experiment

[swb]

A sound analysis. We just spent vacation with two couples with Apple watches and I never saw them glancing at their watches for info.

I've owned three watches since 1985. A Timex that I wore (still own, but don't wear) for 22 years until my wife bought me a Tag chronograph for my 40th birthday and a Seiko solar chronograph I bought when I had to have the Tag bracelet replaced due to link pins breaking and couldn't stand to go without a watch.

I don't think the Timex battery was replaced more than 4 times in its life, the Tag never needs a battery, just wearing (self-winding) and the Seiko basically needs either wearing or some nominal exposure to light (I keep it out on my dresser, and it doesn't seem to lose time or indicate low power).

I can't even begin to deal with the idea of charge anxiety on a smart watch. And I only take my watch off for sex and at the airport, which isn't very often (see: over 40, married), so taking it off every night is not in the cards, either.

And all of the watches I've owned are waterproof way below any submersion I'm likely to experience (the Seiko says 10 bar, I think the Tag is at least that), so I can wear them swimming and boating in the summer without thinking about it.

Re:My feedback on this experiment

[ripvlan]

Obviously the Apple Watch is not "just a watch" - for instance Apple Pay is a cool extra. If the battery lasted "days" rather than "hours" it might be more useful and I'd be more kind in my review.

Our child was hospitalized recently and I spent the night on a cot in my clothes - wearing the watch (came as I was). Due to my movements the watch screen would wake and thus in "low power" mode by morning. I also wore it to dinner once and the act of raising my arms to pass a dish or cut food killed the battery - couldn't believe the red low-battery warning as I walked to the parking garage. Really?!

So.. it is jewelry for a specific action and you remove it when finished? Wearing a regular watch for those other times? For $400?!?!? I could buy a health band for a lot less + my Timex.

As for sex - my wife said I couldn't use the health heart rate tracking feature ;-)

The what?

[OakDragon]

Honestly, have not heard much about it lately!

I'm happy with...

[ender-]

What I think is that I'm pretty happy with my LG Watch Urbane.

High-end biotracker: Very useful. Todays smart wri

[Qbertino]

I get that a wrist-computer with connection to your pocket computer with connection to the intarwebs can be a total gamechanger - especially as a health-tracker, if it has the approriate sensors on board that fit your health-condition.

However, as far as watches go, I don't see the point of smartwatches these days. They are decades behind regular electronic watches. If I would need a watch, I'd buy one of those. For instance: For little more than 100 Euros you can get a Casio G-Shock that is solar powered, runs endlessly, has a global atomic time clock receiver, can survive a drop from any height, is watertight to any depth a normal human can dive, is operatable with gloves and will run in conditions hot, cold, wet or dirty where Apples watch would long be reduced to a useless hunk of metal on you wrist.

Like many other geeks I don't wear a wristwatch these days - I have my smartphone on or near me 24/7.

The only reason for me to wear a wristwatch would be in situations where I *don't* have a power outlet and my smartphone would be useless - such as when climbing, hiking, diving, surfing or paragliding or being on my way in other extreme conditions. Until a smartwatch exists that matches all of the traits for the Casio G-Shock described above I don't see me getting one. I simply don't have a usecase for it now. That might change, but my main issue remains: Usecases for smartwatches are quite narrow with todays state of technology.

Various watches

[Ken Hall]

No Apple watch, I could never justify the cost.

The best watch I ever had was a Casio Wave-ceptor. It cost about $100, was solar powered, and got its time from radio signals. It never needed a battery (till it finally died), never needed setting. Unfortunately, it had this really cheap metal band that actually wore through in spots, and because it was specific to the watch, couldn't be replaced. I've still got it, it works after a fashion, but the little capacitor/battery finally needed replacing and the little buttons are all gummed up, so it's basically useless.

For quite a few years I did without a watch, I used my PDA and later my smartphone. A little over a year ago, I got an LG Android watch as a gift. I wouldn't have bought one, but I do like it. I can see my alerts while I'm driving or sitting at a restaurant without having to risk pulling out my phone when it bings/buzzes. My two sons were impressed enough with it they bought the Motorola version of the Android watch, which I actually like a bit better.

I've also got a Fitbit Flex, and that's where the conflict comes in. I LIKE the Fitbit for the exercise and sleep functions much better than the app that comes with the Android watch (and the LG watch isn't good for sleep monitoring since it needs daily charging), so I'd really rather have something like a Surge HR, but two watches? I can't wear any more stupid gadgets on my wrists, I look ridiculous enough as it is. You should see me when I go to Disney and also have to wear that Magicband. When did my wrist become valuable property?

The thing that ticks me off most about the Apple watch - and Apple in general - is that they get "credit" for developing applications and devices that were on the market for years before theirs came out. Apple watch? LG had the Android one at least a year before Apple did, but when people see my LG watch they always ask "Oh, is that an Apple watch?" I've seen plenty of Android watches around, but only one or two Apple watches. No matter, that's what people know about. Apple Pay? Google Wallet, and "Isis" ("Softcard") were out long before Apple Pay, but who got the fanfare?

Re:Lack of sales figures hinders investment in app

[PopeRatzo]

I still can't get over that Americans call it a fanny pack.

Ah, the fanny pack. Even The Rock himself says that when he wore one, it made him look like a "butch lesbian lunchroom lady".

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs...

Mine is just "okay"

[Noxal]

Got the cheap one at launch. It's been neat and for a limited number of things it's been handy but it really hasn't revolutionized my life or anything. I'm really really glad I didn't buy one of the more expensive ones.

I like mine

[TomGreenhaw]

I've been wearing mine every day for 11 months and I like it. IMHO, if you don't wear one its hard to understand its utility. Other than aesthetics, resist the urge to criticize it if you don't have personal experience. Its one of the better "version 1" tech products I've tried. That said, it certainly not for everyone and there is a hell of a lot of room for improvement.

Pros:
It has encouraged me to be more active
It has had a dramatic impact on using reminders - I rarely forget to do things on time now
I never miss notifications for a wide variety of things and I have not had an audible phone ring since I started wearing the watch.
I routinely use Siri to set reminders and timers. Voice recognition is clearly the UI of choice for wearables.
I really like using Apple Pay with merchants that accept it
I'm crazy about the iGrill wireless temperature probe and the ability to see the food cooking status while I'm busy doing other things.
Having the GPS Nav reminders on my wrist has been unexpectedly handy

Cons:
It is fragile. If you drop it it breaks. I had to put an ugly case on it. The protruding rounded glass is a bad idea. No other conventional watch is made that way for a reason. You have to add the cost of Apple care into the watch because you'd be crazy not to have it
The responsiveness, especially for voice recognition has gotten worse with every software upgrade.
The heart rate monitor does not work very well. I have a normal wrist.
The battery life barely lasts a day especially if you are very active; you cannot wear it overnight to monitor your sleep because you have to charge it.

Observations:
The Apple watch is screaming for upgraded hardware.
I wish Apple concentrated on the "movement" part of the watch and let third parties make boatloads of user installable cases and bands
It needs a small white light to use as a handy always available flashlight
It takes too long to charge. If it could fully charge in 30 minutes, I could wear it overnight and charge it while getting dressed.
It needs a way for developers to add data that can be shown with a glance on the standard watch faces. I hate having to fiddle with the watch to get basic data from an app. E.g. I wish the grill temperature could be shown with a glance instead of navigating to the app on the watch.
It needs to select apps to be actively shown based upon what I'm doing. E.g. if it sees my heart rate is up, show the workout tracker by default.
I'd like to configure different haptic feedback notifications for events
I'd like to associate certain wrist motions to trigger programs; e.g. a double wrist rotation to turn on/off the flashlight.
Its too iPhone centric. There should be an industry standard wearable API

Re: Lack of sales figures hinders investment in ap

[anegg]

The word "fanny" in the US means the same thing as "bum" in your country; it has nowhere the meaning of the word "fanny" in your country. (I learned this whilst puzzling out the commentary in British men's magazines a number of years back. It's interesting how such a big difference in meanings for the same word in two closely related languages can arise.)

I love the Apple Watch

[Anonymous Coward]

When I first got it a gift I was unsure about the features. But now using it for a few months, I love it as it is an enhancement for the iPhone. Example: It's great when out for dinner, as you're not always looking at your phone. Messages come in you simply turn your wrist to check or disregard such message. Pros: less checking my iPhone, fitness tracker, messages, apps at a glance. Cons: time travel button is annoying, looking at full emails are either to small or don't display properly.

Re: I love the Apple Watch

[Anonymous Coward]

Also I'm not sure what people are complaining about with the battery life as it last 2 days for me. Charging at night then ready to go in the morning.

Re: I love the Apple Watch

[neminem]

I'd complain about the battery life. My dumb watch battery lasts about 2 *years* on a charge. I already have too many things I have to think about charging; I don't want another one. When you can get me a smart watch that lasts 2 years on a charge, I'll think about getting one.

Re: I love the Apple Watch

[Anonymous Coward]

The next Apple Watch update will make the battery life last 2 years.

Re: I love the Apple Watch

[farble1670]

And, did you know, I've NEVER had to put gas in my bicycle?

love my apple watch

[Anonymous Coward]

i got mine as soon as i could, wear it daily and it is more useful than what i had imagined, its great to get notifications and be able to reply to,them with a tap, declining phone calls can be done discreetly with a turn of the wrist and a tap on the watch face. seeing email headers as they come thru is great as well as instant messages. i can make my iphone easily last two if not three days by having the watch screen my calls, texts, etc... thanks apple
those that have not used one cant imagine what it is like.

Need or want?

[goombah99]

At the moment the apple watch is a cool toy but in the future it will be more. For now if I wanted to be more info stimulation I'd certainly strap on this Digital Ben Wa Ball. Each ping, boop, or glance triggering a dopamine release.

But in the future some time there's going to be a tonne of uses for this. If my house becomes an internet of things then I don't want to fish in my pocket for my phone or talk out loud like a street corner preacher to my google glass. I want a device that instantly accessible and no bigger than it needs to be. IoT devices that need frequent adjustment aren't going to need much of an interface (heat up/down Lights on/dim/off, garage door open). But to be useful high access is needed. Sometimes voice willl be the right mode but not all the time so you need something you can bring with in ear shot, not a stationary Amazon echo. When I'm walking to my garage I want to say "SIri, open the garage door". Or as I'm driving around the corner "Siri, did the garage door successfully close? is any appliance left on".

In five or so years ubiquitous medical monitoring data will start to become useful to understand what normal metabolic and heart activity is, and to detect long term trends. Right now were just getting started on the data collection part. We've never had a way to do this at population sclaes before, so it's terra incognita.

  As more and more things become digitally secured, (doors, payments, cars, elevators) and we even start to lose human interfaces like waiters, newpaper stands, baristras having a fast access to our keys and authorizations will matter more. And a device that can have some biometric locking to the owner is going to become an increasingly useful (finger print scanner, voice print, heart beat, or quick doodle on the screen).

You are going to need one of these eventually. At the moment they are just a fashion statement and an amusing digeratti toy.

If you are old enough you will remember that home computers were for hobbiests when they started. They were not useful.

Re:Need or want?

[Anonymous Coward]

You really shouldn't allow your house to become an Internet of things. This is really meant as a good piece of advice, I'm not trying to annoy you in any way. Just don't allow it to happen, don't buy devices with network connection unless that is their primary function. You'd regret it.

Re:Need or want?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a heart condition involving occasional arrythmias where the ticker goes to 180 for a while. Wearing a heart monitor on my wrist that I can keep an eye on has been (literally) a life saver. I wear a fitbit, not an Apple watch but it is good to keep an eye on things.

I know it is not a medical device, but it is good enough to be a tripwire.

Some FYI people

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking as a former marketer this pseudo article is a clear attempt at what many here call a slashvertisement that marketers now thing is cleverly disguised as legitimate news.

Yes, Apple is in trouble with botched OS releases and the smartphone market saturated. In other words, you're all being probed. Yes. they have MANY proxy driven sock puppet fake accounts here to further their own agendas at your expense. All to try squelch anyone or anything that doesn't fit it.

This goes for the owners on most forums who view you all as cattle that work in collusion with them.

If anybody has posts that the rather dimwitted marketers can't prove wrong then the gay marrigage or lgbt fluff posts come on fast to bury them down the page and on each page this occurs on. Seriously. On a tech site like this, does that garbage belong here? I say no.

Then topmost posts that are garbage begin to forums slide bury those posts they can't get the better of. The ad hominem attacks on the messenger begin instead of technically attacking the message to show it completely faulty and most aren't at all, and so do downmods begin on those posts too. The mechanics are always the same and even when they've been caught doing it time and again, it continues. Honesty? What's that (when you have a shit product)?? Try it sometime. Try building a better product instead. That type of idea is foreign to a trade filled with lying useless scum is why.

Be aware that the legit posters here are victims to this type of mindgame that the pseudo science of marketing uses that is heavily sociologically and psychologically based to get you to part ways with your monies for products that already have better versions in the works to get you to spend more later also.

You do not get the best they have in other words. Carrots for ignorant donkeys keeping you chasing them.

Yes, this technique is now being used on forums regularly and the rest of what I noted has been for decades. Hilarious. Example being is "get a little captain in you" and we'll get your cash out of you, slowly destroying you. No, you won't have to those girls or the cars it shows you will have. It will take it all. Painfully.

Prepare for this post exposing it to be down moderated quickly first, and then tons of trolling off topic posts to be posted above it to bury this, almost guaranteed. The last thing these schmucks want is to be exposed in how they exploit your sensibilities and wants. All to sell you things you do not need so you can "keep up with the joneses" and "hop on the bandwagon" and be a stupid little fool they take your monies from for their own benefit telling you 1/2 truths and outright lies to do so.

Good for blind / low vision

[Anonymous Coward]

Due to the Haptic Engine on the Watch, people who are blind/low vision can use it for GPS navigation, such as walking on city streets. The watch gives them a certain "tap" on the wrist that lets them know which way to go. This becomes much safer for the individual, because they are not holding their phone in their hand (at least one hand is already taken up with cane/guide dog, and an iPhone in a hand is an easy theft target, especially for someone who is blind). While they can always wear earbuds or earphones for directions (turn left, etc.) and have the phone in a pocket, having things on/in the ears is not good in an urban environment because it blocks out sound information that could be lifesaving. For this community, at least, it is a resounding success.

Not ready

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think the tech is there yet for Apple's design.

Fully disclosure, I'm a Pebble user and I'm picky about battery life. And I have to say: My watch doesn't really have satisfactory battery life (5 days), but it's good enough that I can live with it.

A 1 or 2 day battery means that every weekend trip means I have to bring a watch charger. On a typical weekend trip I can get by without even a phone charger, so I sure don't want to bring a watch charger.

What is similar between what I have and what Apple has is notifications. And it's wonderful. I used to be the guy that never answered calls, because I didn't know I was getting them. Now I'm the guy who always answers. That's really nice. It's not a big change in my life, it just lets me be a bit nicer to my friends and family. But you can accomplish this with something like a fitbit.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

6 Months...

[mchall]

...is how long I've had my Apple watch. I haven't found battery life to be a problem if I'm not obsessively playing with it. Popping it onto a charging stand at night renders it good to go again in the morning. The only drawback is that if I'm charging it at night I can't use it for sleep monitoring if I were so inclined. As a timepiece it has a lot of nice customizable display options that consolidate data that I would normally go to several apps in my phone to access (i.e. weather, calendar, etc.). Health monitoring is probably the most useful feature on the device. If you're a hard core athlete you'll probably want a dedicated heart rate monitor/chronometer like the ones Polar puts out, but for the casual gym rat the Apple Watch is fine. It does a good job of tracking trends and helping the user form consistent workout habits. Others have noted that there is no killer app yet for this platform. I agree. If I forget the watch at home it doesn't set my whole day back. The functionality is largely duplicated on my iPhone with a lot more screen space. The screen size is too small for any halfway decent game. It's nice to be able to look at email, IM, sport scores, and other notifications at a glance, but I can do that on my phone as well. It's still early days, so hopefully some bright programmer will come up with something outside the box that makes this a worthwhile purchase. If you're looking for a good watch then invest in a nice mechanical timepiece instead where battery life won't be an issue and it won't be an obsolete chunk of tech in a few years. If you're looking to tinker around on the edge of tech and are not worried about longevity then pick one of these up and kick the tires. Maybe you'll find a feature that suits your style.

opinion based on actually having one

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it a useful adjunct to my iPhone.

Convenient time, schedule reminders, fitness monitor, message monitor, message scanner and (as appropriate) input for short responses (canned or voice enabled), convenient voice call output and input, map direction adjunct (love the wrist tap accompanying directions from Google maps on my iPhone. Easily lasts as long as the phone (eg, needs nightly charging)

Cheap at the price

Reactions to my LG Urbane

[joelsherrill]

I have had an LG Urbane for almost a year. It was a gift from my wife and kids for my birthday. I don't think I ever would have purchased a smart watch on my own but I have really enjoyed it. I have a lot on my work schedule and the notifications are very handy. The directions on my wrist are appreciated especially when walking so I don't have to stare at my phone and look lost. I find it handy to leave my phone on my desk and not have to carry it to get notifications. In general, as someone else said, the extra source of notifications is very useful. There are other applications but personally I didn't invest much effort after I realized I couldn't reliably press the tiny buttons on the calculator applications.

When other people see it light up for a notification, I often get the "is it an iWatch" question. I politely explain that Apple isn't the only company that makes smart watches. The LG Urbane is a round faced watch which actually looks like a nice men's watch. It isn't gimmicky looking. It feels comparable in weight to the Seiko Titanium watch it replaced. It will last about 36 hours on a charge for me but I charge it every night. I show them the features and they usually come away impressed.

If you want a status symbol or expect a magical capability, then you will be disappointed. At Apple prices, a smart watch is a very questionable purchase. But the feature/price ratio is better on the Android side. Plus you have more choice on style.

Re:Reactions to my LG Urbane

[farble1670]

If you want a status symbol or expect a magical capability, then you will be disappointed.

^^^

That's exactly the problem. Reset your expectations and you'll probably enjoy a smartwatch. Primarily it's a watch (with custom faces, which makes it more interesting). It can show you notifications. It has a very few useful apps (mainly because of the screen size).

Re:Lack of sales figures hinders investment in app

[bheerssen]

To my American ears, a bumbag sounds like a sack you stash a homeless person in.

Slashdot Asks is the wrong place for this

[Schnapple]

Besides the on-again, off-again Apple hate on Slashdot, there's the fact that most geeks don't want a watch at all. Like, not even a "geeky" watch, which is why Android Wear devices don't sell. It's why even when Samsung beat Apple to market on the watch, with a cheaper device, they still got their asses handed to them on sales. Apple won't reveal numbers of course but it's rumored they've sold 10-12 million Apple Watches, 2M on the first weekend alone

There's also the very odd fit between gadget prices and watch prices. Since the watch fell out of favor with geeks over the years and mostly became known as a fashion accessory (another thing the Slashdot crowd probably doesn't care about), people complained about the $350 starting price. In the watch community, however, $350 won't even buy you a very good watch. I mean yeah you can get a digital watch at Walmart for $10 but something that actually looks good? The sky is literally the limit. It's like sunglasses - you can get them for $5 at a gas station, or even free at promotional events, but there's entire chains of stores like Sunglass Hut that sell sunglasses that go for hundreds of dollars. Once you discover the world of Horology blogs (study of watches/timekeeping) like Hodinkee, the rabbit hole goes very deep. There's blogs just analyzing the watches shown in movies and TV shows. There's blogs that just focus on the watches shown in the James Bond movies.

And lest we forget the "no wireless. less space than a nomad. lame" story when the iPod was released. Go far enough back and you'll find stories decrying smart phones. Or tablets. Or any number of things we've decided are vital now.

That all said, it's not that opinions here aren't valid, but comments on stories like this are bound to be filled with quips that are going to look embarrassingly luddite in a few years. It's like looking back on when Steam was announced and everyone here said they would never play HL2 until it didn't require Steam. There's still people on here who avoid Steam but it's like finding someone who still thinks we didn't land on the moon.

Re:Lack of sales figures hinders investment in app

[tobiasly]

Apart from the bad grammar here, I wonder if the lack of apps is because Apple hasn't released sales figures. If a developer doesn't know the size of the market, the developer can't calculate how many people might try an app and thus can't estimate return on investment.

If Watch apps had been a good ROI, the early adopter devs would have made more apps and word would have spread. They don't need Apple to tell them how well their apps are doing or how much they're being used.

Another slashvertisement? Really?

[TheMadTopher]

*sigh*

Ahead of its time

[Schnapple]

Apple is good at releasing things a little ahead of their time. You may think that sounds like a "just too awesome" humblebrag but hear me out.

When Apple announced the iPhone people thought they were crazy. The cell phone market was saturated. Apple at the time was a second string computer company with a successful MP3 player. People figured they were in no way going to be able to compete. And a lot of the initial success of the phone was attributed to marketing and the cult-like status of Apple devotees.

As we all know the iPhone goes on to be the single most successful consumer electronics product in history.

However when you go back and look back at iPhone 1.0, it's actually a pretty tepid product compared to what we have today. It didn't have 3G, it couldn't run apps other than what it came with, it needed an adapter to use most headphones, I'm not sure if it even had GPS. When asked about the lack of 3G, Jobs said "well you're probably always near Wi-Fi", when asked about the lack of apps Jobs said "just write web apps", even calling it a "sweet solution". The iPhone 3G, a year later, fixed all these issues. The original iPhone sold about a million units in its first year, the iPhone 3G sold about 14M units.

So why come out with the iPhone at all? First mover advantage. Yes everyone had a cell phone but almost nobody had a smart phone. Apple figured people would start switching to smart phones and they wanted to be out there early. The phone didn't have 3G because they hadn't figured it out yet. The phone didn't have apps because they weren't ready with an SDK yet. But they figured - correctly - that it was more important to be out there and address issues in the 2.0 revision.

The Apple Watch has issues and thanks to Samsung's ability to copy based off of rumors now, didn't even have first mover advantage (I can't wait to see how Samsung rushes a car to market). But I think it'll take off similar to the iPhone in the second year and in the meantime the developers get to take the first year to get their feet wet.

Nicer than I expected, with room to grow

[Camembert]

So I do like mechanical watches and have a few of them, some vintage, some recent, none really expensive. I find those small movements utterly charming. I always wear a watch, for me a phone never replaced it.
Then I received a stainless AW as an xmas gift from my wife and I must say that after initial doubts i found it really useful and pleasant. I currently wear it often during working days and business trips, my mechanicals are mainly worn in weekends now.
Battery life is not really an issue for me, it works all day, and I charge when I sleep.
But the true killer app is only in its infancy: health. A heart beat sensor is the beginning. it is well known that apple hired several people specialising in various other kind of sensors. FDA approval permitting these could be a crucial feature for commercial success since everyone wants to be and stay healthy.
Btw, several sources have estimates of 11-12 million Apple watches sold last year. I would say that is not bad for a new product category. If this is a flop, I wouldn't mind failing with 11 million pieces of anything.

I like mine

[trevc]

A bit expensive but I have been very happy with mine. The phone function works great in the car (better than my cars hands free) and I use it all day to check email and texts. I have a face customized so I can see local date and time as well as the time back home along with the temperature. Would be nice if the battery lasted longer; I can usually have to put it on the charger every other night so not too bad. Easy switching of straps is a nice feature and plenty of straps available now on eBay and Amazon at reasonable prices.

Neat gadget, but not a game changer...

[Anonymous Coward]

I have an Apple Watch, and while I think it's great, I don't think it's a game-changer like the iPhone was, and I'm not sure it ever will be considered as such for a variety of reasons. But first, the good:

I have an iPhone 5s, so no NFC for contactless payments. The watch however, does have this, so I can do Apple Pay with it. I like this, I like this a lot.
The calendar and appointments is great, and with the...
haptic feedback for things is nice for calls and appointments means I miss fewer alerts, particularly while phone is on silent
The sketches feature is neat... I can do this with my wife throughout the day.
being able to answer a call through the watch is nifty.

Like I said though, there's nothing that the watch adds that's particularly a "gotta have" feature, it's mostly a nice little additional thing with lots of little bells and whistles which makes it a nice toy, and as such there's nothing that it does that you can't already do with a phone. Not to mention that there's a whole generation of people that have grown up without the need for a wristwatch now, so I think that it's appeal is limited.

I have done the upgrade path from Fitbit Charge HR, to Microsoft Band (1st gen), to the Apple Watch. All that said, I don't feel like Apple has done anything wrong with this product... I just don't really think that's there's much of a market for such a gizmo, or any smartwatch for that matter.

The notifications are the killer feature...

[Pengo]

Yup, like your review. I bought one for my wife last year and realized that she's not having to cary her phone around the house. I picked one up and realized that the major feature of this device isn't the watch or apps but the fact that it's an extension of my phones notification system. I need to stay connected to my phone for various work reasons, and find myself not looking at the phone nearly as much as i used to.

I'm surprised that more people don't pick up on this. the bummer is it seems that the watch is overkill for other uses. I wish they would do a watch light, I could care less about the apps giving me basic time and iPhone notifications on my wrist for under $100 i'd be a happy camper.

Re:The notifications are the killer feature...

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish they would do a watch light, I could care less about the apps giving me basic time and iPhone notifications on my wrist for under $100 i'd be a happy camper.

Martian Notifier - the MSRP is above $100 but it's possible to find them for under $100. Walmart has it listed for around $50 and it's currently $30 on Amazon.com.

meh

[Anonymous Coward]

meh meh meh

Figuring out the right apps

[Schnapple]

Whenever a new piece of technology comes out, there's always a transition period involved in figuring out what works on it. When the web came out companies tried to make "virtual shopping experiences", complete with 3D models of stores with products on shelves, for online shopping. They flopped. The Amazon model of just having a webpage per product worked. Early iPad apps were lame because the developers just made their iPhone apps bigger to fill the screen size instead of using the screen effectively. And early Apple Watch apps trying to just squeeze their iPhone apps down to a smaller screen are doomed to fail too (looking at you, Twitter).

So consequently figuring out what makes sense on a Watch screen is going to be the real hurdle to overcome. All kinds of information could be handy on a small screen. A lot of people decry the Watch by saying "why not just save your money and pull out your phone?" but I think one day we'll be saying "why pull out your phone when you could just look down at your watch?"

My company's app has a lot of info for our employees and customers. But there was some info our CFO wanted to know on a fairly regular basis and he didn't want to log into some web site to see it. Or some app. He would instead pester someone to run a SQL query for him. So I added a Watch complication to our app. It puts these numbers on the screen for him. He can use Time Travel with the digital crown to go back throughout the day. He can drill down to the actual app and refresh on demand to his hearts content (Complications are only refreshed on a particular budget). He loves it. And the people who used to have to be pestered for it love me for putting it on his watch screen.

That's the sort of thing the Watch is good for. Quick pieces of info on demand or refreshing in the background. Instances where it would be easier to glance at your wrist than pull out your phone, unlock it, open an app, etc. Instances where you don't want to walk around with your phone in your hand where it can be bumped out and dropped or stolen. I use the Wallet app on the phone and the 7-11 app to scan my 7-Rewards card barcode and everyone just thinks it's the coolest thing ever even though I feel like a dork doing it. And then it feels incredibly primitive to dig out my wallet to pay when I could just use the watch with Apple Pay except 7-11 doesn't take it.

I think some day when the right apps are out for it it'll be as vital as our phones.

A bullshit product

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

My thoughts? It's a bullshit product marketed to douchebags and suckers with too much money.

It costs from $500 to $1200, and the ONLY difference is the watchband. That's it.

It's a useless over-priced gadget that has been a failure with very few units sold.

Apple doesn't give the numbers but apparently only a few million have been sold, as opposed to 75 million iPhones in the last quarter or so.

Re:A bullshit product

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, if its for the Douchebag market, then it's designed for you specifically.

I love how hopelessly uneducated you are.. $500 to $1000... you do know that reality uses different numbers than what you pull directly from your ass.

I'm happy with it

[sjgman9]

I'm using it as a fitness tracker. I'm tracking steps with Pedometer++, booking exercise with the exercise app, tracking weight with MyFitnessPal, and seeing the results with a Withings Smart Scale every morning talking to MyFitnessPal. I've lost 12 pounds so far, and I'm motivated now to lose 28 or 38 more. I'm also using it as a sleep tracker.

It's an excellent companion device for driving. I like the taps on the wrist for directions.

I like the seamless integration with the Apple ecosystem.

The battery life could be better, but since I'm sitting at a desk all day, periodically I'll charge it to keep it near 100%. I'll also charge it when I'm watching Netflix at the end of the day. I haven't yet had a day when I'm away from power for an extended period of time. That'll happen later this year when I go to football games.

I dont mind having to bring my phone with my everywhere to get the most out of the watch, since I do that anyway.

I'm able to use it as a sleep tracker since I don't need to charge it overnight. That's been fantastic.

Some of the apps have been great, some are still a work in progress.

I'm still very happy with it

Decent, but not a Jesus Watch

[nysus]

Things I like:
1) Notifications on wrist. #1 use of device. Makes it worth the cost.
2) Super easy to see upcoming events/meetings. I just look at watch face and tap the tap the calendar in the lower right. Brilliant.
3) Paying with your watch for a coffee at McDonald's. Sometimes I'll just go there to buy a coffee just to impress the people behind the counter.
4) Looking at temperature and weather at a glance. See #2.
5) Design is nice.
7) Health tracking feature.

Annoyances:
1) Most apps are totally worthless. By the time you find and launch an app that does anything useful on your watch, you could have the real deal on your phone. Only the simplest of apps make sense like the stop watch or the timer.
2) Siri is worthless. It's very unreliable and only good for the simplest of requests.
3) Taking phone calls on the watch is kind of ridiculous. Very hard to hear what someone is saying unless you are in a quiet room and it's a hassle to hold your arm in the air to talk and listen for any length of time. Again, it's just much easier to whip the phone out. Though I will say it has saved me when phone is in the other room and an important call has come in.
4) Battery life is a joke if you use the exercise tracking feature over the course of the day. Then you'll be lucky to get to bed with it still charged.
5) Nothing is more annoying then when you go to look at your watch and it doesn't turn on and you have to tap it with your other hand.

Re:Decent, but not a Jesus Watch

[nysus]

I should hasten to add that replying to text messages with a simple message is great.

Re:Decent, but not a Jesus Watch

[hexadecimate]

That's almost exactly my experience too. I was in the market for a watch to replace an aging Garmin, so figured I could justify the cost of the entry-level Apple watch. I really like the fitness feature, and taptic notifications are very helpful if you spend a lot of time in meetings. The only non-Apple watch app I use is by Calvetica. It's not as important to my daily life as an iPhone, but I appreciate all the little benefits it adds. It's a useful (though expensive) complement to my phone. Worth it to me, though I can certainly imagine others deciding it's not for them.

Think of the Watch as a terminal for your iPhone

[Applehu Akbar]

As such, it can maintain a continuous display of some small subset of iPhone functions that you want to see most frequently. Whether that's your most recent text or the Dow-Jones, the usefulness of Watch depends on what current data you really need to have on your wrist.

Re:I'm not an Apple Watch owner, but I play one on

[Anonymous Coward]

it seems to totally not understand an elliptical

That's because you're not stepping when you're on an elliptical. It may very well be a good workout - and certainly gentler on your joints - but you're not stepping. A treadmill should work, a stairmaster is iffy depending on technique, but I haven't had an Apple Watch to know whether or not you can tell it what sort of exercise you're doing. There are apps out there that would work for your wife that don't rely on the 'shock' of a step to get a count, but they generally require the device to be worn on the leg.

It sounds like selling the Apple Watch would be a good idea, opting instead for a device that focuses on the functionality that she does use; alerting her to events and being able to answer the phone - though outside of the car she would then also require a bluetooth headset.

It needs to reach reliability parity with Pebble

[siege72]

I like the idea of the Apple Watch, but there are two significant drawbacks:

1. Battery life. It needs to be charged every night or every other night

2. Water Resistance. It might cope with light rain, but not showering, swimming, or heavy rain.

I've got a Pebble (original, revision 3). Depending on what features I use, the battery lasts 5-7 days. The Pebble isn't just water resistant, it's dive rated. The Pebble Time is one-third to one-half the price of the Apple Watch, and shares its killer feature: notifications.

(OTOH, the Pebble Round is junk)

No. No. No.....

[MrKrillls]

"Do you own an Apple Watch? "

No.

"If not, are you planning to purchase one? "

No.

It combines almost every tech aspect I want to avoid. I want my technology to give me easy access to the world but to insulate me at the same time. The last thing I want is to get notified every time someone or something wants a parcel of my attention.

It's a part of a proprietary walled garden where I must have an Apple phone. I don't want to get locked in by Apple, Microsoft, or Adobe.

Any watch face is too small to do anything worthwhile much beyond tell the time. I just can't see any utility for a smart watch for me, and especially not any device that makes me hostage to a particular vendor.

Re:No. No. No.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry, you're safe. Nobody wants to talk to you.

Luddite Here...

[Thelasko]

Call me a Luddite, but my Seiko 5 keeps perfect time. The best part? I never have to charge it. Just wear it on my wrist.

I bought my wife a Citizen Ecodrive. She doesn't even have to wear it. It will be running long after we're all dead.

Smart watches are just needless complexity.

Loving my $20 Xiaomi mi fit band

[Btrot69]

The Apple watch hype last year got me interested in fitness tracking, but I wasn't sure I wanted something on my wrist, and I wasn't going to spend $500 to test the idea. Then I saw the $20 Xiaomi Mi Fit on DX. Got one for the wife, to sync with her iPhone, one for me, to sync with Android. It tracks activity, sleep, and even "deep sleep" and the battery goes about 10 days between charges. Vibrates for calls and texts when my phone is on mute. The wife loves the colored band I got her. I wear mine all of time and love it. Comparing my wife's activity with mine was nice. My wife quit wearing hers after a month. She says the capsule popped out of the band a few times during her work. If think the real reason is that it shows she doesn't work as hard as I do ;)

Re:Loving my $20 Xiaomi mi fit band

[Btrot69]

Replying to my own comment -- how does this relate to the Apple watch ? It sort of makes me think about getting the watch -- except that this device does everything I'd want an Apple watch for -- and it does it better. Not only is $20 super cheap, but Xiaomi seems capture the "Apple ethos" in the way that Apple used to -- before they became a snotty status symbol.

Apple Watch

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a great product that has become part of my fitness life.

I have an Apple Watch ....

[King_TJ]

My wife bought it for me the first night it was available for pre-order, as an anniversary gift. It's the 42mm sport version in space gray with a black band.

Especially because it was a gift and has that extra meaning associated with it, it's something I'm happy to wear every day. But I share the opinion of many others that it's too expensive for the benefits it gives you. I'm a big Apple fan/user going back to around 1999-2000 and own or have owned most of their products at one time or another. Even so, I'd have to tell people that the Apple Watch is just a "nice to have extra" if you have the money to blow on another toy.

One of the biggest "turn-offs" for me with the watch is Apple's positioning it as a fashion accessory instead of a piece of technology. That might have been a smart move from purely a short-term profit generating angle. (Nobody would pay for the ridiculously high priced "Edition" model in gold otherwise.) But IMO, it damages the appeal of the product for the rest of us who are actually the computer and tech enthusiasts making up Apple's "bread and butter" customers. For example? I'd love to have a nicer band for my watch with a magnetic clasp, instead of fiddling with the buckle on the sport band. But at $149 and up, no thanks! I can justify giving Apple my $100 for the new "Apple Pencil" for an iPad Pro because that actually adds new functionality and it's a legitimate hardware peripheral. But paying 1 1/2 times that amount for a band that just keeps my watch on my wrist? That's excessive.

I'm also disappointed in the lack of repairability. I got a nasty scratch in the glass face of my watch the first week or two I owned it. But to this day, nobody sells a reasonably priced replacement front glass. (By contrast, if only the glass was scratched or even cracked on a Macbook Air 13", I could buy a replacement piece of glass for the screen for $19 off eBay -- even with the black "Macbook" logo and stripe across the bottom of it.) Apple's "solution" is paying 2/3rds. the price of the watch to exchange for a refurbished replacement. That's even MORE insulting when you consider Apple bragged quite a bit about the scratch resistance of these watch faces. Unfortunately, it seems the "Sport" watch didn't get the better material and actually scratches up relatively easily.

That said? The biggest useful feature of the watch is the remote notifications it gives. It's great when I'm driving and someone sends me a text message. I can read it real quick with a flick of the wrist, without even taking my hand off the wheel or touching my phone. And because it lets you reply with one touch common phrases, I can usually shoot a response back too. I also like the haptic feedback tapping me on the wrist to remind me of calendar appointments a few minutes before they happen. It's easier than pulling my phone out of my pocket to look at it (and if the phone's not on "vibrate" mode, I might not even hear it chirp anyway). I have my watch configured so the current temperature is shown in the bottom left corner too, which is also nice - as that's info I want to know at a glance, throughout the day.

The other 50% usefulness is probably the FitBit type activity tracking functionality -- but that's not something I care a lot about. It's great if you do, however.

Obsoleting Their Early Adopters Woudn't Be Good.

[BrendaEM]

I should think that the people who actually bought their first watches, had fear in the back of their minds that their watch would be quickly obsoleted.

So, Apple's best coarse of actions would be seed demand for an update first, on media sites, such as this one. Then they can be the heros by updating their watch.

It's useful, just not several-hundred-bucks useful

[badzilla]

I have the entry-level Pebble, the price of which has by now dropped to spare-change levels. It does most things that the Apple Watch does, except no heart rate monitor. It's fine for notifications, fitness monitoring, sleep tracking, and so on.

I never lusted after any kind of smartwatch but tried one out because it was cheap enough to experiment with. My verdict: get one, you will find a use for it. A bit like a second monitor for my PC - at first I thought it was a waste of money but now I would not give it up.

Most useful practical applications for smartwatch are (1.) Being able to look at notifications in meetings where pulling out your phone is frowned on but you can get away with looking at your watch (2.) Turn-by-turn navigation when walking through an unfamiliar city in the rain.

It's...

[kuzb]

...overpriced garbage. However it's Apple - they've been selling you overpriced garbage for so long now that it wouldn't make sense to change.

It sucks

[malditaenvidia]

Do your own market research, apple.

Software Support is vital

[jafac]

Based on my experience with my Samsung G2:
The utility of the smartwatch comes in when you can synchronize your data on the two devices; and there are a couple of "killer apps" when it comes to smartwatches:

Phone/messaging is the obvious one, and the use-case for READING (not responding to) messages is pretty useful, especially if you're receiving a lot of status from various people. Phone-calls are also pretty useful, but a tad awkward; audio is not private (you are on "speakerphone"), and I can say that the output of the Samsung is weak-enough that it's not all that useful for phone calls.

Time is another one, and that's a no-brainer. I don't have to re-set my watch 2 times a year for daylight savings. Tracking my location and re-setting for time-zones is very handy, for people who travel a lot. Don't underestimate that one. Samsung has not yet really fucked this up, but it relies on having your phone with you, and powered-on.

Weather used to be VERY useful. I don't know what Samsung did, but they changed their phone-based Weather widget, and now it does not run at all, so it wn't send time to the watch, the watch weather client doesn't know what to do - it's sad. It has nobody to talk to. It displays the weather data from 9 months ago, when it stopped synchronizing. There are MANY online discussions where users are mentioning this problem, and Samsung has completely ignored it. Obviously, they wanted to ship a product, make their $ from the outrageous price tag, and then abandon it so that it becomes obsolete and ceases functioning after ONLY ONE YEAR.

Health is another killer app; and Samsung initially had it down pretty good. When I first got my gear, it integrated fairly well with my Samsung sHealth app on my phone. And again, Samsung updated their mediocre-but-functional s-health app, and now, it no longer uses the heartrate monitor on the watch. The app tracks your location, but only via PHONE instrumentation (ie. you need to stuff your phone into your nylon running shorts to track your runs). The phone and watch pedometers fight for dominance. Neither are accurate. Neither are consistent in their accuracy. When you track your activity with s-health, you never know if it's using the watch pedometer, or the phone pedometer, and you don't really care, because both readings are garbage. It would be nice if we still got the ongoing heartrate data from the watch. But that doesn't work anymore.

Again: many many many people have complained about the changes to the s-health software on line, and Samsung has completely abandoned all forms of support for this product. If you have an S7, I think they care. One assumes that in 6 months, if you don't have an S8, you will probably want to through your S7 into the garbage.

So why am I talking about the Samsung crappiness in an Apple thread?

Apple also has a LONG and well-deserved reputation of shipping SHITTY software updates that degrade functionality of equipment, and try to encourage you to buy new hardware, at a rapid pace, long before the hardware has ceased functioning. I don't know if this is the case for the Apple watch. I don't have one. I also don't have an iPhone, but I've seen this happen with their iPads, and with iTunes over several generations of laptops and desktops. (Does Apple even make a desktop anymore? lol - of course, I know they do - but let's face it. Not really.)

I hope I have saved at least one reader from wasting their hard-earned money on this junk.

I have not heard the same complaints from people buying health monitors and watches in the Android ecosystem. But I honestly don't know anyone who has one of those. Samsung and Apple have really sucked the chrome off the trailer hitch here.

meh

[Anonymous Coward]

I was able to get an Apple watch at a 50% discount and used it for about 2 months. The annoyance with the short battery life and inaccurate heart rate monitor finally did it in. The notifications are pretty well worked out but it's not enough. My kid wanted the watch too so I ended up getting him the sport version for Christmas. His enthusiasm faded after about 4 weeks. The irritation of having to charge all the time just gnaws at you and makes the whole experience a burden. Both watches are now collecting dust.

I ended up buying a fitbit and it is a much less capable device but with a 1 week battery life is much more forgiving with forgetting to recharge.

Both devices have major issues with tracking heart rate via the wrist. I think the fitbit edges out the Apple watch by just a bit in this regard though

What watch?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just kidding, or am I.

Notwithstanding the hyperbole...

[GrantRobertson]

The only thing I've seen people do with Apple watches is check notifications. But when they do, they make darn sure that everyone sees them do it. They use exaggerated gestures and hold their whole arm up. They spend all their time getting interrupted so they can show off their new iElitist iCandy. When i ask them about it, they say it is really handy because they don't have to get out their phone as often. But all they'd really have to do is turn off all those damned notifications.

Note: These aren't texts, because they don't respond to them. Just notifications from other apps. Still yet, they raise their arm, read the notification with intense interest, nod their head as if acknowledging that the missles have been launched, swipe the notification away with an exaggerated flick, then sit up straight, content in the knowledge that they have a new Pinterest friend.

I think these have achieved exactly what Apple meant for them to achieve: Wringing a few more hundred dollars out of people who actually think it will make them look more important. But there is only so much blood in that turnip.

Re:What's this "watch" thing you keep going on abo

[Anonymous Coward]

Not an Apple user here, but I know several people who are, have the Watch and are happy with it. They are happy with it for the same reason I am happy with my LG G4 Watch.
If I'm sitting down my phone is in my pocket and its a hassle to pull it out. Every time I get a message or email I would have to pull my phone out. Every time I cared about the time I'd have to struggle getting my phone out and putting it back. Most of the time the call or email was something I didn't care about right then, but there was always the chance it might be work related, or someone important enough for me to want to answer. I suppose I could assign all my important contacts a variant ringtone or something, but...
So now with my smartwatch I can vet the calls and message to see if I want to pull out my phone or not. My significant other has similar issues, except her phone is typically in a purse, so getting it out is even more of a hassle and the Watch more useful.

Woz on the watch

[RDW]

"I mean I love my Apple Watch, but - it's taken us into a jewelry market where you're going to buy a watch between $500 or $1100 based on how important you think you are as a person. The only difference is the band in all those watches. Twenty watches from $500 to $1100. The band's the only difference? Well this isn't the company that Apple was originally, or the company that really changed the world a lot."

- Steve Wozniak

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/...

Re:I'm not an Apple Watch owner, but I play one on

[PsychoSlashDot]

She is a big Mac user

Special sauce, lettuce, cheese?

Haven't even seen one

[Anonymous Coward]

Haven't even seen one

Cool, but . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it take a licking and keep on ticking?

iPhone 'Normal-Sized'

[hattable]

A reasonably sized (even if a selection bias due to mostly listening to the opinions of close friends) group of people were so turned off by the tablet-sized monstrosities being passed off as phones and until apple figured out how to remove the iHead from their iAss, we'd be sticking with our last gen models sans iWatch.


A year later apple finally figures out a huge gap of "should have been upgrades" and delivers exactly what we are asking for.

When the new version with a normal-sized screen is released I will be in the consumer group that must seriously decide if an apple watch is a piece of technology I want to incorporate into my life.


Now this means giving up all of my custom watch faces/programs/etc. that I have developed fro the pebble (old version) but if the app ecosystem looks enticing I may give it a go.

Yes, it is useful

[SuperKendall]

I wear mine every day, and I use it at least a few times a day, sometimes more...

The thing is, it is the best a smartwatch can be at the moment I think. It's not as good as some people need it to be to be useful to them, but for most people it's pretty useful already.

To not call the Apple Watch a success is kind of insane though when they have sold something like $5 billion worth (not an exaggeration). Just because it's not selling at iPhone scale yet does not mean it's not been successful.

The truth of the matter will be much more evident of five years after a while of the growth curve doing its thing, and updates coming along that ratchet up the quality further.

Speaking of upgrades, some people were saying last year not to buy an Apple Watch because you should wait for V2. Well, a year later and there's no Apple Watch upgrade still - I really think there's no need for a new model like there is with phones, OS upgrades alone have been enough to add value. I think we'll get an Apple Watch refresh with decent hardware changes more on the order of every 2-3 years... so if you think an AppleWatch may be useful, just buy one already.

I like mine... but..

[Anonymous Coward]

I like my apple watch, had android wear before getting my iphone. I didn't want go without having my notifications on my wrist so I got an apple watch. I don't think even still that it is worth the money personally, but I do like it. The fact that you can get android wear for half the cost and it works just as good if not better in some senses makes me question apples pricing. My watch has some lag, I'm looking forward to having something with a better processor.

It's too thick and too square

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't look elegant at all.

Watches are so 20th century

[presidenteloco]

I freed my wrist from the sweaty, uncomfortable watch band thing about 20 years ago, and haven't looked back (or been late for that matter).

When I wore a watch I felt handcuffed to time.

These days I can easily afford the 2 seconds it takes to "draw" my smartphone out of my pocket if I need the time, and then I have a decent sized screen to do all kinds of other useful things with. Smart watch just not needed.

And as for status symbol. I've always looked at a fancy watch as a kind of inverse status symbol, indicating a lack of confidence and a need to assert their worth with bling. Be yourself and establish your status by your actions. Then you'll get some status.

Re:I'm not an Apple Watch owner, but I play one on

[Altus]

You do not need a bluetooth headset to answer calls on the apple watch, it has a speaker and a mic, it does work pretty well though for long calls talking to your wrist can get kind of old, but for quick calls where your phone is near but you can't put your hands on it quickly (or your hands are occupied) it can be pretty decent. Certainly not a primary use case though.

As for exercise, if you really want steps thats one thing but if you just want to track your elliptical workout you can easily start it monitoring a workout, it measures your heart rate more often as well.

Learned my lesson from the Fossil WristPDA

[Anonymous Coward]

I learned that a wristwatch I have to put on a charger every night wasn't for me after buying (very cheaply) a Fossil WristPDA.

And while I'd been watchless since my Traser T3 bit the dust after several years of hard wear, I just yesterday bought a Timex Expedition. It gives me only the time and the date, but I'll do something else with the many multiples of the cost I didn't spend on the Apple watch.

Great for ADHD

[WillowAnneLyra]

If you have ADHD, an Autistic Spectrum Disorder, or other health issue that impacts working memory or executive function it's a lifesaver. I can't rely on my phone for notifications because I can't rely on myself to set the sound loud enough or to remember to bring it from one room to another. My watch sends me all the notifications I need even when my phone is on silent in another room. This means my clothes and dishes are washed, the litterboxes are clean, I eat lunch regularly, all my medication gets taken, I'm not late to appointments or meetings, and my husband is no longer constantly angry that I'm not answering the phone. What someone who doesn't have these sorts of issues does with the watch to justify the spending I have no idea. As for the expense, it's much cheeper than even one of the following: having to treat cats for UTIs (last time required hospitalization for ~$1500), the medical issues not eating will cause (migraine trigger which requires daily medication when not managed), or the divorce my inability to even remember my share of household chores was inevitably going to lead to in a few years (I was the primary income for many years).

I've been wearing mine daily for the past 2 weeks

[agentkhaki]

Here are some of my thoughts and observations:

• I wear a watch because, after spending all day in front of the computer, I prefer to spend my free time working with my hands — woodworking, gardening, cooking, cycling, kayaking, home improvement, etc. Yes, I almost always have my phone on me during those activities, but pulling it out to check the time is oftentimes inconvenient or impossible, and sometimes downright dangerous. That said, I've no plans for wearing my Apple Watch during many of those activities, as I'm too afraid I'm going to break or scratch or drown it. I've no such concerns about my day-to-day mechanical watch.
• As someone used to wearing large, heavy mechanical watches (a pair of pre-Citizen, stainless-steel-and-saphire Bulova Accutron chronographs) on a daily basis, I find the Apple Watch neither large nor clunky. In fact, it's quite a bit lighter. I have the 42mm version, and I'm 6' tall, roughly 150 lbs.
• I got mine for $400 off of Craigslist. It's the stainless-steel-and-saphire version, and had been worn exactly twice by the seller in the four months she owned it. I see it as somewhat telling she was willing to take a $200+ hit to her pocketbook simply because she had no use for the Watch.
• I find the Watch most useful for notifications — being able to quickly scan a text from my girlfriend or see who just sent me an email is freaking awesome. I'm 35, and no luddite, but I still feel pulling out your phone in the middle of a conversation to be rude. Glancing at my watch feels much more natural and far less disruptive.
• I really like the activity monitoring functions — I'm already fairly active, but getting reminded to stand up and move around every hour or so is a nice feature. That said, I find it annoying that the pedometer in my iPhone doesn't send data back to my Watch when I'm not wearing it. If I'm out felling a tree and disposing of the corpse, I'm not going to risk destroying my Watch. My phone is far more protected, so I have it on my at all times. All those steps accumulated dragging branches and carrying split wood? My phone knows about them, but not my Watch. Same goes for entering calories burned doing activites Watch doesn't understand — my daily 1.5 mile swim goes un-noted.
• Why, in 2016, are none of Apple's devices waterproof?
• The bottom button seems extremely underutilized, but I'm not sure what else it could be used for.
• Every other day or so, I accidentally take a screenshot when the back of my hand presses the digital crown and the bottom button at the same time.
• Glances are useless — the only ones I have installed are Settings, Heart Rate, Just Press Record, and Remote. The rest are more trouble than they're worth, take too long to scroll through, are way, way, way too slow (Weather Underground, for example), or do nothing more than launch an app.
• Again on the subject of notifications, the integration between the Apple Watch and the iPhone is outstanding. Only receiving notifications on the Watch *unless* you're already looking at your phone works exactly as it should. Now, why the hell Apple can't fix the integration between these two devices and my laptop or iMac (I don't need a notification on my Macbook if I'm currently in Messages on my phone).
• I wish Apple would let developers create their own faces. I feel like none of the built-in ones are exactly what I'm looking for, particularly when it comes to complications.
• Speaking of complications, I find they're the easiest way to launch my most-used apps — Weather, Calendar, and Stopwatch.
• I like the sensitivity of the Watch when it's in Nightstand mode quite a lot. Lightly bumping the side of my nightstand, or thumping the floor with my foot when I'm across the room brings the display to life every time.
• Siri works really well, but is a bit slow. That said, I use it for roughly 50% of my interaction with the Watch.

Depend on mine

[Anonymous Coward]

As a Type 1 Diabetic with a Dexcom CGM attached to my side, it's fantastically unobtrusive to glance at my wrist at any given moment to check on my blood sugar, especially when out for long runs.
As someone who travels frequently, following walking directions through unfamiliar cities without having to bury my head in my phone for turn by turn instructions helps me appreciate my surroundings that much more. I just preprogram my destination in my phone, and put it in my pocket. As I approach a turn, my watch taps me on the wrist with a distinctive pattern for both left and right. If the corner is forked or ambiguous, I glance at my wrist for a second and see a chart of the route.
Using Apple Pay by swiping my wrist over a sensor at Walgreens, Trader Joes, etc cuts down on the hassle of pulling a card out of my wallet, sticking it in the chop reader and waiting for the transaction to complete. It really cuts the time down to just a moment, and while I've had chip read errors on my card, I've never had a problem using Apple Pay... if only more vendors supported it.
Meeting, IM and call notifications on my wrist are great. I never miss any important communication anymore, AND more importantly am not constantly pulling my phone out to check on things.

Re:It needs to reach reliability parity with Pebbl

[Ron Goodman]

I've been showering with mine for nearly a year now.

Had mine since the launch

[aaarrrgggh]

I really like it, although there is room for improvement. The app screen is awful, too easy to hit the wrong icon. Health and fitness functions are nice, love the "modular" watch face showing temperature, date, stock ticker, and activity icon-- it puts everything in such an easy place to access. Most used apps are the wallet for airline boarding passes, Apple Pay, weather, remote, map, phone, text/emoji, and oddly calendar.

Do miss my Welder watch though, and wish I could swim with it.

As for sales, my wife was noticing how many people had one on yesterday; I think she counted a couple dozen in the food court and 10 people out of 60 in another spot. They seem to be doing well, but I am sure there is some selection bias going on.

Get a Pebble, and just enjoy it.

[jbarr]

I have a Pebble Time Black, and no, it's not as fancy and prestigious as an Apple Watch, but it cost me at least HALF of what the Apple Watch costs, and its functionality really is stellar. It's waterproof, and Pebble nailed it with its "Timeline" function which is intuitive and easy to use. It simply works, and works well.

Oh, and being able to measure battery life in days (I regularly get 4-5 days of battery life) instead of hours is a Godsend. I can leave the house with 10-20% battery life, receive a normal amount of notifications, and regularly interact with it, and I can be confident that it will remain usable until well after I get home at night.

Finally, to make ANY smartwatch useful, you need to balance those functions and features that make sens for the device you are using. Want to see at-a-glance information and notifications? Use a Smartwatch and leave your phone in your pocket. Need to type an email, don't waste your time with a smartwatch--use the large, advanced keyboard on your phone. Otherwise, the device gets in the way. And that's the beauty of the Pebble Watch. It doesn't get in the way.

What it would need to do:

[Anonymous Coward]

In order for me to buy one I would need the battery to last for a least several days at a time if not longer. I do take my watch off when I go to sleep, several times a year I spends multiple days in a row out in the wild. I don't want to have to worry about charging yet another device. Secondly, I would want to GPS without having to have my phone on me too. Otherwise, I already have a smartphone on me so why exactly would I need the watch? Lastly, I know why they chose a rectangle, but I still prefer a round face. If they can meet those conditions with a similar price point as now, I would buy one.

No use for iWatch

[AaronW]

I wear a Casio watch. I never have to charge it or set it since it charges via solar and sets itself over RF. It also is fairly rugged. I tend to be hard on watches so it frequently gets banged about. I rarely have to so much as push a button or touch it.

I don't need something to tell me all my notifications. I'll look at notifications when I'm damned ready to (if ever). It tells me the time and date, which is what I care about the most. If I wanted something to monitor health it certainly wouldn't be an iWatch because it doesn't work very well. I have a friend who was CEO of a company that designs sensors for that sort of application and he was able to explain why most devices like the iWatch don't work very well and the fact that there's not much Apple can do to fix it. He said rather than licensing his company's technology, Apple would try and develop their own, though it would likely require hitting a number of his company's patents (when has that stopped Apple?). The other problem is that the sensor needs to be in direct contact with the skin. A normal watch on the wrist doesn't work that way. It's basically "You're holding it wrong." like with the Apple iPhone 4. Also, the iWatch is not very useful without an iPhone. I would also be very frustrated about having to charge my watch all the time.

Re:Awesome CASIO smart watch!

[farble1670]

If you aren't willing to understand the product past reading "watch" in the name, maybe you haven't done enough to research to comment? Smart watches are wrist computers. If all you want is to see the time, smart watches aren't for you, duh.

Real watches need winding

[paulxnuke]

I'm a big fan of mechanical watches, you know, old school.

I've never seen anything to interest me about a smart watch. They have some good features (I often miss phone calls when my phone vibrates in my pocket), but I wouldn't trade watching the hands spin, or the date click over, or the sounds of different movements, or admiring running clockwork through a sapphire back. They often cost more than an Apple Watch, BTW.

I liked Classic MacOS better than OS X too.

Not much.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't think about Apple anything much.
* overpriced
* closed
* hard to develop for without a $2K Apple computer

Stopped considering anything from apple useful years ago when they forced iTunes onto a system just because I thought I needed quicktime. Purged. Never again Apple.

Most of my friends are Apple users, but I have never seen any of them with the watch. I have seen a few Android watches, however.

I actually quite like mine

[Kiyyik]

I find it nice for all the stuff I usually fish out my phone for, except now I don't have to do that. I use the custom face, so I've got temperature, my exercise goals, all that jazz on it. Got it synced to my home & work calendars too, so I always see my next appointment.

The killer app for me is basically Siri. I use it all the time to look things up, get directions, and set timers/alarms (I do a lot of craft/prop building, which means timing glue and paint). Haven't really had too much trouble with battery life: I put it on around 7ish, take it off about midnight, usually got >30% juice left, usually closer to 40%. Occasionally use the Wallet app, but not on any sort of regular basis.

Things I don't like: Siri doesn't always come when I call. The history feature is more in the way than anything, and the screen doesn't fire up every time I turn my wrist like ti's suposta. I tend to wiggle it a couple times, then give up and just tap the screen :P

Still, I like it for the most part. Still use it every day. It makes a nice sort of 80/20 remote terminal for my phone, if you see what I mean. For that, it does a good job.

Re: Lack of sales figures hinders investment in ap

[Anonymous Coward]

He probably already knew that. I certainly did, and yet I still find Americans calling it a "fanny pack" amusing.

Re: Lack of sales figures hinders investment in ap

[Anonymous Coward]

They must laugh at a government program called Fannie Mae.

Here's something else to consider...

[Poohsticks]

One thing that I did NOT expect on getting one of these (I won it in a contest) - the haptics on my wrist to notify me of new mail/directions/texts/etc. These buzzing notifications on my wrist elicit a Pavlovian response from me - I HAVE to look at my watch. I'm usually pretty good about ignoring my phone if I'm in a meeting or talking with someone, but I find that I'm constantly looking down at my watch and breaking my interactions with other people. It's really something I'm trying to control but the instinctive response to turn my wrist and look down is VERY hard to ignore. That can be both good and bad, I guess - but mostly I find myself getting annoyed. I can obviously tweak the notifications to trim down the buzzing, but it's not as easy to fine tune what you want to be notified about and what can wait. Everything else is pretty cool, and I do like the fitness monitoring - but I doubt that I would have bought one if not for the contest win. Just something else to consider.

Failed experiment.

[Anonymous Coward]

Once the novelty wears off most people mainly use the notification feature. Something Pebble does just as well, and without the daily charging.
The next most used feature is the health monitoring, but that simply doesn't work very well for a lot of people.

A lot of these watches made the mistake of prioritising compute performance and display quality over battery life, and that is simply too much of a compromise for most users. As much as the interface is love it or hate it, this is something Pebble got right.

The final thing hurting the Apple watch, is Apple's insistence on vertical integration. They limited their market to iPhone users, of which only a small percentage would want a smart watch as well. Nobody was going to buy an iPhone just to use the Apple Watch.

I want a smartwatch that doesn't require a phone.

[antdude]

It needs to be light, small, and useful as old school Casio Data Bank (150/300) watches.

I like it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like a lot of Apple haters here. I bought the small one for about $600 when it first came out. I thought I'd return it if I didn't like it. But, I like it! I use it for Apple Pay all the time. I like the notifications - who's calling, what email, text msgs, meeting notifications - all without pulling my phone. Oh, and it gives me the time too. My favorite app is the live camera monitor. My watch still looks like new - no scratches, etc. I see lot's of other people wearing them also. I'd rather wear the Apple watch than some of those huge watches I've seen (ugly!). Regarding Apple's watch volume, I'm just wondering... does anyone outsell Apple in total watch $$$? I don't know the answer, but if Apple is near the top of the list, it's hard to view that as "failure".

I still don't care

[allquixotic]

I use Apple products only when they make sense for me. Not sucked into the reality distortion field. The iPhone is a great phone (mainly because of its software), but the Apple Watch is too flawed of a device to be desirable in any way.

Apple Watch?

[Anonymous Coward]

Much ado about nothing.

Apple watch?

[dddux]

What Apple Watch? What is that?

Too early.

[info6568]

I think we are in the Newton's Apple PDA time on smartwatches. It is very early and they do almost nothing.

In fact, the watch can't be the complement but the replacement for the mobile phone, no less than that (no screen? .. we still lack imagination).

Any attempt for just to make so expensive "remote control" will fail.

Re:Too early.

[ebvwfbw]

Newton, I remember that. I remember right after the demo he sat down after saying it was a replacement for paper and started to write notes on paper. He didn't even know what he had. No idea how to use it properly. It was a great product. Good days. Good days.

I own a bunch of their products. This one was not ahead of its time. It's way behind, like 2 years behind when it was introduced. Even then, it sucked side of the Android watch. That's why it's not going anywhere, and their sales people aren't helping. Even the Woz has criticized them, sharply. They've lost their way.

Apple bs

[Anonymous Coward]

Another look at me I have an Apple POS.

Love my Apple Watch!

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had my watch since the beginning and I still love it. I have always loved watches but stopped wearing them when I got my iPhone. Now I wear it every day, pretty much all day! Battery life is great, I never have it die early unless I do something like leave a app running like the "walk" activity. I wear it all day and when I get home it has drained to 60% - 75%, when I'm sitting down at dinner I throw it on a Nomad charger while we eat or watch TV. I put it back on before bed and it's fully charged so I can start the sleep++ app. I get up in the morning and it's only down to 94% or so. I throw it on the nomad while I shower and by the time I'm done it's at 100%. I don't care about status, that's not why I got it. I love watches and the added benefit are the activity trackers. I do 10,000 steps and 6 - 12 flights a day, five days a week and I never would have done that before. I'm bummed if I don't get my steps in so it's been a great incentive to get out there. I can check the health app for what levels I reached during the day and because I wear it pretty much all the time I can see what my heart rate was all the way down to every 5 minutes. Do I need to? No but it is really cool, I do often check what my rate was over the course of a day at 1 hour intervals just to see how its going.

I am a little bummed because there hasn't been the "gold rush" of apps but I'm quite happy with the ones I have. I use Dark Sky all the time, I add notes all the time, am constantly reading texts and sending texts on it. I LOVE ApplePay and use it every chance I can. I also use Pedometer ++ every single day and the timer is always timing something. In short, I am always using it. I am a little disappointed that the sensor bands haven't materialized but I'm happy with what I have, I can wait. Will I get the new one when it comes out? You bet.

Version 1

[Anonymous Coward]

This is v1 hardware. Remember the v1 iPhone? AT&T only. $650 plus 2 yr contract. No App Store. No GPS, therefore no turn-by-turn directions. EDGE only. If you owned one, you were "that guy." I was "that guy". The iPhone iterated, and now it's best in class. So don't panic. The watch is iterating. Everything's going to be just fine.

On a personal note, in March I was without my Apple Watch for 3 weeks after taking it into the ocean a few times. I missed it. I missed it badly. The Apple Watch is now a regular part of my life. You want to label me "that guy"? I don't give a fuck.

I thought the Apple Watch would be a useless toy

[davesag]

I thought the Apple Watch would be a useless toy and never bought one. Then work offered to pay for one for me so I thought — yay, I'll get one and see what it's like. I love it. It's totally inspired me to be more active; that's a plus, but it's also comfortable to wear, and having siri on your wrist is great. I use it for text messages a lot. I like getting Slack notifications on my wrist, and overall the notifications system is a good balance between being informative and not too interrupting. Overall I'd say this is a winner of a product. I certainly see a heap of them on wrists on the metro and in various offices.

Re: Lack of sales figures hinders investment in ap

[stealth_finger]

The word "fanny" in the US means the same thing as "bum" in your country; it has nowhere the meaning of the word "fanny" in your country. (I learned this whilst puzzling out the commentary in British men's magazines a number of years back. It's interesting how such a big difference in meanings for the same word in two closely related languages can arise.)

My wife is from Northern Ireland. Her surname (which is a fairly popular one over there) is Bonner. But they say it as boner. Makes me giggle everytime XD

After waiting, I just bought an Apple Watch

[laird]

I've been a long-time (and happy) Pebble wearer, from the first Kickstarter model to the Pebble Time Steel (color). But I'd been keeping an eye on Apple Watch, and last week I made the jump.

Why?

The biggest driver is that Apple Watch has amazing app support, while Pebble's app support are "OK". Not only does the Apple Watch have many more apps, the apps are better integrated. In part this is because of the APIs (Pebble's SDKs are very good, but Apple's are better, and very easy for iOS developers to work with), but I think the largest issue is market share - developers are clearly putting more effort into Apple Watch apps than Pebble Apps. From reports, Apple Watch is something like 75% of the smart watch market share (e.g. http://nypost.com/2015/07/30/a...), making it hard for developers to justify investing in competing platforms. And Pebble, while having an early lead in developers (very nice SDK, etc.) is showing very little new third-party app support - most Pebble apps are released and then never updated, and Pebble having layoffs after a series of price drops is probably not a great sign of their future.

In addition, the quality of the Apple Watch hardware (case, bands and display), are worlds better than Pebble. It's a beautiful watch and band, with a brilliant display, while the Pebble Time Steel is a good looking watch case, the display is quite slow and washed out. So yes, Apple Watch costs a little more ($299 is the least expensive Apple Watch which is metal body, plastic band, color display, while the cheapest Pebble (plastic, B&W) is $99, $199 for the Pebble Time Round, $249 for the Pebble Time Steel).

Really the main thing going for Pebble is the lower price for the low-end units, and longer battery life. Both of those are good things, and I think that Pebble will have a market segment just based on that. At least, I hope so. But the nicer Pebbles cost almost as much as the Apple Watch, and for battery life, the Apple Watch lasts two days, and charges so fast that I can wear it all day and night (for sleep monitoring), and charge sufficiently in the morning while getting dressed that it's not an issue.

My conclusion was that I am only going to wear one watch, and I want that watch to have a great display, and I'm willing to put up with charging every day. So Apple Watch wins.