Apple Admits To Apple Watch LTE Problems Just Before It Ships (theverge.com)

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Apple Admits To Apple Watch LTE Problems Just Before It Ships (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @02:00AM from the still-shipping-it dept.

Lauren Goode, reporting for The Verge: Apple's new Series 3 smartwatch starts shipping this Friday, and the biggest feature change between last year's model and this new Watch is that it has built-in cellular capabilities. Except, that cell service isn't entirely reliable. While writing my review of the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE capabilities, I experienced notable connectivity issues. The new Watch appeared to try to connect to unknown WiFi networks instead of connecting to cellular, when I was out and about without my phone. Within the first couple days of experiencing this, Apple replaced my first review unit with a second one, but that one proved to be problematic, too. Eventually, the company issued an official statement, acknowledging the issue. "We have discovered that when Apple Watch Series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity, it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular," an Apple spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "We are investigating a fix for a future software release."

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Apple Watch LTE by DontBeAMoran · 2017-09-20 02:03 · Score: 4, Funny

Apple Watch Less Than Excellent

--
#DeleteFacebook
1. Re: Apple Watch LTE by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:49 · Score: 0
  
  main problem...the battery lasts for 3 minutes.
2. Re:Apple Watch LTE by fahrbot-bot · 2017-09-20 04:01 · Score: 1
  
  Apple Watch Less Than Excellent
  I'm sure the watch is fine. The people experiencing problems are probably just wearing it wrong.
  
  --
  It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
3. Re:Apple Watch LTE by OneHundredAndTen · 2017-09-20 04:17 · Score: 1
  
  You blaspheme. Watch it - the iSheep will be up in arms.
4. Re:Apple Watch LTE by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 05:00 · Score: 0
  
  Interesting video essay on how Apple has been making design missteps since they lost Steve Jobs, and words from Steve Jobs himself that might indicate what's going wrong internally with Apple.
5. Re:Apple Watch LTE by tlhIngan · 2017-09-20 05:06 · Score: 1
  
  The people experiencing problems are probably just wearing it wrong.
  You joke, but that could be the problem, actually.
  The watch is worn right against the skin, and the SAR calculations (whether you believe in it or not) are influenced heavily by distance. For a cellphone, it's easy enough to get even a centimeter or two between the skin and antenna, which means you can put in a more powerful RF amp and better antenna. With the watch sitting so close to the skin, the actual power output of the LTE modem will be quite limited.
  And that doesn't include the body shielding effects. (all the water and salt make the body a relatively good shield)
6. Re:Apple Watch LTE by DontBeAMoran · 2017-09-20 05:47 · Score: 1
  
  You blaspheme. Watch it - the iSheep will be up in arms.
  I see what you did, there.
  
  --
  #DeleteFacebook
7. Re:Apple Watch LTE by DontBeAMoran · 2017-09-20 05:49 · Score: 1
  
  That video of Steve Jobs should be required viewing at least once per year. Tim Cook has completely lost track of this fact.
  
  --
  #DeleteFacebook
8. Re:Apple Watch LTE by Paradise+Pete · 2017-09-20 06:56 · Score: 2
  
  You joke, but that could be the problem, actually.
  The problem is real. What is happening is that the watch is connecting to one of those "capture" networks that have an interstertial page at connect time, such as one might find at a Starbucks or McDonald's. The watch should be avoiding those networks, but because of this bug the "connected" Wifi network is used instead of the cellular.
  This is a real and likely embarrassing problem that I am sure Apple is working very hard to fix right now.
9. Re: Apple Watch LTE by Joce640k · 2017-09-20 07:27 · Score: 2
  
  You're wearing it wrong.
  
  --
  No sig today...
10. Re: Apple Watch LTE by bobmajdakjr · 2017-09-20 08:36 · Score: 1
  
  if it was a software issue they would have just pushed an os update without confirming it so flatly.
11. Re: Apple Watch LTE by KGIII · 2017-09-20 09:34 · Score: 1
  
  I recently learned that the device has issues with the heart-monitoring aspect if you have wrist tattoos. It can't see through a tattoo. They acknowledge this, but make no mention of this on any of the sales/about literature that I have found.
  It'd be pretty simple to add something like, "Heart-health monitoring may not be effective when watch is worn over a tattoo."
  Given the popularity of tattoos, I'd say that would be important information for an honest company to impart. They don't even have to put it in big letters, just a mention of it in the advertising literature would be nice. It's not even in the help documents, unless I missed it.
  Err... I only know this because someone mentioned that it didn't work so I checked the online help documents, specs, and things like that. I was curious about the mechanism, not so curious about the watch itself. I am not actually in the market for a smart watch.
  
  --
  "So long and thanks for all the fish."
12. Re: Apple Watch LTE by KGIII · 2017-09-20 09:44 · Score: 1
  
  Required viewing for whom? Because there are loads of people who just don't give a shit. I'm not sure they should be required to watch it. I'm not even convinced that Apple fanatics should be required to watch it, or anything else for that matter.
  I dunno, that seems rather authoritarian. Mandatory repeated video watching about Apple seems like a horrible idea. If we're going to mandate repeated video watching, it should probably be a better choice than that.
  
  --
  "So long and thanks for all the fish."
13. Re: Apple Watch LTE by DontBeAMoran · 2017-09-20 10:08 · Score: 1
  
  You're watching it wrong.
  
  --
  #DeleteFacebook
14. Re: Apple Watch LTE by DontBeAMoran · 2017-09-20 10:09 · Score: 1
  
  Required watching for those who make decisions at Apple. Tim Cook and all the regulars we always see in Keynotes.
  
  --
  #DeleteFacebook
15. Re: Apple Watch LTE by KGIII · 2017-09-21 01:06 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, good. I was really hoping you didn't mean required watching for me. Hell, make it required viewing for all Apple employees. Just not me... No, not me...
  
  --
  "So long and thanks for all the fish."
16. Re: Apple Watch LTE by Paradise+Pete · 2017-09-21 03:16 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not sure why you're telling me this. I didn't write anything about heart monitoring or tattoos.
17. Re: Apple Watch LTE by KGIII · 2017-09-21 04:45 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, just adding to the list of dishonest marketing. Nothing more than that.
  
  --
  "So long and thanks for all the fish."
18. Re: Apple Watch LTE by Paradise+Pete · 2017-09-23 04:10 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, just adding to the list of dishonest marketing. Nothing more than that.
  Do fitbit or any of the other device makers mention wrist tattoos? Does anyone? Have you posted about that somewhere?
Good grief by p51d007 · 2017-09-20 02:14 · Score: 2

I go buy a new car, or a house, or something else. Oh! Sorry, the horn won't work, the doors on your house won't shut or some other thing. But, not to worry, we'll fix it at a later date. Tell me people would put up with that?
1. Re:Good grief by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:27 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, it's called snagging https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/snagging
  
  noun
  mass noun
  British
  The process of checking a new building for minor faults that need to be rectified.
2. Re:Good grief by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:33 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, people contend with that situation all the time, particularly with new houses. That's why punch lists exist. In those situations the process generally concludes prior to final sales place timing doesn't always allow for it and certain issues get remedied after the fact.
  Anybody who is dissatisfied in this situation has the right to walk away from the deal by returning the product to Apple.
3. Re:Good grief by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:37 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, it's called snagging https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/snagging
  
  noun
  mass noun
  British
  The process of checking a new building for minor faults that need to be rectified.
  So you like... sit on it, or even worse?
4. Re: Good grief by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 03:12 · Score: 0
  
  Buh but... other people are buying something I hate
5. Re:Good grief by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 06:23 · Score: 0
  
  In general they just say: "sold as isZ" in those cases.
  Do you consider that better?
6. Re: Good grief by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 09:29 · Score: 0
  
  Because cars always get manufactured 100% correct and never have anything needing to be fixed at or after delivery.
  What world do you live in?
7. Re:Good grief by baker_tony · 2017-09-20 11:29 · Score: 1
  
  I go buy a new car, or a house, or something else.
  Oh! Sorry, the horn won't work, the doors on your house won't shut or some other thing.
  But, not to worry, we'll fix it at a later date.
  Tell me people would put up with that?
  Yeah, all the fucken time, it's called reality.
  You go buy a house and tell me everything's perfect with it, e.g. sticking door.
8. Re:Good grief by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 22:29 · Score: 0
  
  Lets be absolutely honest here, you're hating on this purely because its Apple. Fuck those guys for identifying a problem and fessing up, amirite?
iPhones do this also by burtosis · 2017-09-20 02:15 · Score: 2

iPhones also connect to wireless networks (and with the right settings on their own to user unauthorized ones) with no connectivity and you will suffer from no data access as the phone fails to use its cellular connection. Further if the phone has wifi calling enabled you will miss calls and texts while connected to the network. It would seem like a simple matter to disregard the wifi network if it had no actual connection to the internet but it is what it is.
1. Re:iPhones do this also by clonehappy · 2017-09-20 02:46 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I've never once, in 8 years of using iPhones across 6 carriers in multiple countries, ever seen this behavior. You may want to try to reset your network settings or try a factory reset of your iPhone if this is happening to you personally.
2. Re:iPhones do this also by swb · 2017-09-20 03:01 · Score: 1
  
  Wasn't the entire point of "wifi assist" to deal with this very issue, phones connected to bad access points that couldn't really pass data?
  Now if I could just get it to stop connecting to ATT wifi access points despite telling it to not automatically connect to them...
3. Re:iPhones do this also by burtosis · 2017-09-20 03:17 · Score: 1
  
  I've owned iPhone 3 and currently own 4,4s,5,5s,5c,6,6s+,se across many iOS (haven't had the courage to download 11) and they all do this. Dosent matter how much network resetting you do and tbh you shouldn't have to even if this worked. Again I don't have a problem using either wifi or cellular, but when the phone connects to wifi without internet connectivity it hangs and refuses to use cellular instead. Been a problem since around 2009 for me and everyone's iPhone I've used since.
4. Re:iPhones do this also by burtosis · 2017-09-20 03:22 · Score: 1
  
  Also forgot to add this has happened on sprint, Verizon and att networks. Like the other poster mentioned this was a known bug up to iOS 9 (wifi assist) but in reality I've experienced it on iOS 9 and 10 flavors as well without it working.
5. Re: iPhones do this also by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 03:24 · Score: 0
  
  Android will try to connect and once it detects there is no actual data, it will disconnect.
  If you manually enter the wifi settings, it will warn you that "ap is not in use" and offer to reconnect or forget the wifi entry.
6. Re:iPhones do this also by burtosis · 2017-09-20 03:26 · Score: 1
  
  Sometimes I've found the extra step of "forget this network" helps. But your mileage may vary.
7. Re:iPhones do this also by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 04:51 · Score: 0
  
  My Android phone behaves the same way. They both suck.
8. Re:iPhones do this also by dgatwood · 2017-09-20 05:01 · Score: 1
  Wasn't the entire point of "wifi assist" to deal with this very issue, phones connected to bad access points that couldn't really pass data?
  In theory, yes. In practice, it seems to be frequently broken. I routinely connect to a computer-to-computer network used for controlling some hardware that has no Internet connection. Frequently, either:
  
  I have no networking because Wi-Fi assist failed to kick in (it doesn't tell me that the network has no Internet connection)
  
  I have no connection to devices on the disconnected Wi-Fi network—presumably because Wi-Fi assist was too aggressive—and I have to temporarily put the phone into Airplane mode, turn on Wi-Fi to force it to connect, do something on the offline network, then turn Airplane mode back off.
  
  The latter failure mode seems to be more common lately, but I've seen both behaviors sporadically. My guess would be that Wi-Fi assist fails around 10% of the time. It's better than nothing, but IMO it still doesn't rise to the level of "good", much less "robust" or "reliable".
  --
  Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
9. Re:iPhones do this also by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 11:10 · Score: 0
  
  This is not a problem for people who are smart enough to turn off auto-joining unsecured wireless networks! People who want to save cellular data like to join wifi whenever possible, and IOS devices work as designed and stop using the cellular connection when this happens. The only bug here is that, although it may make a successful wifi connection, it isn't verifying that the wifi connection actually provides valid Internet access before shunting the cellular connection.
  This will be a very easy bug to fix, and is easy to workaround if you disable auto Join in the meantime.
Quality apple products. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:16 · Score: 0, Flamebait

Well worth the premium price.
Probably because of by belgianpainter · 2017-09-20 02:18 · Score: 1

SystemD
1. Re:Probably because of by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:57 · Score: 0
  
  launchd?
The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by Viol8 · 2017-09-20 02:21 · Score: 4, Insightful

... and they'd buy a turd on a stick if it came with an Apple logo, so you think they care if there's some minor connectivity issue?
1. Re:The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:28 · Score: 0
  
  Obviously you didn't see the animated turd emoji section of the rollout. They literally ARE buying Apple-branded turds.
2. Re:The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by Austerity+Empowers · 2017-09-20 02:45 · Score: 2
  
  Actually they're allowing us to animate ourselves as turds and send the resultant product to our friends. And people want that.
3. Re:The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by AmiMoJo · 2017-09-20 03:22 · Score: 2
  
  It does seem odd to put cellular and wifi on a watch... Cellular in particular uses a lot of energy, relative to Bluetooth. That battery isn't going to last very long, or will have to be extremely large. LTE is improving things a little, but it's still nowhere near as good as Bluetooth or even just wifi.
  What benefit does LTE bring over just pairing to your phone? The only sane reason to even have a smart watch is as a secondary phone screen, unless they have invented some truly marvellous use for it.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
4. Re:The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by sh00z · 2017-09-20 03:51 · Score: 1
  
  What benefit does LTE bring over just pairing to your phone?
  
  The ability to *not* bringing your phone, for one.
  That being said, I'm not surprised to hear about this, and would hope for some "trickle-down" in the fix. I run with a Series 1 Apple watch, and every time a misconfigured automobile searching for a bluetooth buddy drives by, I get glitches in music playback. It would be nice if the watch would reject all unsolicited connections.
5. Re:The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by fahrbot-bot · 2017-09-20 04:05 · Score: 1
  
  Cellular in particular uses a lot of energy, relative to Bluetooth. ... What benefit does LTE bring over just pairing to your phone?
  
  They're using LTE so your phone can be *really* far away from the watch. Bluetooth just doesn't have the range. :-)
  
  --
  It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
6. Re:The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by AmiMoJo · 2017-09-20 04:08 · Score: 1
  
  Presumably for people with shoe pockets.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
7. Re:The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by alvinrod · 2017-09-20 04:10 · Score: 1
  
  Sure you can leave your phone behind, but as soon as you try to use the watch to take phone calls for any prolonged period that battery is shot and now you've got nothing. I was somewhat interested in Apple's smartwatches as I've wanted a really good fitness tracker and it seems as though they've got some stuff you don't get with a standard Fitbit, but Apple seems to be putting a lot of effort in the wrong direction in my mind. I can understand that as technology improves, having cellular access in a watch will be the norm, but it still feels too far ahead of its time right now to be actually useful.
8. Re:The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by sh00z · 2017-09-20 07:56 · Score: 1
  
  In my case at least, any time I would want to have cellular access via the watch alone (running, biking) would be followed by a period when I could top off the charge level (while I'm in the shower).
9. Re:The watch is only purchased by fanboys.. by deep2k · 2017-09-20 21:28 · Score: 1
  
  Unlock Mac with Apple Watch alone makes the watch purchase worth it. It is the single biggest time saving feature I have ever had the pleasure of working with, and saves me from having to type my password 30 - 50 times a day. Thank you for telling us how you really feel though - your input was about as valuable as your statement. @all mods whom marked this rubbish insightful, go hang you heads in shame!
Not News by lazarus · 2017-09-20 02:28 · Score: 2

How in the world is this news? This happens with your phone as well. If your smartphone "connects to an unauthenticated Wi-Fi network without connectivity" you get, no surprise, no connectivity. Because it uses the wi-fi device as the default route if it has one available.
Unless they shit the bed in the design and don't give you a way to turn off wi-fi separately, this isn't any more of a flaw than all of our phones.
The same reviewer also complains that after putting their paired phone into airplane mode and then walking around with the watch that they couldn't get connectivity. Well, that's how the darn thing works -- it automatically goes into airplane mode when you put your phone in airplane mode. Because it thinks you are on a plane...
This seems like a blogger looking for clicks.

--
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
1. Re: Not News by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:37 · Score: 0
  
  The watch is not able to keep a reliable connection to a cell tower. That's the bug. The result is it tries to connect to wifi. Perhaps the wifi connectivity check is not being run properly too, but the main problem is unusually poor lte connectivity.
2. Re: Not News by Austerity+Empowers · 2017-09-20 02:49 · Score: 1
  
  This sounds like favoring wifi, not a bad connection. Favoring wifi makes economic sense given that most plans are metered, even the "unlimited" ones. But not all wifi connections are equal: some are blocked, some are really weak. It's not always what you as the user will want. Apple thinks they can fix that too, I'm curious about the result.
3. Re:Not News by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:56 · Score: 0
  
  Because it uses the wi-fi device as the default route if it has one available.
  Surely the smart thing to do there is check that you actually have internet connectivity before disabling the cell service? There's no point in dropping a perfectly good cell connection for a WiFi network you can't use. Besides, they were complaining about the watch taking "many minutes" to connect to LTE or not doing it at all.
  
  Unless they shit the bed in the design and don't give you a way to turn off wi-fi separately,
  It sounds like the author says that is exactly the case:
  
  This almost makes me wish there was a way to actively turn off Wi-Fi on the Watch, so it would just default to LTE. But that’s also another step that I, the wearer, the person-who-is-not-wearing-it-wrong, would have to take.
4. Re:Not News by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 03:08 · Score: 0
  
  I don't use apple, so I can't speak for it, but my device (nexus 5x) will use cellular if it's connected to wifi that doesn't have connectivity. Like, if internet goes down at my house and it's connected to my wifi, I still get texts and calls and can browse the internet and all that. And I'm on Google fi, which heavily prefers wifi over cell.
5. Re: Not News by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 03:26 · Score: 0
  
  The article seems to indicate that even if there is lte, it will still try to use wifi (presumably to save data).
  Android doesn't have this problem for 3+ years now lol
6. Re:Not News by thegarbz · 2017-09-20 04:21 · Score: 1
  
  If your smartphone "connects
  You hit the important point without realising it. Sane devices don't magically try and connect to open wifi points just because they are there.
7. Re: Not News by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 04:32 · Score: 0
  
  So when you get home, do you manually reconnect your phone to your home wifi network every time? Itâ(TM)s set to never connect to known wifi networks? And youâ(TM)ve turned off the âoeConnect to open wifi networksâ option which is sitting right in the open in the settings?
8. Re:Not News by Paradise+Pete · 2017-09-20 07:03 · Score: 1
  
  These networks do have connectivity, in a sense. It's just they corral your connection until you get past the interstitial page. That's where the watch is getting stuck. The internet is not "down" in the way you're talking about, it's confined to a tiny box. The watch is supposed to avoid those networks, but there's a bug.
9. Re:Not News by Brockmire · 2017-09-20 08:23 · Score: 1
  
  My Blackberries never do this, nor my Android phones. The solution is to simply test if you can access the outside world and if so, make WiFi available to the rest of the phone. Of course, when a major backbone provider fucked up some routes, some people experienced the symptoms where phone thought Internet connection wasn't working but really was due to not reaching the hardcoded hostname. Doesn't your phone prompt you to login to hotspot walled garden logins?
Hurry before its too late... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:29 · Score: 0

Get an Apple Watch Series 2 before Apple takes them off the market.
"...a fix for a future software release." by magusxxx · 2017-09-20 02:31 · Score: 1

And if it turns out to be a hardware issue?

--
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
1. Re:"...a fix for a future software release." by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:57 · Score: 0
  
  Thats when apple will deny that anything is wrong or blame the user for wearing it wrong.
2. Re: "...a fix for a future software release." by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 09:35 · Score: 0
  
  How would routing metrics and WiFi configuration ever be a hardware issue?
title wrong by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:37 · Score: 0

wifi problems, not LTE problems. perhaps "connectivity problems"
Why not just by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:40 · Score: 0

disable the WIFI?
So a product has a software bug by sl6551 · 2017-09-20 02:41 · Score: 2

If that's what this is, because it could actually be qualified as a feature since WiFi has a higher preference over cellular connection. It's a complex product and will go through a series of patches as users uncover untested scenarios. Trolls just can't pass the opportunity. (Disclaimer: I don't owe an Apple device; I write software for living)
1. Re: So a product has a software bug by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 03:29 · Score: 0
  
  How is this an untested scenario?
  You know how many access points don't have internet? 70 percent of the free access points require log in and therefore have no internet by default.
2. Re:So a product has a software bug by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 03:38 · Score: 0
  
  Just what kind of software developer are you? "untested scenarios"? They added LTE to the watch, all scenarios involving LTE and other connectivity methods should have been tested.
It's not just the watch.... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 02:51 · Score: 1

My I-Phone and I-Pad both with LTE built in have issues when connecting to WiFi networks that have no internet connection. I'm sure the watch has a similar issue.
The problem I have is that it keeps trying to connect to something with an internet connection, even when I tell it to not use the LTE connection for data. Maybe what I'm doing is just weird but I really DON'T want the device searching for a data connection by disconnecting from the current WiFi access point at times. Most of the time this behavior is fine, but I need to be able to keep the device locked on a single WiFi access point, regardless of if a better connection might exist at specific times.
Why they put LTE chips in that watch is beyond me anyway. The battery life of a watch is already less than my normal awake day so you have to charge it nightly, adding a new power consumer doesn't seem like a good idea. Just let the Apple watch use the associated I-Phone (over blue tooth) or a local WiFi AP if available like it does now. Works great for me like that. What I really want from the Apple Watch is more battery life.
1. Re:It's not just the watch.... by cfalcon · 2017-09-20 03:34 · Score: 1
  
  You can absolutely set your phone to not connect to unknown wifi.
  As for why they put LTE on the watch- I'm pretty sure that they are simply adding a backup capability. They certainly sell a series 3 watch without LTE. The current versions of the watch already use a mix of bluetooth and wifi to communicate with the phone, so I'm pretty sure the LTE capability is for when you don't have your phone around. Whether it will last all day without a phone, I don't know. The watches in general are already pretty thirsty on battery use, it's a rare Apple Watch that doesn't expect to be charged daily in practice, even if it can last longer than a day in theory. They sorta sell the idea as "you can use this when you are out exercising and don't want to bring your phone".
  Honestly, I do think that there is a market for it. If smartphones had existed before JFK, we'd probably have smart hats instead. The ability to add telecommunications to a smallish object could always be applied to any staple of fashion, after all, and if you had a watch that was about as functional as a 90s cellphone with a reasonably long lasting battery, there would be people who prefer that form factor. It doesn't sound like the series 3 Apple watch is there yet, but it doesn't strike me as a ludicrous direction or anything.
And they are by CodeHog · 2017-09-20 03:08 · Score: 0

still catching up to Andriod technology. It seems like the only 'new' thing they've introduced is wireless ear buds... wait I have a Motorola headset that is wireless. Wireless charging? nope. Smartwatch celluar? nope. Seems like they are banking on all they work they've done in the past.

--
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
An easy solution by CustomBuild · 2017-09-20 04:04 · Score: 1

If the product is defective, don't buy it.
At least there is a place to go... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 05:06 · Score: 0

Seems in this case its nice to be able to address one vendor regarding product issues; versus getting the finger pointing or runaround towards other vendors or organizations who are not involved both with the hardware and software business.
So, have they changed the ship date? by YuppieScum · 2017-09-20 07:36 · Score: 1

So, a company finds major problem in a product before it ships, and admits to it publicly. Do they then:

1. Delay the shipping date until the product is fixed, or;

2. Ship the broken product as originally planned anyway?

If the company values its customers, then 1. If the company thinks "fuck the customers" then 2.

I wonder what Apple will do...

--
This sig left unintentionally blank.
1. Re:So, have they changed the ship date? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 14:55 · Score: 0
  
  The smart money is on #2