What do you mean by hands-free? You mean it's always listening? That's creepy, and would seem to be a battery drain.
Apple announces Apple Watch
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jimbobsmells
Member
Yeah that's not good.Just uggh.
Hoping for much thinner and integrated gps in Rev 2
yes, they do. here:
http://www.apple.com/watch/technology/
no one goes to the apple site to seek answers to their questions. easiest place to find them.
so it only listens when you raise the wrist - which also activates the screen. otherwise it’s not sucking battery, listening.
Betta Lines
Member
Exactly, as long as it's not disrupting other more useful features, it's better to be there. Many people will enjoy it. If you think it's pointless, don't use it. You can probably even hide the icon.
If you're composing or replying to a mail that needs a photo inserting, get your damn phone out. Likewise with customising the watch face - have an app for that.
Notifications, quick replies, Siri - all make sense. But anything that takes more than 20-30 secs shouldn't be done on the watch IMO.
I hope the 'raise wrist to talk/see time' is more reliable than the google wear implementations
"Because you just spent $900 on a bloody 5.5" phone, just use that."
Options for everything isn't always the best answer
northead
Member
Simply this --->
Thanks for posting this. I don't know why they have not highlighted this in the keynote. It's incredibly important.
I was thinking about receiving, rather than composing. If someone sent me an MMS with a photo, and I could view it on the watch without pulling out my phone, I would. And the watch face thing was just to point out they need photo storage and viewing, the gallery is just an easy way to view them all at once.
I don't know how bad normal people's eyes are, but watches considerably smaller than this one have very very small writing on them, like 'Swiss Made' on them and it's easy to see. You won't be able to see the detail of those photos, but see enough to recognize which one you're after to zoom in? I have no doubt.
I hope you will enjoy your 6-hours-battery-life watch.
Maybe if you have your iPhone it uses that GPS to save power. But if you want to go for a run without your phone, it can use its own GPS for that specific activity. So the GPS wouldn't need to be on all the time
I'm sure he'll enjoy it as much as tying a quarter of iPhone 1 to his wrist.
jimbobsmells
Member
I'm sure I would enjoy it, but like I said earlier in the thread I'm not buying this. Maybe gen 2 - which would be a quarter of an iPhone 3g surely?
Marty Chinn
Member
I think this is why I'm disappointed in Apple. Instead of having a clear vision and giving you the experience they think it should be, it's just a jumble of different ideas and comes off as trying to do too much when it should probably be more simple. They have a cool few ideas here but the whole concept needs to be relooked at. I think Google is probably closer in what the watch experience to be but like most Google stuff, it feels unpolished and a work in progress to get rid of weird choices.
I was talking more about the thinner design.
Do not expect thin and feature rich smartwatches anytime soon and expect them even less to have good battery life.
Display, taptic engine and various sensors take a lot of space and power, to that you have also to add the battery size.
If you expect the next version to be remarkably thinner, with more sensors and to have the same or better battery life you are out of luck.
jts
...hate me...
Somehow I'd love for one of these to have a real mechanism and clock hands (on top of a display) and then some kind of neat-o technology would make them almost invisible when the display was actually showing something. Nano projection, translucidness, some kind of mechanical trick, displays on the hands themselves or just whatever.
That's the kind of breakthrough I'd expect for this niche to become widely adopted.
That's the kind of breakthrough I'd expect for this niche to become widely adopted.
We can only hope.
I'm not and I'm also not going to get it before someone makes one that is reasonably watch-sized. There's no hurry though.
jts
...hate me...
Off to kickstarter!
Killing_Joke
Member
Yeah, this is hot air hype like Google glass. Looks cool but at the end of day, just going to use the damn phone. Even if it sells well the first couple of gens are going to be rough.
jimbobsmells
Member
Beta tested in the future.
From what I read its 10.6 without the sensor bits. It's real thickness is closer to 12.5.
So it's a fairly thick watch considering the style of it. The submariner is meant to be a bit more imposing in design. Rolexes and other big bracelet watches can be 14mm or so.
If the watch ends up being 10mm total in a rev 2 or 3 then that would be just fine by me.
It definitely looks thick in all the photos, I really want to see it in person though, and on my wrist. I think the small face one will look stranger in that sense. Certainly thinner revisions will come and be very welcome, but if it's in the ballpark of preexisting, widely desired watches (personally, I think the Submariner is hideous), I don't think it's going to be a problem generally.
Just uggh.
OH jesus fuck, that's terrible.
Looks aside, there are a few features i'm interested in.
Looking at notifications without taking your phone out.
Being able to control your music while the phone is in your pocket.
Vibration sensors when using map directions.
Fitness apps (depending on how accurate it is)
The remote camera.
Whether or not it's worth spending $349+ (probably not)... is another matter.
Looking at notifications without taking your phone out.
Being able to control your music while the phone is in your pocket.
Vibration sensors when using map directions.
Fitness apps (depending on how accurate it is)
The remote camera.
Whether or not it's worth spending $349+ (probably not)... is another matter.
yeah, the thickness is best seen in the hodinkee photos, imo as the writer has a lot of wrist shots. the square shape and big rounds on the top and bottom really make the thing look thick. maybe they go with a more tapered look later on.
I am fairly happy they went with modest sizes. 38mm tall (around 36mm wide) is not a big size. I may prefer a circular shape in a watch - like moto 360 - but the 46mm dia of the 360 makes it a non starter.
fuzzyreactor
Banned
who the fuck buys a watch for anything but aesthetic purposes?
$349, lmao
$349, lmao
Just uggh.
what an ugly pos
That was true of phones once.
I also don't understand this at all:
It's called showing off. How can the competition even demo a usable gallery app without a digital crown? They can't.
This app will more than likely never get used but it shows the potential of the interface.
Did we go back in time before the apple rebranding? Because holy shit is that bad.
I can't see at all how you'd see that image and think the Moto 360 one is the bad one.
If the internals of the Apple Watch were inside the Moto 360, it would be great. But as it stands....
layzie1989
Member
When thinking about watch mechanisms it seems a rotating bezel would be better for navigation ala the click wheel. I also wonder if there was a constraint in keeping with the styling of the iPhone 6. I could easily see a watch with chamfered edge bezels matching the style of the iPhone 5.
I mean, yeah... but that's the Sport edition though, which is the least attractive of the 3 models.Just uggh.
I want to see more pictures of the regular and gold editions.
Are they slimmer?
yeah, the matte aluminum finish and color bands really brings the look down.
In either case, I don’t think the watch is the prettiest thing ever but this:
looks a lot less attractive to me than this:
or this:
the way light and reflections play off the shiny stainless steel helps the look, imo. there’s none of that with the aluminum. it’s just a rounded rectangle with nothing interesting about it.
I tend to feel that way about most unadorned watch cases, though. I prefer some shine to a flat look. unless the case design is itself truly interesting.
fuzzyreactor
Banned
....no?
huh?
Other than the size of buttons for those big grandparents phones, why buy one over another that isn't aesthetic? It wasn't until cell phones, and software design allowing alternate functions that anything other than physical design mattered.
Jo Shishido's Cheeks
Member
So why is the time off-centre and constantly obscured on this watch face...?
Jo Shishido's Cheeks
Member
But what if you wanted to see the date?
Haha I'm just kidding. I guess I'm to used to it being centred on the iPhone, it looks awkward here to me.
Haha I'm just kidding. I guess I'm to used to it being centred on the iPhone, it looks awkward here to me.
Yeah compared to normal watches is not big at all, i think my watch is actually thicker.
Edit: nope it's actually half a millimeter slimmer (12mm) but essentially it's the same.
So I had said my peace on this device a few days ago, but aside from GAF, I didn't hear many opinions out in the wild from people I know (mostly 30-somethings). So I started asking, cuz why the hell not? It's an "it" topic right now, so it wouldn't seem odd to inquire and I'm genuinely curious who is going to buy these.
Naturally, people who don't own iPhones that I asked were mostly indifferent to a device that didn't offer them any value, so I have filtered most of them out of the responses, since they had no opinion.
First things first, for all the complaining about physical design here, I heard NO complaints about it from anyone I talked to. I was surprised and yet not surprised at the same time. The most I heard was "it looks OK, nothing mind-blowing" or "the software looks a little plain", but it was always followed with the caveat "but it's a fucking watch, what did you expect?"
Here are some highlights (paraphrased for brevity):
"I hate the way I'm compulsively checking my phone, a watch is a bit more elegant of a thing to compulsively look at."
"I liked the idea of Apple Pay, but I LOVE the idea of using it with a watch."
"The noise from the ringer/vibrate really pisses me/my spouse off. A tap on the wrist seems like it would irritate me a lot less." (these people were more likely to consider it as a gift for someone else, LOL)
"I like all the customization options and that it's offered in 2 sizes." (this was the most common thing I heard, and probably its biggest differentiator from every other smartwatch offering)
"The functionality seems really basic right now, though, is that really all it does?" (a lot of people said this, seems that the brief functionality intro really doesn't work in Apple's favor, no surprises there)
"I'm already paying for a phone, so the price is a bit steep." (this was usually followed by "I hope that it'll do more stuff over time", so people seem to be just waiting for their own killer feature/app to be on board)
"I don't want to retire the analog watch I'm already wearing, I paid really good money for it." (fair enough)
So no hate, but a fair bit of people wanting more utility from it, even those who were going to buy one. So it seems a lot of people were in the same boat as me: they see a potential in it, but not an immediate must-have attraction to it. Apple will likely correct this ahead of launch in another event, or it will be a slow burn to adoption.
When I asked if they were aware that they needed their phone in proximity to the watch to use all of its features, they said:
"Of course, do you know how expensive it would be to make a tiny stand-alone iPhone on your wrist?!"
"I'm never without my phone anyways, so I don't see the problem."
(perhaps the best part of this question) "Does that mean it will tell me if I forget my phone somewhere? That would be GREAT!" And truthfully, yes, for some people that would be a great idea. Hell, I'd like for it to do that, now that someone mentioned it.
When I asked "why wouldn't you just use your phone for all of this stuff that the watch can do?", which is probably the most important question to ask when discussing this thing, the response from people (those who wanted one AND those who weren't sure about it) was almost universally "because I'm tired of having my phone stapled to my hand." I guess my generation is a LOT more concerned about how we're perceived for having our phones in our hands all the time.
So it seems like the market for this is quite clearly the 30-and-up crowd who already own an iPhone but are concerned with their self-perceived "mobile phone addiction", according to my obviously-limited social circle. That could be a pretty substantial market, and I wonder what 20-somethings have to say on the subject.
But the odd thing was, when I heard what other people like about it, I found more reasons for ME to like it, so... looks like I might end up buying one sooner than I expected.
Naturally, people who don't own iPhones that I asked were mostly indifferent to a device that didn't offer them any value, so I have filtered most of them out of the responses, since they had no opinion.
First things first, for all the complaining about physical design here, I heard NO complaints about it from anyone I talked to. I was surprised and yet not surprised at the same time. The most I heard was "it looks OK, nothing mind-blowing" or "the software looks a little plain", but it was always followed with the caveat "but it's a fucking watch, what did you expect?"
Here are some highlights (paraphrased for brevity):
"I hate the way I'm compulsively checking my phone, a watch is a bit more elegant of a thing to compulsively look at."
"I liked the idea of Apple Pay, but I LOVE the idea of using it with a watch."
"The noise from the ringer/vibrate really pisses me/my spouse off. A tap on the wrist seems like it would irritate me a lot less." (these people were more likely to consider it as a gift for someone else, LOL)
"I like all the customization options and that it's offered in 2 sizes." (this was the most common thing I heard, and probably its biggest differentiator from every other smartwatch offering)
"The functionality seems really basic right now, though, is that really all it does?" (a lot of people said this, seems that the brief functionality intro really doesn't work in Apple's favor, no surprises there)
"I'm already paying for a phone, so the price is a bit steep." (this was usually followed by "I hope that it'll do more stuff over time", so people seem to be just waiting for their own killer feature/app to be on board)
"I don't want to retire the analog watch I'm already wearing, I paid really good money for it." (fair enough)
So no hate, but a fair bit of people wanting more utility from it, even those who were going to buy one. So it seems a lot of people were in the same boat as me: they see a potential in it, but not an immediate must-have attraction to it. Apple will likely correct this ahead of launch in another event, or it will be a slow burn to adoption.
When I asked if they were aware that they needed their phone in proximity to the watch to use all of its features, they said:
"Of course, do you know how expensive it would be to make a tiny stand-alone iPhone on your wrist?!"
"I'm never without my phone anyways, so I don't see the problem."
(perhaps the best part of this question) "Does that mean it will tell me if I forget my phone somewhere? That would be GREAT!" And truthfully, yes, for some people that would be a great idea. Hell, I'd like for it to do that, now that someone mentioned it.
When I asked "why wouldn't you just use your phone for all of this stuff that the watch can do?", which is probably the most important question to ask when discussing this thing, the response from people (those who wanted one AND those who weren't sure about it) was almost universally "because I'm tired of having my phone stapled to my hand." I guess my generation is a LOT more concerned about how we're perceived for having our phones in our hands all the time.
So it seems like the market for this is quite clearly the 30-and-up crowd who already own an iPhone but are concerned with their self-perceived "mobile phone addiction", according to my obviously-limited social circle. That could be a pretty substantial market, and I wonder what 20-somethings have to say on the subject.
But the odd thing was, when I heard what other people like about it, I found more reasons for ME to like it, so... looks like I might end up buying one sooner than I expected.
Nice post, Terrell. good range of responses.
Should be interesting to see how this thing launches compared to the Google Wear stuff. I keep going back and forth in my mind about how successful a smart watch platform can be. Its not like the original iPhone launch where it was obvious. like, of course, this is the future.
Should be interesting to see how this thing launches compared to the Google Wear stuff. I keep going back and forth in my mind about how successful a smart watch platform can be. Its not like the original iPhone launch where it was obvious. like, of course, this is the future.
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