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[Blackhead]

an alert on the iPhone means i already have the iPhone in my hand. An alert on my watch should be the middle ground between information overload and requiring me to take out my phone anyways.

Also, I don't think there was anything particularly funny about me saying the watch fails as at properly serving its purpose, especially given it's rather big screen, so ending your posts with "lol" makes you sound condescending and doesn't add anything to the conversation, just letting you know.

I was trying to be condescending; kudos for picking up on that.

Do you not like me having the option to read texts/emails/directions, or is it just the interface?

It's the interface, I don't understand why they are going for the same app model as on the phone. I hope you can at least use the digital crown to scroll through all that instead of swiping screen by screen with a finger.

i don't think "1st gen Apple product" matters on the watch as much as it matters on your other iDevices.

Since the watch is, per design, mostly limited to acting as a screen extension of compatible phone apps.
So other than next year's model having GPS built in (which i doubt), i don't see how there could be many improvements that would make you regret being an early adopter. It certainly shouldn't be a iPhone -> iPhone 3G -> iPhone 3GS or iPad -> iPad 2 -> iPad retina difference.
it's lifespan should be more compareable to the AppleTV, another 'companion device'.

the computational tasks happen on your phone, so as long as the gen 1 watch delivers a lag free, crisp UI, i think it should serve its duty for several generations.

this is just me stating my hopes here, btw. - since i'm upgrading my iPhone on a 2 year cycle and my iPad maybe every 3rd generation, i don't particularly desire for there to be another device that i'd feel like needing to replace every other year.
Then again, it's (supposedly) half the price of an iPhone, so it's pretty much an impulse buy during times of "gadget draught"

Apple has already said native third-party apps are coming later this year. Don't get your hopes; even the AppleTV gen 1 was made completely obsolete by AppleTV gen 2. It's just how Apple rolls...

iPhone 1
Released Jun 29, 2007.
Price Drop on Sep 5, 2007 (Partial refund for earlier adopters).
Spec bump (storage) on Feb 8, 2008
Discontinued on Jul 11, 2008 (after 12 months)
Successor was iPhone 3G -- good update, good pricing change -- released July 11, 2008, discontinued on Jun 7, 2010 (after 23 months)

iPad 1
Released April 3, 2010.
Discontinued on Mar 2, 2011 (after 11 months)
Successor was iPad 2 -- huge update, no pricing change -- released March 11, 2011, discontinued on Mar 18, 2014 (after 36 months)

iWatch 1
????

First gen is about experimentation, sourcing custom components, picking the factories, setting up the supply chain etc. Second gen is all about the upgrades. The question imo is not if gen 1 will be obsolete but when it'll be made obsolete by gen 2

When do you think iWatch second gen will be? Rumors/leaks suggested that Apple hoped to release first gen this past fall, but it wasn't ready in time, so
do you think 2nd iWatch will be Sept/Oct 2015?
Or 1 year after first gen release so March(?) 2016?
Or 1yr after full native sdk release/ back to fall schedule release so July/Sept/Oct 2016?
Or perhaps, because luxury watches are heirlooms that aren't replaced frequently, the iWatch will get infrequent hardware (but many software) updates, like AppleTV, so 2nd gen will be 2017/2018

I'm starting to think sooner rather than later if gen 1 has a meager battery life before it even gets native apps...

 

[Majine]

There's lots of cool stuff they can do by the virtue of you always wearing it. The Apple Pay thing is one, I also imagine you'd be able to unlock your phone as long as it can read your pulse and such.

 

[iMax]

It'd be nice if it had a low power mode that just tracks your sleep at night and wakes you up, that allowed for kinetic charging.

 

[iMax]

It's the interface, I don't understand why they are going for the same app model as on the phone. I hope you can at least use the digital crown to scroll through all that instead of swiping screen by screen with a finger.

Yes, that's the entire point of it. You should really watch the announcement keynote.

 

[Fliesen]

Not sure I agree with this. I expect the endgame for the watch is to become a completely independent device, one that can be used standalone or in conjunction with the phone. The first gen is obviously not that device, but theres a lot of room for improvement.

Even if it never evolves to being a full-fledged standalone, things like more onboard storage or more computational power are things that I expect to be upgraded year over year that will reduce the watch's reliance on the phone.

You're right though, this is the least '1st-Gen' feeling Apple product they've ever launched.

i'm not sure they're going to do such a dramatic paradigm shift within the first few generations. Right now, it is, by definition, a companion device to your iPhone. it's useless without your iPhone. i think they much rather have a $350+ dollar device on your wrist that locks you into their hardware ecosystem even more, than possibly making it independent of your phone altogether.
Also, i do feel like offloading all the computation to the phone is their idea of reducing the strain on the battery. If the watch were to constantly connect to GSM networks and run some background tasks, the battery would last even shorter. And that's not going to be different with gen 2 or 3. (if they were so close to a breakthrough in power efficiency, they'd just release the proper appleWatch next year instead of giving us one or 2 generations of stop-gap.

Personally, I can't stand wearing jewelry, watches, etc., so for me to get on board with an Apple Watch, I need it to be as thin and light as possible, and that's not going to be the case with gen 1.

yeah, that's not going to happen with smartwatches anytime soon. You'd be looking at 5 hours of battery life then - given current states of battery size to power and power consumption.



I think the expectations people have regarding to battery life are currently rather unrealistic. If you had told a person in 2006 that their 2015 phone would last maybe 2 days on standby, they'd be saying "omg you need to charge it every other day - it fails as a phone" (just like people claiming smartwatches fail as a watch because they need to rest in their cradle over night.)
If we want these things to be tiny, yet versatile, we need to (for now) say goodbye to weeks of battery life - until battery technology catches up with the product category.
The pebble has great battery life, but it's also severely limited in screen "quality" and functionality.
AndroidWear devices and the appleWatch are at the other end of the spectrum.

Apple has already said native third-party apps are coming later this year. Don't get your hopes; even the AppleTV gen 1 was made completely obsolete by AppleTV gen 2. It's just how Apple rolls...

First gen is about experimentation, sourcing custom components, picking the factories, setting up the supply chain etc. Second gen is all about the upgrades. The question imo is not if gen 1 will be obsolete but when it'll be made obsolete by gen 2


I'm starting to think sooner rather than later if gen 1 has a meager battery life before it even gets native apps...

yeah, the AppleTV was rendered obsolete 3 1/2years later.

Also, Apple's approach to battery life is pretty much "that's our battery life, get used to it. We'll rather make this thing thinner than have increased battery life at the same physical dimensions"

(fingers crossed they hit the thin-ness sweet spot now and future product generations will actually have even longer battery lives.)

i have doubts you'd see an AppleWatch with a dramatically improved battery life within the next few years - it's too far from the sweet spot of physical size (i.e. much slimmer) for Apple to even care that much about improving on the battery life.

 

[SeanR1221]

*shrug* Greyface sure does *shrug* like posting about a product he has no interest in *shrug*

 

[Blackhead]

Greyface only refers to products under their codename or rumored names. Project Dolphin, Katana, Dural, Durango, Project Natal, etc.

Apple's iWatch

Yes, that's the entire point of it. You should really watch the announcement keynote.

I watched the announcement and saw lots of swiping. Can you point to where in the video I should be looking at to see scrolling in the message and email apps?

*shrug* Greyface sure does *shrug* like posting about a product he has no interest in *shrug*

I'm buying it Day 1. It's the only smartwatch that works with actionable notifications for iOS (apple's fault *shrug*) so I would give it a try just for that alone

 

[Fliesen]

I watched the announcement and saw lots of swiping. Can you point to where in the video I should be looking at to see scrolling in the message and email apps?

well, third party devs can use the digital crown to implement scrolling, but not for anything else, afaik. So if you had some fancy maps app (no idea what for), i don't think you could use the crown to zoom.
Or to control the volume of your music player app.

It's rather restricted within watchKit afaik.
(cmiiw!)

 

[enanogrande]

i'm not sure they're going to do such a dramatic paradigm shift within the first few generations. Right now, it is, by definition, a companion device to your iPhone. it's useless without your iPhone. i think they much rather have a $350+ dollar device on your wrist that locks you into their hardware ecosystem even more, than possibly making it independent of your phone altogether.
Also, i do feel like offloading all the computation to the phone is their idea of reducing the strain on the battery. If the watch were to constantly connect to GSM networks and run some background tasks, the battery would last even shorter. And that's not going to be different with gen 2 or 3. (if they were so close to a breakthrough in power efficiency, they'd just release the proper appleWatch next year instead of giving us one or 2 generations of stop-gap.

We agree on that, It'll take a long time for the Watch to be completely stand alone for the exact reason you posted (Battery is the only thing holding them back). But I don't think it's going to be a full shift from one gen to another; things they would need for the watch to be stand-alone, like more CPU power, more on-board storage and possibly GPS (the hardest one to get on there, along with GSM) are all things they can (and will) gradually add from one gen to another.

Before we ever get a GSM enabled Apple Watch, we're going to get the iPod Touch equivalent Watch - everything except the Phone. I think that device is coming within the first 3 generations, and it doesn't need huge advancements in battery life to become a reality.

 

[iMax]

I watched the announcement and saw lots of swiping. Can you point to where in the video I should be looking at to see scrolling in the message and email apps?

http://youtu.be/bdyVH5LqneU?t=27m57s

The digital crown scroll mechanic is present throughout the OS.

 

[Blackhead]

well, third party devs can use the digital crown to implement scrolling, but not for anything else, afaik. So if you had some fancy maps app (no idea what for), i don't think you could use the crown to zoom.
Or to control the volume of your music player app.

It's rather restricted within watchKit afaik.
(cmiiw!)

GAF Thread: So the Apple Watch seems pretty useless for third parties

http://www.cultofmac.com/305778/everything-apple-watch-apps-cant/

tdlr; Third-party watch apps aren't allowed to do any of the following:

- Function without a paired iPhone
- Wake up/open companion iOS app
- Use finger scrolling or the Digital Crown
- Use “Force Touch” to control interface
- Use Taptic Engine for vibration feedback
- Access heart rate monitor
- Use NFC
- Use microphone for anything other than dictating text
- Play sounds
- Remotely access the iPhone’s camera
- Render animations/play video
- Display custom watch faces
- Offer in-app purchases
- Pair with more than one iPhone at a time

.

but I was writing about the Apple developed messenger and email apps, their developers don't have those restrictions for first party apps. Even then, I can't recall Apple themselves using the digital crown for scrolling through an app in the demos so far. I hope that changes an the digital crown or other physical controls are utilized more in the interface.

http://youtu.be/bdyVH5LqneU?t=27m57s

The digital crown scroll mechanic is present throughout the OS.

thanks

 

[giga]

Apple's iWatch



I watched the announcement and saw lots of swiping. Can you point to where in the video I should be looking at to see scrolling in the message and email apps?


I'm buying it Day 1. It's the only smartwatch that works with actionable notifications for iOS (apple's fault *shrug*) so I would give it a try just for that alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38IqQpwPe7s&feature=youtu.be&t=1h3m5s

 

[Tobor]

Apple's iWatch



I watched the announcement and saw lots of swiping. Can you point to where in the video I should be looking at to see scrolling in the message and email apps?


I'm buying it Day 1. It's the only smartwatch that works with actionable notifications for iOS (apple's fault *shrug*) so I would give it a try just for that alone

And selling it Day 5. I know how you roll.

 

[Blackhead]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38IqQpwPe7s&feature=youtu.be&t=1h3m5s

it's the weekend, what's your excuse for not posting quicker giga

And selling it Day 5. I know how you roll.

lol, true dat. i'll probably at least keep it until the Pebble Time arrives

 

[jts]

as above in edit, there's an app that looks like a sleep tracker. People have used it as an alarm to wake up to, too.

That's great if so.

 

[LordOfChaos]

It'd be nice if it had a low power mode that just tracks your sleep at night and wakes you up, that allowed for kinetic charging.

Yeah...Having to charge it overnight takes out a big health tracking factor for me, which is sleep tracking. You could charge it some other time of the day, but it would take an hour to an hour and a half (someone calculated it based on how fast that size of li-ion batteries can charge), might be hard to schedule in if you work all day, want to wear it during the evenings, etc.

Only four hours SOT according to rumours is a bummer for me, and 2.5 hours of "intense" app use. Definitely room to improve. The "all day" rating then is if you mostly leave it off....

 

[Blackhead]

That's great if so.

I doubt it :|
Apple Watch will replace your car keys, says Tim Cook

Waking up at 3.45am, a day in the life of the Apple CEO

He gets up at 3:45 every morning, puts on his brand new Apple Watch which he charges overnight - "I want to make sure I measure all myactivity", he explains, which means that wants his wrist to be full during all his waking hours - and begins to check his email.

 

[jts]

I doubt it :|
Apple Watch will replace your car keys, says Tim Cook

Yeah that's what I'm thinking, but it's not a deal breaker in any case. I'll look into other forms of sleep tracking, hopefully integrated into healthkit.



Unrelated, I wonder if there are any software differences between the smaller and larger watch. I mean, I'm surprised that they have different resolutions. Was expecting them to pull an iPad/iPad mini kind of thing, that you develop for one and it works and looks the same on both.

Maybe they want to really break away from being tied to a resolution after the iPhone 6 and what it brought to iOS software development.

 

[giga]

it's the weekend, what's your excuse for not posting quicker giga

lol, true dat. i'll probably at least keep it until the Pebble Time arrives

Hangover.

 

[mrklaw]

it's nowhere near bad, it's just space less efficiently used than on a square watch. and of course, since, for many, it's also - if not mainly - a functional fashion accessory, it'd be a worthy tradeoff.

But last i checked, many Android Wear apps were scrollable panes like Google Now ... that's a UI paradigm that (to me) is inferior on a round screen.



even google now is badly optimized. the margin on the left is used so the text doesn't get cut off immediately when scrolling. The watch could be 10mm less wide, if it was square.


GMAIL on the LG G Watch R, look at that (rather pointless) whitespace

other than watch faces, most apps currently don't make efficient use of the round screen.

All i am saying is, that i can't imagine a case where a round screen would be FUNCTIONALLY SUPERIOR in conveying information than a square one. I could name a few where it'd be inferior.
Which is the main reason that many smartwatch makers go for the rectangular screen, i presume.
That's all i'm saying. round watches sure are pretty, but i don't like bulky watches, which makes me unwilling to carry weight on my wrist that 90% of apps just use to display whitespace around a, at its core, rectangular UI.

For long strings of text, a round face is less efficient than a rectangular one.

But for button controls like music etc, you don't need those margins and can use the full width of the round display. Also for the same width, a round face watch appears smaller on the wrist because of the shape. I'd rather have a 38mm round faced watch than a 38mm square one. Yes I'll get less overall area but I don't think it is significantly less functional.

 

[Blackhead]

yeah, the AppleTV was rendered obsolete 3 1/2years later.

Also, Apple's approach to battery life is pretty much "that's our battery life, get used to it. We'll rather make this thing thinner than have increased battery life at the same physical dimensions"

(fingers crossed they hit the thin-ness sweet spot now and future product generations will actually have even longer battery lives.)

i have doubts you'd see an AppleWatch with a dramatically improved battery life within the next few years - it's too far from the sweet spot of physical size (i.e. much slimmer) for Apple to even care that much about improving on the battery life.

Apple hasn't hit the thin-neess sweet spot yet, according to a watch guy

The Cuff-Test

If I had to criticize the actual form of the Apple Watch, it would be a complaint you've heard from me before (most recently with the Habring2 in our latest Three on Three); the Apple Watch doesn't fit under my shirt cuff without serious effort, if at all. I believe that great design should not disrupt daily life, and a watch that doesn't fit under a shirt sleeve is missing something. Apple is amazing at building thin, elegant machines, and I was surprised by how bulky this is, especially when the 45 minutes prior to the introduction of the Apple Watch were spent discussing how svelte the new iPhone 6 is. I understand the physical limitations and the required dock on the rear of the watch, but the Apple Watch is bulkier than I would've liked.

And that sixcolors battery chart is only for new models at launch i.e. Apple aims to have a new iPhone at about the same battery life as the old one. But the new iPhone hardware launch usually coincides with an new iOS release which *coincidentally* often reduces the battery life of the old phone. No iPhone still gets the same battery life after a couple of years (even if the battery is replaced). The AppleTV is a cabinet machine, always connect to a power supply, so it doesn't have that problem. That's why I think if native apps are coming later this year, presumably with a software update as well, there's another iWatch gen coming real soon too.

 

[mrklaw]

What are the dimensions of the two sizes of apple watch? Both width and height? moto 360 is 46mm diameter and that's about the limit of size for me. Obviously both apple watches are narrower but how tall are they likely to be?

 

[giga]

What are the dimensions of the two sizes of apple watch? Both width and height? moto 360 is 46mm diameter and that's about the limit of size for me. Obviously both apple watches are narrower but how tall are they likely to be?

http://www.paulsprangers.com/2014/09/apple-watch-dimensions/

 

[mrklaw]

Oh, the 38/42mm is height? They'll both be quite a bit more compact than the moto 360 or G watch R then.

 

[giga]

Oh, the 38/42mm is height? They'll both be quite a bit more compact than the moto 360 or G watch R then.

Yep the x and y dimensions are fine. It's the z that needs to be thinned down.

 

[LCfiner]

i actually don’t think the z needs to be thinned down. I think apple will try, of course, but 12.5mm - of which the bottom 2.5mm for the sensors will embed into the wrist flesh - is reasonable for a modern, non-dress watch. most sporty watches are between 11 and 15mm. automatic dress watches will be thinner than the sport ones. to get below 10mm you’re looking at hand wound-only movements, typically.

If they can maybe get down to 10mm total in a rev or two and then they’ll have one of the thinnest watches out there, compared to the mechanical models.

 

[giga]

i actually don’t think the z needs to be thinned down. I think apple will try, of course, but 12.5mm - of which the bottom 2.5mm for the sensors will embed into the wrist flesh - is reasonable for a modern, non-dress watch. most sporty watches are between 11 and 15mm. automatic dress watches will be thinner than the sport ones. to get below 10mm you’re looking at hand wound-only movements, typically.

If they can maybe get down to 10mm total in a rev or two and then they’ll have one of the thinnest watches out there, compared to the mechanical models.

Well that's the thing--if I'm expected to wear this to replace *all* my watches, I'd need it to be just as thin as my dress watch.

I ended up watching this again. I can't state enough how much I hate the goddamn emoji.

Yeah they're terrible. The ghost of Forstall still lives.

 

[LyleLanley]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38IqQpwPe7s&feature=youtu.be&t=1h3m5s

I ended up watching this again. I can't state enough how much I hate the goddamn emoji.

 

[LCfiner]

Well that's the thing--if I'm expected to wear this to replace *all* my watches, I'd need it to be just as thin as my dress watch.

yeah, not sure if you’re serious.

I honestly had never thought of this being a replacement for a dress watch. It can be dressy, but I think anyone who cares enough about wearing dress watches on the occasions where they may be expected, will probably still keep a dress watch for those occasions.

 

[giga]

yeah, not sure if you’re serious.

I honestly had never thought of this being a replacement for a dress watch. It can be dressy, but I think anyone who cares enough about wearing dress watches on the occasions where they may be expected, will probably still keep a dress watch for those occasions.

I think Apple envisions it that way.

 

[LyleLanley]

Yeah they're terrible. The ghost of Forstall still lives.

Forstall somehow being involved in the development is the only logical explanation for it.

 

[Fliesen]

I ended up watching this again. I can't state enough how much I hate the goddamn emoji.

oh my god, i totally forgot about that. fuck that smileyface ...

Apple hasn't hit the thin-neess sweet spot yet, according to a watch guy

.

they haven't ... by orders of magnitude. 2020's appleWatch might be slim to a point where i'd consider it "slim"

I doubt it :|
Apple Watch will replace your car keys, says Tim Cook

he probably has a 2nd appleWatch for tracking his sleep that he charges during the day!

 

[LCfiner]

oder of magnitude? for thinness? that means 1.2mm thick. no, they’re not that far off.

the watch is thin compared to mechanical sport watches. the watch is on the chunky side compared to fine dress watches. they bring it down 20%, they’re in the dress watch sweet spot (they also fall out of the sporty watch sweet spot. some people want more heft to their daily watches.)

keep in mind that the person that Greyface linked who said Apple has a ways to go with watch thinness is referring explicitly about fitting under dress shirt cuffs - the comparison is against dress watches and dress shirts. for daily wear, the thickness isn’t an issue. If anything, if the watch looks bulky at it’s current thickness, it’s because the case is a rectangle, and not a smaller circle.

also note that the other watch in that link, the patek philippe perpetual calendar dress watch - used a comparison to indicate why watch nerds won’t likely flock to the Apple watch - is around 100k. and then the guy writes this, which, man, I dunno…

Imagine a man who grew up in the middle class, went to a decent school, got an okay job, lives in a nice apartment in some metropolitan town, maybe drives a German car and occasionally splurges on something nice for himself. Do you see him wearing the Apple Watch? I don't. I do see him buying the Apple Watch, but it will need to go further than that. Take me, for example, I am sitting here on a gorgeous 27-inch iMac, wearing an ultra-thin perpetual calendar in white gold, and in fact, to my left is an Ikepod Hourglass (designed by Marc Newson) that I wanted from the minute I laid eyes on it. I saved up and bought it because it's a perfect object, and even those people who don't care about time, or design, agree that it's beautiful. The average well-to-do person buys an iPhone 6 because it's the absolute best offering in the category in both form and function. I'm not sure the same can be said about the Apple Watch because things like my Patek Philippe 3940G exist, and they always will.

the man bought a $30k hourglass because it’s pretty. his perspective about what a watch is supposed to be - and what it’s supposed to communicate - is going to be slightly different than most people. even those who choose to buy swiss watches now.

I think the fact he brings up a middle class person in one sentence and then brings up a 6 figure patek and that hourglass in another is a bit weird, to be honest.

 

[iMax]

it's BAAAACKKK

 

[Hasney]

it's BAAAACKKK

You never know, they might just have had to call the exterminators in.

 

[Blackhead]

Watch & Wear

Taking the Apple Watch for a test drive.

What if you could experience a little bit of the Apple Watch today? Wouldn’t you love to try one out to gain some unique insights, help you design better experiences, or even help you decide if you’re going to buy one?

We now know Apple will be releasing their Watch in April. While we wait, there continues to be a lot of speculation about why consumers will fall in love with this new product category, which of the features will prove to be the most valuable and how brands, applications, and services can take advantage of this exciting new wearable platform.

This week, I was able to attend a panel in Portland on the future of wearables. About half way through, it dawned on me that...

Interesting article. Thoughts?

Spoiler

He jumps the gun a bit with the 'Notification Paradox'. It might be annonying to receive an "unimportant" notification on a smartwatch but you only 'waste' a glance. It's a lot more annoying to receive a notification on a smartphone, dig it out of your pocket, turn on the screen and then discover it's "unimportant". The watch has some value there in my opinion. Besides that point, I think the article is pretty good.

 

[LCfiner]

I don’t think Apple’s strength is in coming up with smart algorithms to automatically know what’s an important or unimportant notification. (e.g.: it’s not an Apple strength to determine if an email if a promotional item or not and then determine if that promo item should not get a notification. that’s Google’s strength)

I do see them offloading that management to the user. like the “do not disturb” feature in iOS, the Watch could be set up so that you can only receive wrist notifications from people in your favourites or during certain times of day or from certain apps (and combinations of these items)

So, as an example, in my case, the things I would want for wrist notifications are phone calls and text messages only (and I guess calendar alerts). I don’t get urgent emails that would justify a notification.

some of these notifications could be actionable from the wrist but I think, in my case, most would require taking out the phone to provide a longer response (i don’t trust the voice recognition engine enough to dictate more than a few words)

 

[Fliesen]

I don’t think Apple’s strength is in coming up with smart algorithms to automatically know what’s an important or unimportant notification. (e.g.: it’s not an Apple strength to determine if an email if a promotional item or not and then determine if that promo item should not get a notification. that’s Google’s strength)

I do see them offloading that management to the user. like the “do not disturb” feature in iOS, the Watch could be set up so that you can only receive wrist notifications from people in your favourites or during certain times of day or from certain apps (and combinations of these items)

i do believe what they should do is default only calls, calendars and text notifications to go to the watch, everthing else is opt-in. Notification settings on the watch shouldn't by default mirror notification settings on the phone. You should actively pick the notifications that are being passed on to the watch.

the problem with pre-filtering notifications is: Even if the notification doesn't go to your watch, it'll still have the phone in your pocket vibrate, so even though you know "yeah, it's one of those notifications i chose to not see on the watch, you'd still be curious enough to pull out your phone.

I think the quality / quantity of meaniningful notification management is highly up to the user, sadly.

 

[badcrumble]

iOS already gives you pretty granular control of notifications, but I think it'd make a lot of sense to give easier access to that granular control, like in the instant that a particular notification annoys you. It's all there but it's not a simple or pleasant process to really filter through all your apps and figure what you do and don't want to see.

 

[SuperPac]

Watch & Wear

Interesting article. Thoughts?

Spoiler

He jumps the gun a bit with the 'Notification Paradox'. It might be annonying to receive an "unimportant" notification on a smartwatch but you only 'waste' a glance. It's a lot more annoying to receive a notification on a smartphone, dig it out of your pocket, turn on the screen and then discover it's "unimportant". The watch has some value there in my opinion. Besides that point, I think the article is pretty good.

He's mistaken about the reason iPad sales have leveled off/dropped - he seems to think it's because it's of a bad experience. I believe it's more that tablets aren't replaced as often as phones and some of those users have gone onto bigger phones instead of new tablets.

Also as LCfiner was saying, there's no way I want every notification showing up on my wrist. Texts, calendar alerts, phone calls sure - but I have the majority of notifications turned off on my phone already and would expect to keep it that way when the Watch comes out. He has that example of a text from the wife about picking up things from the store - Apple's already showed the "quick response" bubbles where you can act right from that type of notification. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work perfectly in that situation. Or, in my case, I have read notifications turned on for iMessages which I'd assume will carry over to the watch where at least my wife would see that I read it even if I couldn't respond immediately.

Hunting for applications is another thing where he's off. I would imagine much like home screens on a phone a user will arrange the icons based on what they use and be able to dip in and out of applications as needed. If not, there are Glances anyway which you can set up for your most-used apps and get to them by swiping up from the bottom. I don't see it as any more of a problem than starting an app on your phone or switching via iOS multitasking now. Honestly I don't even know how you select applications on Android Wear but I doubt it's easier than that.

 

[jimbobsmells]

Watch & Wear


Interesting article. Thoughts?

The notification paradox is a well thought out argument, but the way he's written that article makes it sound like a desperate attempt to sell android wear. Things like the 'don't worry you'll live' comment makes him lose all credibility in my eyes.

Anyway, I've used a pebble for a while (backed the kickstarter because I do see value in wearables) and completely agree with his core argument. He should drop the partisan nonsense.

 

[Blackhead]

He's mistaken about the reason iPad sales have leveled off/dropped - he seems to think it's because it's of a bad experience. I believe it's more that tablets aren't replaced as often as phones and some of those users have gone onto bigger phones instead of new tablets.

Also as LCfiner was saying, there's no way I want every notification showing up on my wrist. Texts, calendar alerts, phone calls sure - but I have the majority of notifications turned off on my phone already and would expect to keep it that way when the Watch comes out. He has that example of a text from the wife about picking up things from the store - Apple's already showed the "quick response" bubbles where you can act right from that type of notification. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work perfectly in that situation. Or, in my case, I have read notifications turned on for iMessages which I'd assume will carry over to the watch where at least my wife would see that I read it even if I couldn't respond immediately.

Hunting for applications is another thing where he's off. I would imagine much like home screens on a phone a user will arrange the icons based on what they use and be able to dip in and out of applications as needed. If not, there are Glances anyway which you can set up for your most-used apps and get to them by swiping up from the bottom. I don't see it as any more of a problem than starting an app on your phone or switching via iOS multitasking now. Honestly I don't even know how you select applications on Android Wear but I doubt it's easier than that.

Hmm... I'm a contranian on all arguments.

For iPad it's both: iPad is a bad experience for doing work (it's not a laptop replacement) and when the iPad launched smartphones were small 3.5" devices and had poor battery life while laptops were big, thick and also with poor battery life. Like you say now people get a 5.5" iPhone with longer batter life than an iPad and also get a thin light Macbook Air also with better battery life than iPad.

I want all my notifications on my smartwatch. I don't want to ever again pick up a smartphone just to see if I have notifications. iWatch has a notification center so hopefully Apple helps me out here.

Apps and Cards/glances) are different (I guess Glances are kinda the iWatch poor mans equivalent of AndroidWear cards). Android wear doesn't have app launcher like iWatch (although you can install one if you'd like). I just don't see people fiddling around with both hands hopping between apps on a Smartwatch when you can just get out a smartphone with a bigger better screen, better designed more powerful apps, and use that one handed instead. Maybe Apple will prove me wrong, we'll see, but I think glances will be used a lot more often than apps.

 

[SuperPac]

I think you have your mind made up already about the Apple Watch. But hey, success or not, the existence of the Apple Watch is going to help Android Wear and wearable devices in general get better - and that's really the best outcome here.

 

[LCfiner]

i do believe what they should do is default only calls, calendars and text notifications to go to the watch, everthing else is opt-in. Notification settings on the watch shouldn't by default mirror notification settings on the phone. You should actively pick the notifications that are being passed on to the watch.

the problem with pre-filtering notifications is: Even if the notification doesn't go to your watch, it'll still have the phone in your pocket vibrate, so even though you know "yeah, it's one of those notifications i chose to not see on the watch, you'd still be curious enough to pull out your phone.

I think the quality / quantity of meaniningful notification management is highly up to the user, sadly.

Maybe the watch gives people the freedom to turn off vibrations when the phone is in silent mode. so no mystery notifications.

iOS already gives you pretty granular control of notifications, but I think it'd make a lot of sense to give easier access to that granular control, like in the instant that a particular notification annoys you. It's all there but it's not a simple or pleasant process to really filter through all your apps and figure what you do and don't want to see.

this is exactly what I hope they do. if a third party app comes with default notifications turned on for the watch, it shouldn’t be necessary to dive into settings on the phone to turn them off. there should be some sort of force push or long press option on every notification that allows you to turn them off for that app (maybe with 2 or 3 options on a second watch screen to turn them off for a time or forever)

 

[iMax]

2.5hrs active battery, 19hrs average use battery, Power Reserve mode

 

[cakefoo]

2.5hrs active battery, 19hrs average use battery, Power Reserve mode

I don't see the 2.5 hour statement- was it retracted?

 

[iMax]

I don't see the 2.5 hour statement- was it retracted?

Might've been. 9to5Mac said so.

 

[LyleLanley]

I think 2.5 hours comes from the rumor that was circulating about a month ago saying that it would have 2.5 - 4 hours of heavy use and 19 of light usage.

Rumor: Apple shooting for 19 hours of Apple Watch battery life under normal conditions, 2.5 hours 'heavy' use - Apple Insider

 

[Buddha Beam]

Not sure I agree with this. I expect the endgame for the watch is to become a completely independent device, one that can be used standalone or in conjunction with the phone. The first gen is obviously not that device, but theres a lot of room for improvement.

Even if it never evolves to being a full-fledged standalone, things like more onboard storage or more computational power are things that I expect to be upgraded year over year that will reduce the watch's reliance on the phone.

You're right though, this is the least '1st-Gen' feeling Apple product they've ever launched.

My understanding is that the second gen Apple Watch SDK is when developers will really be begin to be able to create full fledged apps. I Apple has said as much themselves. In that sense, I've always seen this as THE most blatantly first gen product Apple has ever released. I'm expecting the Apple Watch 2 to be considerably more capable of doing things beyond just acting as a notification screen. It would have to be to run a native app.

 

[LyleLanley]

My understanding is that the second gen Apple Watch SDK is when developers will really be begin to be able to create full fledged apps. I Apple has said as much themselves. In that sense, I've always seen this as THE most blatantly first gen product Apple has ever released. I'm expecting the Apple Watch 2 to be considerably more capable of doing things beyond just acting as a notification screen. It would have to be to run a native app.

I was under the impression that the first gen watch will eventually be able to run native apps but they want the actual watch in the hands of developers before they let them start developing for it.