Apple Watch

[kenbobo]

So with preorders backed up to June (I thought i saw that someplace...) it seems that this looks quite good.

Discuss the apple watch here!

[dryer_lint]

I'll stick with my analog watch

[Bill Phil]

I saw an ad in a paper for a smart watch. It said that it didn't need to charge or anything, because it was a NORMAL watch.

Seriously. I don't like these things.

[Tommygun]

I'm reasonable happy with my $35 dollar Timex watches.

They tell the time, no one is going to rob me for one and if I break it, I won't feel like jumping from the roof.

[vger]

Eden was wonderful. Until one specific moment.

[Tommygun]

Eden was wonderful. Until one specific moment.

Yep, they should have kept a better watch on that apple.

[razark]

What's a "watch"?

I haven't had a working watch in quite a while. I could never get used to wearing a wristwatch after I had a strap break, so I used a pocket watch. The battery died, and I never bothered to get it replaced because I've got a cellphone, so I don't really need a dedicated timepiece. Seeing as I've never had much use for a smartphone, a smartwatch doesn't appeal to me at all.

[ChrisSpace]

I always wear a non-smart watch (a dumb watch?) at school. I personally think that, like google glass, smart watches will take a long time to kick off. The technology is simply to primitive right now. So I will probably stick with my dumb watch for a while longer.

[Pixel of Life]

Smartwatches are a stupid invention. Apart from checking the time, everything you can do with a smartwatch can be done much more quickly and easily on a phone/tablet. Most of them are really ugly, too.

[Ethanadams]

See when I whant to tell the time I look up at sky and get about the correct time to the half an hour who need tech?

[Nuke]

yet another arm (while that might be interpreted as a pun, it was not intentional) computer called something other than computer. people have been calling computers phones for awhile now, now we get to call computers watches for a change. i miss the days when we called computers what they are, computers. tech manufacturers aren't actually making new technology, they are just repackaging and renaming the old technology to get people to buy it.

[Robotengineer]

The A-Watch may be a cool accessary for some absurdly wealthy people business people, but I don't see what it can do for the average person. I just don't see the need for a device that can do just about everything a smart phone can do, and the other features, like the heartbeat sharing, are just creepy.

[Ethanadams]

The smosh video on it tells you everything you need to know about it

[H2O.]

The Apple watch is right now a glorified ipod that you wear on your wrist. It is useless, ugly (well, that is my opinion) and a symbol of consumerism in the worst sense of the term. Apple knows that fact and that is why it is sold as a fashion item, not as a productivity tool.

There is also the problem of privacy with all those "health" programs that will run on it.

Oh don't get me wrong, it will sell like crazy, but it will stay in drawers, like tablets (an other piece of useless junk in my opinion, although it can have some use as an embeded device, in a car for instance).

[maltesh]

Smartwatches are a stupid invention. Apart from checking the time, everything you can do with a smartwatch can be done much more quickly and easily on a phone/tablet. Most of them are really ugly, too.

Personally, I didn't see the point in a PDA until I hand one.

I didn't see the point in an MP3 player until I owned one.

I din't see the point in a cell phone, until I owned one.

I didn't see the point in a Smartphone until I owned one.

I didn't see the point in an E-reader until I owned one.

Didn't see the point in a tablet until I owned one.

Can't say anything about the Apple Watch; I don't own one.

I do own a Motorola 360, and have for the past six months. I wear the thing every day, and enjoy it. For everything that I use it for, it's quicker than the phone, primarily because my phone starts out in my pocket, and more often than not, is also locked. It's great for email and texting triage, and handling those notifications that you want to be alerted about, but don't really need to do anything about. And navigation. And weather. And silent alarms. And, of course, checking the time. Under normal use, it easily lasts longer than 24 hours on a charge, but I haven't used a phone that routinely lasts 24 hours on a single charge, so charging it every night is perfectly fine for me, and even if I forget to charge it one night, if I have 30 minutes between the time I wake up and I have to be somewhere, it'll charge to full in that time. And to be honest, I've also worn watches for the vast majority of my life, the last four years have been mostly an aberration.

Personally, I'm glad I bought one.

Would I recommend that someone buy a Moto 360 /now/? No, probably not. Even though there's been a significant price drop in the 360's, at this point, you're still an Early Adopter, and the Moto 360 was a bit underpowered back when it came out nine months ago and there's a second generation of Android Wear watches in the pipeline. The primary reason to get one right now is that you want one Right Now, and they're going to be getting better soon, and better after that.

[H2O.]

Personally, I didn't see the point in a PDA until I hand one.

I didn't see the point in an MP3 player until I owned one.

I din't see the point in a cell phone, until I owned one.

I didn't see the point in a Smartphone until I owned one.

I didn't see the point in an E-reader until I owned one.

Didn't see the point in a tablet until I owned one.

Some of those computers haven't been a big success (PDA and the E-reader).

Historically, computers were successful because of software, nothing else: spreadsheet and word processor for the PC, SMS for cells phones, e-mails for the professionnals smartphones (blackberry) then the combo Angry Birds + Facebook for the general public market.

There is no killer app for the tablet, that is why most people who bought one don't use it (to be fair, you can argue that the web browser is the killer app for the tablet, but then a tablet is just a laptop without a keyboard).

The watch can turn out to be a successful device (by successful, I mean that it will last decades) if and only if a killer app appears. I don't see it right now, and Apple either for all I know.

It can happen, right now it haven't.

[vger]

i miss the days when we called computers what they are, computers. tech manufacturers aren't actually making new technology, they are just repackaging and renaming the old technology to get people to buy it.

I'd take a guess that what you're really missing of those days is when computers were made for people who use computers, as opposed to the modern age, when computers are made for total idiots.

I can hold off on all of the new "Apple" gear though. I don't even have a smart phone -- I like tactile buttons that allow me to punch out a message without even looking at the screen.

When Hololens comes out though... that might be a different story.

[Flymetothemun]

I'm reasonable happy with my $35 dollar Timex watches.

They tell the time, no one is going to rob me for one and if I break it, I won't feel like jumping from the roof.

Same here, I'm very happy with my $15 Casio 53-W. I've had it for forever, the screen hasn't dimmed a bit, and I can't remember ever having to replace the battery. It's also taken a helluva beating, I've been kayak camping with it, walked countless miles out in the woods and banged it on countless trees, dropped on the floor and accidentally stepped on it a few times, submerged it plenty of times, even tossed it across the room onto a wall just to see if it could take it, and she's still going. It's probably the lightest and lowest-profile watch I've ever had, the only thing I feel when I have it on is just the tiniest bit of pressure.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Flymetothemun

[Nuke]

I'd take a guess that what you're really missing of those days is when computers were made for people who use computers, as opposed to the modern age, when computers are made for total idiots.

thats pretty much it. but still i have not been a huge fan of many of these portable devices. tiny, screens with clumsy touch interfaces, horrible software (especially anything that wants to run in a vm, im looking at you android), not to mention closed architectures (lots of hardware specs behind ndas or pay walls) and planned obsolescence (totally functional devices becoming trash simply because you cant upgrade or switch os, thus limiting your software options). i simply dont like the limits they impose.

[Astronut]

Some of those computers haven't been a big success (PDA and the E-reader).

Well, your phone is now pretty much your PDA, so the concept just evolved and merged with another technology. As for the e-reader... the Kindle seems pretty successful, although my iPad Air pretty much replaced my Kindle reader.

When the iPad was announced back in 2010 very vocal critics slammed it as an oversized iPod Touch, and yet here we are 5 years later and iPads are everywhere, and being used in ways that even Apple didn't envision at the beginning. It will be interesting to see how the watch pans out. I pre-ordered the sport version (I had an Apple gift certificate that was burning a hole in my pocket). I'll let you know what I think once I get it, sometime in June I guess.

[bigdad84]

I have been using a Pebble for over a year now. (Started out with the plastic one and upgraded to the Pebble Steele a few months later.) As far as the Apple Watch goes, it has everything that the Pebble lacks and then some. (Besides battery life) The Retina Display screen is going to be amazing compared to the e-ink pixelated screen on the Pebble. I have found myself in several situations just recently where instead of having to pull out my phone I could just ask Siri a quick question from my wrist. 42mm Stainless Steel w/ Link Bracelet was my choice and have not yet had one ounce of buyer's remorse.

[Astronut]

Very nice Bigdad84. I went with the Sport version 42mm Space Gray with black wristband. I may look into getting a different 3rd party strap to supplement the sports band. In a couple of years I will probably look at upgrading to a newer model. Time will tell .

[Fel]

You know, I think I want to note that the iPhone really didn't replace the PDA in terms of pure functionality. It replaced a "stagnant market that was suffering from poor sales and poor management of company ip." Basically, whereas the treo and blackberry were designed and marketed at businessmen... and hence suffering from a small market (as well as internal problems), the iphone was designed for the typical brainless consumer. Apple said "BUY" and people lined up for miles to "BUY."

The netbook was really the precursor to the ipad, not the Kindle. Netbooks were laughed off the market, in all their forms, because you could only "surf the web and run "apps" on them." And netbooks were getting TINY! Easy to put in a purse or a bag... but no one wanted them. Apple comes on the market and says "hey, we're making a netbook... but we're removing the keyboard and removing all the periphrials, removing SD cards, removing usb, giving you a tiny amount of drive space because we're running a smear campaign against HDDs, and not giving you access to all the free software available online because you're locked into our own system" and people say "OMG YES!"

Apple has NEVER found a niche in the market. Apple MAKES niches by convincing people to buy things they do not need, by designing products, not to be the best for the job, but the best to give people a "cool" feeling that does all kinds of psychology I don't understand.

It's like, how I had turned off all kinds of styling with windows to the point that it looked like Windows 9"5. People who saw my system said "eww, why did you do that", I would always say "why would you waste system resources by turning it on". Yet still, we're often more impressed by something that does its job poorly but looks good doing it than something that does its job extremely well but looks bad.

[Nuke]

the only apple product i own is a 5th gen ipod that was long ago hacked to run rockbox instead of the stock firmware. i attribute this to be the prime reason why it still functions. i can also write 'programs' on it but i have to key in lua scripts with morse code, so its not fun.

[Astronut]

I don't know what to say Fel. I have owned two iPads and I think they are hard to beat. I use iPads at work too and they have made a significant difference in my profession. Strangely I'm not a Mac guy though. I prefer a PC for gaming and normal admin stuff.