Posted on 09/10/2014 7:11:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There’s a decent rule of thumb when it comes to anything Apple: When it introduces something brand new, don’t buy version 1.o. Wait until the second or third version instead; you’ll be much better off. Does anybody remember OS 10.0? It was a disaster, and even people who installed it spent 90% of their time in OS 9 instead. The very first MacBook Air? An underpowered exercise in frustration. The original iPad? Heavy and clunky. The original iPod? Was not only heavy and clunky and expensive, it was also tied to the Macintosh and didn’t work either alone or with a PC.
The best-case scenario for the Apple Watch is that the product we saw announced Tuesday will eventually iterate into something really great. Because anybody who has ever worn a watch will tell you: this thing has serious problems.
For one thing, Apple has been worryingly silent on the subject of battery life, but there’s no indication that this thing will last even 24 hours. A watch’s battery should last for months; even watches which don’t have batteries will last for a couple of days, if you have to wind them manually, or indefinitely, if they’re automatic and all you have to do is wear them. Watches might be complicated on the inside, but they’re simple on the outside, and they should never come with a charging cable. (To make matters worse, even though the Apple Watch only works if you have an iPhone, the iPhone charging cable will not charge the Apple Watch; you need a different charging cable entirely.)
Of course, the Apple Watch is more than just a watch. But it’s also less than just a watch, which is a problem. It probably isn’t waterproof,
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
I hate to have to break this to you, but the reason it doesn’t work without the iPhone is because it does tens of things in conjunction with the iPhone that makes it so you don’t have to pull the phone out of your pocket.
That’s a good thing. If you don’t have an iPhone, you wouldn’t want this anyway. Many of us who do, will.
Can you explain to me what would concern you about anyone, even the government knowing that you walked a mile today, and also up five flights of stairs?
I’m not ever sure the government would want to know that. What would be the benefit? For that matter, what would be the negative exposure on your part even if they did?
And ultimately, how do you know the government could get access to that information?
Whew...
Many of the desirable functions require reliance on the iPhone, otherwise these would either be not present at all, or the wearable device would be entirely too large. There’s a sort of footprint issue and the product just introduced is pushing it with existing tech. Certainly couldn’t have been any larger and be taken seriously by anyone but hardcore geeks.
I heard the same arguments when the iPad came out.
I bought one 30 minutes after release.
I hear the same arguments now about the Apple Watch.
I’ll be among the first in line for that too.
Sure it’s amorphous. Yes it’s not cheap. It’s not an astounding innovation out of a void. But like the mobile tablet market, it got something right - something which, even if vague, hundreds of millions of people will pay a lot of money for in short order. And no, “fanboi” and “morons” and “stupid” and etc do not constitute an insightful retort.
Hundreds of billions of dollars later...
I agree. I think the potential might be realized when you have a system on a chip that can fit in the footprint of a watch, such that it would allow you to do most of what a phone does without need of the phone. I would use it on runs and for the health tracking, and to listen to music on the go. It would allow me to leave the phone in the car, or in a backpack and still be connected. If you have to have the phone for it to work, it doesn’t add much that you need. A big issue, though, would be the phone company would want $30 per month on top of the phone contract. It should be included in the package deal.
“Can you explain to me what would concern you about anyone, even the government knowing that you walked a mile today, and also up five flights of stairs?”
I’m good with all your arguments here but the reason you need to be concerned with faceless, unelected, immune from prosecution, bureaucrats should be obvious to anyone at FR. There is no such thing as a mostly Democrat bureaucracy that’s only interested in how many miles you walked today.
I’m sure they’ve got access to my computer any time they want it.
I’m sure they have access to my phone as well, if they want it.
So what am I to do, stop using anything that they can tap into?
You realize that means you can no longer drive unless you have an old Edsel, or some equally free from electronics model vehicle.
I don’t like this, but I’m not going to drop out of society over it.
I appreciate the response, and I appreciate that you don’t like what the government is doing. I don’t think you should. I can join you in that.
I agree, but you asked a question as if the answer was that there’s no concern about bureaucrats (the government) gathering seemingly harmless data from a persons phone. Granted, you didn’t ask me, but I thought I’d help. I’m a giver.
I came to the same conclusion as you regarding my personal inability to do much about it but I believe that the ones who have the least to fear should be the most vocal. Maybe we’ll talk about that someday.
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