Posted on 05/07/2015 12:54:20 PM PDT by Swordmaker
You know one thing that’s great about the Apple Watch? People often don’t realize it’s a smartwatch. I discovered this while visiting the Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France when I asked the guard at the security checkpoint if he minded if I kept my Apple Watch on while walking through the metal detector. He didn’t seem to notice this wasn’t a typical watch, one that mostly shows you a black display instead of the actual time, and he let me pass through without putting the device into the plastic tray.
But the Apple Watch, of course, really does do a lot more than any old wristwatch – and as I’ll explain below, the device has so far really changed the way I’ve been using my iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, the Apple Watch isn’t ever going to “replace” the iPhone – however, it will make sure that you no longer have to pull the device out of your pocket for every single notification you receive.
The Watch isn’t something I really need, but it’s definitely something I started appreciating having around from the moment I first took it out of the box and started wearing it. And yes, before you have to ask, you absolutely need the iPhone to use the Watch as a smartwatch. And you need the iPhone for everything else the Watch can’t do.
(Excerpt) Read more at bgr.com ...
I’ve been watching bgr deteriorate for years. They really are a click bait factory now. Not to mention the reader comments are in need of a special ed teacher to moderate.
Making an assertion tells us nothing, Dennis. What do they do? What makes them superior, in your opinion?
She knew I was ordering one for me, and watched me order it, hers was a surprise gift, which I ordered when she left the room. But when I printed out the receipts, the printer ran out of paper in the other room. . . I grabbed the three pages that had printed, two for my watch and one for hers, thinking I had them all, and a couple of days later she put more paper in and the final page printed out with the confirmation of her watch on it including the gift message. . . Spoiled the surprise.
History in the making, indeed. What more intrinsically valuable product could Apple have offered - the iElbowStretcher, the iCrockpot, the iLitterBox ? One has to wonder.
In the meantime, buyers of the Apple Watch will have had three to five years of enjoyment and utility of a cutting edge, non-obsolete smartwatch that can be upgraded in software during those years, all for $117 to $70 per year, depending on how long it takes for it to become obsolete.
Just spent a couple of hours setting it up for my girlfriend and playing with it. . . my girlfriend is falling in love with it. She loves the Butterfly clock face with the digital time in military time, being raised a military kid.
We found one feature I have never seen mentioned in any review or comment. . . and that is the ability to find your iPhone which has been mislaid. It's in the Watch's Control Center which you access by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, there's a place to PING your iPhone. . . and it causes your iPhone to chime so you can find where you put it down. Very useful ability of the Apple Watch. It's next to the screen that shows the battery reserve left.
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Possibly the most significant influence of the Apple Watch may be the avoidance of accidents by those now phone-fixated while in motion.
I anticipate far fewer stumbles and collisions with doorframes, lightposts, other pedestrians, curbs and vehicular traffic.
And, who knows -- maybe some of the above folks may actually return to having conversations with their companions...
That may be its real market. As for me, I retired my watch and cell phone when I retired from having structured, tethered time imposed on me -- and I ain't going back!!! '-)
Yah, I discovered that “ping the phone” gizmo, sorta by accident while poking around. Could come in handy.
I’ve discovered another feature, that at first I thought was a malfunction but it’s not... I wasn’t getting any alerts on the watch for new messages that were showing up on the phone. Well, turns out that if you’re -using- the phone when new messages arrive it doesn’t bother to send the notification to the watch. It only sends the notification to the watch when the phone is sleeping or locked. Well...duh. Makes sense. No reason to annoy you with alerts you already know about.
I turned the brightness way down to about two thirds. It’s plenty bright and I suspect it saves a lot of battery. Yesterday was my first full day with it, waking to bedtime, and after about seventeen hours it still had over 30% battery remaining. No worries on battery life I think. Today I set the brightness down to about a third and it still seems plenty bright so I’ll try that and see how it goes.
What are you, a quibbler?
Hilarious. . . we were befuddled by the same issue. I was trying to send my girlfriend a taptic touch from her phone watch app, but it just wouldn't come through at all. We were beginning to think the watch had gone dead for tactics. . . and even messages from my phone would not touch on her watch! Uh oh. . . defective watch. But her phone was operating while we were trying this. Put her phone to sleep and everything works as it's supposed to. DUH!
I can't wait for my Space Black SS Watch to arrive. . . but I have to. June. RATS!
Today I tried out a few things for the first time with it...
Driving directions— Magnificent! So. Much. Better. I set up the place I was going on the phone and the watch immediately went into that mode. I usually have the phone on the center console for directions. It’s not great but it worked. But this time I actually ended up just putting the phone back in my shirt pocket. The phone still gave audio directions, but the turn by turn and taptics on the watch were instantly intuitive (heh... It sounds and feels like a turn signal!) and far, FAR less distracting than looking down at the phone map.
Apple pay— since I still have a 5s phone I haven’t been able to use it until now. One of the places I went today (Petco) was set up for it. Worked like a charm. Pretty slick. I look forward to some kind of app that will present bar codes for customer loyalty cards. Would be handy.
So far I keep being impressed by how well designed, engineered and considered everything is. For a first generation product in a whole new line of products it’s just amazing.
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