“I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb and claim that the Apple Watch is probably the dumbest thing Apple has ever made.”
While I am not going to get a watch, there are a few things that are probably way dumber:
Apple III
Puck mouse
iPod Hi-Fi
Pippin
Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
GeoPort modem
honorable mention: the Performa 5200
Does he own one? He says he had a Pebble, the notifications sucked, and that 2 years ago he would have been first in line for the Watch. From that article, I’m don’t think he has one.
Using the default configuration, the watch always comes back to the watch display. You don’t have to clear a notification after looking at it. And there’s a minimum of button pushing needed; activate on wrist raise works pretty well, even if your arm is already raised. The article seems entirely based on his experience with the Pebble.
Good point. Own, no. He does claim to have used one though.
This pre-release panning should be all anyone needs to know on this guy’s bias:
I was just taking his word for it, but thanks for the clarification. FWIW I think smart watches are pointless but awesome. I am a big tech fan but have never had a desire to get a pebble. They seem so clunky and shit. I’m an Android guy so it would be the Moto360 or Urbane for me.
I’m also a big gadget fan. I did own the Pebble also. The Pebble suffers from limited integration options on the iPhone; it was pass through all phone notifications or none. And, of course, the build quality feels cheap.
My first couple weeks with the watch has it being pretty useful for me. I get a few notifications, I don’t get my phone out as much, it was convenient for boarding pass scans, Apple Pay on the wrist is great, and the activity tracking has just the right amount of nudging that I actually get off my butt more often. I even used it as a remote for a group photo at an event that I would otherwise not have gotten to be in. Time will tell if I still think it’s useful in six months or more, after the novelty has worn off. But so far it works as advertised.
There are few tech journos whose views and reviews I trust more than Andy Ihnatko. After his year or so wearing Androidwear he’s convinced smart watches are a useful thing, and he’s pretty practical with his recommendations. It’s hard to know how much the thing costs to make but IMO $350 US is an obscene rip-off, especially considering you’ve already given them cash for an iphone.
The Applewatch is a non-starter for me because I don’t nor have I plans to own any ithings and there’s no way Apple will open their watch up to Android.
pebble owner here and purchaser of an apple watch for my wife.
notifications on her wrist = is not missing text messages from me now because her phone is in purse or pocket, on vibrate, and she can’t feel them.
activity tracker has pushed her into overdrive on wanting to exercise. it’s awesome.
being able to use siri to respond to texts on the wrist = also a huge win. works really, really well.
people who are hating on this thing really have no idea how useful it is.
Not really. The smartphone market was utter and complete ass before the iPhone. It was a desolate wasteland and everyone hated them, for good reason. I know I did!
Not so much with watches. Lots of people have watches they love and use all the time. I mean listen to John Mayer:
“We’re all going to end up with the Apple Watch, I don’t care what you say,” Mr. Mayer said. “Even if you have to wear it on your right hand. Even if you wear it as a pocket watch, because I have a concept that you can slot the Apple Watch into a pocket, as a pocket watch. I think it’s a cool device, but there’s got to be another place to put it. I can’t give up precious wrist space for an Apple Watch.”
A watch on each wrist? That, is fucked up. And it neatly summarizes the conundrum.
Isn’t that just an iphone? I thought the link must have been satire when I read that line, but he’s actually serious…
Our phones have become invasive. But what if you could engineer a reverse state of being? What if you could make a device that you wouldn’t—couldn’t—use for hours at a time? What if you could create a device that could filter out all the bullshit and instead only serve you truly important information? You could change modern life. And so after three-plus decades of building devices that grab and hold our attention—the longer the better—Apple has decided that the way forward is to fight back.
Apple, in large part, created our problem. And it thinks it can fix it with a square slab of metal and a Milanese loop strap.
This must be one of the craziest bits of analysis I have ever seen on Wired.
More accurately, Apple created the problem, now it is time to take it to it’s logical conclusion.
The Smart Watch has to be the ultimate useless accessory, closely followed by Google Glass.
It feels a bit like the Age of Electricity, where anything that could be made electric could be marketed as progress, regardless of its usefullness. In a hundred years, we’ll probably be looking back at this here period with irony about how anything digital was an instant seller.
I don’t know a lot of these references, but i agree, Pippin is a shitty show.
You know… wasn’t it just in the last ten years that people have been commenting on how they like not having to strap something to their wrist every day, and about how they like checking their notifications when they have a good moment to, not when some machine is demanding their attention? Wristwatches were only invented about a hundred years ago. Smartphones are basically a return to pocket watches (with some added benefits, in that they’re also pocket agendas/notebooks/etc.). I sell handmade jewelry whenever I get a season’s worth of product made (not very good about keeping it as a steady side business), and I’ve noticed an uptick in interest in wearing bracelets, precisely because people don’t have to worry about the jewelry scratching a wristwatch anymore.
Personally I’m not that interested in smartwatches, not for the gadgety reasons, but because the material in most watches gives me an allergic reaction. Actually, that’s how I got into jewelry making, making myself pieces made from hypoallergenic glass beads. If I were ever to wear a watch again, I’d probably have to make my own strap for it.
If you’re someone who always liked wearing a wristwatch, then maybe a smartwatch is for you. But there seems to be a fair amount of people who are more than happy not to have to wear any watch at all.
This is what I came to say as well. My Pebble let me keep my phone in my pocket more, not less. Mine broke, and I’m waiting to replace it only because there are some interesting new smartwatches on the horizon (and also, I’m trying to see if I can get my hands on a cheap Chinese knock off to review)
Well, thats why the Watch Edition exists-- so you don’t have to wear jewelry.
I think Apple Watch makes fine sense as a smartphone accessory, which is what it is… but I am not convinced that’s going to be an enormous market between people that don’t want to wear a watch, and those that already do, and are happy with their fashionable analog watch…
GeoPort Modem. It’s upgradeable!
I believe the Apple Watch is the straightest way to tell your entourage “I’m a schmock”.
Oh, by the way: not everyone who wears an analog watch does it for fashion. There are still people in the world who actually wear a watch so they can check the time. Mine is from the 70’s and I found it in my neighbor’s trash. A fine old swiss watch. Go figure. It’s not very fashionable but it tells the time with outmost precision and never needs to be connected to a powert source.
What’s a schmock?
A penis.
