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Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

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Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#71

Post by josefresco »

wpietri wrote: post #45
josefresco wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notification style advertisements, that bubble up as you move about could be a gold mine if users could get over the potential privacy concerns. Advertising models like this (contextual notification powered offers) must exist for smartphones already - anyone know the leader in this segment?

It could be a gold mine for advertisers , whose job is mostly to manipulate people into buying particular things. For watch owners, though, it's being mined. My concern is only modestly with privacy; it's more about intimacy. Defending against manipulation requires a bit of space, a bit of distance from the manipulator. There is zero chance I would let ads on my watch, a surface I paid a fair bit of money for because…

I work for small business owners, to say their "advertising" is primarily to "manipulate people into buying particular things" would be a very skewed characterization.

Characterizations like that show a bias, and while they may "feel right" when talking about large brands, when you realize your local market, or restaurant wants to "advertise" or promote a special - suddenly advertising doesn't seem all that evil.

Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#72

Post by deong »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #44
pmontra wrote: post #26

"Your Apple Watch app acts like a separate process running on a separate device, however behind the scenes the OS runs a ‘skeleton’ like version of your host application on the user's iPhone and the Apple Watch extension in tandem, both on the iPhone" I totally missed this limitation until now. So the iWatch works only if you have an iPhone and the phone is in communication range with the watch? What can the watch st…

> What can the watch still do if the phone is offline or too far away? I believe the watch face continues to work but anything that requires interacting with non-native apps (most of apple's apps are native on the watch fyi) or network connectivity just won't work. On the plus side it will work with bluetooth and wifi so you can at least go some [minor] distance away from your watch. But this same limitation exists i…

It's a less restrictive version of the idea on Android Wear as well. Most apps do currently require your phone to be present, but the watch itself is generally running a bit more autonomously than the Apple Watch is. The phone can actually just send data to the watch, and the watch deals with it. It's not just blitting a computed image onto the screen (which is an exaggeration of the Apple model, but it's closer to that with Apple than Android currently). You have access to the sensors on Wear. You can create custom layouts.

Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#73

Post by oxide »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #44
pmontra wrote: post #26

"Your Apple Watch app acts like a separate process running on a separate device, however behind the scenes the OS runs a ‘skeleton’ like version of your host application on the user's iPhone and the Apple Watch extension in tandem, both on the iPhone" I totally missed this limitation until now. So the iWatch works only if you have an iPhone and the phone is in communication range with the watch? What can the watch st…

> What can the watch still do if the phone is offline or too far away? I believe the watch face continues to work but anything that requires interacting with non-native apps (most of apple's apps are native on the watch fyi) or network connectivity just won't work. On the plus side it will work with bluetooth and wifi so you can at least go some [minor] distance away from your watch. But this same limitation exists i…

I'm not sure why, but I get the feeling that these watches aren't all that smart. It sounds like the portable pocket computer we already bought does all the heavy lifting, while the smartwatch itself functions as a secondary display?

I never gave them much thought until just now, but learning that really saps some of the novelty away from the whole thing for me.

I can't imagine a good reason to own a watch in 2015 and learning they're only functional when paired with a phone reinforces that belief.

Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#74

Post by DannoHung »

huhhhh wrote: post #28
res0nat0r wrote: post #20

Apparently you can't do a lot of things with it if you have tattoos on your wrist: http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/344b3o/anyone_with_ta...

You're tattooing it wrong. But seriously, how could Apple not test this?

Seems like they tested every other factor though: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666

They do explicitly note that you may need an external heart rate sensor band in some conditions if the pulse oximeter isn't working for some reason.

Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#75

Post by notatoad »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #44
pmontra wrote: post #26

"Your Apple Watch app acts like a separate process running on a separate device, however behind the scenes the OS runs a ‘skeleton’ like version of your host application on the user's iPhone and the Apple Watch extension in tandem, both on the iPhone" I totally missed this limitation until now. So the iWatch works only if you have an iPhone and the phone is in communication range with the watch? What can the watch st…

> What can the watch still do if the phone is offline or too far away? I believe the watch face continues to work but anything that requires interacting with non-native apps (most of apple's apps are native on the watch fyi) or network connectivity just won't work. On the plus side it will work with bluetooth and wifi so you can at least go some [minor] distance away from your watch. But this same limitation exists i…

>But this same limitation exists in Android Wear and Pebble as well.

This is not true. Both pebble and androidwear allow developers to write native applications that run directly on the watch, and can continue operating without the tether to a phone. Without the phone they have no network connection which limits their potential a lot, but they can still access the sensors on the watch, record data, and provide interactions based on stored and sensor data.

Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#76

Post by elorant »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #37
huhhhh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're tattooing it wrong. But seriously, how could Apple not test this?

I have a feeling that the Apple of old would have caught this instantly, when it was largely the boutique brand for creatives. Today's Apple? Not surprising at all.

The Apple of old almost went bankrupt.

Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#77

Post by orbitur »

gdubs wrote: post #42
pmontra wrote: post #26

"Your Apple Watch app acts like a separate process running on a separate device, however behind the scenes the OS runs a ‘skeleton’ like version of your host application on the user's iPhone and the Apple Watch extension in tandem, both on the iPhone" I totally missed this limitation until now. So the iWatch works only if you have an iPhone and the phone is in communication range with the watch? What can the watch st…

You can still go on a run, for example, without the phone and listen to a few gigs worth of music. There's apparently a bit of machine learning that allows the watch to do all of its health metrics on your run, once it has gotten to know your patterns.

No GPS though. I was hoping the watch would at least have that so I didn't have to put up with Garmin's terrible software anymore.

Maybe rev. 2.

Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#78

Post by melvinmt »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #23

>Can I build a watch face? No Wow, really? I just built a watch face from a photo of my son on Android using some app. It took 2 minutes. I was expecting Apple to do this better; not block the functionality. >Can I access the users Heart Rate? No. This is bewildering. You'd think support for third party health apps would be a priority. This works on AW right now. This product seems rushed. I guess Apple didn't want A…

> This product seems rushed.

In Apple's eyes, it's Android and Pebble who are rushing :)

Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#79

Post by deong »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #36
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #23

>Can I build a watch face? No Wow, really? I just built a watch face from a photo of my son on Android using some app. It took 2 minutes. I was expecting Apple to do this better; not block the functionality. >Can I access the users Heart Rate? No. This is bewildering. You'd think support for third party health apps would be a priority. This works on AW right now. This product seems rushed. I guess Apple didn't want A…

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted; I couldn't agree more. Not being able to build a watch face is incredible. Android Wear and Pebble both had this ability really quickly (Android Wear was at launch, I believe Pebble added it shortly thereafter) and much of this was done years ago. But I can't say I'm not entirely surprised. Apple doesn't like people customizing the look of their products much. Look at the iPho…

Android Wear didn't have it at launch either. It took six months or so to release an official watch face SDK. People did immediately hack watch faces together by making an app whose UI was a custom drawn watch face animation, but that was a little clunky in that you had to have an app on your phone for the face, and some of them were pretty rough on the watch battery.

But yes, overall I agree. It's a bit surprising just how locked down it is. Especially when it's hard to see the gain from it. The Apple Watch seems to have a shorter (or at least not longer) battery life than most of the Android Wear models that allow taxing the watch battery to do quite a lot more stuff.

Re: Apple Watch – What can you do with it?

#80

Post by rickyc091 »

orbitur wrote: post #77
gdubs wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still go on a run, for example, without the phone and listen to a few gigs worth of music. There's apparently a bit of machine learning that allows the watch to do all of its health metrics on your run, once it has gotten to know your patterns.

No GPS though. I was hoping the watch would at least have that so I didn't have to put up with Garmin's terrible software anymore. Maybe rev. 2.

I can't foresee GPS being a standalone component on watches due to battery drains. Garmin's watch currently gives me 10 hours on GPS, but that's also due to the fact that all it does is track my run.
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