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I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audio-first future

franzschrepf.medium.com

11–20 of 87 posts

Re: I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audio-first future

#12

Does anyone understand why Apple Watch only works with some mobile networks? I have an LTE version, but it’s not “supported” by any networks in my country. I’ve owned it for many years and it’s not really useful unless in proximity of the phone. I’d love to be without phone and perform simple productivity tasks, “queries”, etc.

As others have pointed out, it’s probably the carrier that does not support the right kind of E-Sim.

But furthermore, an Apple Watch with cellular bought in the US, cannot use cellular data in e.g. the EU. Not sure why, but it must be localized on a software/hardware (?) level. At least that’s what the Apple genius told me on my last visit to the states..

Re: I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audio-first future

#14
post #11

Does anyone know if AirPods work with the Apple Watch without an iPhone? As in, if I leave my phone at home, will I be able to stream music and calls from my watch to my AirPods while I go for a run? Or does it have to route through the phone?

I think this works as it was showcased in an ad iirc. At least for the cellular watch.

Re: I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audio-first future

#17
post #5

taking up visual info is much faster, than audio info. Plus you have control over the flow and much more flexible UX. going into audio mode is a completely different attention pattern, and definitely not casual.

Certainly true. However, so much of what I view on my phone is just noise. A few phone calls and messages a day would be perfectly suited for audio-only. For the rest, I’d be better off on my laptop.

Re: I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audio-first future

#18
post #11

Does anyone know if AirPods work with the Apple Watch without an iPhone? As in, if I leave my phone at home, will I be able to stream music and calls from my watch to my AirPods while I go for a run? Or does it have to route through the phone?

If you have the cellular version, yes. However, I have found that the handoff from WiFi to Cellular is terrible. It takes a few minutes for the watch to realize it's not going to reconnect to WiFi soon, and in the meantime you're just sort of left waiting for when it decides to switch over to cellular.

This is especially annoying if you're listening to streaming radio (like NPR) and going for a walk. It will just drop. This has been the case since the very first version of the cellular watch, I suspect as a battery-saving feature.

The only way to really get around this is to force cellular mode before you leave. This is what I do, and it's embarrassingly un-Apple in experience:

(1) Put my iPhone in Airplane mode. I think I could accomplish the same thing just turning off BT, but I want to be really sure the phone and watch are cut off from each other.

(2) Turn WiFi off on my Apple Watch. Wait a few minutes(!) before I go for a walk -- make coffee, leash up my dog, etc

(3) Walk outside, and issue my Siri command to trigger music/radio

This usually works fine. But its annoying. If you're not especially dedicated to going phone-free (it drains the battery quickly) I really wouldn't bother.

Re: I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audio-first future

#20

Article complains about distractions, and is littered with animated GIFs everywhere. You can hardly read any portion of the text without having nervous pixels jumping around somewhere.

No kidding, it's hard to focus on the text because there's so many irrelevant animations firing all the time.
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