Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

daringfireball.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 118 posts

Re: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

#101

Post by YuriNiyazov »

drcode wrote: post #55
YuriNiyazov wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As your comment rightfully deserves due to language and general non-contribution, you've been down-voted into oblivion. Nevertheless, educating the uninformed is a public service, so here goes: amongst professionals and connoisseurs in the watch industry, the "knob" is called a "crown", so they have every right to call it that; they didn't just make it up.

To defend my position: They're not calling it a "crown", they're calling it a "digital crown", and digital knobs are common place objects that already have a name. If I build a car with a joystick instead of a steering wheel and call it a "digital steering wheel" everyone would say, "No, somebody invented that already, it's called a 'joystick'"... they would not say "I am going to educate the uninformed and tell them…

FWIW, I am surprised to discover that I am having this argument with someone whose work I've read and admire.

Re: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

#102

Post by manicdee »

adventured wrote: post #14
blainsmith wrote: post #5

And yet it is still square and ugly because of it.

I actually like some square and rectangle watch designs, but in this case I dislike the particular overall shape of the Apple Watch. It has something to do with the combination of the thickness, and the specific rounding of the corners and sides, that I find off-putting aesthetically. I want to wear a watch, not a gadget. So I want the technology to be submissive to the watch. When you look at what is on my wrist, I…

iPod Nano is the device you're thinking of.

The iPod Nano with a particular after-market watch band was quite popular at the time.

Re: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

#103

Post by robszumski »

I think Gruber's argument that this is Apple's first move into the mainstream, non-tech product scene is correct. The Mark Newson news was a huge indicator. They need two world-class designers to design electronics when Jony has already been killing it for years?

An interesting thought for the future:

Having two devices on a human gives you much richer spatial information, including accurate bearing and rotation speed plus measuring the difference in movement on the top and lower half of the body. Short term, this is great for fitness. Long term, this works well in a house with multiple other Apple products acting as sensors inside a home.

Re: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

#104

Post by webvictim »

manicdee wrote: post #100
Kylekramer wrote: post #28

My impression of Android Wear is that it’s best thought of as a wrist-worn terminal for your Android phone and for Google’s cloud-based services. An extension for your phone, not a sibling device. Android Wear devices are almost useless other than for telling time when out of Bluetooth range from your phone. I don’t think that’s a device that many people want; it’s a solution in search of a problem. I don't see how t…

The iPod Nano was a product whose entire purpose was playing music. "The Runwell" is a $600 Shinola watch which only tells the time. The "nascent payment system" which is Apple Pay is better supported by the credit card companies than Google Wallet. It only remains to be seen how many retailers will switch to NFC. Just about everyone who does EFTPOS in Australia uses NFC now, I don't understand why the USA is such a…

> a fashion accessory which happens to be functional.

You just summed up the iPhone as a whole, I think.

Re: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

#105

Post by cyphunk »

What a slippery balance. Apple typically makes products people replace once every 2 or 3 years. A watch has never fit this time frame of refresh. In-fact the whole attraction to a time piece is that it just works forever and is timeless. I wonder if anyone in the future will be wearing their grandparents iWatch. I highly doubt it. so the large price points, are going to likely fail.

Re: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

#106

Post by drcode »

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #101
drcode wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To defend my position: They're not calling it a "crown", they're calling it a "digital crown", and digital knobs are common place objects that already have a name. If I build a car with a joystick instead of a steering wheel and call it a "digital steering wheel" everyone would say, "No, somebody invented that already, it's called a 'joystick'"... they would not say "I am going to educate the uninformed and tell them…

FWIW, I am surprised to discover that I am having this argument with someone whose work I've read and admire.

Haha it does amaze me that a single sentence criticism on the nomenclature of a detail on an Apple accessory has gotten any attention at all... I guess I shouldn't be surprised in the case of Apple.

Re: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

#107

Post by mmaldacker »

manicdee wrote: post #100
Kylekramer wrote: post #28

My impression of Android Wear is that it’s best thought of as a wrist-worn terminal for your Android phone and for Google’s cloud-based services. An extension for your phone, not a sibling device. Android Wear devices are almost useless other than for telling time when out of Bluetooth range from your phone. I don’t think that’s a device that many people want; it’s a solution in search of a problem. I don't see how t…

The iPod Nano was a product whose entire purpose was playing music. "The Runwell" is a $600 Shinola watch which only tells the time. The "nascent payment system" which is Apple Pay is better supported by the credit card companies than Google Wallet. It only remains to be seen how many retailers will switch to NFC. Just about everyone who does EFTPOS in Australia uses NFC now, I don't understand why the USA is such a…

>The "nascent payment system" which is Apple Pay is better supported by the credit card companies than Google Wallet. It only remains to be seen how many retailers will switch to NFC.

Regulations in the state requires every POS to support the EMV technology by October 2015. From what I've seen, most retailers will have to upgrade and the new machines pretty much all include NFC technology. So by the end of next year, NFC should be available with almost every retailers. I don't think it's a coincidence that Apple is releasing NFC now (they could have easily done it with the iPhone 5 or 5S)

Re: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

#109

Post by DannyBee »

notatoad wrote: post #32
DannyBee wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"He thinks Apple is holding some details close to the vest and he has a plausible reason for why. Say what you will about Gruber's Apple partisanship, but he's always been great at reading between the lines of Apple's publicity events." And he also thinks that no android wear device manufacturer is doing the same, for no plausible reason. He's basically saying "apple has secret plans, they are awesome" and "Nobody el…

Other people might have secret plans (like Tag Heuer's rumoured smartwatch maybe), but i think it's fair to assume that the android wear manufacturers have shown their cards. Android Wear is a released product at this point. Samsung has released four (or more?) iterations of their smartwatch. LG has released two. Motorola took some extra time to release theirs - if they had a secret awesome plan and were rushing a pl…

" It's probably unreasonable to pin your hopes on apple have some revolutionary breakthrough with their smartwatch (they've been pushed to market by public pressure just as much as LG and Samsung have), but it's even more unreasonable to think that samsung has some amazing secret plan."

I strongly disagree. I think they are both exactly as reasonable as each other :)

(and i also believe both are unreasonable. I'm not actually arguing they have any secret plans, i'm more arguing that the likelihood of them having secret plans, and apple having secret plans, is equal)

Re: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations

#110

Post by DannyBee »

jkubicek wrote: post #89
DannyBee wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Android Wear devices are almost useless other than for telling time when out of Bluetooth range from your phone" Yeah. This is the part that gets me. Gruber is willing to withhold judgement and assume apple has not shown off everything. But android wear makers, you see, they've shown everything in their presentation . No android wear manufacturers are planning anything different than what was shown at I/O.

> But android wear makers, you see, they've shown everything in their presentation. No android wear manufacturers are planning anything different than what was shown at I/O. Most tech companies over-promise and under-deliver. Apple has a tendency to do the opposite (if you ignore they hyperbole). I'm sure most Android Wear manufacturers are planning beyond what they've actually announced, but I would be amazed if we…

" I'm sure most Android Wear manufacturers are planning beyond what they've actually announced, but I would be amazed if we see anything new before the new year."

So around the same timeframe that apple will actually release something? :)

Post reply on HN