Apple Watch – What can you do with it? • Hacker News Board

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

#101

Post by __david__ » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 4:54 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #71

wpietri wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> suddenly advertising doesn't seem all that evil.

Speak for yourself. An ad is an ad, even if I like the company or product. I'm in agreement with the grandparent, ads would be even more intrusive on a watch than on my phone (where they are already annoying).

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

#102

Post by cgy1 » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 4:55 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #94

cgy1 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your Moto 360 is substantially larger than even the bigger Apple Watch. As such, it probably has a proportionally larger battery.

It larger as it in has a larger screen which draws much more power. Not sure where you are going with this. There are AW watches that are smaller and last all day also, and then some. LG G watch, Zenwatch, Gear, etc.

A bigger battery generally more than offsets a bigger display (see the iPhone 6+ getting better battery life than the iPhone 6 even with a larger display). All of the watches you list are still larger than the largest Apple Watch.

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

#103

Post by snowwrestler » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 5:03 PM UTC

edgyswingset wrote: post #65

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 (and by that I mean Steve Jobs) decided to tell people they were holding their phones wrong rather than launch a device which worked no matter how you held it.

The iPhone 4 did work no matter how you held it, as evidenced by its long tenure (sold for 4+ years), and high sales and customer satisfaction ratings.

If you carefully held it in a very particular way, you could make it lose a couple bars. Jobs said: there's no reception problem, just don't hold it that way. It turned out he was right.

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

#104

Post by rabbyte » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 5:19 PM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #33

danso wrote: post #13

It's pretty exciting to anticipate how developers might do innovative things with the Watch...but until then, I'm pretty bearish of the device as something of real utility. It's not just the particulars of Apple's execution and implementation, but just that the physical form factor of a watch inherently limits it...and the coolest things we've seen watches do in fiction, such as Dick Tracy's wrist-walkie-talkie, are…

Your comment on social interruption really resonates with me. As somebody who has been wearing a Pebble for a couple of years, the main utility I have discovered is in minimizing the number of times I take out my phone. But it's not really about reducing the onerous physical labor of putting my hand in my pocket. It's about being more present. Right now I get wrist notifications maybe 5-10 times a day. E.g, my next m…

I want a bracelet to replace my phone and pebble.

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

#105

Post by macavity23 » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 5:20 PM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #38

duiker101 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will probably "unlock" all the features you want in the upcoming version so people will buy those to have things that should have been there from the beginning.

Why? Apple's never done that before.

Except with the iPhone, which couldn't run native apps when it was launched.

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

#106

Post by eric_h » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 5:21 PM UTC

sanoli wrote: post #98

r00fus wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it means you can't use wrist detection to auto-lock because the metallic pigments in some tattoos interferes with passive skin sensing. There's an option to turn it off. How many people have metallic pigment tattoos on their wrists?

How many watches don't work on people with tattoos on their wrists?

How many optical pulse oximeters don't work on people with tattoos on their wrists.

The watch works fine.

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

#107

Post by notatoad » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 5:25 PM UTC

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #82

notatoad wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 intera…

You cut off the rest of my sentence to say what the rest of my sentence said. Well except I missed android wear having native apps. But I still think my point is valid; you're still limited without the phone just a little less so and some apps, like running apps, really need the GPS on the phone to function well on Android Wear anyway.

You're also missing that Android Wear gained wifi support in the last update - without the phone, you just have to connect to a wifi network (not the same network as the phone necessarily) and you have full functionality again.

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

#108

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 5:30 PM UTC

eric_h wrote: post #106

sanoli wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many watches don't work on people with tattoos on their wrists?

How many optical pulse oximeters don't work on people with tattoos on their wrists. The watch works fine.

> How many optical pulse oximeters don't work on people with tattoos on their wrists.

AFAIK, very few, because optical pulse oximeters usually go on fingertips or earlobes, even ones that are attached to wrist-mounted displays.

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

#109

Post by s73v3r » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 5:33 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #17

korvenadi wrote: post #2

iAd support on apple watch is a stupid idea. who wants to show ads on a watch?

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?

I would hope that this type of thing would die in a fire, and those who try to push it be drug out into the street and shot.

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

#110

Post by s73v3r » Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 5:40 PM UTC

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #34

MCRed wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a plan, I think, would require another method of monetization. Paid apps as a monetization strategy has failed. Advertising I think is failing too. Free with in-app purchase is making a lot of money but people don't like it. This is a big challenge for apple.

This is a pretty important summarization of Apple's biggest issues in my opinion (even if you were a little too strong with the word 'failed'). - Ads are intrusive. No one likes ads and they don't pay very well anyway (Google for instance has had their ad money per ad go down year over year). I feel like their days may be numbered. - Paid apps don't give a user a chance to try an application and if the price is too h…

"Personally I like the option of being able to try an application and if I like it pay for it outright. No ads or in app purchases or subscriptions."

This goes directly against your criticism of IAP, though. The trial is usually implemented by having a "lite" version downloaded, with an IAP to unlock the real version.