The Apple Watch • Hacker News Board

Re: The Apple Watch

#221

Post by rtpg » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 3:15 AM UTC

pchristensen wrote: post #152

"Without the Taptic Engine, Apple Watch is not a compelling device." This is why I value Gruber's reviews. He's unabashedly pro-Apple, but he's also critical and observant.

So the Taptic Engine is just rumble right? I know phones are different, but pretty much all my phones (Android) have had the whole "different vibrations for different notifications" thing for years. I don't know how Wear's ecosystem is, but I imagine it does the same.

I understand he's not saying it's not present in the competition, but I'm trying to get what the fundamental differences are

>When my phone vibrates, it feels like it’s telling me, Hey, I need you now. When the Apple Watch taps me, it feels like it’s telling me, Hey, when you get the chance, I’ve got something for you.

I don't know, but if I get tapped on the wrist, that feels a lot more like a "hey I need you now" thing.

Re: The Apple Watch

#222

Post by jakejake » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 3:20 AM UTC

bitsoda wrote: post #21

Gruber's scenario with the two high school kids sending each other love taps, scribbles, and heartbeats was poignant. While the Apple Watch isn't for me, I can't begrudge those who decide to buy one. I think back to the late 90s and how I wouldn't have met my wife if not for IMing a screenname a mutual friend of ours passed along to me. The internet, a crappy eMachines desktop, and AIM made this possible. Technically…

I had actually thought of visually or audio impaired people being able to chat. Maybe that was in the keynote?

Re: The Apple Watch

#223

Post by eridius » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 3:56 AM UTC

prawn wrote: post #168

eridius wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Apple Watch was first announced, while everyone else was busy rolling their eyes at Digital Touch, I immediately started looking forward to using it with my wife. We're both planning on getting the watch, and I fully expect that—even after the initial novelty has worn off—we'll be using Digital Touch repeatedly throughout the day, both as just a way to keep in contact, and as a way to non-intrusively request the…

From The Verge review, that feature actually sounds a bit painful to use.

I haven't read what you're referring to, but one Apple employee I know uses Digital Touch pretty often (he says he uses it to silently attract the attention of other people at meetings, and I've seen him use it to send doodles to his friends). Why do you think it sounds painful to use?

Re: The Apple Watch

#224

Post by tsieling » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 4:05 AM UTC

DigitalSea wrote: post #205

threeseed wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is ridiculous to say that Apple hasn't introduced any new ideas or improvements to the smartwatch space.

What new ideas and improvements would those be? Honest and non-argumentative question. I mean of course besides the beautiful engineering (I like the appearance of the Apple Watch) and digital crown.

I'm not a fan of what I've seen of Apple Watch, or wearables in general, but the UI innovations that Apple has made for a tiny screen feel clear to me. The manner of navigating apps with the crown (and using a crown to navigate, period), is the one that jumps out the most. The casual sketching and heartbeat communication modes are a bit contrived, but novel. Their approach to haptic alerts sounds distinctive and thought-through.

To be clear, I am not a believer in this product, and I really like Apple stuff. But if you're not seeing ideas and improvements, I think a closer look is warranted.

Re: The Apple Watch

#225

Post by nickgrosvenor » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 4:28 AM UTC

It's ironic that the people who attack the Apple watch under the pragmatic guise that a regular watch performs better, are forgetting the fact that a regular watch is completely superfluous.

In this day and age, with a phone on you, and everyone else, you can always get the time. A watch is a relic of the past. It's Tradition. It's ornamental. It's redundant.

With tens of thousands of brilliant people working day and night to build amazing third party apps, the smart watches can actually do things. A regular watch can't do shit. It's not a tool, it's not a workhorse. People that are satisfied with their traditional watches are kidding themselves, as much if not more than the people who will happily buy an Apple watch and tout it's features.

Re: The Apple Watch

#226

Post by damian2000 » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 4:54 AM UTC

nickgrosvenor wrote: post #225

It's ironic that the people who attack the Apple watch under the pragmatic guise that a regular watch performs better, are forgetting the fact that a regular watch is completely superfluous. In this day and age, with a phone on you, and everyone else, you can always get the time. A watch is a relic of the past. It's Tradition. It's ornamental. It's redundant. With tens of thousands of brilliant people working day and…

The regular watch, a dumb watch if you like has some big advantages over a smart watch or a phone. Its always on, can always be seen, the battery lasts for years, its waterproof. Having said that, I think these advantages are mostly important for niche uses - scuba divers for example.

Re: The Apple Watch

#227

Post by drawkbox » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:20 AM UTC

I like the health monitoring aspects the most. Fitbit type of devices, tracking activities/health, have been picking up and will pick up more. Apple has jumped on that pretty well and traditional watches can't compete on those features.

I stopped wearing watches but have thought about a Fitbit watch and why not have that be an Apple watch maybe.

Re: The Apple Watch

#228

Post by bo1024 » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:20 AM UTC

nickgrosvenor wrote: post #225

It's ironic that the people who attack the Apple watch under the pragmatic guise that a regular watch performs better, are forgetting the fact that a regular watch is completely superfluous. In this day and age, with a phone on you, and everyone else, you can always get the time. A watch is a relic of the past. It's Tradition. It's ornamental. It's redundant. With tens of thousands of brilliant people working day and…

I'm not attacking the Apple watch (or anything else for that matter), but in my daily life a smartwatch would be no match in utility, convenience, or features I need compared to my $50 Timex.

Re: The Apple Watch

#229

Post by clarky07 » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:24 AM UTC

bane wrote: post #215

DigitalSea wrote: post #201

Is John Gruber ever non-biased in his pieces about Apple? Given his history with the company, I feel like with Gruber we never ever get the real deal. Every article on every Apple product announcement starts out feeling well-intentioned and non-objective, but then always seems to segue into a subtle praise piece. I am not hating on him, he still makes some great points and he puts considerable amounts of effort into…

He's definitely a shill. Imagine a couple years ago, when Gruber couldn't even bring himself to pretend to provide critical analysis of Apple products. I used to just flag daringfireball posts as soon as I saw them. These days there's at least information content in his posts so I usually leave them alone. But Gruber also spends an extraordinary amount of time these days using framing devices to either draw false com…

lucky for gruber, Apple has released an awful lot of good products recently. iPhones have stupid customer satisfaction numbers. They aren't the most valuable company in the world by a mile because everything they release is crap.

Obviously Gruber is a big fan of Apple, but your criticism of him is a bit harsh. I assume he didn't spend a lot of time comparing it to Android wear because he hasn't spent a ton of time using Android wear.

I'm a little afraid of the first gen bugs, and some of the reviews I read today weren't completely sold, but pretty much every single one that I read said it was far and away the best smartwatch they've used, even if they still weren't completely sold and gave it meh reviews overall.

Re: The Apple Watch

#230

Post by verisimilidude » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:31 AM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #219

threeseed wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taptic feedback. Diversity in product design. Digital touch. Architecture of Apps. Those are all unique to Apple's Watch as is pretty much every aspect of the look & feel. You can argue different watches having the same features but Apple's implementation will always be quite unique.

I don't know if diversity in product design is valid for the watch. There was a UI side-by-side with Android Watch UI products at the reveal of the Apple Watch, and they're pretty much identical (save for the top-level app view)

Put aside the UI. There are a couple different case sizes, a few different case materials, a lot of different wrist bands, some special editions, etc. All combined, there are a lot of choices when it comes to the physical appearance of the Apple Watch on your wrist, spanning a huge price range. The Motorola watch comes closest on this score, but it's still a distant second.