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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?

#41

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

baldfat wrote: post #15
threeseed wrote: post #8

Every restriction that Apple made makes total sense for the short/medium term. Watch faces need to be impeccably programmed or are likely to dramatically reduce battery life (some of the existing ones use OpenGL). Developers shouldn't be redefining the behaviour of force touch or digital crown before users have had a chance to properly learn them and access to heart rate surely had FDA implications. Tim Cook has stat…

Watch further establishes people into the Walled Garden which is Apple. I still think people just don't wear watches will cause watches to be a very minimal form of wearables. I seriously would wear a bracelet that had a larger usable surface and longer battery life and faster cpu :)

People stopped wearing watches in the iPhone era. Perhaps in the Apple Watch era that will be reversed.

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

#42

Post by gdubs »

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.

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

#43

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

brosky117 wrote: post #21

One thing that I've always imagined but haven't heard much in these discussions is the real potential behind the Apple Watch being the near-magical NFC interactions that could be achieved with its position on the body. For example, paying for groceries, opening locked doors, starting cars, etc. I feel that someone would only need to see a Watch user wave their hand and magically do something once before wanting that…

It already works with Apple Pay!

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

#44

Post by BinaryIdiot »

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 in Android Wear and Pebble as well (though Pebble has native applications so less of an issue there).

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

#45

Post by wpietri »

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?

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 there's some information so useful that I basically want it to be part of my body.

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

#46

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

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…

Battery life, legal reasons.

In time, Apple may change this and allow them. But with exposed functionality, start with a minimum viable product. What you add you can't easily remove.

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

#47

Post by julianpye »

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...

This kind of reminds me of the 'Better off Ted' episode, where the company's new motion detection system does not detect any of the African Americans in the office.

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

#48

Post by drzaiusapelord »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #46
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…

Battery life, legal reasons. In time, Apple may change this and allow them. But with exposed functionality, start with a minimum viable product. What you add you can't easily remove.

My Moto 360 lasts all day and has all this functionality and neither Google or Motorola has been sued by anyone. Its weird how people will excuse Apple with made-up assumptions instead of the time-tested "rushed product" conclusion that is more often true than not in the tech industry.

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

#49

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

smackfu wrote: post #9
epaga wrote: post #6

"I’m also not sure if you can submit an app to the store that is only an Apple Watch app, like say a timer or small utility of some sort." Yes, you can: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toolbox-for-apple-watch/id98... or https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flip-coin-coin-flip-decision... for example. Pretty amazing that apps like those two got the green light from the App Store Review Team.

It seems like standards can be a bit relaxed when you are submitting an app that aligns with Apple's strategy.

I don't think it's that. Perhaps they put the Apple watch release date as the app's release date and they rushed it through at the last minute.

Though I really don't see how the first one, with an iPhone app that is just a blank screen, got through.

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