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

franzschrepf.medium.com

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

#71

Post by majewsky »

specialist wrote: post #54
bestnameever wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If there's a way to control apps, navigate options, perform useful dictation, I haven't found it. I can barely get Siri to reliably start and stop audio playback. google assistant is getting close https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GILvyiWB7xY

Ok. Google Assistant is available for iPhone. I'll try it. Thank you. Continuing my rant... I know that Siri is impaired by choices Apple's made wrt to privacy or some such. But why does local voice recognition fail so often? Like while hiking or I'm in the basement. Surely some hybrid is possible. Does Siri really need network access to process a stop playback command? (I do fuss with the Voice Control features ever…

Counterpoint: I recently switched from Android to iOS. On Android, Google Assistant and the likes were always the first apps I deleted. Google is just not a company that I trust at all with my personal data. On the iPhone, I have Siri enabled because I have the expectation that my personal data does not leave the phone when I use it with Siri. So when you say:

> I know that Siri is impaired by choices Apple's made wrt to privacy or some such.

For me it's the other way around. Without those choices, I would not be willing to use Siri at all.

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

#72

Post by samatman »

paulcole wrote: post #26
williamonill wrote: post #15

> The future will be audio-first. Fully disagree. Would the author also have made the claim back in 2006 when Twitter was founded, that the future of the internet are short texts with a 140 character limit?

> Fully disagree. Would the author also have made the claim back in 2006 when Twitter was founded, that the future of the internet are short texts with a 140 character limit? ...he posted in 172 characters. In 2006 predicting that the future of the internet wasn’t going to be in longform text would’ve been pretty bold and pretty prescient. Look at what’s happened to longer text content since then. The concept of “lon…

Or if you simply must think in terms of replacement, it's been replaced by Clubhouse, the new hotness. Which is, in fact, audio only.

To me, this indicates that accretion, not replacement, is the better model. Your mileage may vary.

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

#73

Post by brnt »

zanderwohl wrote: post #55
brnt wrote: post #52

When everybody started to have mobile phones around me, I shelled out for a PDA (remember those?) instead and wanted to wait for those headsets to actually not need any phone anymore. I hoped the advent of the smartwatch would get us there, but alas. I have a smartphone now, because what else can you do, but I can't wait for the time that I can just voicedail or at least have my watch be the personal computing device…

This wasn't mentioned in the article, but the newer cellular variants of the watch allow you to place and receive calls even without your phone nearby. You can also stream music, stream podcasts, etc. without the phone nearby, listening with a bluetooth headset. I suspect certain android ones do as well, though I don't know which ones. I like the idea of only carrying around a watch + headset. I'm actually thinking o…

Without phone nearby or without phone?

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

#74

Post by owly »

There’s simple and free way to experiment with the author’s idea without buying and configuring a watch. Delete all social media from your phone. Delete all bookmarks and hide web browsers in sub folders. Turn off majority of notifications, or don’t show preview. Only interact with your phone via audio. Then you can decide if the audio only paradigm could work for you. At the very least, it will help you be more intentional about your internet use.

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

#75

Post by websites222 »

oddity wrote: post #69
websites222 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which Apple Watch are you using? Because I can't make it a full day cellular only. It will die. I've tried. I have the series 6 with latest WatchOS.

SE. How long is a day for you and what are you doing on it? Mine lasts at least 8 hours with light use (mostly standby with an hour of music but no streaming) before I decide to charge it around 50%, which is about what I'd expect of my phone 5 years ago.

Are you using cellular exclusively during those 8 hours? "Apple Watch Series 6 (GPS + Cellular) usage includes a total of 4 hours of LTE connection" according to Apple. (https://www.apple.com/watch/battery/).

My LTE only usage includes about 30 minutes of streaming and the rest just glancing. I can't get through a day like this.

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

#76

Post by specialist »

majewsky wrote: post #71
specialist wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. Google Assistant is available for iPhone. I'll try it. Thank you. Continuing my rant... I know that Siri is impaired by choices Apple's made wrt to privacy or some such. But why does local voice recognition fail so often? Like while hiking or I'm in the basement. Surely some hybrid is possible. Does Siri really need network access to process a stop playback command? (I do fuss with the Voice Control features ever…

Counterpoint: I recently switched from Android to iOS. On Android, Google Assistant and the likes were always the first apps I deleted. Google is just not a company that I trust at all with my personal data. On the iPhone, I have Siri enabled because I have the expectation that my personal data does not leave the phone when I use it with Siri. So when you say: > I know that Siri is impaired by choices Apple's made wr…

Hearing you on FM. Just gonna test drive it for a bit, to calibrate my expectations.

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

#77

Post by tailspin2019 »

owly wrote: post #74

There’s simple and free way to experiment with the author’s idea without buying and configuring a watch. Delete all social media from your phone. Delete all bookmarks and hide web browsers in sub folders. Turn off majority of notifications, or don’t show preview. Only interact with your phone via audio. Then you can decide if the audio only paradigm could work for you. At the very least, it will help you be more inte…

Good suggestions. I’ve had email notifications turned off (both work and personal) for a few months now, and that’s made a positive difference.

In fact I’ve been aggressively turning of most notifications across the board.

iOS’ new(ish) “deliver silently” option is helpful here.

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

#79

Post by boatmansloth »

I didn't touch my phone for the whole month of November last year instead using my apple watch. I left it plugged in at home out of sight.

In my country there is no covid so life was practically normal. My office has blanket wifi and I discovered the watch would easily do a day if connected.

The most annoying part was how slowly my airpods connected to the watch when taken out of their case, it made the first 15 seconds or so of incoming phone calls very awkward.

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

#80

Post by bestnameever »

specialist wrote: post #54
bestnameever wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If there's a way to control apps, navigate options, perform useful dictation, I haven't found it. I can barely get Siri to reliably start and stop audio playback. google assistant is getting close https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GILvyiWB7xY

Ok. Google Assistant is available for iPhone. I'll try it. Thank you. Continuing my rant... I know that Siri is impaired by choices Apple's made wrt to privacy or some such. But why does local voice recognition fail so often? Like while hiking or I'm in the basement. Surely some hybrid is possible. Does Siri really need network access to process a stop playback command? (I do fuss with the Voice Control features ever…

I don't think Google assistant on the iPhone will be anywhere close to as good as it on Android for the type of usage your looking for.

Having said that, I wouldn't give up on Siri - she has improved quite a bit from just last year in terms of answering questions. I'd be surprised if they aren't exploring ways to control your phone as well.

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