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Apple Watch Series 5

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Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#81

Post by TheMagicHorsey »

Is it just me, or has the surge in popularity of smart watches also caused a surge in the popularity of regular watches too?

Speaking of myself, I bought a Pebble watch back in 2013 or so. I quickly realized I liked wearing a watch. Then I also realized I really only needed the time function. I then went from the Pebble to a Seiko mechanical. Now I have no smart watches and about ten different mechanical and quartz watches.

The main reasons I prefer conventional watches: 1) They come in a much wider array of styles 2) They don't run out of power on long flights and leave you without your time reference right when you need it the most 3) They are generally cheaper 4) Some of them, like my Casios, have great features that work offline, like a digital compass, thermometer, altimeter ... all powered by solar! 5) To me (and this is a matter of personal preference) they look better 6) There are a lot of closet wristwatch nerds lurking in tech companies. Once you start wearing a Seiko mechanical, for example, you will soon get comments from other undercover watch nerds. I actually enjoy this random camaraderie.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#82

Post by ashelmire »

threeseed wrote: post #72
ashelmire wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's nice, but I already pay for spotify and use it on my non-Apple devices. Does Apple Music let me stream any song in their library?

Yes. Apple Music is just like Spotify.

Oh, huh. Thanks for the info, might open up the watch for me.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#83

Post by antoineMoPa »

the_watcher wrote: post #16

> all-day 18-hour battery life. Is there a standard for what "all-day" means? I think most would initially assume 24 hours, but thinking about it more, it seems reasonable to consider "can work from wake up to sleep" or "can work from sunup to sundown"/

1980 watches: battery lasts a couple of months

2019 watches: battery lasts a couple of hours

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#84

Post by balboah »

ashelmire wrote: post #69
selectodude wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can stream Apple Music over WiFi/cellular without the phone. Not sure if that will include Spotify at some point but I do know the new watchOS has opened up a lot of those APIs.

That's nice, but I already pay for spotify and use it on my non-Apple devices. Does Apple Music let me stream any song in their library?

Don't fall for it. I tried switching for a trial period but Spotify owns iTunes in so many ways. Especially the discover weekly list

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#85

Post by shantly »

Someone1234 wrote: post #18
bla3 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Apple would make their watch work with Android phones, similar to how they made iPods work with Windows computers way back when.

Alternatively they could make their watch work without any phone (stand-alone). Right now you cannot even set up a new Watch device without an iPhone.

I bet there are quite a few of us watching each of these announcements waiting for exactly that to happen, ready to click that buy button.

The only thing I'd miss dropping to a watch + decent point-n-shoot instead of an iPhone is live photos, which are maybe the most important feature to me from the iOS ecosystem released in the last, oh, decade. Only reason I'd even hesitate to go watch-only.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#86

Post by jedberg »

slg wrote: post #56
the_watcher wrote: post #16

> all-day 18-hour battery life. Is there a standard for what "all-day" means? I think most would initially assume 24 hours, but thinking about it more, it seems reasonable to consider "can work from wake up to sleep" or "can work from sunup to sundown"/

I think all day depends on the specific device. For example, I would accept a 10 hr battery life for a laptop or wireless headphones as "all-day" because that will cover a full work day and people aren't expected to use those devices 24/7. 18 hours for "all-day" on a wearable seems reasonable if the expectation is that it will be used only when the user is awake. A complicating factor is that Watch OS 6 is supposed t…

> Making that functionality native would seem to recommend wearing the watch 24/7

Exactly! At this point, my expectation is that I would wear the watch at all times except when I shower in the morning, and that is when I would charge it. But it won't charge that quickly. :(

Which means I either have to give up sleep tracking or activity tracking to charge it.

It sounds like they need to make it so that the bands can store energy so that I can charge one band and wear one band and then switch them each day.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#89

Post by MBCook »

radicaldreamer wrote: post #17
MBCook wrote: post #9

It looks like they dropped the stainless steel case. Too bad, that was always my favorite.

They haven't dropped it, it's available in black, gold finish, and black pvd finish... they've added titanium and brought back ceramic but otherwise the finishes are unchanged.

It was the polished stainless that I liked though, and that’s not there.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#90

Post by Someone1234 »

ak217 wrote: post #49

For me, the single biggest problem with Apple Watch is battery life, and they seem to have done nothing to improve it. Garmin has always-on, reflective screen watches that can last for weeks on a single charge. I shouldn't need to babysit my watch.

I'm curious, does anyone with more knowledge know how Garmin are able to get so much more battery life out of their watches? Their official spec definitely lists "2 weeks" in "Smartwatch Mode" (which seems to be GPS disabled, but still heart rate tracking and similar).

It is impressive and I'm curious why Apple cannot compete.

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