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counting the board members rooting for professional software.
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[Andrew Kimery] “The Watch, at least this generation, must go with an iPhone. It’s another gadget your have to have with you and take care of.
“I don’t think we really know what the watch is capable of. What they announced and what it’ll do when released may be very different. Or not. We’ll see in a few months.
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[Andrew Kimery] “When Cook talked about sending ‘taps’ or heartbeats to your friends and loved ones it just sounded to me like they were trying really hard to pad the Watch’s feature set.”
He also teased a bunch of functionality around home automation, entertainment, and fitness at the end of the presentation that they didn’t go into further.
As I said before, just like with the iPhone, they had to “announce” the product before it went into even limited production or it would have been outed by the FCC or component leaks from China factories.
When this thing is read for launch next spring, there’ll be a second half to this presentation- not only with all the stuff they didn’t want to talk about a couple weeks ago, but also everything that 3rd party developers have cooked up in 6 months. The initial iPhone had no appStore, and it’s only since it came along that the real potential of the device has been realized. Apple can create the platform, but ultimately I think they’re as curious as anyone to what functional path products like the iPad, and now the Apple Watch will ultimately take.
Even without a GPS, with the other sensors inside it will keep good track of a run. I can only imagine the juggling act with something this small for battery life (which we still don’t know). I’m sure a GPS will appear eventually as power/battery barriers erode. Let’s not forget all the things iPhone, iPad, and iPods didn’t have in their first incarnation.
No one is forced to jump on with a V1 product.
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[Charlie Austin] “I don’t think we really know what the watch is capable of. What they announced and what it’ll do when released may be very different. Or not. We’ll see in a few months.”
You are correct, but Cook specifically said it has to be paired w/an iPhone. The Watch is currently an iPhone add-on, not a stand alone product.
[Marcus Moore] “He also teased a bunch of functionality around home automation, entertainment, and fitness at the end of the presentation that they didn’t go into further.”
He did, but I wonder how much of that will be functionality the Watch has all by itself and how much will be functionality that requires the iPhone and the Watch is basically a wrist-mounted display. The Watch lacks GPS, WiFi and cellular so it’s essentially an offline device unless coupled w/an iPhone.
[Marcus Moore] ” Let’s not forget all the things iPhone, iPad, and iPods didn’t have in their first incarnation.”
Even later in life these products didn’t win the feature comparison war but that didn’t matter because they killed it with their core functionality and industrial design.
I really hate to use this phrase ’cause I feel like it’s beaten to death but here I go anyway… You could tell Jobs had a vision for the products he launched and if you didn’t agree w/that vision you should just go buy a competing product. W/the Apple Watch it seems like Apple took the shotgun approach and
I’m sure not having Jobs’ stage presence is part of the problem because, honestly, how many people could get on stage and genuinely use the term “magical” to describe a tablet computer and have everyone watching believe it? Dude could sell a lighter to someone in hell and make them think it was the greatest thing ever.
The form factor of a watch is very limiting so I’m not surprised there it’s a big challenge when it comes to features and battery life. I’m sure later versions will improve as fast as the underlying technology allows but as an end user contemplating a purchase I’m more concerned w/what’s going on now vs what may or may not be going on with V2, V3, V4, etc.,.
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The watch is interesting to me. I’ll probably be getting the sports one. I like the idea of second screen functionality for exercise and the like.
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[Chris Harlan] “The watch is interesting to me. I’ll probably be getting the sports one. I like the idea of second screen functionality for exercise and the like.”
I like the idea of second screen too I just wish it could be more an independent screen as well. As technology improves I’m sure the Watch will slowly lose its dependence on the iPhone and then I’ll be more likely to pick one up. Kinda like w/the iPod, I held off getting one until the tech got to the point where there was one big enough to hold all of my music with room to grow and the price tag wasn’t obscene.
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The iPhone is required for SOME functionality, just how much we don’t know yet. It obviously doesn’t have a cellular radio, so no phone calls or text messaging to non-Apple devices.
It does have WiFi. It can hold it’s own music. It has BluetoothLE. You can use it for Apple’s mobile payment system ApplePay without the phone. So it doesn’t need to be paired with the iPhone at all times. You can use iMessage on it as long as you’re on WiFi.
I don’t think this is any less of a standalone device than the iPod was when it had to be paired with a Mac, in many ways it’s more independent that that at the outset.
I just really rebel against the quick judgements and the VERY prominent attitude that people, and especially tech reporters like the one Aindreas noted above seem to have which is, “if its not for me its not for anyone.”.
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[Marcus Moore] “It does have WiFi. It can hold it’s own music. It has BluetoothLE. You can use it for Apple’s mobile payment system ApplePay without the phone. So it doesn’t need to be paired with the iPhone at all times. You can use iMessage on it as long as you’re on WiFi.
Thanks for the clarification. Apple’s site doesn’t give specific hardware specs yet and it keeps saying things like “And it uses the GPS and Wi‑Fi in your iPhone to track how far you’ve moved.” which lead me to believe that the Watch lacked both GPS and Wi-Fi.
I don’t think this is any less of a standalone device than the iPod was when it had to be paired with a Mac, in many ways it’s more independent that that at the outset.Apples to oranges comparison. The iPod came out before everything was a connected device, but even then once the music was on the iPod it functioned 100% as a stand alone device.
I just really rebel against the quick judgements and the VERY prominent attitude that people, and especially tech reporters like the one Aindreas noted above seem to have which is, “if its not for me its not for anyone.”.
“I’m not going off the deep end like the guy Aindreas linked to, but there are certainly aspects of the Apple Watch that I’m disappointed with. Due to currently technology constraints it looks like all smart watches right now are compromised devices.
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[Marcus Moore] “I just really rebel against the quick judgements and the VERY prominent attitude that people, and especially tech reporters like the one Aindreas noted above seem to have which is, “if its not for me its not for anyone.”.”
I don’t have a problem with the Watch. I think there’s some cool technology, I really like that they are playing with pressure points on the screen instead of “just” a touch screen. If you’re interested, tracking health is a big deal, I even understand having another access point to Apple technology that doesn’t involve whipping an iPhone 6 Mas Grande out of your pocket.
Apple moves slowly with brand new products. Usually, there are other products that do more, cost a little less, and sell more volume. Such is life at Apple, this is nothing new, and there is really nothing to be concerned about.
But what I don’t like is the gold.
I just don’t like it.
A projected $5000 (or more?) gold watch that does the same thing, (I mean exact same thing) as the “Starting at $349” watch seems overtly ridiculous. The battery will die just as soon, the screen will wear out just as fast, the end of life will come just as suddenly. And then you have to go buy another $5000 watch?
What is different about the Steve Jobs era and the post Steve Jobs era, is that Jobs had the idea for OSX and devices like the iPad decades before technology and manufacturing could support it. To Jobs, it was magical, to have these ideas sketched out for decades, and then get to present the working prototype to the world, and in the case of OSX, start giving it away. There isa bit of magic in there.
But, an ostentatious solid gold watch? Please.
“Eichler did a great thing,” Jobs told me on one of our walks around his old neighborhood, which featured homes in the Eichler style. “His houses were smart and cheap and good. They brought clean design and simple taste to lower-income people.” His appreciation for Eichler-style homes, Jobs said, instilled his passion for making sharply designed products for the mass market. “I love it when you can bring really great design and simple capability to something that doesn’t cost much,” he said as he pointed out the clean elegance of the Eichlers. “It was the original vision for Apple. That’s what we tried to do with the first Mac. That’s what we did with the iPod.”
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I’m not sure why people are so up in arms about Gold watches.
Expensive watches that don’t keep any better time than a $20 Casio are the norm in this world. Watches are 25% timepiece and 75% jewellery.
People only have one wrist to use use for a watch. Make no mistake- Apple is competing for that space with everyone else, regardless of which price-point you’re talking about. If the functionally of this device is compelling enough then it makes it attractive to people who are used to buying gold watches for tens of thousands of dollars. Apple would be silly to not offer a product option for that market.
The schism is that traditional high end watches retain or even increase in value over time, while the Apple Watch is likely to be upgraded every year or every few years- outdating the old one. But again people with money… have money.
I stand by my assertion of “not for you but for someone else”. I’m not rich, but there’s are tens of millions of people out there who are, and if Apple wants to offer a product specifically tailored to that market its no skin off my nose. No more than someone who’s using an iMac should be cheesed off about how much my MacPro costs. Yes, my machine is faster functionally, but in high end fashion material is equally valuable.
If I can get the same function for less money, I care not at all.
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I do a LOT of hiking and other various cross-training, and I’ve incorporated a bunch of gizmos into it. So, for me the watch is–if it integrates as well as it seems it might with things like my heart strap and fitbit (which it probably will replace)–kind of a cool reward/luxury. I’m not sure, though, why people who aren’t similarly inclined would be particularly interested in getting one. As I say, for me its a definite reward, which improves things a bit, and not a necessity.
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