Category: hardware

I know I’ve written too many posts on the Apple Watch recently, but here’s one more, with a few links and random notes.

First, my watch suggested a new “move” goal, as expected, this morning. So now my goal is 450 calories instead of 560. I actually did hit 560 yesterday (Sunday). I was in NYC and did a lot of walking. But I don’t think I’d ever come close to that on a normal day. The new goal is a bit closer to reasonable. I got to 400 calories today, and could have gotten more if I wasn’t tired all day. (I don’t think I slept too well last night.)

I haven’t paid too much attention to the link between the phone and the watch. I know it normally uses Bluetooth, but can also use wifi. I usually have my phone close at hand, so it’s not a problem. But today I was unexpectedly called into a meeting, and left my phone at my desk. I was surprised to see that the watch was still connected to the phone, via Bluetooth. The conference room isn’t too far from my cubicle, but I wouldn’t have thought it was in Bluetooth range. But I guess it is. So that’s a plus, if I get called into a meeting again and don’t bring my phone.

I’m still stumbling across some interesting “one year with the Apple Watch” posts, including this one from M.G. Siegler and a lengthy write-up from Ars Technica.

I’m also seeing more speculation about the next Apple Watch. I’m not sure what’s actually going to happen with that. I’ve seen some reports that the next watch will be thinner, and that’s about it. And others that say they’ll add a cellular radio. And I’ve seen speculation that it might come out in the fall, or that it might not appear until early next year. So who knows what’s going to happen there. Regardless of what they do, I doubt I’ll trade mine in any time soon. A thinner watch would be nice, but not necessary, and a cellular radio would probably mean one more monthly device charge on my Verizon account.

Yeah, I know I should probably stop blogging about the Apple Watch for a while, but I stumbled across a couple of interesting links.

MacRumors reported this week on a change in Apple’s policy on developing Watch apps. I’m not sure if this will lead to better apps in the short term, but it’s interesting. And I’m curious about what Watch-related news will come out of WWDC in June. (Maybe a second-generation watch.)

And Casey Liss wrote a good blog post recently about his continuing use of his Apple Watch. I’m curious about how many people who bought a watch at the launch, a year ago, are still actively using it. Looking at eBay, watch prices are still pretty high, with the lowest-end Sport Watch still going for about $200 used, minimum.

I’m just about at the end of my first week with an Apple Watch, so I thought I’d post a few thoughts.

First off, of course, Best Buy has the Apple Watch on sale this weekend. The 42mm stainless steel watch with sport band is $200 off, bringing it down to $399, which is only $50 more than I paid for my aluminum 42mm Sport. But that’s fine, since I don’t really care whether I have the aluminum or stainless steel, and I wouldn’t have been able to use my Apple Store gift card at Best Buy. But, all other things being equal, if I hadn’t had that gift card, and if I hadn’t bought the aluminum watch last weekend, I’d be tempted to get the stainless steel one this weekend.

The weather has been great this week, so I’ve been doing a lot of walking, and keeping track of that with the Activity app and Workout app. The Activity app is kind of fun. I’ve hit my 30-minute exercise goal, and the “stand” goal, every day, no problem. The “move” goal, though, got set at 560 calories, and I never hit that number. Maybe 400, tops. I think the watch is supposed to suggest tweaking that number after a week of use, and I imagine it will suggest lowering it. So we’ll see what happens there. Either way, I’m not one of those people who feels like I’ve failed if I don’t hit some arbitrary goal, so it’s fine.

I haven’t found any third-party apps for the watch that are terribly exciting. I’m using Dark Sky and Fantastical, but I haven’t found them to be that much better than the stock weather and calendar apps. I’ve also installed Drafts and Evernote. The Drafts app is basically useful for capturing a quick note via dictation. And the Evernote app allows you to do that too, and is good for taking a quick look at recent notes.

I’ve found that the watch affects my iPhone battery life a bit. If I still had my 5s, I think the watch would have just killed it, given how far gone the battery was on that. With the new SE, I’m a lot better off, but the watch is clearly draining 10-20% of the iPhone battery every day. The fact that I’ve just been fiddling with the watch and the phone so much this week may be contributing to that too. Once I settle down and stop fiddling with things all the time, maybe it won’t be that bad.

I’m still getting used to the effort required to get the sport strap on every morning. It’s still kind of awkward. Once it’s on, though, it’s very comfortable and it fits well. It’s definitely more comfortable than the Swatch Sistem51 that I’d been wearing previously.

I’m using the Modular watch face. It’s easy to read both the time and date, and I’ve added complications for Fantastical (in the large middle area), Dark Sky, Activity, and sunrise/sunset. I think that’ll work well for normal day-to-day use. I might switch to something more fanciful, like Astronomy, on weekends.

One thing I was a little worried about is that people would notice it, and I would get comments. (And that would make me feel awkward, because I’m the kind of guy that feels awkward when people talk to me…) But apparently it’s either common enough now that it’s unremarkable, or maybe the black watch with black strap doesn’t really call attention to itself. (Maybe I should have gotten a neon green strap.) I do notice other people’s watches, and I haven’t really seen a lot of people with Apple Watches, or any kind of smartwatch, so I don’t think it’s that common, but it has been around for a year now, so it’s not really new.

So, overall, I’d say that it’s more comfortable and useful than the Swatch that I’ve been wearing recently. And I can read the date on it without taking off my glasses and squinting. Of course, it requires more “care and feeding” than the Swatch, and it’s a good bit more expensive. And, given that the battery isn’t user-replaceable, it won’t last as long as the Swatch. But it’s fun, and it’s useful, and I’m pretty sure I’ll keep wearing it every day for the foreseeable future.

So I gave in and bought an Apple Watch today. Specifically, I bought the larger Sport Watch, so it cost $350, minus the $150 gift card that I had. I took a walk to the mall today, since it was such a nice day, and talked myself into trying one on at the Apple Store. So I did that. Then, somehow, I got sucked into the Apple Store reality distortion field and actually bought one.

My first impression is that the Sport band is weird, and I’m not sure I’m going to get used to it. It’s a little hard to put on; you have to tuck one end under the other, and it’s a little tricky to get it done right. But hopefully it’ll get easier as the band gets broken in and I get used to it. There’s a good review on the Sport band at iMore. I’m also hoping I don’t turn out to be allergic to the material the band is made of. (If that’s an issue, I’ll probably find out soon, since I plan on wearing the watch for the rest of the day.)

In terms of functionality, I’m not sure what use I’ll really get out of it, other than the obvious one: telling me what time it is. I did just get a notice on it that it’s time for me to stand up and move around a bit, so maybe that’ll turn out to be a helpful feature.

Trading in my old iPhone 5s got me a $150 Apple Store gift card. (And apparently Apple got $40 million in gold. Though I guess not just from my iPhone.)

The Apple Store has a limited product selection, so I’m not sure what to do with my $150. I’ve thought about applying $100 to getting AppleCare+ for my new phone. But I’m not a big fan of AppleCare; I’ve never been in a position in the past where I needed service on an Apple product, and AppleCare would have paid for it, if I had it. When stuff goes wrong, it’s usually either before the standard warranty expires, or well after the extended warranty would have expired.

I also thought maybe I could buy a year of Office 365 to extend my subscription, but they only sell the “personal” single-machine version, not the Home version that I use.

So I’m also thinking about maybe buying an Apple Watch. The watch has been out for about a year now, and there have been a few articles looking at how it’s done over that first year, including this one from the NY Times and another on Hodinkee. There was also an interesting thread on Reddit recently.

My $150 would get me halfway to the $300 price for an Apple Watch, so that makes the watch seem a bit more reasonable to me. I still like my Swatch Sistem51, but an Apple Watch might be kind of fun.

(Update: Apple probably didn’t get $40 million in gold from recycled iPhones.)