Apple Watch Day 10 Observations

[woolie]

Calendar - As I mentioned in a earlier post the calendar provides only a 7 day preview... Subsequently, noticed that when it is mirroring your iPhone, it isn't! It apparently has some algorithm that determines what events are worthy to be put on the watch & leaves others off. Beware!!

Maps - For the first 9 days the search function refused to ever work... Yesterday, for unknown reasons it started working... However, "working" would be misleading... I pressed on a previous item located in Seattle... It immediately sent me to Pakistan instead of Seattle... This happened numerous times... Then all of a sudden the screen went blank & Maps totally quits working... Turning Maps on & off did not help... Finally, I shut down the watch & restarted it & Maps started working again, but still kept sending me to Pakistan instead of Seattle...

I finally remembered a month or so ago, MacBook maps had sent me to Pakistan rather than Seattle & I had closed it without fixing or deleting the problem... So I went back to my MacBook & deleted the Seattle/Pakistan issue... When I went back to the watch the problem was gone there too & it now works fine...

I bring this up because the watch being needlessly tethered to the iPhone shows that it picks up all the flaws of other Apple hardware, not just the iPhone... Stand alone apps, are the only way to go, tethering is terrible... It is a fatal design flaw of the product...

As you can see from my prior posts on this subject, that I have had numerous problems with the watch & I am now wondering how many of my are tied to hidden issues on the iPhone, iPad, MacAir, iMac & MacBook that are flowing through Apple's tethering system to the watch... (I have been a beta tester for OS X & IOS the past year or so, so there could be even additional issues flowing through this tethering mess)

I read a rumor the other day that they are moving a lot of their employees over to the "secret" iCar project... Frankly, I was very excited about Apple entering the automobile business... However, after living with the Apple watch for 10 days, I now find that prospect terribly frightening...

 

[AppleWes]

Are you returning it? I've never seen so much hate for a product except for your posts.

Clearly the Apple Watch is not for you.

 

[Mac2me]

I live in Silicon Valley and Apple has been in hiring mode consistently for a while now. I wouldn't worry too much about rumors people are vacating what they were doing to work on the iCar or whatever else they come up with. I've had my AW for over a month now. I'm pretty happy with mine and the tethering can have it's pluses and minuses I suppose. As for apps I'm sure a lot of it depends on how efficiently one writes code.

 

[exxxviii]

I've never seen so much hate for a product except for your posts.

Where's the hate? I'm just reading mostly objective criticism, not even that emotional. Some things are more nit picky than I would call out. There are about a dozen similar thread from others. This and the others do not look as much like hate to me as massive disappointment relative to expectations.

 

[woolie]

Are you returning it? I've never seen so much hate for a product except for your posts.

Clearly the Apple Watch is not for you.

I actually love Apple products... i have a Nano, iPod, 2 iPhone 5s, 2 iPad Mini's, iMac, MacAir & just bought the new MacBook a few weeks ago...

All those products combined never had as many issues as this watch... Therefore I am not going to heap praise on it.

I showed the problem & solution to fix it to help others... Others have done the same for me & I am very grateful...

I have worked in this industry (software/hardware product development) for decades & know the processes well... These kind of issues should have never seen the light of day... ever...

The reason for these issues lies in the immense pressure on Cook to produce "something" to prove he & Apple was not losing it's "mojo". Wall Street puts ridiculous demands on CEO's & most succumb & I am afraid he just did... I feel sorry for him... Steve Jobs totally ignored Wall Street & that is why we got great products when they were ready for the public not to make Wall Street happy...

Go to Google, there are numerous people far more frustrated than me, with far worse watch issues... We have one thing in common, we all paid a boatload of money for this watch...

I look forward to buying Watch 2 in the future and adding it to my Apple collection, because the concept is absolutely terrific...

 

[woolie]

Where's the hate? I'm just reading mostly objective criticism, not even that emotional. Some things are more nit picky than I would call out. There are about a dozen similar thread from others. This and the others do not look as much like hate to me as massive disappointment relative to expectations.

Thank you... My family & friends constantly tell me I am a Apple fanatic...

 

[exxxviii]

I have learned a lot from the criticism, so it frustrates me when folks on the forum label criticism hate just because they do not like it and effectively shut down threads

 

[woolie]

I have learned a lot from the criticism, so it frustrates me when folks on the forum label criticism hate just because they do not like it and effectively shut down threads

I do not like criticism, its tough to swallow, but one needs it from time to time, to learn there may be a better way to view things... People have been very helpful in this forum, very few flame throwers...

 

[woolie]

I do not like criticism, its tough to swallow, but one needs it from time to time, to learn there may be a better way to view things... People have been very helpful in this forum, very few flame throwers...

 

[Mac2me]

Woolie, I read all of your posts on the forum and I do think you make valid observations on the Watch. And clearly you are coming at it from a different perspective than a lot of us. The label probably comes from words and tone implied like "Beware!!; "working" would be misleading; tethering is terrible... It is a fatal design flaw; terribly frightening..." just for example in this thread alone.

If all your posts are read in totality I can see that you are passionate about this product but are frustrated over how it works differently than you want it to. When someone took the time to give their reasoning of a situation, such as the wifi issue discussed in a previous post, I thought you gave a very reasonable response. We are all pretty much on here because we love our Apple products and want to share and learn and are okay with pointing out things we think might make it better. I guess I could say it's not so much what you say as a perceived problem for you with the Watch but how you say it that resonates with some people here. Worded differently the feedback would probably be different. Some things are also subjective in nature and for the most part the Watch has been well received by many users of it. I don't think anyone here was expecting perfection first time out. It was a tremendous effort involving so many groups within Apple over quite a few years.

I love my watch and wear it every day and from my perspective think it works pretty well for what I do. Everyone's mileage will be different as the product just incorporates so much technology into one tiny case.

Sorry to get off topic from your points on Calendar and Maps apps. I haven't played with Maps yet but am not completely in love with the way the calendar app displays the day's events. I get the black background (saves battery) and guess the hourly delineation is a common calendar view. You scroll down through the day and then swipe to the left I think to go to the next day and so forth. It does only display a weeks worth of events. For me I just like seeing what's on the calendar without scrolling through the whole day hour by hour. There is calendar glances. Glances brings up the next event only I believe otherwise it will take you out to the hourly view in the Calendar app. It would be nice if you could click on a week when you see the monthly calendar displayed and have it pull that info from the phone even if you couldn't amend the info.

Now I haven't double checked events on my phone against my watch but did notice that when I have color coded events on my phone it does appear that way on my watch (in colored boxes). What kinds of things do you see aren't being picked up?

 

[woolie]

First, my bio, shows I have been part of MacRumors since 2007, but rarely posted anything... I resolved my various issues at the Genius Bar... Unfortunately, Apple recently has limited customer's access to the Bar and you can expect more people, like me, going to public forums for help...

Passionate, yes, when Microsoft implemented their Windows products, they welcomed early adopter inputs... They dialoged with us & rewarded us with free Microsoft software. They also brought us into their testing labs, to work with the software products. It was a great time to be an early adopter. They were giants in the industry, with billions of cash in the bank, but pride took over... Feeling invincible, they released Vista, a sheer disaster by anyone's measure... Early adopters became scum for pointing its numerous flaws as the new mediocracy culture took over Microsoft.

It was at this point I became a Apple early adopter.

It was beyond refreshing to see Steve literally stomp out any signs of mediocracy. But in the last year or so Apple's software updates have been a step backward's in key areas. It is hard to explain to your wife whose Apple products that worked flawlessly why they became bumbling products due software mediocre updates...

The watch software, shows distinct signs of mediocracy. When Apple allows on & off but buttons in their software that refuse to work, it is the yellow canary in coal mines screaming to miners to run... Digging below the surface, far worse unresolved issues appear... For me, I am reliving my Microsoft experience & know the end of the story if they do not return to Steve's fanatical obsession for excellence... 1.0 medocrisy Microsoft's mantra will destroy Apple, so this canary is going to keep chirping...

Concerning the calendar, for days, the events were not showing up at all. Finally some showed up and so far I have been unable to see a pattern as to why some events still don't appear. They also have moved events to other days where the events have not been scheduled. People think my expectations are too high, but really this is sloppy programing. They should have left the calendar off the watch until it worked.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I have learned a lot from the criticism, so it frustrates me when folks on the forum label criticism hate just because they do not like it and effectively shut down threads

It's a tactic used well in politics: don't argue the merits of the offending speech, just shout in down and shut it down. "Problem solved." Win by intimidation is so much easier than by intellectual argument. Pretty soon humans will be unable to have a meaningful conversation. "This weather is horrible" might even raise some group's ire. And like you say, one can learn and grow by positive or constructive criticism -- help to see something in a different way.

To OP:

IMHO the native iOS calendar app is worthless. I use Calendar 5 myself. On the AW I use it exclusively for appointment reminders and it serves its purpose there -- no need to haul out the phone to see what is next or be alerted to what is upcoming. If I need to see an entire week or month I use the phone.

As for Maps, it's just worthless right not w/o detailed step-by-step walking instructions w/ public transportation integrated. It's a bit stunning that Apple hasn't mapped out subway stations yet for Map. We'll have to wait for iOS 9 for that.

 

[rowdt1]

I'm sorry OP, but you use so many dots that I can't concentrate on what you're actually trying to say.

 

[David58117]

It's a tactic used well in politics: don't argue the merits of the offending speech, just shout in down and shut it down. "Problem solved." Win by intimidation is so much easier than by intellectual argument. Pretty soon humans will be unable to have a meaningful conversation. "This weather is horrible" might even raise some group's ire. And like you say, one can learn and grow by positive or constructive criticism -- help to see something in a different way.

To OP:

IMHO the native iOS calendar app is worthless. I use Calendar 5 myself. On the AW I use it exclusively for appointment reminders and it serves its purpose there -- no need to haul out the phone to see what is next or be alerted to what is upcoming. If I need to see an entire week or month I use the phone.

As for Maps, it's just worthless right not w/o detailed step-by-step walking instructions w/ public transportation integrated. It's a bit stunning that Apple hasn't mapped out subway stations yet for Map. We'll have to wait for iOS 9 for that.

I wouldn't call maps worthless at all.

At least for me, "hey Siri" and "drive to" works great.

I would imagine many more of us don't live in cities where we need to take subways, than those that do.

Anyway OP - I'm trying to imagine how you had maps set up, to where it linked Pakistan/Seattle.

Personally,I think it's great that they're linked...it allows me to set my home address/work and be able to get directions to those.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I wouldn't call maps worthless at all.

At least for me, "hey Siri" and "drive to" works great.

I would imagine many more of us don't live in cities where we need to take subways, than those that do.

Anyway OP - I'm trying to imagine how you had maps set up, to where it linked Pakistan/Seattle.

Personally,I think it's great that they're linked...it allows me to set my home address/work and be able to get directions to those.

If you are in your car then using your iPhone as navigation makes more sense than a watch -- bigger screen and all. A watch makes more sense when walking around. That's why I call Maps on the AW worthless because it's not complete for walking guidance.

 

[Yixian]

Personally I think people Apple needs people like woolie around to get the watch project/keep the watch project on track.

It's obviously not a bad product, it's obviously got a lot of potentially, but it obviously doesn't currently meet the Apple mark. As soon as it does I'll buy one.