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Not sure on all the details on the 3, but siri speaks back to you now? If it does, they should allow for music playback on the watch speaker. Hopefully itnwas improved.
 
You're telling me that battery powered devices have varying levels of life based on usage?!

Meh, I don't see most looking to make long calls on it. I don't think that's the purpose. Quick calls are far more likely and shouldn't see a major impact. Peace of mind when going for a run without your phone is likely the biggest use case. Now runners/bikers/walkers/etc won't feel unsafe without a way to call for help in an emergency without the need to carry their phone along.
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Not sure on all the details on the 3, but siri speaks back to you now? If it does, they should allow for music playback on the watch speaker. Hopefully itnwas improved.

Yes, Siri can now speak back and they have always allowed music playback on the watch, though it's silly to listen to it from such a small speaker. The better use is to pair AirPods with it and use the watch to stream to your AirPods while exercising. Now with LTE, you don't have to download the music to the watch in advance and can instead stream it while you run. It also removes the limit of having to have the playlist set ahead of time. Now you can listen to anything you like on Apple Music and request any song via Siri while you workout.
 
A Sales feature.

Apple gave what the customer wanted, no matter how lacking.

Voice is for emergencies, extremely quick phone calls only. Anything longer and you'll still need your phone with you.
I use my watch in the shower to call via phone when I forget to take my towel in the shower...
 
1 hour of talk time? What's the point? You talk to someone and then have to take off your watch and wait around 2 hours to get it back to full charge.

I don't think the idea is to have full conversations on the watch. It's for when you do sports or go out or walk around or be at the beach and don't want to have a bulky phone with you. The you can have quick conversations or email and TXT to meet friends, change an appointment and be available in case the babysitter calls. Stuff like this. The battery life would be enough to cover these uses.
 
Can you save music directly to the watch for offline playback I wonder? I know you can set it up to sync via the iPhone app but wondering if you can DL it so it’s ready to play next time locally?
 
Anyone else notice that the nice looking dock for charging doesn't ship with the "Edition" model anymore? What a rip.
 
I'll stick to a watch without LTE for sure.

Very surprised by the red dot on the side, I'm guessing Apple is moving away from the premium market and seeing that most people are sporty people who wear these? The red dot surely wouldn't fly in the hoity toity society.
 
Are you? I have never needed to take an hour call on my iPhone when out and about in 10 years of owning one.

Anyone making a long phone call is not going to want to be talking into their wrist either.

The thing is, if you take a five minute call and it depletes your battery 10% that's quite a bit. You may not use your phone for an hour at a time but you also don't want a handful of quick calls to run your battery to 50%.
 
That red digital crown is ugly. Makes it look like a toy, kind of like how kids plastic guns have that red cap on the end.
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Why the red dot? It looks terrible.
I guess that's Apple's way of letting everyone know it's the newer model. Still ugly.
 
When Apple nails Solar charging on the watch, and make it waterproof rather than water-resistant, thats when I'm buying.
When and if that happens, I am beginning to think there will be MacRumors members saying that they live in a cave and work in an underground bunker and are allergic to water so they don't need this, but want Apple to make a watch that can run on radon gas and filter and purify air as it does so, and then they will buy one. :p

It currently is about as waterproof as it can get. I swim with it in a pool. I dive about 9 feet in it for a few seconds. I did this almost daily during the summer for up to four hours at a time. Some people report it does well at the beach, too.

So I presume you're waiting for a model you can go scuba diving in. No, it can't be used for that, yet. It may never be. Don't most divers wear specialized diving watches for that purpose? That kind of use is probably going to require some heavy gaskets that will necessitate changing the entire form factor to accommodate the pressure the watch would have to endure. Because I am not sure even waterproof coatings on the internals will help in that environment. It would definitely be an interesting engineering problem to solve, but I don't think the market would be large enough for Apple to pursue that anytime soon.
 
The only thing I don't like about the new Apple Watch is this ugly red circle.

In what was Apple thinking? The Apple Watch is nice but this red circle is ugly. Unfortunately the only way to get rid of this circle is to buy the version without cellular.

applewatchseries3-800x308.jpg
 
Haha this why I am not convinced about LTE on the watch. 1 hour talk time? On the feature (making phone calls on it) that was advertised? Cue in people moaning and groaning about it in the next few months.

I generally agree. However, what Apple has done with this watch in terms of the health and fitness features, streaming of Apple Music and other functionality it is quite amazing.

I would also argue that the phone call feature would be more for real needs when you want to get away from your phone or computer.

I like the idea of just heading out for a run with my watch or hitting an errand and still being able to get a call if there is something urgent that needs my attention.

I think Apple really evolved this wearable into a great device.
 
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The only thing I don't like about the new Apple Watch is this ugly red circle.

In what was Apple thinking? The Apple Watch is nice but this red circle is ugly. Unfortunately the only way to get rid of this circle is to buy the version without cellular.

applewatchseries3-800x308.jpg
The first time I ever saw the Apple Watch and wanted it, it was a model with that red dot. I think it had to have been a gold Edition one. I never dreamed they were using real gold and that it would cost as much as my first car did. I can't say I like the look of it on that color and on aluminum but I know I won't even notice it after awhile.

I'm just so excited Apple made an LTE watch that I can actually wear comfortably. I carried Samsung phones last year and wore Samsung watches. Even the ones they marketed toward women were very large and made Apple Watches look dainty in comparison.

When they debuted the Gear S3 with LTE, I was excited until I found out there was only going to be very large models marketed toward men and that they said that they had to make it that honking huge to fit in the radio and battery and all the tech in it. The real kicker was that they said they weren't inclined to try and make it smaller because women aren't interested in smart watches but in fitness bands, so they referred us women back to their cheesy little bands that they often had to give away as promos for their phones. It was about the most blatant dismissal of women I've heard a major company make. I probably should have my head examined for staying with Samsung after that, but I really love my Samsung phones. Though some of the gloss has worn off because I've come to loathe their curved edges. And truth be told, their Gear S2 Classic watches are very nice, though bulky. I prefer Apple watches.

So now I am happy to tell Samsung to go ahead and continue to overlook me and my money. This woman is getting a Series 3 and and iPhone X and I have decided NOT to exercise my option as a former Note 7 owner to get a Note 8 on a discount.
 
I think LTE is meant to be used only during a workout, so you can receive a quick call or make an emergency one, or you can receive notifications while running but you're not supposed to stay a full day without your iPhone.
I guess we'll get close to that in the future, but they'd need to improve battery life a lot.
LTE is a nice addition, as GPS was last year, give them time and the Watch will be even more independent by the phone

This.

Cellular is for hike/workout/ran in and forgot my phone moments. The design specifies "all day" battery similar to today with the breakdown being 14 hours of use with a phone and 4 hours of LTE (plus the GPS drains from before if you use that). 4 hours away from your phone each day is reasonable for the market this thing is applied to.

The current watch attached to a phone can only do a voice call for 3 hours - and no one is complaining about that. Why? Have you ever tied to do a long call on the watch? Impossible (sans headphones). It's for emergencies and short calls only.

It's not ready to be a full time phone replacement but who actually wants that? The size of the watch and lack of a camera preclude that anyway.

recoil80 is spot on.
 
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This.

Cellular is for hike/workout/ran in and forgot my phone moments. The design specifies "all day" battery similar to today with the breakdown being 14 hours of use with a phone and 4 hours of LTE (plus the GPS drains from before if you use that). 4 hours away from your phone each day is reasonable for the market this thing is applied to.

The current watch attached to a phone can only do a voice call for 3 hours - and no one is complaining about that. Why? Have you ever tied to do a long call on the watch? Impossible (sans headphones). It's for emergencies and short calls only.

It's not ready to be a full time phone replacement but who actually wants that? The size of the watch and lack of a camera preclude that anyway.

recoil80 is spot on.

Moneyshot post right here. This new version of the watch is a very capable device given its size. I think this will be on my Christmas list. Who is going to bring their phone when they may be paddle boarding, or running, or out working in the yard.
 
The current watch attached to a phone can only do a voice call for 3 hours - and no one is complaining about that. Why? Have you ever tied to do a long call on the watch? Impossible (sans headphones). It's for emergencies and short calls only.

It's not ready to be a full time phone replacement but who actually wants that? The size of the watch and lack of a camera preclude that anyway.

recoil80 is spot on.

I never tried to make a phone call on the watch longer than a couple of minutes. You have to use the speaker so if you are in a noisy environment you have to keep the watch close to your face, really inconvenient.
Maybe you can do it with earphones, but if I'm within bluetooth range my earphones are connected to the iPhone to make a call, not on the AW

And the big display, along with the lack of camera, is something you're going to miss during a full day without your iPhone.
Scribble is ok, but answering to a text message on the Watch is not as fast as on the iPhone and using Siri all the time is not great (again, bad on a noisy environment)
 
My big issue is that while the iPhone can be charged while you are using it, the Apple Watch can’t be charged while it is worn. So if you are on the go and busy with your watch because you left your phone at home, you’ll still want to bring along some sort of Apple Watch charging solution, like those batteries with a strap so the watch won’t fall off in your bag. Otherwise, when the battery dies you lose your ‘phone’ and your fitness tracker. Might as well bring your phone with you then, even if you leave it in your bag it’s like a battery booster itself.
 
Let's forget about LTE talk time for now. It's not that important to be able to have a 90 minute conversation on your Watch (unless I missed something).

What's much more important for us Watch owners (and I've worn my Series 2 every day since late 2016) is how long the battery can handle various notifications and texts over LTE (and maybe occasionally asking Siri to look something up).

That's a much more realistic scenario for a person walking around, wearing the watch, with no phone nearby.

Yes, I think you are correct, and if I understand this article, it will get up to 4 hours when LTE connected without an iPhone nearby. When an iPhone is nearby, the Watch can piggy back on lower power drain alternatives (e.g Bluetooth or Wifi) and gets longer battery life.

So, this tells me that you will need to carry your iphone around with you anyway most of the time. Besides, there are so many things a phone can do that would be just a horrible experience on the tiny Watch display. And, of course, don't forget the camera. iPhone is the most used camera in the world. The notion that people will leave their phones at home to meet friends at a coffe shop or event seems silly. Who wants to share photos on a watch?
 
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My big issue is that while the iPhone can be charged while you are using it, the Apple Watch can’t be charged while it is worn. So if you are on the go and busy with your watch because you left your phone at home, you’ll still want to bring along some sort of Apple Watch charging solution, like those batteries with a strap so the watch won’t fall off in your bag. Otherwise, when the battery dies you lose your ‘phone’ and your fitness tracker. Might as well bring your phone with you then, even if you leave it in your bag it’s like a battery booster itself.

I'm still surprised they didn't work on bands with batteries built in or something.
 
For as great a leap in technology Series 3 watches are I don't think that the battery technology is mature enough for me to consider buying one.

I spend a lot of time away from electricity and to have my watch die on me before the day is over is a no go.
 
Really disappointed in the whole keynote actually, I Apple Watch on its initial release, but soon started to resent it, it was slow, apps were pretty useless, stupidly I'd bought the stainless steel one, probably if I'd gone for a sport version I may have stuck it out but after a few months I sold it. I missed the fitness tracking and got a Fitbit instead, wow I love Fitbit now and just recently upgraded that to the charge 2, and the New Ionic is looking great too. For me I do miss some of the functionality of the Apple Watch, but it's the battery life that is holding it back.
 
Where’s Apple’s Think Different approach when it comes to the watch? They assume it has to resemble a watch closely. Many of its limitations could be lessened with a larger form factor. If the product were elongated parallel to the forearm, and resembled a bracelet, I’d welcome it. It’s no more a fashion risk than the earbud “horns”.
 
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