Apple Watch Tidbits: Charging Retail Box, Water Resistance, Calls, Offline and More

[xDKP]

I like the concept of the watch but the two things are making me hold off for now are:

it's not waterproof

It needs the damn iPhone at all times.

These two are deal killers. Until they fix these, I will wait. My Omega thanks Apple for now.

I'm kind of thinking the same thing... Water resistant is okay i guess, but not even a dedicated GPS chip? I don't want to go for a run (with the awesome UI for running on it) if I need my phone on me as well?!

 

[freediverx]

Sony Smartwatch 3, which will be released this autumn, is waterproof.

There's no such thing as a water proof watch. The Sony will supposedly be rated IP68, which means it is tested to withstand water immersion to a depth of 6.6 feet for 60 minutes. That does not mean it is tested to endure this many times, over a period of months, nor that it will pass this test while the watch is subjected to any additional pressure such as from moving it around or bumping it against another object.

The minimum water resistance recommended for swimming is a depth rating of 165 feet, for playing sports while swimming or snorkeling, 330 feet, and for scuba diving, 500 feet. In other words, the rating is not an indication of how deep you can actually take the watch during normal usage.

 

[kdarling]

Do you know of any smartphones you can take for swimming? I never heard.

You're not supposed to (it's only rated for 30 minutes), but people do take their Galaxy S5 or S4 Active in the pool with them.

iWatch is not a watch; its a tiny tiny smartphone, a computer.

Many people say they wear their Pebble smartwatch while taking showers, swimming in both fresh and salt water, they even wear them in hot tubs (!).

--

I think the Apple Watch's biggest problem is the one day battery life. It's just not enough, in my experience.

Those of us who have had smartwatches can tell you that 2-3 days is the tipping point. Less than that, and you eventually get tired of charging the darned thing every night. If you're out late and it dies, you lose interest in it as well. Or if you forget to charge it one night, or simply don't have access to your charger (say, because you went home with someone else). A dead gizmo on your wrist is no fun.

 

[elmaco]

I hope Apple considers creating a 3G/4G transmitter that you can have on your keychain that provides the uplink (instead of the phone).

 

[D.T.]

Users will also be able to load apps onto the Apple Watch from their iPhone. To rearrange the apps, users will have to hold their finger on an app's icon and move it around, similar to how one rearranges icons on an iPhone. There's also a "Ping My iPhone" feature, which will allow users to play a sound on their iPhone so they can locate it in case they have misplaced it.

That’s the “Requires iPhone” caveat, for uploading apps, updating the OS, etc., but like he indicated, there’s a quite a few tasks it can do without the phone.

I’d like to see a “Left my Phone” app where if the BT signal drops, the watch dings.

Watches have crowns. I don't think including one is a huge deal. I do like the idea of a spinning rim though. That being said I'm sure they trialled it and found the crown to be better for a good reason.

Yeah, this kind of design isn’t done in a vacuum, there are dozens of prototypes, testing, trials - I’m sure touch only, bezel control, and other options were tried.

One thing I've noticed in this forum. People confuse waterproof with water resistance. It's not the same. Another thing I've noticed is people don't understand horological water resistance measurements. Again, a watch with a water resistance rating of 10 meters is not suitable for swimming.

Thanks for posting that, I was looking for the same data when I read the exchange, though for some reason, it doesn’t seem like posting it has cleared up the confusion

Shakes head at idiots

For a Man's premium version I'd prefer a Titanium version over gold.

After posts of the last 24 hours, you must have whiplash

Ti would be _slick_. I’m jazzed about the black chrome, when it’s done right, it’s really beautiful.

 

[doctor-don]

Not water proof? Sorry! What is the point of making this a fitness watch if it can't be used for one of the most popular sports on this planet?

Futbol / Soccer?

I like the concept of the watch but the two things are making me hold off for now are:

it's not waterproof

It needs the damn iPhone at all times.

These two are deal killers. Until they fix these, I will wait. My Omega thanks Apple for now.

Where does it say that it needs the iPhone at all times? [expletive deleted]

That $350 base price would delay my buying this watch. Not having to wear anything on either of my wrists for the past 20 years has been liberating.

 

[StoneJack]

You're not supposed to (it's only rated for 30 minutes), but people do take their Galaxy S5 or S4 Active in the pool with them.



Many people say they wear their Pebble smartwatch while taking showers, swimming in both fresh and salt water, they even wear them in hot tubs (!).

--

I think the Apple Watch's biggest problem is the one day battery life. It's just not enough, in my experience.

Those of us who have had smartwatches can tell you that 2-3 days is the tipping point. Less than that, and you eventually get tired of charging the darned thing every night. If you're out late and it dies, you lose interest in it as well. Or if you forget to charge it one night, or simply don't have access to your charger (say, because you went home with someone else). A dead gizmo on your wrist is no fun.

I acknowledge I never knew that people swim with Galaxies. I have Casio Pro-trek which I can swim with, but never heard about Galaxies. As for Pebble, I either didn't know what it was so water resistant (or whatever). I am sure occasional splash of water on iPhone is fine, but my iPad was ruined when someone by mistake put them in water for few seconds; it has so many holes like the sim hole, speaker mesh, headphone connector, Lightning connector that water in a moment got inside the iPad and it never recovered. I would imagine that iWatch does have also that kind of holes (maybe not exactly but like mic and so on). It also should have something for the air circulation inside the plate or chip for ventilation.

 

[ProVideo]

I had a Casio calculator watch when I was kid. After a few weeks, I forgot to remove it when I jumped into a pool and it died. $100+ watch down the drain. I have no desire to risk making the same mistake with a $350+ watch. After that I only got Timex Ironman watches because of the water resistance while taking a shower or swimming. One of those lasted a decade before I stopped wearing watches all together.

I haven't worn a watch in 10 years since I was carrying around a cell phone all the time anyways. I really don't want to have to worry about removing a watch every time I go to shower. Any conveniences this watch presents are not worth the additional inconveniences at this stage. I think I'll wait for generation 2 or 3 before buying one of these.

 

[jimbobb24]

i bet Jennifer Lawrence can't wait for the new activity and GPS tracking data to be stored in her iCloud account, as well as the ability to have all of her credit card information backed up and stored in her iCloud account as well

Think Again

Maybe Jennifer Lawrence should pick passwords that cannot be guessed in a few tries.

And what is it with every grown woman in the world taking naked pictures of themselves? We are all porn stars now!

I predict watch sells less than Apple TV after initial early adopters. It's just a tech toy no one needs except the super rich. There is no problem it is solving.

Apple should really innovate and give AppleTV apps!!!! And make an iPhone Air. Maybe a 4 inch screen. Nice and light. Oh yeah!

 

[freediverx]

Oh, lord. Save us the Luddite nonsense.

I'm sure when the first mp3 players came out, people ranted about how it was completely unnecessary to buy one since they already own an entire CD collection and can play them at home, in a discman, or in their car. Who would EVER want something silly like an MP3 player?

We're on probably the 50th round of this "who would ever want this?" debate. Gets old already.

Well in all fairness I think both the iPod and iPhone solved some obvious problems at the time of their release, despite their shortcomings.

Before the iPod, the best digital music players were the size and shape of a CD player, required tedious manipulation of music files to embed them with the proper meta data, and had slow, difficult to use interfaces for browsing your music collection. In the case of Sony, they also prevented you from storing plain MP3s and had the audacity to apply copy protection even to your own music tracks when transferring to the device. They also made it difficult to skip to different parts of a track, especially for long tracks.

The first iPod was tiny in comparison, included an easy to use solution for managing your music (iTunes), which did not make any attempt to copyright music you ripped yourself, and had a brilliant new click wheel interface that let you easily browse your music and skip to different parts of a track by detecting the speed at which you turned the wheel. It was also beautiful in gleaming white and chrome, in contrast to competitors' cheap, flimsy, ugly plastic designs.

All of its flaws and limitations paled in comparison to these advantages. Meanwhile the first iPhone, aside from being beautiful and having a sexy new touch interface, made it possible for the first time to really browse the web on your phone, including its novel double-click to zoom feature. The web browser alone made it stand out, not to mention it became the best iPod as well.

It's not as clear to me what enormous benefit these first Apple Watches bring to the table. I'm not knocking them, mind you, and they certainly have a cool new UI and beautiful fit and finish. But they don't seem to solve any problem I currently have.

If they could do payments on their own, or do more without having an iPhone nearby, if they had battery life of several days or longer and if they were as rugged and water resistant as my regular wristwatches... or if they solved any existing problem in a unique way... then I would find them more appealing.

 

[Lesser Evets]

Useless clutter.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Anyone have a good gallery for the Apple Watch?

 

[ThunderRobot]

Anyone have a good gallery for the Apple Watch?

Um ... did you try the Apple website?

 

[JHankwitz]

How about the display resolution?

What difference does it make? It's not to be used for critical viewing like an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

 

[yossi]

I like the concept of the watch but the two things are making me hold off for now are:

it's not waterproof

It needs the damn iPhone at all times.

These two are deal killers. Until they fix these, I will wait. My Omega thanks Apple for now.

Agreed, my wife and I are avid runners and she was very excited about the sport watch. Then I explained to her that she would have to wear the watch AND her iPhone while going running. Her exact words were "thats ****ing retarded"

 

[JHankwitz]

It's not as clear to me what enormous benefit these first Apple Watches bring to the table. I'm not knocking them, mind you, and they certainly have a cool new UI and beautiful fit and finish. But they don't seem to solve any problem I currently have.

Then, don't buy one. This product is only for people that find $350 or more worth of value or benefit in it.

 

[Freyqq]

Not water resistant enough to go in the pool? Sounds like something that will be in revision 2. I can imagine the ads now, with a scuba diver messing with it underwater.

 

[69Mustang]

Thanks for posting that, I was looking for the same data when I read the exchange, though for some reason, it doesn’t seem like posting it has cleared up the confusion

Yeah it's funny. But such is the life in internet forums. 1. See a post with what you think is errant information. 2. Post what you think is the correct info. 3. Realize later you could have avoided your post because the issue was settled later in the thread... and your assumption was wrong. 4. Wash, rinse, and repeat. I've done it more times than I can count. In the end it's all good.

I think the blame can be equally shared regarding water resistance and what it actually means. 50% of the blame is on marketing because at face value, people naturally assume 30/50/100 meters means a depth at which the watch can be used. No one explains this until after something bad happens. 50% of the blame is on us for making the assumption without taking the time to find out what the rating actually means.

I think with the recent slate of smart devices being IP67 rated people will start to understand more. I'm assuming the new watch from Apple will carry that rating at a minimum. If it carries a 10 meter rating, people will know the ins and outs of water resistance quick, fast, and in a hurry. That will be a kettle of worms

 

[dilbert99]

citi - sorry bud, your Pebble isn't waterproof. It's water resistant to 5ATM. You know how I know? Pebble's website says so. As I posted earlier:
5 ATM: 50 meters/165 feet: Suitable for short periods of swimming. No diving or snorkeling.

The problem here is that to most lay people they take waterproof to mean, 'yes I can swim with it or take it in the shower'. Its only not waterproof because some standard body deemed the word waterproof to not really be achievable (as far as I can tell from a couple of mins googling).

 

[chiefsilverback]

Why not a round face with a round LCD, that would be a greater challenge but more aesthetically pleasing.

Drop the crown and instead use the chassis by stroking the rim either clockwise or counter clockwise. That would have harkened back to the iPod.

It strikes me that a round screen is not efficient for displaying info. Squaring off a given circle gives you ~25% more screen space to play with in effectively the same foot print.

Watches are traditionally round because clocks work best in a round format. When you don't need to worry about the the inherent circular motion of a mechanical clock why constrain yourself with a circular watch?

BTW the $180K Opus 9 watch with linear motion doesn't constrain itself with a round body...

 

[StoneJack]

Agreed, my wife and I are avid runners and she was very excited about the sport watch. Then I explained to her that she would have to wear the watch AND her iPhone while going running. Her exact words were "thats ****ing retarded"

I am not sure you have to have iPhone when running (with iWatch or even without it).

 

[chiefsilverback]

Sure it would. You can swim in a swimming pool.. Not every one swims to ~30 feet deep!

A watch's water resistance is a function of it's ability to resist pressure. Being able to resist the 'static' pressure applied by 10' of water is not necessarily the same thing as the pressure applied when a swimmer's hand/arm enters the water during freestyle or butterfly.

Same with a shower. I'm sure the Watch would be fine in most domestic showers because the water only splashes over the devices, but if someone got a some high-pressure 'power shower' setup the the pressure might be too much...

 

[rovolo]

I don't know about the rest of you, but this is a solid product. I'm excited to give it a try!

I’m still trying to make up my mind about this thing but I think with "solid product" you pretty much nailed it.

Many pros, many cons and a lot of in-betweens. Some really nice features (like the remote function for the iPhone camera), some real drawbacks (cannot even take a swim with it).

As a professional designer I tell myself: very good design. Problem is: I’m rationalizing, don’t actually feel that. Definitely no must-have-can’t-wait appeal. In the end it may simply come down to one very profane but crucial spec: battery life.

All in all: I’m interested, but not excited.
May give it a try. May wait and see what the next iterations bring.

 

[whooleytoo]

And it wouldn't shock me that having water between your skin and the biometric sensors would mess with their accuracy.

Maybe so. But you'd think swimming is an important exercise that many people would want to be quantified. It's a bit of a gap in the biometric feature-set.

 

[shanson27]

I like the watch