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Are you OK with the LAG in app refreshing its content?

S

striders

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
406
24
I had smartwatches (Moto 360, Pebble Steel and original Pebble) and the interaction with the apps with those watch are fast.

With the Apple Watch, opening the apps and having the content shown is really slow. Example:
- Hue: took 5 seconds before it shows all the lights configuration
- Weather (built-in): took 1-3 seconds to show the weather
- Evernote: took 3 seconds to show the main screen
- Apple Maps: this is really all over the place - sometimes it's instant, other times it took more than 5 seconds.

All in all, wether it's built-in or 3rd party apps, I ended up waiting for the app to be ready to be used.

I know that at its current state, the watch need to constantly get data from the iPhone, but I think the watch IS capable of refreshing in the background and caching data. An example of this is the built-in Calendar app.

I only have the watch for 1 day, but this is already bugging me to no end. Quite often I just grab my phone rather than waiting.
 
striders said:
I had smartwatches (Moto 360, Pebble Steel and original Pebble) and the interaction with the apps with those watch are fast.

With the Apple Watch, opening the apps and having the content shown is really slow. Example:
- Hue: took 5 seconds before it shows all the lights configuration
- Weather (built-in): took 1-3 seconds to show the weather
- Evernote: took 3 seconds to show the main screen
- Apple Maps: this is really all over the place - sometimes it's instant, other times it took more than 5 seconds.

All in all, wether it's built-in or 3rd party apps, I ended up waiting for the app to be ready to be used.

I know that at its current state, the watch need to constantly get data from the iPhone, but I think the watch IS capable of refreshing in the background and caching data. An example of this is the built-in Calendar app.

I only have the watch for 1 day, but this is already bugging me to no end. Quite often I just grab my phone rather than waiting.
Click to expand...

Agree. Annoying.
 
I know many app devs are working at updating the apps. Some didn't get a watch until 4/24. Some still don't have one. So, once they get their hands on one, it will help. And, yeah, improvements in the OS will definitely help also. But jeez we're two weeks in to live operations here. :)
 
Agree.

It's not a "prefect" user experience. Lol. Not even close. I would hate to try and show off the watch to someone and hit the temp on the watch face and have the beachball pop up, then the screen goes black. I tap it and more beachball, then finally the weather. For ONE city. Disappointing!!!!!!

And this is an Apple app! I expected better.
 
I swear, it's like people don't remember how slow apps were on early iPhones and iPads.
 
striders said:
I had smartwatches (Moto 360, Pebble Steel and original Pebble) and the interaction with the apps with those watch are fast.

With the Apple Watch, opening the apps and having the content shown is really slow. Example:
- Hue: took 5 seconds before it shows all the lights configuration
- Weather (built-in): took 1-3 seconds to show the weather
- Evernote: took 3 seconds to show the main screen
- Apple Maps: this is really all over the place - sometimes it's instant, other times it took more than 5 seconds.

All in all, wether it's built-in or 3rd party apps, I ended up waiting for the app to be ready to be used.

I know that at its current state, the watch need to constantly get data from the iPhone, but I think the watch IS capable of refreshing in the background and caching data. An example of this is the built-in Calendar app.

I only have the watch for 1 day, but this is already bugging me to no end. Quite often I just grab my phone rather than waiting.
Click to expand...

Annoying, but nothing a little software work can't fix. I'll live with it until then...

We also all know that AW2 will be out and that'll be OVER 50x faster for the same price. Us engineers design for lag sometimes if the business case calls for it.
 
ihatephish said:
I swear, it's like people don't remember how slow apps were on early iPhones and iPads.
Click to expand...


Actually, when I had my 3GS, I don't recall waiting this long. There is a slight lag when Apple open up the App Store, but I didn't have to wait more than 1 second.

For games, yeah that's a different story.
 
striders said:
Actually, when I had my 3GS, I don't recall waiting this long. There is a slight lag when Apple open up the App Store, but I didn't have to wait more than 1 second.

For games, yeah that's a different story.
Click to expand...

That wasn't the first iPhone. By the time they get to that late of release, everything will be much snappier.
 
I'm okay with waiting 1-5 seconds for apps to load.

I'm a software engineer, so I get it, I really do. Apps need to be snappy, load instantly, for people to be happy. I've been wanting a smart watch for so long though, and the apple watch provides me with enough useful features, that I am willing to overlook the slow load times for the time being.

Let's face it, there aren't many smart watches out there that fit into the Apple ecosystem. In my opinion, there aren't any smart watches out there that I would be willing to wear, other than the Apple Watch, that will work with my iPhone. At least right now right now. I'm hopeful that apps will get faster, but even if they don't, the current lag isn't a deal breaker for me.
 
ihatephish said:
I swear, it's like people don't remember how slow apps were on early iPhones and iPads.
Click to expand...

Yeah but that was mainly due to the slower technology at the time. Doesn't this watch have a similar chip to the iPhone 4s?

Also for a platform built upon the foundation of quick interactions or 'glances' the delays work against this. This should have been top priority.
 
ihatephish said:
I swear, it's like people don't remember how slow apps were on early iPhones and iPads.
Click to expand...

Comparing it to a product from 8 years ago is not a valid comparison; compare it to modern smartwatches. I have a couple - they're very fast. i⌚️ vs. Android Wear these days is like Android vs. iPhone circa 2009-2010.
 
Drew888 said:
Software can only speed it up so much, still limited to hardware that's in the watch.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt it's a hardware bottle neck. As mentioned a few posts up, the S1 in the watch is similar in speed to an iPhone 4S. Besides fetching data from the phone to the watch isn't really CPU intensive. I would assume it's either software (which OS updates can certainly improve) or the strength of the Bluetooth or wi-fi connection.

People are expecting perfection right out the box (who cares if it's 2015) it's still a new market and a gen1 iteration.
 
lagwagon said:
I highly doubt it's a hardware bottle neck. As mentioned a few posts up, the S1 in the watch is similar in speed to an iPhone 4S. Besides fetching data from the phone to the watch isn't really CPU intensive. I would assume it's either software (which OS updates can certainly improve) or the strength of the Bluetooth or wi-fi connection.

People are expecting perfection right out the box (who cares if it's 2015) it's still a new market and a gen1 iteration.
Click to expand...

512MB RAM, right? Same as iPhone 4... Regardless, software can only do so much, no matter what the device....

Anyway, like you said people expecting perfection on first gen.

Haven't received mine yet, still waiting... But I am looking forward to getting it :)
 
It isn't the Bluetooth connection speed because I use to use my phone's hotspot through Bluetooth only to browse the Internet and it was fine.
 
Right now, all third-party apps actually run on the phone with the watch acting as the display and input device.

Apple's own apps don't suffer from this limitation.

Native third-party apps will be coming to the Apple Watch eventually, presumably with the next main software revision.
 
It is very annoying, especially when exercising. They need to get this fixed. Third party apps are even worse. On ESPN in still getting s score update from 2 days ago for the Reds when they've played twice since then.
 
No, it doesn't bother me. Because of my age, I guess. I remember connecting to the Internet, such as it was, through AOL or Prodigy, on a 14.4 kbps dial up modem on my phone line. If you wanted to see a page loaded with jpegs or gifs you'd open the page, get up, make yourself a cup of coffee, feed the dog, check to see how far your page loaded, let the dog out, let the dog back in, check the page a bit more, pet the cat, grab a snack, sit down, skim a magazine...well you get the picture. I am exaggerating but only a little. It was not a speedy process to surf the net in those days.

A few seconds delay does not faze me in the least. Sometimes it takes me that long to recover my mind from wherever it wandered off to and pay attention to whatever loaded.

So get off my lawn, you kids! :mad:;)

In all seriousness it's just a couple of apps that load slowly for me and even then, only some of the time. The ones that were too slow, almost 14.4 Kbps modem slow, I deleted. I'm only keeping the cream of the crop on here.
 
GrumpyMom said:
No, it doesn't bother me. Because of my age, I guess. I remember connecting to the Internet, such as it was, through AOL or Prodigy, on a 14.4 kbps dial up modem on my phone line. If you wanted to see a page loaded with jpegs or gifs you'd open the page, get up, make yourself a cup of coffee, feed the dog, check to see how far your page loaded, let the dog out, let the dog back in, check the page a bit more, pet the cat, grab a snack, sit down, skim a magazine...well you get the picture. I am exaggerating but only a little. It was not a speedy process to surf the net in those days.

A few seconds delay does not faze me in the least. Sometimes it takes me that long to recover my mind from wherever it wandered off to and pay attention to whatever loaded.

So get off my lawn, you kids! :mad:;)

In all seriousness it's just a couple of apps that load slowly for me and even then, only some of the time. The ones that were too slow, almost 14.4 Kbps modem slow, I deleted. I'm only keeping the cream of the crop on here.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, GrumpyMom. Wondering if some of these folks stand in front of the microwave yelling "Hurry up!" :D

I haven't had to wait for anything for longer than a couple of seconds. That's fine with me.
 
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