Biggest Problem with Apple Watch. EASY Fix

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

I know that Apple Watch has been out for a long time. But have you noticed that it has almost no traction compared to the iPhone? Do you know why? The stupid screen is too small. Nobody enjoys squinting at a tiny screen when they have the Time on a big iPhone screen to appreciate. The other big problem is that the battery life is too short on a single charge. Can you imaging going on a weeks trips and the watch dies because you can't charge it? What do you do if you are in the desert hiking for a week? No more time keeping? It is not like you can easily connect a usb-c cable to it either. The proprietary power connections really hinders its acceptance as a "watch" because people do happen to travel all over the world with a watch (notice the different time zones on the turnable dial fixture for many popular non-digital brands). OK. Enough of this gripe. I will tell you now the two main points of this post.

1) Apple needs to take out the battery and put it in the bands. You can have 5 or six segments for the band and each segment is mini-battery. It can even be designed to match the rugged 2-tone steel/gold bands of Rolex and others. This would increase the battery life on a single charge to match that of iPhones. Short battery life is BAD BAD BAD.

2) Use a different display technology to offset the small real estate of the watch face. For example, make a small projector inside that can project onto a wall or your chest or hands, or ANYWHERE so that you actually see a larger image (at a minimum project light at least to the size of the iPhone clearly). For example, with the watch on, make a gesture or sound and the projector beams a display for 15 seconds (adjustable) that you can then project anywhere. Or even wirelessly send the image to your fashionable Rayband digital image enabled sunglasses (maybe apple's ar glasses if it is not too bulky).

Apple is the king of smart watches and health trackers because the device does as much as it does but still manages to look and feel like a timepiece in terms of weight, size and aesthetics.

Yes, battery life is not good enough.

But adding size to the Watch or weight to the bands, etc., would destroy one of its key selling points, its size and durability.

Adding batteries to the band and having it rely on external displays are terrible ideas.

AW is not a wrist worn media consumption device, it’s a health and fitness tracker and a lightweight extension of your iPhone.

-There’s literally a setting within Watch that allows you to quickly mirror Watch to iPhone that lets you operate Watch on your much larger iPhone display, or just for typing if you can’t make it work with AW swipe typing or dictation.

I also have no idea where you’re getting the notion that AW has no traction compared to iPhone? It’s a massive success, by far the best selling wearable ever and one of the most profitable pieces of consumer tech in the last 5-10 years.

Giving AW a new SoC and a display that consumes less battery would 2x or 3x the current AW S8 standard making it good enough.

Adding MagSafe charging from the back of an iPhone is the solution to forgetting the AS charging cable.

You don’t reinvent and put a major success on its head. You take what works and sells and refine it even more.

 

[philstubbington]

I wouldn’t expect it to sell in the same volume as the iPhone, but as a watch it seems to be doing pretty well judging by Smartwatch shipments.

 

[Sami13496]

Huge teams of researchers, designers and technologists spend years figuring these things out and can’t even see the obvious solutions you have come up with. It’s a pity that you don’t lead Apple’s design team. With your visions their users would be super happy and their stock would sky rocket for sure. Especially the projector idea, that is rock solid.

 

[BigPhil]

I know that Apple Watch has been out for a long time. But have you noticed that it has almost no traction compared to the iPhone? Do you know why? The stupid screen is too small. Nobody enjoys squinting at a tiny screen when they have the Time on a big iPhone screen to appreciate. The other big problem is that the battery life is too short on a single charge. Can you imaging going on a weeks trips and the watch dies because you can't charge it? What do you do if you are in the desert hiking for a week? No more time keeping? It is not like you can easily connect a usb-c cable to it either. The proprietary power connections really hinders its acceptance as a "watch" because people do happen to travel all over the world with a watch (notice the different time zones on the turnable dial fixture for many popular non-digital brands). OK. Enough of this gripe. I will tell you now the two main points of this post.

1) Apple needs to take out the battery and put it in the bands. You can have 5 or six segments for the band and each segment is mini-battery. It can even be designed to match the rugged 2-tone steel/gold bands of Rolex and others. This would increase the battery life on a single charge to match that of iPhones. Short battery life is BAD BAD BAD.

2) Use a different display technology to offset the small real estate of the watch face. For example, make a small projector inside that can project onto a wall or your chest or hands, or ANYWHERE so that you actually see a larger image (at a minimum project light at least to the size of the iPhone clearly). For example, with the watch on, make a gesture or sound and the projector beams a display for 15 seconds (adjustable) that you can then project anywhere. Or even wirelessly send the image to your fashionable Rayband digital image enabled sunglasses (maybe apple's ar glasses if it is not too bulky).

They don't need to fix it. You just need to recognise that it's just a toy

It's not a revolutionary device/top end fitness tracker or even a quality time piece

It's just a toy. There's nothing wrong with this, your expectations for the device are too high.

It is just a toy.

 

[reverie]

Estimates say that, last year, Apple sold 50 million Watches and 220 million iPhones. Unless you’re suggesting Apple should aim for people to literally replace their phones with watches as their primary computing devices, the Apple Watch is about as good as a secondary device can get.

 

[reverie]

It is just a toy.

Why not call it an accessory? Despite having a full operating system, it’s not a primary computing device, but can do a few things well—not unlike a HomePod or an Apple TV.

 

[JulianL]

My first two watches I didn't really get them, but now I do:

1) You can get a small pocket power bank that's a watch charger as well.
...

Yes, then you get back to square one. Why do you need to carry a power brick if you can carry an iPhone instead and remove the watch?

Apple Watch (AW) battery life is also maybe the biggest issue for me. My ideal scenario would be to be able to go away on a 3 or 4 day long weekend trip and not have to worry about power. My iPhone 14 Pro Max is pretty much there now, at least for a 3 day trip, and if the rumours about possible further improvements in the 15 PM are accurate (more efficient SoC and Qualcomm Q70 modem, bigger battery, maybe more efficient display drivers) I think this year my 3-day use case might be 100% solid with extra capacity to spare and perhaps even the 4 day case covered.

In a way though those improvements in iPhone battery life in the last few years only increase my frustration with AW battery life since that is now my only weak link for my self-sufficient 3 day long weekend use case. I do use a small pocket power bank with a built in AW charger that lives in my travel toiletry bag but it's still a bit bulky vs a power bank that doesn't have an integrated charger.

Assuming Apple can't get to 3/4 day AW battery-life (and ideally more) any time soon then as long as it doesn't bulk up the iPhone excessively I'd like to see Apple continue to go all out for maximum iPhone battery life with bigger and bigger batteries and also add 2-way wireless charging that also works with AW so that I could use my iPhone as my overnight AW charger when I am travelling. I read that the 44mm Series 8 has a 308mAh battery (https://www.gsmarena.com/battery_capacities_for_new_apple_watch_models_surface_-news-55766.php) and right now my iPhone 14 Pro Max (4,232mAh battery I believe) typically has about 25% battery left after 3 full days off the charger (I'm not a heavy user) i.e. about 1,058mAh if the battery percentage calculation is linear. So even now an iPhone 14 PM with 2-way charging could not only give me the 3 day use but also do the 2 overnight recharges (2 x 308mAH for the watch leaving 442mAh of charge remaining) to keep me powered up over a 3 day/2-nights trip. (My AW is usually at about 30% by the end of the day which I suspect should more than compensate for my failure to account for AW wireless charging inefficiencies in my calculation above.)

I'm helped by being a light user but the above is also based on existing 14 Pro Max data and the power efficiency on my AW Series 7. I can see a scenario where if Apple could push up iPhone battery capacity further in future years and not even increase AW battery size but instead increase its power efficiency so that on each overnight charge it needs to drain less from the iPhone battery then offering the capability for an AW to parasitically charge from an iPhone might be a quite workable solution. It would certainly work for me.

 

[StumpyBloke]

They don't need to fix it. You just need to recognise that it's just a toy

It's not a revolutionary device/top end fitness tracker or even a quality time piece

It's just a toy. There's nothing wrong with this, your expectations for the device are too high.

It is just a toy.

Apart from the toy comment, I completely agree.

It is not a toy.

 

[BigPhil]

Apart from the toy comment, I completely agree.

It is not a toy.

How isn't it? (There's nothing wrong with it being a toy)

 

[BigPhil]

Why not call it an accessory? Despite having a full operating system, it’s not a primary computing device, but can do a few things well—not unlike a HomePod or an Apple TV.

Nothing wrong with a toy

 

[solarmon]

The Apple watch is wonderful for many things: sleep tracking is invaluable, heart rate monitoring too. But the Apple watch pales by comparison to my “travel watch”, a Garmin Enduro that lasts — hold your breath now — 50 days on a single charge.

Granted, I have features such as blood oxygen monitoring turned off on the Garmin (really? Who needs that? Athletes, sure, but for everyone else it will simply tell you if you’re dead.). Turning it off doubled its battery life, from 25 days to the oh-so-fantastic 50.

And finally, the Garmin is solar boosted, because the entire face (about the size of the Ultra) is a solar collector. So, instead of batteries in the band (so many foreseeable problems), make the band segments light collectors to boost the Apple Watch battery.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Nothing wrong with a toy

Especially one that literally can help save lives.

 

[timmodugdale]

Maybe in 2012, but the iPhone has been steadily getting thicker for the last eight years.
If the leaked measurements are correct, the iPhone 15Pro will be the thickest iPhone since the 5C at around 8.4 MM thick.
That’s thicker than the 5S, thicker than the 6, 7, etc.

I will take thicker if it means better battery life.

 

[chrono1081]

You are not getting it. The watch can be THINNER once you remove the battery and put it into the bands.

I don't think you realize how bad of an idea this is. Bands take more abuse than an enclosed watch. Batteries are sensitive to abuse.

I also don't get where you think the Apple Watch didn't take off, they're everywhere and they're the best selling smartwatch.

 

[Reggaenald]

A mini projector for a week in the desert. How come no one has thought about that yet.

 

[Reggaenald]

My first two watches I didn't really get them, but now I do:

1) You can get a small pocket power bank that's a watch charger as well.

Alternatively adding one cable to your kit is easy if you want to charge from something else.

With the fast charging on the newer ones it's no problem. I put mine on charge when getting ready in the morning and it's fully charged well before I need it.

There's no need for extra weight of more battery or a longer battery life with daily charging. You can even run a charger from a small solar power bank if you are completely off grid.

2) The mistake I made with my 7 was trying to do everything on the watch.

As a companion to the iPhone it works best, switching between them when you want a bigger screen or full keyboard.

I also made the mistake of typing on the 7 instead of using voice instead, but switching between devices is best when you can.

I’m surprised how well it works in my 7 45mm

 

[Reggaenald]

Yes, now you get it. Not big enough because the wrist limits the size. An optional method is to make the watch face the same width and height as those two watches FUSED together into one watch. then it maybe is 1/4 of an iPhone and at least a bit more usable with the touchscreen. But that is the point, it will ALWAYS be smaller than an iPhone, and you know large iPhones sell more than small iPhones. That is why the solution is to use projection or some sort of relay so the image screen instantaneously appears in front of your eyes bigger... NOT on a small screen on your watch. Because of this small screen, nobody will buy it if they can use an iPhone to give time. Plus, that Watch is too bulky. Ugly bulky while iPhones are thin and sexy. Move the batteries to the band or do a remote power thing with the power emitter maybe located elsewhere on your body or in an iPhone (if that technological hurdle can be solved).

You seem to forget it’s supposed to be a watch, not a small phone.

Do you also think the iPhone is too small and the iPad mini too big?

 

[BenGoren]

How isn't it? (There's nothing wrong with it being a toy)

If my Ultra is a toy, then so is any other smartphone. I use my Ultra for 80%+ of my traditional smartphone activities — phone calls, messaging, calendar, timers, weather, calculator, navigation, etc., etc., etc. And, of course, I use it for activity tracking, especially including WorkOutDoors telling me (out loud) which bodyweight movement I should be doing in my exercise routine. Then my 13 mini takes the remaining 20%, plus it’s my Kindle-esque newspaper / ebook reader … and, recently, the overwhelming majority of the time I spend on the 13 mini is learning Japanese with Duolingo.

While I’ll grant that there’s entertainment value in exercise, as well as in reading and especially with Duolingo, I fail to see how anything I’ve described would qualify as something you’d do with a “toy.”

I will admit, however, that I have the NightSky app on my watch. I don’t do any serious stargazing; I just use it for “What’s that bright thing over there?” I’ll grant you that much as a “toy.” But, if that makes the whole watch a “toy,” then the “sport” button in a commuter’s econobox makes that car a “toy,” too.

b&

 

[BigPhil]

If my Ultra is a toy, then so is any other smartphone. I use my Ultra for 80%+ of my traditional smartphone activities — phone calls, messaging, calendar, timers, weather, calculator, navigation, etc., etc., etc. And, of course, I use it for activity tracking, especially including WorkOutDoors telling me (out loud) which bodyweight movement I should be doing in my exercise routine. Then my 13 mini takes the remaining 20%, plus it’s my Kindle-esque newspaper / ebook reader … and, recently, the overwhelming majority of the time I spend on the 13 mini is learning Japanese with Duolingo.

While I’ll grant that there’s entertainment value in exercise, as well as in reading and especially with Duolingo, I fail to see how anything I’ve described would qualify as something you’d do with a “toy.”

I will admit, however, that I have the NightSky app on my watch. I don’t do any serious stargazing; I just use it for “What’s that bright thing over there?” I’ll grant you that much as a “toy.” But, if that makes the whole watch a “toy,” then the “sport” button in a commuter’s econobox makes that car a “toy,” too.

b&

A fancy toy is still a toy 😂

Next you'll be arguing drones aren't toys 😂

 

[missingar]

How isn't it? (There's nothing wrong with it being a toy)

Nothing wrong with a toy

The definition of a toy is an object for a child to play with, but even if that's not the intent of the word in this context, it still has a negative or degrading connotation for a device with as much capability as the Apple Watch. The thing can track several aspects of one's health, communicate with a global network of computers, access the vast majority of information in the world, stream music, make phone calls and receive text communications, provide street level navigation to almost anywhere, on top of the rudimentary task of being a clock.

 

[BigPhil]

I'm not degrading your choice in play thing 😂

 

[missingar]

I'm not degrading your choice in play thing 😂

We get it, this is your schtick. If you signed up just to troll, just say so

 

[jz0309]

I'm not degrading your choice in play thing 😂

you make as much sense as OP ...

 

[BenGoren]

Apple Watch (AW) battery life is also maybe the biggest issue for me. My ideal scenario would be to be able to go away on a 3 or 4 day long weekend trip and not have to worry about power.

The fraction of the population who spends four days away from an electrical outlet is, within rounding, zero.

Now, among those who do spend that amount of time away from an outlet, the fraction who do so without some form of modest portable power source is … maybe not quite zero, but still very small.

So, of this tiny fraction of a tiny fraction … you’re still packing a fair amount of gear, and a power bank the size of a cigarette lighter should keep your Ultra going for a month. (Not to mention that, already, if you crank all the energy saving features and power it down at night, you can easily blow past four days.)

Finally, for those for whom such a power bank would be a burden … well, the Apple Watch wasn’t designed for you. Sorry, but Apple, like any company, can’t make everybody happy; they have to pick a market — and you’re not part of their market. Fortunately for you, though, there are other companies that have you in mind, so you should have plenty of good choices.

No, I don’t have any idea about those other choices. This is a forum about the Apple Watch, for people who are part of Apple’s target market.

b&

P.S. Nothing says that you can only have one watch. You may well find that your ideal “long weekend trip” watch is as bad a weekday watch as you think the Apple Watch is for a long weekend trip. So get both! (And, if you can’t afford both, you also can’t afford your long weekend trips.) b&

 

[BenGoren]

A fancy toy is still a toy 😂

Next you'll be arguing drones aren't toys 😂

There are thousands, tens of thousands of people right now in a certain region bordering the Black Sea for whom drones are the very antithesis of a “toy.” They are literally life and death — and wholesale death, not retail … scores dead at a time, in incidents that make our own horrific domestic mass shootings seem like child’s play in comparison. Even when all the dead are uniformed; soldiers have families who mourn just as our families mourned after Fort Hood. Even when they’re footsoldiers fighting for a cause that history will condemn as profoundly unjust.

Do note that many of the deadliest drones in that conflict are literally off-the-shelf models that you can order for yourself online. And they’re not being tricked out or loaded down with bombs; they’re being used exactly according to the instructions in the manual. They’re just being used to spy on enemy positions, not the cute girl sunbathing next door.

There isn’t a cinematographer or photographer with a steady paycheck alive right now who would think of a drone as a “toy.”

Nobody in Amazon’s logistics R&D department considers drones to be “toys.”

Police departments certainly don’t think of drones as “toys”; neither do emergency rescue personnel.

I don’t know how many billions of dollars are in the drone industry, but — especially if you include those with “USAF” painted on the side, along with their foreign counterparts — the fraction of drones that are marketed as toys — let alone used as such — is negligible.

Same thing with smartwatches. Yes, for some — clearly including you — they are toys. But just because a ten-year-old boy thinks something an adult is using for something serious is cool … doesn’t make it a toy.

b&