Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Did all the reviewers miss this?

S

Speechless

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 5, 2015
665
920
Non-gentrified Brooklyn.
Potential.

simply.

I am excited for Apple Watch because of ALL the apps that will come following it, it's exciting.
I just read Verge's review and everytime he mentioned "lack of _" I kept saying to myself, "but isn't this something an app will fix ridiculously soon?" like the mention of health tracking (gym, lifting, running, exc.)

Are people put off because of day one app launches? because I think it's pretty great and only going to get better. Or are people put off/waiting for the next generation because they want it all at once?
 
Speechless said:
Potential.

simply.

I am excited for Apple Watch because of ALL the apps that will come following it, it's exciting.
I just read Verge's review and everytime he mentioned "lack of _" I kept saying to myself, "but isn't this something an app will fix ridiculously soon?" like the mention of health tracking (gym, lifting, running, exc.)

Are people put off because of day one app launches? because I think it's pretty great and only going to get better. Or are people put off/waiting for the next generation because they want it all at once?
Click to expand...

Bear in mind there have been concerns raised regarding the overall 'snappiness' of apps, including when loading data from the phone. Some of this can no doubt be improved through software updates, but other may simply need a better CPU.
 
Speechless said:
Potential.

simply.

I am excited for Apple Watch because of ALL the apps that will come following it, it's exciting.
I just read Verge's review and everytime he mentioned "lack of _" I kept saying to myself, "but isn't this something an app will fix ridiculously soon?" like the mention of health tracking (gym, lifting, running, exc.)

Are people put off because of day one app launches? because I think it's pretty great and only going to get better. Or are people put off/waiting for the next generation because they want it all at once?
Click to expand...

There is currently no API to access anything on the watch. The heart rate monitor was found to be bad (as all non-hard strapped 10cm upon wrist optical HR monitors are). It took apple 6 month to get healthkit working somewhat properly, "soon" is going to mean apple watch air.
 
Speechless said:
Potential

I just read Verge's review and everytime he mentioned "lack of _" I kept saying to myself, "but isn't this something an app will fix ridiculously soon?"
Click to expand...

How do you review a product if not based on your experience with it at that moment?
 
lol, potential. So is the thought of flying cars. How about unlimited fuel cell cars. How about potential of that new rMB.

You can have your potential for their asking price, I'm happy to close my wallet.
 
They did not miss it, they even stated that it will evolve through he generations and has potential, just as reviewed, a gen one, it's not there.
 
Speechless said:
Potential.

simply.

I am excited for Apple Watch because of ALL the apps that will come following it, it's exciting.
I just read Verge's review and everytime he mentioned "lack of _" I kept saying to myself, "but isn't this something an app will fix ridiculously soon?" like the mention of health tracking (gym, lifting, running, exc.)

Are people put off because of day one app launches? because I think it's pretty great and only going to get better. Or are people put off/waiting for the next generation because they want it all at once?
Click to expand...

What developers can do with it is severely limited at the moment. No access to the heart rate sensor, Taptic Engine, not even sure you can build apps with things like Force Touch.

It'll get much more interesting when native apps and a full SDK are released.
 
So far, nobody came up with an idea for an #⌚️ app that would make everyone say "Wow! That's genius! Never thought about it! Would be amazing!" It's because there's no such idea. Everything that could possibly be cool and amazing, already exists on smartphone. The #⌚️ is merely a Bluetooth auxiliary display for iPhone. I don't think smartwatches have any amazing potential as fantasizers dream it up to be. I stopped wearing my [most advanced yet] smartwatch after 6 months and returned back to my super cheap, but trusty Casio:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1863347/
 
No I haven't used the watch and yes people will be using it more at first... But if the battery life is already just barely making it (per some reviews thus far) imagine all the apps to come. Not only will they not be tweaked to the scrutiny that apples own apps are to get the most out of battery life, but they will probably offer even more functionality that will have us wanting to interact with our watch even more.
 
Ries said:
There is currently no API to access anything on the watch. The heart rate monitor was found to be bad (as all non-hard strapped 10cm upon wrist optical HR monitors are). It took apple 6 month to get healthkit working somewhat properly, "soon" is going to mean apple watch air.
Click to expand...

Hmm...I'm not aware of every review saying the heart rate monitor was bad.
 
ACE83 said:
"At the end of three workouts, both the Polar (chest strap) and the watch reported similar average beats per minute. That’s far more accurate than the Fitbit Charge HR and Microsoft’s Band"

http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-w...-watch-does-bestmake-you-look-good-1428494694
Click to expand...

Similar is not the same, did they provide any numbers? 160 is similar to 175, but that is still at ball park difference in fitness. How did it handle constantly changes in pulse? I bet on bad. they say it failed with the Milanese strap. The verge review said it was off by half.
 
Ries said:
There is currently no API to access anything on the watch. The heart rate monitor was found to be bad (as all non-hard strapped 10cm upon wrist optical HR monitors are). It took apple 6 month to get healthkit working somewhat properly, "soon" is going to mean apple watch air.
Click to expand...

Going to have to recheck the reviews for the HR monitor accuracy, very interested in this feature.
 
Ries said:
Similar is not the same, did they provide any numbers? 160 is similar to 175, but that is still at ball park difference in fitness. How did it handle constantly changes in pulse? I bet on bad. they say it failed with the Milanese strap. The verge review said it was off by half.
Click to expand...

"It stayed within five beats of my trusty Polar chest-strap monitor" (when wearing sport band).

Christy Turlington's blog states the watch flashes the heart rate "LED lights hundreds of times per second" and she is actively able to watch her heart rate go up and down during a workout since it's constantly monitoring.

Based on this, as long as you are wearing the watch tight enough, the HRM should be just fine for the majority of people.

The Verge review seemed to have its own preconceptions so I'll just leave it at that.
 
More on the heart rate monitor. Seems pretty solid..

"The most interesting observation from my workouts so far is that the heart-rate readings I’m getting from the Apple Watch during indoor cycling are very close to the readings I’ve gotten from a chest monitor. I haven’t yet seen the kind of wildly-erratic readings that I’ve experienced with other health watches that measure heart rate through the wrist."

http://recode.net/2015/04/08/a-week-on-the-wrist-the-apple-watch-review/
 
my only problem with the heart rate monitor is that it's not available to 3rd party apps.

I currently use ismoothrun, a pebble, and a chest strap.

Ismoothrun integrates perfectly with the pebble watch and displays what I want on the screen (user editable to select what I want to see). This is great because with one glance I can see how fast I'm going and what my heart rate is etc.

Later, I can review my pace, my cadence, the climb and how my heart rate changed...on one screen mapped out for me.

This isn't going to be possible using the watch since the HR isn't available to ismoothrun. So, how useful is the HR monitor going to be if it can't be mapped onto my run? what can I use it for?
 
twisted-pixel said:
my only problem with the heart rate monitor is that it's not available to 3rd party apps.

I currently use ismoothrun, a pebble, and a chest strap.

Ismoothrun integrates perfectly with the pebble watch and displays what I want on the screen (user editable to select what I want to see). This is great because with one glance I can see how fast I'm going and what my heart rate is etc.

Later, I can review my pace, my cadence, the climb and how my heart rate changed...on one screen mapped out for me.

This isn't going to be possible using the watch since the HR isn't available to ismoothrun. So, how useful is the HR monitor going to be if it can't be mapped onto my run? what can I use it for?
Click to expand...

Your heart rate feeds into Health app so it is available to third party apps that pull info from there.

As far as the HRM hardware being natively available to developers...my guess...it will be. Just not on day 1. The full API comes out at WWDC. I think it will be like Touch ID which was only used in place of a passcode on the home screen at first but has since opened up.
 
twisted-pixel said:
my only problem with the heart rate monitor is that it's not available to 3rd party apps.

I currently use ismoothrun, a pebble, and a chest strap.

Ismoothrun integrates perfectly with the pebble watch and displays what I want on the screen (user editable to select what I want to see). This is great because with one glance I can see how fast I'm going and what my heart rate is etc.

Later, I can review my pace, my cadence, the climb and how my heart rate changed...on one screen mapped out for me.

This isn't going to be possible using the watch since the HR isn't available to ismoothrun. So, how useful is the HR monitor going to be if it can't be mapped onto my run? what can I use it for?
Click to expand...

It's available in HealthKit, and it's up to ismoothrun to take advantage of HealthKit data.
 
My concern is that the Apple Watch "apps" appear to be nothing more than extensions of iphone apps that rely on the connection to your phone, resulting in noticeable delays when you use them. Honestly, the whole situation reminds me of how we were supposed to be satisfied with web apps on the original iphone.
 
Personally I do not take Verge review too seriously. Watch is highly personal, and his personal experience differs much with say, Gruber, or Mashable... If you stop and think about it: why? Does a person's judgement based on unbiased review or personal agenda? Or people simply have too much expectations with Apple products. if this was one of the Android smartwatch, there would already be a heap of praises and can you imagine Verge gave the crappy Moto360 8.5/10?

One would never know, that is why I said: do not take Verge review too seriously.

So whom do you trust? The simple answer is: yourself. I urge everyone to try it on, and judge by yourself. Yes, the watch bound to have a few problems initially but nothing is perfect. It is still way better than most available smartwatch out there.
 
Well they have to remember that this is first gen, the FDA held back Apple a great deal. Next gen will have a lot more options.
 
They did a live Q&A on Periscope today at The Verge and they talked about potential. He admitted it has potential but he reviewed it as it currently is.
 
Rogifan said:
Hmm...I'm not aware of every review saying the heart rate monitor was bad.
Click to expand...

That's because they aren't.

The most interesting observation from my workouts so far is that the heart-rate readings I’m getting from the Apple Watch during indoor cycling are very close to the readings I’ve gotten from a chest monitor. I haven’t yet seen the kind of wildly-erratic readings that I’ve experienced with other health watches that measure heart rate through the wrist.
http://recode.net/2015/04/08/a-week-on-the-wrist-the-apple-watch-review/
Click to expand...
 
kdarling said:
In what ways did the FDA hold Apple back a great (or even small) deal?
Click to expand...

They needed approval for many of the feature that they wanted to included, since that would take more time that apple had, they excluded them until next year, I hope.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back