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Disappointed in my Apple Watch Nike+ edition

R

Razeus

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
5,364
2,074
So mine FINALLY arrived Friday. I loved the watch at first. It was stylish and beautiful.

I spent a couple of hours just fiddling with it along with the iPhone Watch app to get it setup.

Low and behold - there's no Spotify app. I can control Spotify from the Watch's Now Playing app, but of course, there's no offline downloads music on the Watch. I'm basically forced to switching to Apple Music (which from my experience has been a disaster).

The point of me having this was to be able to leave the iPhone behind and do all the workouts with the Watch.

I have to suspect Apple is behind the lack of Spotify app, as I'm sure Spotify has a Watch app ready to go (I'm guess here).

Furthermore, there's no Audible app. I don't always listen to music when I workout so books are a benefit to me. I can download the Audible books and import them into iTunes, but I have to change the "type" to Music, make a playlist for "Audiobooks", in order for me to show up on my Watch.

This is alot of work and effectively Apple is telling me to change how I work and what I pay for so they reap all of the rewards. That's just plain greedy.

In the end, it was my fault for not doing the research. I just assumed. But frankly, this puts a really bad taste in my mouth since I know that Apple has been playing hardball with Spotify.

I wanted to like this Watch but until it works they way I want it to (not the way Apple tells me to), it's going back to the Apple Store.
 
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The watch has no data connection without the phone. You can't stream music from it. You will need to sync music to it to be able to listen to it independently from the phone.
 
I don't use Spotify, but I too would like an Audible app. I'm not sure how much storage third party apps can take up on the Watch. I just have the series 1, so anytime I exercise I'd need to bring my phone anyway, for now.
 
Doubtful that Apple is outright preventing Spotify from doing this, rather that Spotify is dragging their feet because they don't like the terms they have to agree to with Apple regarding in-app subscription payments.

If it's a deal breaker so be it. However it's not like you have a bounty of better options out there at the moment.
 
So... OP buys the watch without researching whether it will work the way he wants it to work, gets upset at Apple because two third party companies don't have standalone Watch apps, doesn't like the workarounds necessary to do what he wants to do, and thus returns his watch to Apple.

Did I get that right?
 
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dictoresno said:
The watch has no data connection without the phone. You can't stream music from it. You will need to sync music to it to be able to listen to it independently from the phone.
Click to expand...

Yes, I am aware. I'm basically forced to use Apple Music.
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deeddawg said:
So... OP buys the watch without researching whether it will work the way he wants it to work, gets upset at Apple because two third party companies don't have standalone Watch apps, doesn't like the workarounds necessary to do what he wants to do, and thus returns his watch to Apple.

Did I get that right?
Click to expand...

You did. As with all things Apple these days, there's just too many work arounds to use their hardware.
 
Razeus said:
You did. As with all things Apple these days, there's just too many work arounds to use their hardware.
Click to expand...

That is the wonderful thing about a free market economy. You are completely free to go buy a different product that better meets you needs.

Which gps enabled smart watch did you choose instead?
 
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Honest question. Which music streaming apps allow for downloading for offline play? I know that Apple Music does, and I'm assuming that Spotify does as well. Do Pandora and iHeartRadio? Both of those services have an AppleWatch app.

Also, are AppleWatch apps allowed to reserve "space" on the watch for storing local content on the AW?
 
I have to say thanks for this thread because I would have also assumed spotify had an apple watch app. Thats really sucks! I can't see myself switching to Apple music. Thanks again OP I totally would have overlooked this too! but really you can't say its Apple's fault, its just a shame they can't work together.
 
Of course there *is* the old fashioned solution of simply creating an itunes playlist of the music you already have and syncing that playlist over to the watch for use when you're leaving the phone behind.

Podcasts are a miss though, it's pretty clunky to do the type-change crap. Works okay for something like the Podrunner mixes where I'll rotate through several different ones depending on my mood. I just converted all of them over and they're available to add to the synced playlist. Pretty much a pain in the azz for anything that is regularly updated with new episodes and you listen to once.
 
deeddawg said:
Of course there *is* the old fashioned solution of simply creating an itunes playlist of the music you already have and syncing that playlist over to the watch for use when you're leaving the phone behind.
Click to expand...
Which would be limited if you stopped buying music and went exclusively to "leasing" music.
 
ftaok said:
Which would be limited if you stopped buying music and went exclusively to "leasing" music.
Click to expand...

This is true and at some point you may run out of interesting songs in your old collection. However, I found it was pretty easy to sync a large playlist over to my Watch and then, scroll down to a different location to start my run. This was not ideal, but definitely usable.

Since I only run with music occasionally, not having Spotify was not a deal breaker for me. (And yes, I researched it before putting my money down...)
 
deeddawg said:
Of course there *is* the old fashioned solution of simply creating an itunes playlist of the music you already have and syncing that playlist over to the watch for use when you're leaving the phone behind.

Podcasts are a miss though, it's pretty clunky to do the type-change crap. Works okay for something like the Podrunner mixes where I'll rotate through several different ones depending on my mood. I just converted all of them over and they're available to add to the synced playlist. Pretty much a pain in the azz for anything that is regularly updated with new episodes and you listen to once.
Click to expand...


Is there no podcast app either?
 
Razeus said:
In the end, it was my fault for not doing the research. I just assumed. But frankly, this puts a really bad taste in my mouth since I know that Apple has been playing hardball with Spotify.

I wanted to like this Watch but until it works they way I want it to (not the way Apple tells me to), it's going back to the Apple Store.
Click to expand...

Lol yes, you should have done a thorough research before purchasing a device or else this will again happen with you. I remembered once I bought a mobile phone in order to use 2 sims at a time. The suggestion was given by one of my friends who said that it has the dual sim facility. I didn't bother to do at least a little research on the device and went to purchase it. I got ****ed up when I discovered that the device does not support two sims at a time.
 
username: said:
Is there no podcast app either?
Click to expand...
In terms of supporting podcasts in standalone mode (phone not with you), I don't believe so...

However, I've also not researched it much. I do believe the native Podcast phone app is controllable vie the Now Playing view on the watch, and I think the third party app Overcast has a Watch app that depends on the phone being present.
 
deeddawg said:
Yep, when you rent/lease something you often limit your options more so than when you buy. That's the choice you make.
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I guess the point the OP was trying to make is that Apple allows the Apple Watch to sync with music downloaded from Apple Music, while limiting third party services like Spotify from doing the same.

Whether that's acutally true or not, I can't say.
 
Seems like a fairly trivial thing to be upset about. streaming music directly to the watch cannot happen without the phone for any music service because it would need wifi or cellular.

In terms of transferring downloaded playlists from spotify to the apple watch to store....yes, that would be good for spotify users. But, you can make your own playlists and put those directly on the watch. Basically I think of the stand alone music functions of the watch the same way I did my iPod shuffle....basically it has the same functionality but with a screen. so its even better than the shuffle.

Obviously Apple it going to integrate together better with its own products. It makes sense that the apple watch would work better with Apple Music than it would with a 3rd party music service. that only makes sense. I think it is probably the 3rd party companies that aren't in a rush to develop apps for Apple watch since such a very small percent of their user base would even be interested in that. Not sure how that is Apple's fault or how that is the Watch's fault.....
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ftaok said:
I guess the point the OP was trying to make is that Apple allows the Apple Watch to sync with music downloaded from Apple Music, while limiting third party services like Spotify from doing the same.

Whether that's acutally true or not, I can't say.
Click to expand...


But the question really is 'has the 3rd party company devoted resources to developing an app for the Apple watch?'

because most likely its not apple's fault that this company hasn't put resources into it
 
3lionsbecks said:
But the question really is 'has the 3rd party company devoted resources to developing an app for the Apple watch?'

because most likely its not apple's fault that this company hasn't put resources into it
Click to expand...
Perhaps. I don't know this, but does apple allow for 3rd party apps to reserve space for content? Maybe this is what the OP is alluding to in regards to the Apple/Spotify tiff.

If Apple doesn't allow Spotify to load music onto the AW, then Apple Music would have a significant advantage and the OP would have a point. Otherwise, it's on Spotify to make an AW app themselves, like Pandora and iHeartRadio have.
 
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ftaok said:
Honest question. Which music streaming apps allow for downloading for offline play? I know that Apple Music does, and I'm assuming that Spotify does as well. Do Pandora and iHeartRadio? Both of those services have an AppleWatch app.

Also, are AppleWatch apps allowed to reserve "space" on the watch for storing local content on the AW?
Click to expand...
username: said:
Is there no podcast app either?
Click to expand...

No. You can control from the Watch using the "now playing" app, but you'll need your iPhone near by.

I don't always listen to music when working out. Seems short sighted on Apple's part.
 
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