More Suppliers Secure Apple Watch 2 Orders as Launch Inches Closer

[heeloliver]

FaceTime camera seems useless. What the watch really needs is way faster internals and the capability of doing most tasks by itself. In it's current state, glances and apps take way too long to load. The whole design of the 'home screen' needs to be changed as well, it's far too unintuitive to launch apps the way it is.

The physical design shouldn't change too much, IMO. A little thinner would be ok but bands should be compatible.

The Taptic Feedback should be dramatically more powerful. I still find myself missing some notifications even with the highest vibration setting on. The internal speaker needs a big boost, as phone calls besides in private are way too quiet.

TL;DR: Speed, speed, speed

 

[warrior2000]

I would agree with you except for 2 things.

1) Sleep tracking- I've gone back and forth wearing during sleep, but I've now been doing it for the past 3-4 weeks and I love it. I especially love being able to wake up with a tap on the wrist. Much easier on me (and my gf). I haven't really had a huge issue with battery life because it charges so quickly, but extended battery life would only help.

2) Weekends/sleepovers/etc. It's easy to go away for the weekend and forget your charger. Or stay a night at your gf's place (or someone you met at the bar). Or get too drunk and need to crash at a friends place. There are many, many reasons why it'd be reasonable to expect to not have the ability to charge your watch every single night. It won't stop you from charging nightly if you want (if my iPhone is at 60%+ battery life I'll still charge it), but on those unexpected occasions that you can't charge it you'll be good for the next day.

good points.

But people could say the same thing about the iPhone. But Apple has been pretty consistent about giving the iPhone only 1 day of battery life not 2. It really is a trade off. Battery life or device size. I think at this point they have good balance. I would not want to see the Watch get much bigger or else it would be getting to ugly large watch territory.

Besides I think you can buy bands that extend the battery life to 2 days.
[doublepost=1460641226][/doublepost]

Ok so if i fly long haul this thing is gonna die before i even get to the hotel. Or if i stay at a relatives house it will be dead before the morning.
Sorry, not acceptable

Put it in lower power mode when you are in the air. It will last 4 days on low power mode.

So when you visit your relatives house you don't bring your phone charger? Come on

 

[malexandria]

I really want to like this thing. I really like the design and I feel like a "grownup" when I wear it. I've owned and returned it on 4 different occasions.

The app screen is cluttered garbage and hard to use and I never could figure out how to activate the watch faces or find the mickey mouse face. Without that, the thing even failed as a simple watch - it always started up on different screens and I'd have to spend 10 - 20 seconds and lots of swipes to get it back to the home screen which only had the time displayed in tiny fonts in a small corner. I think apps on this tiny screen are pointless and the Pay functions always disappointing as I had to twist my arm in weird directions to get all the stationary scanners to read the bar codes. The screen was too small to read notifications. In most situations I would give up and just use my phone anyway.

I know if I read the manual or watched the online tutorials figuring out the navigation and functions would be "easy." But at the end of the day it is a WATCH and should be intuitive and simple to use. It fails spectacularly. I shouldn't have to read user manuals and watch online videos to use it. Again, design and color options are fantastic, but yeah...

 

[69Mustang]

GPS is worthless without a cell radio.
With just GPS it would take 5 minutes+ to find a signal. Thats why it would need a cell radio to have a usable GPS.

So do you really want to stuff a GPS+Cell Radio in the watch?

Where are you getting this information? GPS has been a function of watches for a long time. Watches with no cellular radios. 5 minutes to find a signal? Never heard that one before.

guess you are going bust then.

A GPS would make the watch to heavy (you would need to add a cell radio also)
too expensive ( go add another $120 to add GPS+LTE radio)
and GPS will drain the battery big time.

Again, where are you sourcing this stuff? GPS making a watch too heavy - that can't even make sense to you. It's not like the components of the GPS unit are made of ununseptium. $120 additional cost? I'm going to step out on a limb and say you are being hyperbolic for dramatic effect. $120 The only accurate thing you said was GPS drains a battery quicker.

 

[warrior2000]

FaceTime camera seems useless. What the watch really needs is way faster internals and the capability of doing most tasks by itself. In it's current state, glances and apps take way too long to load. The whole design of the 'home screen' needs to be changed as well, it's far too unintuitive to launch apps the way it is.

The physical design shouldn't change too much, IMO. A little thinner would be ok but bands should be compatible.

The Taptic Feedback should be dramatically more powerful. I still find myself missing some notifications even with the highest vibration setting on. The internal speaker needs a big boost, as phone calls besides in private are way too quiet.

TL;DR: Speed, speed, speed

The funny thing about glances is some 3rd party Apps work really well like Dark Sky. It updates very fast. While other apps are slow as hell. I'm wondering if thats a programming issue.

I agree the home screen sucks. It looks cool but the icons are way too small and way too hard to fine. It really looks like it was designed to look cool, instead of being practical. Hope they redesign that ASAP. At this point I only about 5 Apps so they are all accessed on glances.

Stronger feedback would require a bigger tapic engine same with a louder speaker. Also more battery life.

In some ways the tech is not 100% ready to make the Watch. But I'm glad Apple went in a little early instead of late. I really think in 3 years the Watch will be a real force. I think at that point it could morph to a stand alone device to replace smartphones. Then all you would need is to bring along an optional 4-6 inch dumb screen. Very exciting future.

 

[afro-ninja]

Let me guess it will be thinner with the same battery life

This thing needs to have a at least 2 full days worth of battery for me to even start considering it

It can't just be me whose watch really lasts two days! I get through about 45% a day! I'd give it a go if this really is what bothers you. (Plus a quick top up while you're I'm in the shower gets me through most days if I have run it to the ground and forgotten to charge.)

 

[SoN1NjA]

Launching the Apple Watch 2 with the iPhone 7 doesn't seem like a great strategy. I don't think consumers will want to buy two expensive new Apple toys at the same time.

I will, been waiting on these 2 beauties

 

[WLS]

GPS and camera are pie in the sky rumors. Reality is an S upgrade with improved sensors and better wifi. 50% chance it will be out in June. Just have to wait but I'm glad I returned my gen 1.

 

[warrior2000]

I really want to like this thing. I really like the design and I feel like a "grownup" when I wear it. I've owned and returned it on 4 different occasions.

The app screen is cluttered garbage and hard to use and I never could figure out how to activate the watch faces or find the mickey mouse face. Without that, the thing even failed as a simple watch - it always started up on different screens and I'd have to spend 10 - 20 seconds and lots of swipes to get it back to the home screen which only had the time displayed in tiny fonts in a small corner. I think apps on this tiny screen are pointless and the Pay functions always disappointing as I had to twist my arm in weird directions to get all the stationary scanners to read the bar codes. The screen was too small to read notifications. In most situations I would give up and just use my phone anyway.

I know if I read the manual or watched the online tutorials figuring out the navigation and functions would be "easy." But at the end of the day it is a WATCH and should be intuitive and simple to use. It fails spectacularly. I shouldn't have to read user manuals and watch online videos to use it. Again, design and color options are fantastic, but yeah...

I agree the App screen sucks. Easy solution is to put the Apps you use in the glances.

About activating the watch face: its a simple click on the options in the Watch App on your iPhone. Pretty easy. It was faster to change that then what it took for you to type that paragraph.

Font sizes can also be adjusted.

I think the problem is you expect this device to be just like a watch. It isn't. This is a computer on your wrist. You will need to read up on some stuff to get full functionality. Same as a Mac. Same as an iPhone or iPad. This isn't magic. Even Steve Jobs could not design a computer than required zero instrutions like a simple wrist watch.

Again show me a computer that does not require you to read user manuals/online videos to get full functionality?

 

[Mac 128]

And how many in it's second year?

The anylists are predicting Apple will sell half of what they did during the launch year.

But people could say the same thing about the iPhone. But Apple has been pretty consistent about giving the iPhone only 1 day of battery life not 2. It really is a trade off. Battery life or device size. I think at this point they have good balance. I would not want to see the Watch get much bigger or else it would be getting to ugly large watch territory.

Besides I think you can buy bands that extend the battery life to 2 days.

Sorry, what bands currently do this?

So when you visit your relatives house you don't bring your phone charger? Come on

There are around 500 million iPhones worldwide. There are around 10 million Watches worldwide. I'd say the odds are quite a bit better if I forget my iPhone charger on a trip, wherever I'm staying will likely have one to loan me. Not to mention the widespread availability of them at the corner Walgreens. Probably out of luck if you forget your Watch charger.

 

[igorsky]

Not a market starter? Dude, Apple has sold about 10,000,000 units in its first year.

And that's being conservative.

 

[smacrumon]

REMOVE THE DIGITAL CROWN! And instead use touch based input on the side or touch based input built into the side button.

 

[igorsky]

LOL. 2 days. Guess you will be 'watchless' for a while.

Blows my mind that people can't charge their watch every night. It literally takes 2 seconds for me to put my watch on the dock each night. For me its way easier to charge each day. It would be harder to remember to charge every other day.

Every day charge my phone and watch. Takes 5 seconds to do both. LOL.

People also don't understand science. How much battery do people think can, realistically, be squeezed into a watch case? Not much.

 

[warrior2000]

This is what I see as the future of the Apple Watch:

Next 2 years:

Will continue to be a companion device to the iPhone.
Increase CPU speed.
No design changes to watch case.
UX changes - especially home screen.
Add some storage space so Apps can run more functions natively on the watch.
Continue to shrink components as much as possible.

So basically for the next 2 years I don't expect the watch to change much except for more speed and apps working faster.

3 years from now:

This is where I think we will see a big change. I think we will get TWO versions of the Watch. The first will be like the standard companion device but with a new case and of course faster. But the new more expensive model will be a standalone product that can replace your iPhone.

AppleWatch - companion device that requires an iPhone $299
iWatch - stand alone product with LTE radio $499

The iWatch will be much more expensive because of the LTE/GPS but also it have much faster chips and flash memory. Some Apple accessories for the standalone product:

1. Dumb touch screens. These will be the 'monitor' for you iWatch when you need a large screen. The cool thing is you can buy multiple screens. 4 inch, 4.7 inch, 5 inch, 5.5 inch, 6 inch, 7 inch, ect. Any size you need. And they will be super light and thin because all they need is a battery and the display. How cool would it be to bring a 4 inch screen to work then the next day bring a 6 inch screen? And the cool thing is the screens could be foldable since the only electronics are the battery and display.

2. Upgraded touch screens. These screens would also include speakers/mic for making phone calls and maybe even flash memory to store movies/music.

 

[SIR-Blade]

For me personally, I can't think of anything worse than including a face time camera, and will likely steer clear of any apple watch model that includes it.


Another camera that MIGHT be on when you least expect it to be.


My priority list for watch improvements is ...


1) Water proof it godammit ... it's supposed to be a "sports" watch


2) Add blood pressure monitoring


3) Improve fitness app to be able to record and retrieve historical work out's, BPM reading's, and future blood pressure monitoring.


4) Let me use an app to "design" a watch face that I personally like (Casio g-shock look alike for me). It's supposed to be a "personal" device after all ..


Not a lot to ask, except the blood pressure monitoring ...

 

[69Mustang]

Uh, GPS radio takes space. Also note that GPS watches don't have a taptic engine or a CPU that is as big as the AppleWatch. The Apple watch screen also takes much more size and weight than a simple Mono screen.

The truth is very few people need a GPS radio on their watch. Those who do probably are better off buying a dedicated fitness band.

The tech just is not ready for a stand alone Watch. Maybe in 3 years.

Personally what I'd like to see is the Watch as a standalone product with LTE/GPS. Then you could buy a seperate touch screen that would act as the Watches 'monitor'. But keep in mind a stand alone Watch that takes the place of your phone would cost $600 minimum.

With the Watch being the central brain you could buy multiple touch screens at different sizes. These touch screens would be dumb screens. So some days you could bring along a 6 inch screen, other days 4 inch. Other days 10 inch.

This entire post is super funny. You do realize there are several smartwatches that have GPS built in already. There are also smartwatches that have both GPS and cellular connectivity. Tech not ready for another 3 years? Come on man.

That bolded part is... absolutely incredible. Buy a watch and then some screens. How is carrying dumb screens any different than carrying a, oh I don't know... a phone?

 

[applesith]

REMOVE THE DIGITAL CROWN! And instead use touch based input on the side or touch based input built into the side button.

Ew no. The crown looks nice and is an easy way to scroll/zoom. sensors on the side would be awkward to touch.

 

[citysnaps]

GPS is worthless without a cell radio.
With just GPS it would take 5 minutes+ to find a signal. Thats why it would need a cell radio to have a usable GPS.

So do you really want to stuff a GPS+Cell Radio in the watch?

Absolutely (along with having map data to see where you are), with much greater battery drain. And... A brand new data plan you get to pay for monthly.

Built-in GPS and untethered use (while still maintaining the current and projected features) have become the new, waaah... 16 gb storage, 1 gb ram, and 5400 rpm drives.

 

[kyleh22]

Finally, I've been holding off on getting an apple watch because i just feel like their aren't enough band options out there.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

interesting take on the Dick Tracy gizmo the world has been anticipating for some 80 years..

I've done calls on my Watch exactly twice.

Now, I just look at it to see who is calling as I am bringing my hand up to answer with my bluetooth headset.

 

[pat500000]

For wdcc, I hope Tim has mouth guard ready. Lot of people are expecting macs to be released. If Apple Watch 2 is being shown... He is gonna get his teeth knocked out by consumers.

 

[12vElectronics]

Price price price. Needs to come down for the Watch to be bought by the masses!

 

[5105973]

I really want to like this thing. I really like the design and I feel like a "grownup" when I wear it. I've owned and returned it on 4 different occasions.

The app screen is cluttered garbage and hard to use and I never could figure out how to activate the watch faces or find the mickey mouse face. Without that, the thing even failed as a simple watch - it always started up on different screens and I'd have to spend 10 - 20 seconds and lots of swipes to get it back to the home screen which only had the time displayed in tiny fonts in a small corner. I think apps on this tiny screen are pointless and the Pay functions always disappointing as I had to twist my arm in weird directions to get all the stationary scanners to read the bar codes. The screen was too small to read notifications. In most situations I would give up and just use my phone anyway.

I know if I read the manual or watched the online tutorials figuring out the navigation and functions would be "easy." But at the end of the day it is a WATCH and should be intuitive and simple to use. It fails spectacularly. I shouldn't have to read user manuals and watch online videos to use it. Again, design and color options are fantastic, but yeah...

What? I never read a user manual. I did watch the video in their site which took all of a minute of my time. Besides, it's not just a watch. It's an entirely new category of device. The sooner you can wrap your mind around the concept of what it is and what it's meant to accomplish, the more fulfilling your use of it will be.

Even my sister-in-law can use all the features of the Apple Watch and she's pretty sad when it comes to tech. She graduated from high school before computers were put into classrooms. We weren't sure how she was going to take to the Apple Watch but thanks to the short video tutorials she's done just fine.

Look, even some kitchen appliances and vacuum cleaners require a quick glance at a manual so you can make optimal use of them. If you couldn't even find Mickey Mouse on your Apple Watch, how much use do you really make of your other devices? There is a lot embedded in iOS now, especially with 3-D Touch, that isn't intuitive to find and make use of.

All that being said, you are completely right, the app screen is a nasty mess. It can be organized but even after organizing it, I still think it's wretched. You are not wrong, the whole thing needs a rethink.

 

[smacrumon]

Ew no. The crown looks nice and is an easy way to scroll/zoom. sensors on the side would be awkward to touch.

Nah, it's an awful carryover to make it look watch like.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

From a practicality perspective, adding GPS or a cellular data chip makes more sense than adding FaceTime. I like being able to answer calls on my AW but only because it ensures I don't miss the call (assuming it's one I don't want to miss). But if I'm serious enough to want to FaceTime then I'm going to pull out my phone, surely with better resolution cam, and not drain my AW battery needlessly.

Also I can't imagine I would want to FaceTime on a watch in public. Maybe kids would enjoy the novelty but they generally do not wear watches and also seems like only a tiny % of parents are going to shell out $600 for an iPhone AND $300+ for AW too for their kids. Meanwhile you alienate adults because of all the bloat.

My hope is all these rumors are "pie in the sky," and Apple is focusing on improving existing AW2 functionality, not adding more gimmickry like Digital Touch. AW2 is really going to determine whether it remains a niche product or can become a breakout success.