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I'll post the link because your post is a complete misrepresentation of what he said. I don't care for him too much but at least let's be fair to the guy and not put words in his mouth.

Apple Watch First Impressions

I think his first impressions are spot on and more than likely what the average consumer who doesn't hang around tech forums or reads tech blogs all day will experience.

You should also give him some credit for not throwing it aside and declaring that it's too hard to use therefore he won't. He took the time to make an online support appointment to get help setting it up. While he obviously prefers and leans towards Microsoft products and services, he gives credit where credit is due.

My bad, I caught some of his comments from another site which used the headline: 'Paul Thurrott on why Apple Watch is a Disaster'. I didn't go to his site as I'm not keen on giving him clicks. I wish we still had the ability to change thread titles.
 
If everyone would take his 20 minutes to have a look at the manual for a better and basic understanding and maybe watch a video from Apple or two there wouldn't be so many pointless questions about it in the forums.

That sounds like you're blaming the consumer. That's the last resort of a poor designer.

The Apple Watch should be easy to use. Why? Because it's Apple. And because they've hyped it that way. I'm sure future software revision will improve it, but as it stands it is not always obvious what you can do next or what you should do next. If a force touch is a possibility there could be a little symbol to indicate this, for example.

I'm an Apple fanboy. But because of that, my expectations are really high. In part they're fuelled by Apple's massive overhyping of the watch. ("This is no ordinary steel. It was mined on Venus by princesses and flown to Earth by angels. The brushed steel is licked by pedigree kittens who are only fed caviar."
 
That sounds like you're blaming the consumer. That's the last resort of a poor designer.

The Apple Watch should be easy to use. Why? Because it's Apple. And because they've hyped it that way. I'm sure future software revision will improve it, but as it stands it is not always obvious what you can do next or what you should do next. If a force touch is a possibility there could be a little symbol to indicate this, for example.

I'm an Apple fanboy. But because of that, my expectations are really high. In part they're fuelled by Apple's massive overhyping of the watch. ("This is no ordinary steel. It was mined on Venus by princesses and flown to Earth by angels. The brushed steel is licked by pedigree kittens who are only fed caviar."

Yup. The first time I ever sat down in front of a Macintosh in 1984, I knew exactly what to do intuitively. All of it made perfect sense without ever having to consult a manual. I watched the same thing of my mother using an iPad for the first time.
 
Because of the nature of the small screen, the GUI requires more effort on the part of the user to get data out of it.
 
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That sounds like you're blaming the consumer. That's the last resort of a poor designer.
"
LOL, no I don't.

So, you're basically telling me you have never ever looked up any information on an Apple product in a manual, a forum or such? Because it's Apple?

I'll give you an example: I started with my first iPhone being the 3Gs. The iPhone had much, much less functionality at that time, the OS and the settings were much more basic. I can assure you I am very used to techy gadgets of all kinds but I also had to look up stuff once or twice for the iPhone 5 or 6 e.g. because not every setting is self-explaining.

If you would have never touched a smart phone up to now and would still be owning a clamshell or candybar phone (I am still seeing a couple of people with devices like that on the street) and then decide to buy an iPhone 6, I am a 100% sure that you would have to check informations about it, read something, ask a friend, whatever.

I said in another thread that the Apple Watch didn't have that steep of a learning curve contrary to others who were stating that it's hard to use or understand. I found it quite easy to learn most of the functions but still, there were a couple of things I had to look up.

Everyone's different. Peace.
 
Yup. The first time I ever sat down in front of a Macintosh in 1984, I knew exactly what to do intuitively. All of it made perfect sense without ever having to consult a manual. I watched the same thing of my mother using an iPad for the first time.
I am pretty sure your mother can access the basic functions like mail, browsing, messages etc. etc. But does she know every single setting and what it does in detail? Don't get me wrong, I don't wanna sound offensive or such but I believe not.

I mean, just browse macrumors forums. All these questions, even the most simple ones for self explaining devices? Hmm..
 
That sounds like you're blaming the consumer. That's the last resort of a poor designer.

The Apple Watch should be easy to use. Why? Because it's Apple. And because they've hyped it that way. I'm sure future software revision will improve it, but as it stands it is not always obvious what you can do next or what you should do next. If a force touch is a possibility there could be a little symbol to indicate this, for example.

I'm an Apple fanboy. But because of that, my expectations are really high. In part they're fuelled by Apple's massive overhyping of the watch. ("This is no ordinary steel. It was mined on Venus by princesses and flown to Earth by angels. The brushed steel is licked by pedigree kittens who are only fed caviar."

How many things are obvious with iOS? If someone starts typing an email in the mail app and wants to attach a photo where is the visual clue of how to do that? There's no paper clip icon or anything like that. You have to long press to get the copy/paste menu which allows you to insert a photo or video. Also how would someone who's never used an iOS device know that double tapping brings up the app switcher and to 'close' out of an app you swipe up to get rid of it? Or that on the 6 and 6 Plus lightly double tapping the home button brings reachability mode. Or how about pulling down to get notifications and pulling up to get control center? When you're on the home screen there is no visual clue for either. Just like there's no visual clue for Spotlight search. The fact is those are all things people learn after using the device. And once they've learned them they're easy to remember.

Basically Apple Watch has two modes: watch face mode and app mode. My guess is this will be refined over time. Perhaps we'll find out that app mode isn't necessary as people are mostly using glances or accessing apps via a watch face.
 
I am pretty sure your mother can access the basic functions like mail, browsing, messages etc. etc. But does she know every single setting and what it does in detail? Don't get me wrong, I don't wanna sound offensive or such but I believe not.

I mean, just browse macrumors forums. All these questions, even the most simple ones for self explaining devices? Hmm..
My 73 year old mother has an iPad and absolutely LOVES it but she still asks me questions about it now and then. I still have to remind her how to use certain things or where to find certain features/where to go in settings etc. Just last week I had to re-explain to her how copy/paste works. Yet she's never once complained that her iPad was to difficult to use. I think for what most people use the Watch for it won't be confusing. And the more they use it the more it's functions will become second nature.
 
oh God. Are we really discussing how hard it is to figure this little watch out?
There are people building robots, rockets (that work), the hadron collider and artificial intelligence, and this guy can't figure out how a goddamn smart watch works?
 
It is a hard to buy, go online and you wait weeks and it's not sold in stores


It's also not intuitive to use like iPhone or iPad


Doesn't I still don't love my apple watch
 
The author lost me when he said the apple watch design is something Steve Jobs would not have allowed. I really dislike when people act like they know what Steve would or would not have done.

Also for a guy who is a tech blogger, it is surprising that he found the watch so difficult to use. I've only had my watch for a day but overall I don't find it difficult to use.

Finally, I am really getting tired of reading reviews that call the watch unnecessary. I agree that one could easily live without an apple watch making it an unnecessary purchase, but like all luxury items (I believe the watch is a luxury item) the watch does fill a need for some. The watch in fact does many more things than other luxury items / modern conveniences. I feel it should be up to the individual to decide if the watch is right for them, and reviewers should stop telling their readers what they need or do not need.
 
Won't link to his site to give him any page views but he basically says it's too hard to buy and too hard to use. Why does it seem like average people have an easier time with the Watch than some tech writers do? And a disaster? Talk about hyperbole.
who? & they just want clicks. There's also been articles about this with regards to apple about how bad news about apple exponentially increases your page views
 
I just read the article and his views are not far from being true... he stated that the Apple Watch is beautiful, but its limited to iPhone only. Where as the Microsoft watch and other fitness watches are open to all devices. I agree with him that it's too expensive compared to other fitness watches. Because lets be honest, remove the third party apps and you just have a fitness watch. A lot of fitness watches can show notifications already.

He did not say it was a disaster. People seem to get all crazy when someone is not cheering a new Apple product release. He tested it out an gave a good and true review in my opinion. Sure Apple sold 7million but that's because it's new and people want to follow the what's hot trend.
 
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Because lets be honest, remove the third party apps and you just have a fitness watch. A lot of fitness watches can show notifications already.

Let's be honest, remove the third party apps from the iPhone and you just have a phone. A lot of phones can make calls already.

Or maybe this:

Let's be honest, remove the wheels from a car and you've just got a paperweight. Any lump of metal can hold down bits of paper already.

The iPhone, iPad and A/W, it's ALL about the apps.....and the thinness of course.
 
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I woke up at 3 am and ordered from the Apple app, and never got out of bed.

It was delivered on the "launch date" as promised.

It's as easy to use as an IPhone.


EricE


My experience has been the same. I know other people had to wait a long time for their orders despite preordering within the first few minutes. My experience was simple. I put my pre-order in 23 minutes after pre-orders opened. I was on the train coming home after a night shift. I just ordered with my phone and it arrived on launch day.

Using it has been very easy.
 
As a product? The watch is not easy to use: you're often guessing what mode of interaction to use next. Do I swipe, force touch, click, ... ? Functions are hidden behind these that you have to discover for yourself, and you may never do so.

You're not wrong there. The Force Touch thing, particularly, is to me quite counter-intuitive. More than once I've discovered additional information (most recently in the Weather app) entirely by mistake when activating Force Touch without meaning to. I couldn't call it a failing on the part of the Watch, as I'm sure all this was explained somewhere in the videos, but it's definitely not obvious when and where it's available.

For the last day or two I've taken to prodding at everything to see if there's "hidden information" somewhere I just haven't unlocked yet. Something to tell you where you can and can't use FT for more (an icon, a colour, a border-- something) would be quite helpful.
 
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3981533-6503022817-39686.gif
 
I haven't had any real trouble using mine. It took a few days to get used to using force touch and to use the crown instead of scrolling with the screen, but I love not having to pull my phone out to see that I got an Amazon shipping notification and not an important email that needs a reply.
 
I have no interest in the Apple Watch (I'm a luddite who likes his mechanical watches ;) ) but if Thurrott hates it, mebbe I should buy one...
 
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oh God. Are we really discussing how hard it is to figure this little watch out?
There are people building robots, rockets (that work), the hadron collider and artificial intelligence, and this guy can't figure out how a goddamn smart watch works?
I swear some techies are intentionally playing dumb just to fit their meme that the watch is confusing to use. And those who complain about force touch...how is that much different from long press? It's not.
 
Let's be honest, remove the third party apps from the iPhone and you just have a phone. A lot of phones can make calls already.

Or maybe this:

Let's be honest, remove the wheels from a car and you've just got a paperweight. Any lump of metal can hold down bits of paper already.

The iPhone, iPad and A/W, it's ALL about the apps.....and the thinness of course.

you would have to remove more than just the App's on the iPhone to make it just a phone again... you failed!
 
And those who complain about force touch...how is that much different from long press? It's not.

It isn't, but it's also not always obvious where you can use it. On the Weather app, for example, I can immediately see that there's a second screen with my other location that I can swipe which is indicated by the two little dots below the data. The visual signal to tell the user that there's more information available is very helpful. Unfortunately, there's nothing to indicate there's more on scroll until you do it, or to indicate that there's more when you use FT.

None of this makes me like my Watch any less, and I would never say it's confusing or hard to use. I would, however, make the argument that it's valid to say that some things are counter-intuitive, and that a few design tweaks could have make it more apparent when further info is available using something like Force Touch.
 
Blog post from Jason Snell

http://sixcolors.com/post/2015/06/is-the-apple-watch-intuitive/
So is the Apple Watch intuitive? For new users, I’d say partially—it’s got some family resemblance to the iPhone, but it’s a new class of device and there’s a little bit of a learning curve. But after a few weeks with the device, you come to understand it. And once you come to understand it, you discover it’s full of little touches that are, dare I say it, remarkably intuitive.
 
I am pretty sure your mother can access the basic functions like mail, browsing, messages etc. etc. But does she know every single setting and what it does in detail? Don't get me wrong, I don't wanna sound offensive or such but I believe not.

I mean, just browse macrumors forums. All these questions, even the most simple ones for self explaining devices? Hmm..

Naturalust, is that you?
 
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