Pet peeves of the Apple Watch.

[Meddic]

When I worked at a desk this might have been useful but I kind of doubt it. S Fitbit seems more useful for a lot less money. In my opinion the AW was designed for desk working city dwellers. To anyone who spends a night in the outdoors it is worthless, with less than a days battery life. Hard to charge from a tree. As a nurse I am on my feet all day, who needs a watch to tell you to stand up.
I generally love Apple products because they are useful and easy to use, however this watch would be useless to me and after reading these posts no so easy to use.

 

[Night Spring]

I understand Jony Ive gave some weird reason for making the device rectangular,

I believe the reason was that rectangles are better suited to display textual content than circles. And a lot of Apple Watch functions involve displaying blocks of text.

 

[Loge]

No display of seconds on the digital display. Still hard to believe they haven't added this basic function, indeed that it was left off in the first place.

 

[Kebabselector]

I don't like the occasional pauses with some apps, it's as if the processing power isn't enough so it has a go slow.

The HRM was decent before the first update, now it's quite random - registered a rate of 205 once - a quick glance rarely shows an up to date heart rate. I hope they decide to support a chest strap as my old polar watch never failed to register unlike the Apple Watch.

 

[macguy90]

I believe the reason was that rectangles are better suited to display textual content than circles. And a lot of Apple Watch functions involve displaying blocks of text.

Good point, that makes sense.

 

[BarracksSi]

I don't like the occasional pauses with some apps, it's as if the processing power isn't enough so it has a go slow.

The HRM was decent before the first update, now it's quite random - registered a rate of 205 once - a quick glance rarely shows an up to date heart rate. I hope they decide to support a chest strap as my old polar watch never failed to register unlike the Apple Watch.

It supports Bluetooth HR straps.

 

[alexmack]

"Hey Siri - turn on the lights."

60 seconds pass before it has the task finished.

On the phone, the lights are on before it has comprehended what I said. Solution - allow the watch to connect directly to the Apple TV for HomeKit compatibility.

Generally Siri on the watch is unusable slow.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Slow. Slow. Slow. Especially Siri at times I need her.

 

[Bryonator1]

1. Speed. It takes a frustratingly long time to open almost any app. To me its so slow its hard to believe they found it acceptable to release it like this (although it's most likely so they can easily make the 2nd gen watch twice as fast and sell boatloads). Since it's faster to pull out my phone, Apple Watch apps are pretty much useless for now.

2. Watch faces. Why don't ALL watch faces support the level of complication customization as the modular watch face? The modular watch face is so boring. What use is the ability to have a live picture as a background if I can't have any complications with it? The same goes for the motion, astronomy, solar, and timelapse watch faces. Why can't I have a watch face that looks cool and is practical at the same time? So frustrating.

3. Third party complications on the app store. There are a lot of third party apps that support Apple Watch apps but very few that support complications. I like that Apple updated the app store to show which apps have an Apple Watch app but they don't indicate which ones have complications. This is particularly frustrating considering complications are way more useful than apps due to the speed issues mentioned above.

One thing that I expected to be a pet peeve that turned out not to be is battery life. This was a big reason I held off getting an Apple Watch initially. But now that I have one the battery life is not a big deal at all. I put the watch on the charger every night without thinking about it and it always lasts me through the day. I used to use the battery complication to keep track of it but since I have never had an issue with it I don't use it anymore. Where other smart watches I have used over promised and under delivered on battery life, Apple did the opposite.

 

[BarracksSi]

"Hey Siri - turn on the lights."

60 seconds pass before it has the task finished.

On the phone, the lights are on before it has comprehended what I said. Solution - allow the watch to connect directly to the Apple TV for HomeKit compatibility.

Generally Siri on the watch is unusable slow.

#firstworldproblems

"Everything's amazing and nobody's happy!" - Louis C.K.

God, we sound so spoiled. I've got a friend who was at home and complaining about how she keeps getting her personal iPad confused with her work iPad. Her roommate swatted her arm to knock some sense into her.

 

[BarracksSi]

Modular and Simple can each run five complications, although, of course, Modular can display more info in the center space.

 

[cardfan]

Siri is more miss than hit. It just totally needs to be on board and not linked to phone. Way too slow.

 

[countryside]

I really want to make my activity goal longer, way longer.

 

[Night Spring]

I really want to make my activity goal longer, way longer.

You can. Open Activity app and force press. You get an option to change your activity goal.

 

[shox2k2]

The slow apps. Having to be tethered to the phone. I'd really like it independent. I can't say that I use it all that much without the phone close by but if it could work on its own then I'm sure it would load apps quicker. I realize I would be paying more as it would be another device on my cell phone account but if it worked faster than it might be acceptable.

 

[BarracksSi]

You can. Open Activity app and force press. You get an option to change your activity goal.

You reminded me:

Force Press is the Watch's secret weapon. It can add at least FOUR buttons to an app if the developer chooses to do so, yet it avoids unnecessary hardware buttons which may simply be dead weight if an app doesn't need them. It elevates the Watch from a neat little passive gadget to a useful tool. I love it.

Yet…

Force Touch is "discoverable", meaning that users may never try it, then start complaining how they can't get something done (such as, I dunno, setting a new Activity goal, for example).

My beef with FT is multilayered. There's no visual indicator of FT abilities in an app which uses it; Apple tries to talk about it but users don't listen; users are only accustomed to tapping and clicking obvious targets. It's just too new for the average user, and some developers, to comprehend.

 

[countryside]

You reminded me:

Force Press is the Watch's secret weapon. It can add at least FOUR buttons to an app if the developer chooses to do so, yet it avoids unnecessary hardware buttons which may simply be dead weight if an app doesn't need them. It elevates the Watch from a neat little passive gadget to a useful tool. I love it.

Yet…

Force Touch is "discoverable", meaning that users may never try it, then start complaining how they can't get something done (such as, I dunno, setting a new Activity goal, for example).

My beef with FT is multilayered. There's no visual indicator of FT abilities in an app which uses it; Apple tries to talk about it but users don't listen; users are only accustomed to tapping and clicking obvious targets. It's just too new for the average user, and some developers, to comprehend.

You can. Open Activity app and force press. You get an option to change your activity goal.

Sorry, I meant my exercise goal. That one is not changeable.

I can do 30 minutes of exercise in no time. I really need a way to make the goal 1.5 - 2 hours of exercise.

The whole UI. I'd love Apple to give the same hardware to an entirely new UI design team.

Two handed operation: Nearly everything requires two hand to accomplish. Doesn't feel very much like the future when I'm rubbing my watch with my nose.

The sport band's peg: constantly hitting my desk and MacBook as I type. A plastic version of the leather loop should be the watch's default, not the sport band.

Yes. I will be typing on my MacBook and all I can here is the clink of my Apple Watch on my MacBook. It drives me insane. In fact, it's happening right now.

 

[afd]

Can't argue about correcting mistakes, but you don't need any taps to send a text:

Raise wrist,
"Hey Siri, tell my wife 'I'm on my way home now.'"
…lower wrist.

Well, that's it. But it's the simplest scenario, too, so it might not be a fair example.

That's fine if you're sending a new text, but if you're replying to a text

 

[nicho]

Sorry, I meant my exercise goal. That one is not changeable.

I can do 30 minutes of exercise in no time. I really need a way to make the goal 1.5 - 2 hours of exercise.

Let me guess. You can achieve it in half an hour?

It's a funny way of putting it. But in all seriousness, it would be nice to be able to increase the goal. Even if they had a minimum floor of 30 minutes to encourage movement.

 

[Oldfash33]

The number of taps it takes to send a text. And not being able to correct a mistake.

This

 

[nicho]

That's fine if you're sending a new text, but if you're replying to a text

Not true.

Receive notification. Look at screen. Message from wife. "Hey Siri, reply Hello". -> OK I'll send this to (wife)

 

[Loge]

3. Third party complications on the app store. There are a lot of third party apps that support Apple Watch apps but very few that support complications.

This is probably because only very limited functionality is available to developers of complications and in particular it is restrictive concerning frequent updates (though I appreciate this helps protect battery life).

 

[Kebabselector]

It supports Bluetooth HR straps.

I must have missed that - time to have a shop around!

 

[Polaroid]

Apps taking forever to load - so annoying, end up using my phone which defeats purpose!

 

[Mildredop]

No product is perfect and while I do really like my apple watch, there is a handful of items that I find annoying.

So I'd like to hear back from what you rubs you the wrong with the watch.

For instance, for me, the activity app is what annoys me. At times, the watch will tell me that its time to stand up, that's all well and good, except I was already standing up. Not just standing up but moving around. Similarly, I get up, get a cup of coffee, and feed the dog. I then sit down and after a period of time look at the activity app. It says I hadn't gotten up for a couple of hours???

Is this a huge issue, no, does it occur all the time, no. Does it bug me, yes

Does it buzzing to tell you to stand up when you're already standing, then make you start to ignore notifications? Or can you tell the difference between the activity app and, say, a text?