Series 3 LTE OS 4.1 Beta Review

[dsa420]

I owned the original watch and while I enjoyed it for a month or so but the novelty wore off rather quickly. I sold it and never looked back until last week when series 3 began to peak my interest.

Overall I’m loving it and appreciate the refinements that Apple has made: the user experience is much more fluid now and everything is intuitive and runs much faster than the original. I installed watch OS 4.1 beta last night and everything continues to run as smooth as 4.0 with the welcome addition of music streaming.

Overall no complaints, below are situations I’ve found the LTE of benefit:

Long run - music streaming was flawless

Gym - being able to ditch my phone

Kids - I have small kids and love being able to leave the phone behind and be fully present with them while being able to stay connected to messages, phone if necessary.

 

[chalmers4three]

I owned the original watch and while I enjoyed it for a month or so but the novelty wore off rather quickly. I sold it and never looked back until last week when series 3 began to peak my interest.

Overall I’m loving it and appreciate the refinements that Apple has made: the user experience is much more fluid now and everything is intuitive and runs much faster than the original. I installed watch OS 4.1 beta last night and everything continues to run as smooth as 4.0 with the welcome addition of music streaming.

Overall no complaints, below are situations I’ve found the LTE of benefit:

Long run - music streaming was flawless

Gym - being able to ditch my phone

Kids - I have small kids and love being able to leave the phone behind and be fully present with them while being able to stay connected to messages, phone if necessary.

agreed......loving the 4.1

the only.....ok maybe not only, but main reason i got the s3 was for the apple music streaming when i run. was bummed that it wasn't in 4.0....gonna try it on my run tomorrow but so far the couple minutes I've tried it i haven't had any issues. had 4.1 running all day today without a flaw!

 

[riverfreak]

agreed......loving the 4.1

the only.....ok maybe not only, but main reason i got the s3 was for the apple music streaming when i run. was bummed that it wasn't in 4.0....gonna try it on my run tomorrow but so far the couple minutes I've tried it i haven't had any issues. had 4.1 running all day today without a flaw!

For a thread reviewing the 4.1 beta, it seems to be pretty light on actual review details about 4.1.

Can you give us some details on the streaming for those of us not running the beta?

Is search Siri only? Are there tabs for your library/Apple Music?

Can you queue songs? Can you favorite items? Is there radio?

Edit: never mind. Just saw the MR review.

 

[porkrind]

I just did what is probably a worst case test (for how I plan to use it) of the battery and 4.1. I started an outdoor walk exercise and made sure to stream music I knew I didn’t have on the watch. Finished up with three or four songs that were stored on the watch. Over 47 minutes, I lost just about 10 percent battery. That was with more than the usual looking at the watch and flipping things around. And there was no playlist. I asked Siri for each song.

One thing I really hope they add/fix. The whole division between the 'Now Playing' app and the 'Music' app confuses me. I did notice earlier that if I am in 'Now Playing' and controlling something playing on the phone, I can like or dislike it right on the watch itself. Doesn't seem that I can do that with music actually playing on the watch.

 

[dsa420]

I just did what is probably a worst case test (for how I plan to use it) of the battery and 4.1. I started an outdoor walk exercise and made sure to stream music I knew I didn’t have on the watch. Finished up with three or four songs that were stored on the watch. Over 47 minutes, I lost just about 10 percent battery. That was with more than the usual looking at the watch and flipping things around. And there was no playlist. I asked Siri for each song.

One thing I really hope they add/fix. The whole division between the 'Now Playing' app and the 'Music' app confuses me. I did notice earlier that if I am in 'Now Playing' and controlling something playing on the phone, I can like or dislike it right on the watch itself. Doesn't seem that I can do that with music actually playing on the watch.

I just had my first jog today using LTE. Started with 73% and was down to 35% after 1hr.

My usage was comprised of streaming music the whole time, run tracking, and 2-3 message responses.

 

[matrix07]

I just had my first jog today using LTE. Started with 73% and was down to 35% after 1hr.

My usage was comprised of streaming music the whole time, run tracking, and 2-3 message responses.

Apple own activities app I suppose?
[doublepost=1506655619][/doublepost]

One thing I really hope they add/fix. The whole division between the 'Now Playing' app and the 'Music' app confuses me. I did notice earlier that if I am in 'Now Playing' and controlling something playing on the phone, I can like or dislike it right on the watch itself. Doesn't seem that I can do that with music actually playing on the watch.

Please give this feedback to Apple.

 

[porkrind]

I just had my first jog today using LTE. Started with 73% and was down to 35% after 1hr.

My usage was comprised of streaming music the whole time, run tracking, and 2-3 message responses.

Hmmm. Maybe I didn’t beat on mine as hard as I thought. Will try again tomorrow.