How many are getting an Apple watch?

[Artdeco]

:wub: :thumbsup:

However, they're a poor investment, you can get a much better return with other investment options.

 

[ponyo]

My wife still loves hers and so does my daughter. I had to upgrade my daughter's iPhone 4s to 5 so she could use the watch. Both wear and use their watches daily.

 

[Ramses]

But its not a better wheel! It is a different wheel.

Mechanical Watch: Exists to tell me the time, maybe the date and other time related facts, and serves the purpose of dressing up my wrist. If its nice enough its something that can be passed down generations.

Smartwatch: Is the triage center of my mobile life, where I can check every type of notification (including time related ones), trigger new reminders, run apps, control other devices, and get more detailed information about my surroundings than what a mechanical watch can provide (like weather). Sure I can check the time, but that is one-one thousandth of the information the watch provides that I want.


When you look at just the raw functionality they aren't even in the same category. A smartwatch's lineage comes from a pager, not a watch. Like what happens in biological evolution, years of incremental changes (combined with Apple's want to get people to pay thousands for soon to be obsolete tech) have come to similar results.

It is and it isn't. It is in the sense that they do dramatically more than a watch, I get what you're saying and agree. It isn't in the sense that it's the same jazz a phone or a tablet or a number of other devices do, just packaged differently. It's not revolutionary in the sense that an accurate mechanical timepiece was 300 years ago was what I was getting at. As a person centuries ago, to see a mechanical watch for the first time it's likely it was thought to be witchcraft as often as not. I see a smartwatch today and I'm more like "oh look, bout time, but it doesn't do this, and this, and this...".

I've read more than once that it was likely a mistake to call smartwatches watch-anything. They should have distanced themselves from the whole watch thing, and I agree.
I'm glad they exist and will keep an eye on them, and I'm happy folks are enjoying them, but they are just not doing anything really crazy impressive. Like telling me the time without needing to consult the stars or the position of the sun, that was an impressive step. They are a completely expected and inevitable tiny step towards, something. Maybe I read too many scifi books as a kid but that just does not excite me.


When I can say to a device "what's the balance on my moms (prepay) phone" and it's able to look at her number in my contacts, see who the provider is, query that provider and give me the info inside ten seconds, then I'll be interested. It's a task a very young child could do, and all this "technology" still can't. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my tablet and my smartphone, but it's windows 95 with a touchscreen. It's the same old stuff by and large with very little change from a decade ago.

 

[Commodus]

I've read more than once that it was likely a mistake to call smartwatches watch-anything. They should have distanced themselves from the whole watch thing, and I agree.

I'm glad they exist and will keep an eye on them, and I'm happy folks are enjoying them, but they are just not doing anything really crazy impressive. Like telling me the time without needing to consult the stars or the position of the sun, that was an impressive step. They are a completely expected and inevitable tiny step towards, something. Maybe I read too many scifi books as a kid but that just does not excite me.

I look at it this way: you now have more computing power on your wrist than you probably had in your pocket five years ago. Seriously: the S1 in the Apple Watch (for example) is as fast as the A5 from 2011, and more capable since it's driving a heart rate sensor and mobile payments. It's not an all-singing, all-dancing device yet, but we're also still in the early days of smartwatches. It wasn't until 2010 that Instagram and other photo apps really took off on phones... I could see that kind of watershed moment happening with smartwatches once the hardware and software have some time to mature.

 

[vi edit]

I look at it this way: you now have more computing power on your wrist than you probably had in your pocket five years ago. Seriously: the S1 in the Apple Watch (for example) is as fast as the A5 from 2011, and more capable since it's driving a heart rate sensor and mobile payments. It's not an all-singing, all-dancing device yet, but we're also still in the early days of smartwatches. It wasn't until 2010 that Instagram and other photo apps really took off on phones... I could see that kind of watershed moment happening with smartwatches once the hardware and software have some time to mature.

You are still limited to a very small input surface, very small physical casing so battery and other "stuff" is competing for room. All of which are very hard constraints on overall functionality. A phone has over 5x to 10x that amount of space to work with and cram in more battery life, processing power and functional input space. All of that computing power is sort of useless if you can't easily interact with it. It's also sort of pointless if you can only get 12 hours of battery life from it.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I'm just glad they haven't taken off here at work yet. We already have enough people trying to dodge each other with their heads stuck in their phones. I'm not looking forward to the day where they can't decide which screen they'd rather look at between a smart watch on the wrist or the phone in the opposite hand.

As for the usefulness? I just don't see how a smart watch is useful for anything. Could change my mind eventually but for now get off my lawn.

 

[poofyhairguy]

but it's windows 95 with a touchscreen. It's the same old stuff by and large with very little change from a decade ago.

I would say Windows XP, but point taken. You are correct that we haven't really come up with a new use case or killer app for computers since then, and mobile is just covering the same ground while it plays catch up. That is why most of my tech spending is on mobile and not on plateauing regular PCs.

With that said I have high hopes for Oculus giving us something new.

 

[Artdeco]

You are still limited to a very small input surface, very small physical casing so battery and other "stuff" is competing for room. All of which are very hard constraints on overall functionality. A phone has over 5x to 10x that amount of space to work with and cram in more battery life, processing power and functional input space. All of that computing power is sort of useless if you can't easily interact with it. It's also sort of pointless if you can only get 12 hours of battery life from it.

That's where voice recognition steps in... Siri is pretty good on the Apple Watch, and rumored to be getting much better soon.

It's also important to have well written software that lets you easily and quickly get to the data you want. I can't pull up things like option chains on the watch, but notifications that stocks orders are filled and current prices are awesome.

Navigation is pretty slick, it uses the watch and the phone. Google Maps is still better especially if you need transit directions, but for driving and walking, it's impressive, especially for direction challenged people like me. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PfeOJuFdeUY I use it pretty frequently.

I get pretty good battery life, and I sleep every day, plenty of battery life for my waking hours, charge it at night, just like my phone.

For now, I'm pretty happy with it, it's a pretty significant upgrade from the Pebble.

 

[WelshBloke]

Navigation is pretty slick, ..., but for driving and walking, it's impressive,

Wouldnt just using a dock for your iPhone be a far superior solution for driving?

 

[Ramses]

I would say Windows XP, but point taken. You are correct that we haven't really come up with a new use case or killer app for computers since then, and mobile is just covering the same ground while it plays catch up. That is why most of my tech spending is on mobile and not on plateauing regular PCs.

With that said I have high hopes for Oculus giving us something new.

And it's OK that it's covering the same ground I guess, I know I sound like I'm complaining but I'm really not, just I guess what I consider harsh honesty.
It's cool having GPS on my smartphone, and I assume same having it on a watch, maybe if you ride a bike you can look at it instead of down at the phone in a holder on the handlebar. Sure that's progress, but it's not progress. And I'm not even sure having GPS other than mounted in a car with something from Garmin or in a dedicated pocket unit like we've had for ages is altogether a good thing.

I'm hopeful for Oculus or Google Glass or something along those lines too, my mantra lately has become "another screen, no matter how large or small, is not the answer". Maybe eventually enough people will be asking the question and something will appear.

That's where voice recognition steps in... Siri is pretty good on the Apple Watch, and rumored to be getting much better soon.

They are still a novelty, there is some potential there but it's an annoying, repeating, not-understood experience everytime I try and do something that isn't scripted.
My benchmark is what I listed above, asking one what my mothers prepay phone balance is, I'm waiting for something smart enough to figure things out like that.

 

[poofyhairguy]

My benchmark is what I listed above, asking one what my mothers prepay phone balance is, I'm waiting for something smart enough to figure things out like that.

So basically what you are saying is you are sad that we aren't computing more in the cloud (since that is the only place that can handle it), and my answer to that would be that we are heading in that direction. Google just rolled out a new feature in Android M called "Now on Tap." It is basically exactly what you want- the voice assistant reads your screen and tries to give you the information it assumes you want:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/28/googles-now-on-tap-hands-on/

I mean maybe it isn't smart enough to do all the digging you are asking for, but give this a few years of progress and we will be there. Smartwatches will be a piece of that puzzle as it is a data source on YOU.

When smartwatches first hit we saw all these demo videos showing off ideas for the devices, such as a magic world where your garage door opens, your AC turns on, your lights and music come on, when the you/the watch comes home. The watch alone isn't appealing to many people, but eventually it will be a beacon of YOU and will be the way the Google Now or Google Home or Siri Home of the future puts you in context of the questions you ask of the voice assistant. Most of the potential of smartwatches hasn't been tapped, as the internet of things hasn't gotten off the ground yet. Now that Google has a new platform for that (announced at IO) maybe we will start to see some of those pie in the sky benefits of smartwatches come to fruition.

What I worry about is the trade off. The problem is what you are asking for is FAR FAR FAR beyond what our LOCAL hardware can do. As you say Siri isn't close and it takes floors and floors of high end computers to make Siri go. It will be decades before we have the kind of power needed to run Google Now on our desktops, let alone our mobiles. In fact it might never happen as we are hitting a wall on the desktop form factor recently in regards to relative power.

In your example the assistant (and therefore Google or Apple or Microsoft because no personal computer can do it) has to know who your mom is, and who her prepay provider is, to get the job done. We are rapidly approaching the future you want, I think we will be there within five years as Google Now, Cortana and Siri make progress. The issue is that we will have to give up all our privacy and allow our lives to be one huge data mining project to make it work. It is all a trade off.

 

[Ramses]

It is a trade off for sure, and as long as it's controlled I'm OK with that. People give me grief for having so much stuff online, facebook, linkedin, etc, and my response is that it's all stuff I willingly put there and can manipulate. If I wanted to disappear, it would make it easier in fact as I could easily stage a "vacation", even going as far as to send my phone with it's GPS locating to a place, and I go to another. So I'm not crazy worried about it, but yes it is a trade off.

I also agree and have said, it's a stepping stone, all of this stuff. It's just not something that's overly exciting right now. I don't find myself saying "wow, we can do this now!" as much as "oh look, they finally got this working half-way decent, bout time".

My example question is easy, her name and phone number are in my contacts, the number will tell who the provider is, the contact info for the provider is available online, I don't even talk to a real person when I can and check her balance or add money to it. If I can talk to a machine doing this, a machine should be able to talk to a machine and do it. While I'm sure someone could write a program to do this specific task, it's the native ability to figure out that sort of simple everyday task that I'm interested in, not programming hundreds of specific tasks. Siri or whatever can book a table at a restaurant, great, but it can't call the grill at the gas station down the street for me and have a burger and fries waiting. A ten year old kid or less could do that. That's what I'm looking for. I don't really expect it in my lifetime but I'll be happy to be wrong.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I also agree and have said, it's a stepping stone, all of this stuff. It's just not something that's overly exciting right now. I don't find myself saying "wow, we can do this now!" as much as "oh look, they finally got this working half-way decent, bout time".

I think any person that consumes a lot a Sci Fi has that problem. Like for me instead of VR being " wow" it is more like "When do I get the whole room Holodeck like in TNG?" Humanity's imagination always outdoes our capacity.

My example question is easy, her name and phone number are in my contacts, the number will tell who the provider is, the contact info for the provider is available online, I don't even talk to a real person when I can and check her balance or add money to it. If I can talk to a machine doing this, a machine should be able to talk to a machine and do it. While I'm sure someone could write a program to do this specific task, it's the native ability to figure out that sort of simple everyday task that I'm interested in, not programming hundreds of specific tasks. Siri or whatever can book a table at a restaurant, great, but it can't call the grill at the gas station down the street for me and have a burger and fries waiting. A ten year old kid or less could do that. That's what I'm looking for.

The problem with what you want is it doesn't have a clear motivator for why it should be that way. I mean, these tech companies aren't moving the pile forward just to do it. The plan/hope is that they are investing their money into the tech to make back more money. Benefitting your life is a side effect.

Where that conflicts with what you want is the issue that quite frankly the gas station down the street probably doesn't pay Google a lot of money in advertising. So any voice assistant from Google isn't going to prioritize the gas station for the task (ordering you food) over the McDonald's down the street that pays Google millions a year in advertising. Same thing with your mom- if she is on some cheap prepay provider (for example) then they aren't going to pay the money needed to make those hooks happen ever. But if she is on Verizon what you want might be ready within a few years.

It seems like what you really want is a new system for driving technology outside of a profit motive and pleasing Wall Street. Because even if we had an AI that was as smart as a ten year old kid, if it came from Google it would make ordering those gas station burgers such a pain over a McDonald's burger because that is what keeps the wheel turning. The AI will have all these heuristic to push you towards sponsors, and only play nice when you exist within the approved system (much like today).

I actually prefer local hardware (like a smartwatch, and my phone/tablet/desktop) for that reason- at least it serves me. Sure my desktop isn't as smart as the computers driving Google Now, but it doesn't pitch a fit if a get a movie off of the Pirate Bay instead of Google Play. My expectations are adjusted accordingly to the power I have available locally.

 

[Artdeco]

Wouldnt just using a dock for your iPhone be a far superior solution for driving?

I prefer Google maps TBH (I use public transport almost exclusively), but the watch and phone work together when driving, so you can do both. I do find it works great for short trips and for me, skateboarding after I've gotten to the station or getting to the station.

Have I mentioned the electric carbon fiber skateboard I'm getting next month to replace my lame wooden decked electric skateboard? :biggrin:

 

[WelshBloke]

I prefer Google maps TBH (I use public transport almost exclusively), but the watch and phone work together when driving, so you can do both.

I'm still not convinced that operating a device thats strapped to one wrist with the other hand whilst driving isnt a good way to kill yourself.

What would you say is the advantage of the watch and the phone over just a phone in a dock on the dashboard?

Have I mentioned the electric carbon fiber skateboard I'm getting next month to replace my lame wooden decked electric skateboard? :biggrin:

Carbon fibre makes everything better.

 

[Artdeco]

I'd have to make up some wild scenario to justify driving with the watch to justify it, perhaps if I was driving my Rover in sub Saharan Africa, and hit a washout, and the phone fell off the dash and I had to make a left turn to stay on track?

Like I said, haven't driven in months...

 

[Ramses]

I think any person that consumes a lot a Sci Fi has that problem. Like for me instead of VR being " wow" it is more like "When do I get the whole room Holodeck like in TNG?" Humanity's imagination always outdoes our capacity.



The problem with what you want is it doesn't have a clear motivator for why it should be that way. I mean, these tech companies aren't moving the pile forward just to do it. The plan/hope is that they are investing their money into the tech to make back more money. Benefitting your life is a side effect.

Where that conflicts with what you want is the issue that quite frankly the gas station down the street probably doesn't pay Google a lot of money in advertising. So any voice assistant from Google isn't going to prioritize the gas station for the task (ordering you food) over the McDonald's down the street that pays Google millions a year in advertising. Same thing with your mom- if she is on some cheap prepay provider (for example) then they aren't going to pay the money needed to make those hooks happen ever. But if she is on Verizon what you want might be ready within a few years.

It seems like what you really want is a new system for driving technology outside of a profit motive and pleasing Wall Street. Because even if we had an AI that was as smart as a ten year old kid, if it came from Google it would make ordering those gas station burgers such a pain over a McDonald's burger because that is what keeps the wheel turning. The AI will have all these heuristic to push you towards sponsors, and only play nice when you exist within the approved system (much like today).

I actually prefer local hardware (like a smartwatch, and my phone/tablet/desktop) for that reason- at least it serves me. Sure my desktop isn't as smart as the computers driving Google Now, but it doesn't pitch a fit if a get a movie off of the Pirate Bay instead of Google Play. My expectations are adjusted accordingly to the power I have available locally.

It's easy to come up with reasons why it can't or isn't or shouldn't be. And I don't mean that badly in any way, you aren't wrong at all. But much like Star Trek, till we get past that whole profit bit we're going to be dealing with tiny bits of make-money-tech that are ultimately as annoying as they are useful, at least to me. And you are right again that AI, at least a basic one, would solve most of my wants. I'd be happy to pay Google or whoever for the use of a service that was "smart" enough to find out Mothers cell phone balance or order me a burger from the guy down the street though.
I truly believe that level of tech would start to forward our species in a number of ways, being able to order a burger while I had my hands busy holding two wrenches adjusting the shift linkage on an old car like I was doing an hour ago would be a side benefit. There are far greater minds than I that could make serious use of such things.

Until it happens, and it may never, I'm just not that interested in the stuff we have today. I have a smartphone and all that but only because it was cheap. A smart-watch, to keep a little on topic, isn't even on my radar at this point because it just doesn't do anything interesting that isn't half-assed or some sort of tease of what could be.

 

[holden j caufield]

I don't think I've seen one person wearing it not that I notice watches much and I live in a very apple crazed area.

 

[openwheel]

Well, even on a "tech enthusiast" forum, it is 92% negative.
The chance of regular Joe wearing one is even more slim.

 

[Artdeco]

Those numbers are a bit misleading at best, with 80% of phones being Android, in the general population, and I'd bet it's higher here, closer to 85-90%, and Apple Watch buyers being a subset of iPhone owners, it looks a bit different. So it's not so much "negative" as it won't even work with their phone in the first place.

Even if the numbers here reflect the general sales figures, it's still a success IMHO. And this is still a first gen product, I image gen 2 and 3 will be very polished. Android Wear devices have only gone through a couple of iterations as well.

And despite your numerous and oft repeated protests, we both know it's the future, either Android, Apple, Web OS, Pebble, Samsung, LG, et al, in 10 years, mech watches will be in drawers for special occasions or on the wrists of enthusiasts, it's just the nature of things.

The software is pretty stable too, no resets needed, and it repairs with the iPhone very quickly without any input from me, that was always an issue with the Pebbles I've owne(d)

I've bought and sold a couple, demand is still pretty brisk. Going to flip one more, should have it next week.

Kept a stainless steel Apple Watch, and have a couple of stainless steel link bands for it, just got another today, a nice heavy 5 bead from China with a butterfly clasp for a whopping $38 shipped. I'd prefer a black watch/band, but find just plain stainless steel looks better over time for me, I scratch the hell out of things, and I can polish out the minor scratches easily on ss watches and bands.

It looks pretty good from a distance, LOL.

 

[openwheel]

You just sound like you are rubbing and caressing your iWatch. A whole lot of promises for smart watches but there is no execution. A fab will always be a fab. Sorry. Just one of the 92% here.

 

[Artdeco]

I already did the math for you, what part didn't you understand?

The real movers will be Android compatible watches, eventually, because of the sheer numbers.

I really don't understand the comment either, you're a watch fan, and know minute details about your watches and watches in general.

 

[ControlD]

The only one I have actually seen in the wild is owned by my boss, who pretty much buys every new Apple mobile product when it comes out. He really doesn't like it that much. Says the interface is confusing and has very little practical usage. I'm not sure about the practical part. I find my simple Pebble to be quite useful but I also found the controls on the Apple Watch to be somewhat less than intuitive. Maybe with a few days of usage I would come to terms with it, but my Pebble took all of five minutes or so for me to feel comfortable with it. Then again, I prefer buttons and knobs in my cars as opposed to the new fancy touchscreen all-in-one interfaces.

 

[Artdeco]

The only one I have actually seen in the wild is owned by my boss, who pretty much buys every new Apple mobile product when it comes out. He really doesn't like it that much. Says the interface is confusing and has very little practical usage. I'm not sure about the practical part. I find my simple Pebble to be quite useful but I also found the controls on the Apple Watch to be somewhat less than intuitive. Maybe with a few days of usage I would come to terms with it, but my Pebble took all of five minutes or so for me to feel comfortable with it. Then again, I prefer buttons and knobs in my cars as opposed to the new fancy touchscreen all-in-one interfaces.

Do you use your Pebble with an iPhone or Android phone?

I had/have re-pairing issues with both. It was tolerable with an iPhone, but it was a problem with my Note 4. Evidently the Pebble app needs to be running in the background of the phone, and the phones shut down the app to save battery life.

I backed the Pebble Time Steel, should have it in July if they meet their deadlines.

The iPhone interface takes a day or two, swipe down for notifications, up for "Glances" (the apps), the crown is a scroll wheel like on a mouse, the button for phone calls, and pressing hard activates the force touch options.

So you have:

Touch
Swipe
Button
Crown scrolling
Crown presses
Force Touch

 

[ControlD]

Do you use your Pebble with an iPhone or Android phone?

I had/have re-pairing issues with both. It was tolerable with an iPhone, but it was a problem with my Note 4. Evidently the Pebble app needs to be running in the background of the phone, and the phones shut down the app to save battery life.

I backed the Pebble Time Steel, should have it in July if they meet their deadlines.

The iPhone interface takes a day or two, swipe down for notifications, up for "Glances" (the apps), the crown is a scroll wheel like on a mouse, the button for phone calls, and pressing hard activates the force touch options.

I am using mine with an Android phone, a Note 2.

Perhaps the Note 4 issues are something Samsung is doing in regards to power management. I am running a 5.1.1 custom ROM on my phone and my Pebble service never gets turned off so I haven't had any pairing issues to speak of. I guess I didn't have any issues with 4.4.4 either, but again that was a ROM with no Samsung software installed.