It’s that time of the year again: Apple announced a bunch of new products. First, the iPhone 6 and iPhone Plus – 4.7″ and 5.5″, with upgraded silicon, better camera, and a new design. They both look like fantastic and worthy upgrades for iOS users, although I’m sure some are going to cringe over the camera bulge and the hilarious, Samsung-y one-handed mode called Reachability (yes. That is a thing. A thing Tim Cook showed off as a feature).
Moving on, the biggest news, of course, is Apple’s entry into the smartwatch market. It’s called the Apple Watch, and to sum it up: they put an iPhone on your wrist – including a homescreen, endless applications, a long list of features like using it to control other Apple devices, and so on. The user interface is operated through a combination of a crown on the side of the device and the touchscreen. The touch screen can sense the difference between a tap and a press, with the latter being used a right-click sort of thing.
If this sounds complex for a watch, you’re not alone. The interface looked incredibly cumbersome and complex to me – far more so than what I’ve seen of Android Wear. For instance, the homescreen is a grid of round, zoomed-out icons that you navigate by panning with touch, but zooming in with the crown on the side. In other words, you have to shift from screen to crown to screen to launch an application. Add in the various up/down/right/left swipes, touch+holds, and the difference between taps and presses, as well as the tiny display, and it just sounds cumbersome and complex to me. Take a look at the photos application – now zoom with the crown, pan with swipes, zoom with the crown, pan with the screen, until you find the photo you want (and remember: you have to do it all that with just one hand!). Good luck, with that.
As for the hardware – it’s square, and that will most likely be the most dividing aspect of it all. Some prefer square watches, some round. I’m firmly in the round camp, and combined with the ‘bulgy’ and curvy design of the Apple Watch it just looks entirely unappealing to me – not to mention uncomfortable, with that huge sensor bulge pressing into your wrist. It looks and operates like a tiny computer strapped to your wrist – and that’s exactly not what I would want in a smartwatch.
Then there’s the weirdest thing about the Apple Watch: that awkwardly huge button underneath the crown. Press it, and it will open a messaging application, allowing you to send messages and make calls to a select group of friends (after scrolling with the crown, of course). Yes, they dedicated the only button on the device to that. It’s indicative of something I’m not used to seeing from Apple: everything and the kitchen sink.
In a nutshell – it seems like the Android Wear team is a lot better at saying ‘no’ than the Apple Watch Team.
The Apple Watch will go on sale “early 2015”, will come in two sizes, and six different materials. Straps are interchangeable. Apple only announced the price of the cheapest model (no sapphire on this one): $349. Missing from the entire presentation? Battery life. Apple made zero mentions or references to battery life, which tells you all you need to know. In current versions, it sucks. The biggest drawback? It requires an iPhone 5 or higher. Other platforms are not supported.
It’s very hard to make any predictions about where this is going. Will users prefer the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink, complex approach from Apple, or the simpler, restricted approach from Google? This is a new device category, so I have absolutely no idea. This thing is either going to be Tim Cook’s iPhone, or Tim Cook’s Newton (Peter Bright had the same idea).
I’m not placing any bets.
Yes, they may sell well, but to me it’s as ugly as ugly gets.
I think so too.
The other amazing thing is how much money Apple wants for that ugly piece of old technology. It has the same width and height as the LG G2, but only a 750p instead of a 1080p screen. Only 4.7 inches instead of 5.2 and only 1 GB of RAM instead of 2 and no optical image stabilization.
And here in europe the price is 699€ vs 300€ … IMO only real Apple victims will buy it. Sadly there is no shortage of bling loving ignorant people.
They kind of eluded to a 24 hr battery life by suggesting that you charge it at the end of the day. Agreed… not concrete but implied.
I was really hoping for a watch with little more than Siri and a simple yet (ideally) very clever visual mechanism for telling time and perhaps some additional clever utilities using the highly refined display.
With that said, they did pack a LOT of tech into the watch and managed to do so with a very simple interface considering all that it needs to do. I do wish it was thinner though.
As far as “saying no” is concerned be it from Apple or Google… this is a comparison I banked on you saying actually. However if they announced the watch I just described… I bet you would have said it wasn’t enough.
Simply put, you would have declared “not enough” if less than an Android solution, “nothing distinctive” if equal and “too much” with the current set of features. When it comes to Apple they can’t win yet the same solution from Google would have been reviewed as a proverbial home run with little regard for the deficiencies. I’ve come to accept your Apple specific reviews as being loaded and I don’t believe I’m alone.
I fall into the too much camp myself however I think that every smart watch on the market is FAR FAR too much.
Edited 2014-09-09 20:13 UTC
Could they have said: you charge it multiple times a day?
This is how we know Apple. They pick a few key features and iterate until they get it perfect.
Normally with Apple it isn’t about the tech but how well it works.
We all know Android phones have more features and do more. Still people buy iPhones because of the Apple experience.
It is only too much if it compromises usability for it.
I disagree. They each have their unique points of differentiation however I would argue that Android does typically approach problems in a way that runs contrary to what Thom stated was a redeeming characteristic about Android… “saying no”.
Unlike typical Apple tech, Android is the epitome example of the kitchen sink metaphor. Perhaps that’s where you get your assumptions about having more features.
Edited 2014-09-09 20:19 UTC
Here is Thoms real quote:
Android is everything. Sometimes it is the kitchen sink(samsung), sometimes it is more elegant(htc), sometimes it is even iOS like(xiaomi) and sometimes it is even more simple than Apple has ever made (androidwear).
I think they also said ‘all day’. The implication is less than 24 hours battery life.
It’s likely that they still don’t have an accurate idea about the battery life, since the OS is not completely finished.
Actually, that would imply a 16-hour battery life, as it sits on the charger for the 8-hours you’re asleep.
Personally, I take my watch off at night (I can’t stand the ticking noise it makes when my wrist is next to my head), so a 16-hour battery life would be do-able.
However, a 72-hour battery life is really the minimum, as that covers weekend trips away from the house (and away from power sources) without worrying about carrying around extra batteries and car chargers, and what-not.
My phone can last just shy of 60 hours if I turn off the data connections. A smartwatch needs to be able to do better than that.
the watch sucks.
the iPhones are ok.
I think the hardware looks bad. I’m really surprised Apple would release something that looks like this. I guess this is where the technology for rectangular watches is. It has to be that thick, and so the design choices are limited. If it weren’t so fat it might be OK, but just OK. Maybe they should have waited a year or two.
I think the software functionality is great, but I think it’s very difficult to give a true reaction without trying the watch out. The software looks quite plain, but I assume they don’t want the battery hit of rendering more complex views. I think the crown-as-a-clickwheel is a fantastic idea; bear in mind this isn’t a phone, the distance your hand has to travel from the side of the device to the centre of the screen is tiny.
Handoff/continuity is the big thing here, in my opinion. I suspect once you’ve been using that for a while you could never go back to using devices without that technology.
I look forward to the reaction of all the Apple fanboys who said Apple won’t make an iPod nano on a strap (for example, Gruber).
I’m a little bit surprised at Apple this year; this really doesn’t feel like their A-game, especially with the watch.
It just doesn’t feel like an elegant apple device; I hate to say it, but Apple doesn’t seem like the bastion of innovation and design this time around, and that’s where all of Apples’ value comes from: out-innovating the competition. Instead, it looks like Apple is trying to compete by making things shiny…
It seems like even Samsung (a company I credit as having 0 class) has a more appealing watch coming out.
I don’t tend to buy Apple stuff anymore, but I’ve always watched them to see a couple years into the future… For the first time, it feels like they’re half a year behind.
Well, what did you expect? Steve Jobs is gone. He was the visionary behind Apple and always was. Many people hardly remember the early nineties anymore when Apple was stagnant and nearly bankrupt. Then, Steve Jobs returned and soon we had the brand new bondi blue iMacs. From there innovation flourished propelling Apple into the top of its game. Now Steve Jobs is gone and with him his vision and innovation. Apple will continue to rest on its laurels and try to re-invent what it already has. Bigger screens on the iPhones (something Android phones have had for years); an iWatch (another me-too that chases Android devices); better cameras, higher resolution, etc. New, truly innovating creations? Nope. I predict a slow downward spiral and in a decade or less, Apple will be right back where it was in the early nineties, barely hanging on by a thread and chasing every other tech company who will have surpassed it with innovative products.
All of the above are comments referring to the launch of the original iPod forums at Macrumors.
Some things never change. From Jim Dalrymple
Here is an article called ‘A Watch Guy’s Thoughts On The Apple Watch After Seeing It In The Metal’, worth a read and very thorough.
http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review
The qwerty keyboard on the Samsung Gear S was absurd, but Apple just took the biscuit with putting all your photos on a watch!
‘Hey, instead of showing you this cool photo on the 5.5″ phone in my pocket, I’m just going to spend ten minutes winding through pictures on this tiny screen!’
Insane. Completely unable to see the wood for the trees. I’m stunned by Apple’s blindness to the obvious here.
I agree that the photo app is stupid but honestly is it really about the photo app.
I think the question here is battery life, comfort, and utility. I don’t know that we know the answers to any of these.
I think if battery like and comfort and reasonable then just the health features of the device would be worth getting one.
I think you summed it up nicely. Fairly boring phone updates and very disappointing watch. The main thing i liked about it was the usage of white on black so it won’t light up the room at night and i think it looks good when it is not on the wrist 🙂 also finally a charger done right, no cradle or carefully aligning of coils, just snap it on with a magnet. But on most accounts i think Android wear is looking more promising. I am quite disappointed about that, i thought they would finally show the world how a smart watch should look and work.
And starting at $350? Ouch, can’t remember any apple product where the cheapest variant is the one i wanted. i can understand paying that much for a good analog watch that will last 10+ years, where this will probably follow the rate of phones and tablets and be obsolete in 3-4 years.
I haven’t seen the charger in use (just a photo of it attached to the back of the watch), but I thought the Moto 360 cradle was nicer. When it’s charging, it switches to a desk clock and basically replaces your bedside alarm clock. That was really neat, IMO.
I have also only seen the images of the charger, but have enough faith in their hardware design to believe it will just work, like it does with the macbook pros, this stuff they are really good at.
I already have the alarm clock function covered by my phone, and i don’t want any extra light in the room so i see no benefit in a docked watch.
For me a smart watch should primarely be an extension of my phone and let me do some stuff without taking the phone out of my pocket. This means important notifications, muting the phone, decline calls with a preset sms, very basic remote controlling of tv, stereo, phone music player, powerpoint, etc. gps directions when on foot, shopping list viewer, turn on the parking heater in the car
I dont want to read my calendar, write an sms (except through voice), view images, try to browse a map, view facebook/twitter, look for movies or any other task where using the phone is much easier and faster
And it’s $350+ on top of the price you have already to pay for an iPhone 5/6, as the new iThing won’t work without it.
Well, it’s clearly marketed as a premium personal accessory, and not as a tech gadget
Navigation won’t actually be that hard if you think about it.
You spin the crown with your thumb and forefinger, and you tap/swipe the screen with your thumb, while your forefinger rests on the crown. (Just tested that with my watch, and it works quite nicely.)
Granted, that method works best if you wear your watch the proper way (meaning, the face sites on the underside of your wrist).
If you wear it incorrectly (aka, on the top of your wrist), then it’s slightly more difficult.
Overall, though, the navigation with thumb and forefinger makes a lot more sense than trying to poke at it with your fingertips.
Edited 2014-09-09 20:49 UTC
The Apple Watch only comes out next year and its far to early to even bother comparing with Android Wear, because by the time its released, a whole new generation will be released. Even then, people stopped wearing their watches because their mobile did everything they needed anyway.
They also spent 1/3 of the time mentioning a payment solution, which will only work if the phone has batteries anyway. Since its NFC, everyone will accept it (its basically an RFID emulator), but there is nothing special about it, and since the iPhone’s aren’t waterproof, you risk being unable to pay for the ride home in a storm …
For a showcase rich with marketing terms, finally, the iPhones are OK, but, they are mostly an evolution. Having a stronger display won’t mean anything either if the casing doesn’t absorb drops well, or if they make the glass thinner. And, the Galaxy Note 4 has better specs in some areas.
So, it wouldn’t make me buy it. And I predict many people buying up Apple Watches, will probably use it for 3 months, get sick of charging it, and only wear it in social situations.
In other words, exactly like all the other smart watches. There is still no killer application for smart watches
I agree that there is no killer app for watches. Honestly I don’t know that there is a killer app for tablets.
It’s really a question of aggregate utility of these things. I like the watch for the health monitoring, I’d like to be able to use it for running my home automation, the notification might be nice.
Will I get used to wearing the thing? I’ve no idea.
I’m impressed with the attention to detail of some aspects of the Apple Watch. Other things, I’m just like…what..
The crown I’ll reserve judgement on as I haven’t used it, but I think at least visually this isn’t what I’d expect from Apple.
Its clear that Motorola, at least in the looks department, one upped them in my opinion. They just dropped the ball on the internals (Now, mind you I get decent performance on my Moto 360, and I can make it just about through a work day).
I really get the sense, and this might be nothing, that Apple is just throwing stuff to see what sticks.
I think if you held up a Moto 360 and an Apple Watch, you’d be surprised that Apple didn’t come up with the 360. Its just a fierce reduction of complexity to the point where its Apple-esque.
I think Thom said it perfectly, they did not know how to say no. Feature creep made this a disappointing unveil to me.
I am pretty sure that all the hype around smartwatches is making a tremendous amount of advertisement for ‘luxury’ mechanical watches, particularly for a younger audience.
Into a wrist-wearable multimedia consumption device that can also serve as a timepiece (turn on display only when you glance at it), a fitness monitor (I believe both are already present on the iPod nano), and a notification display. The concept of a watch is just too limiting both in terms of design and functionality.
One of the first implementations of a zoomable interface into a mass-marketed consumer product. It will be difficult to predict how well it will be received. Although I am sure people will find the physical scroll far less fiddly than try to tap on a tiny screen.
In response to Thom’s comment about the Apple Watch being everything and the kitchen sink, I just want to note that one of the persistent criticisms of previously released smart watches has been “what’s point”. Although gimmicky, the Apple Watch’s Digital Touch at least provides a new way of interaction (and is arguably an extension of the nudge concept of IM)
Edited 2014-09-09 21:43 UTC
And I mean that in the best possible way. The Newton was awesome, and weird as hell. I understand why its considered a flop now, looking at sales and what not. But, I really really wanted one at the time. It was a lot of good ideas that weren’t really perfected.
I kind of have to admire Apple for releasing something so inelegant and funky. They’re swinging for the fences, which always makes the game more interesting.
Whichever company comes out with the ability to change the voice activation command to “KITT, I need you”, and includes a voice-pack that mimics the KITT voice actor gets my money. Until then, they all fall short.
I’ve wanted a “smart watch” communicator thingy since I was a wee lad in the 80s watching Night Rider on our black-n-white 13″ TV.
And I’m still waiting …
(Including a black leather jacket in the Hasslehoff Edition would be a welcome bonus.)
Edited 2014-09-09 21:44 UTC
I think the biggest issue with this watch is its design. What if everybody buys this one, everybody will have the same watch? It’s like communism.
That’s the problem in general I have with smart watches. To me a watch is an extension of your clothes, it’s jewelry and it should be beautiful. People should notice your watch and say WOW nice watch man.
You’ve got male watches, female watches, kids’ watches, rich people’s watches and so on. There’s a gorgeous watch out there for everyone all you have to do is go out and find it.
I can’t believe there are people that really expect us to walk around with these things and this is not only about the Apple Watch, I feel the same about the Android wear as well although there’s a little bit more choice there but that still doesn’t do it for me.
I mean what would you rather wear to a restaurant or a party? A nice classic leather jacket with a beautiful classic Swiss watch or some fancy Back to the Future self-drying, auto-fit smart jacket with a matching smart watch around your wrist?
That’s the problem here, a watch becomes an extension of you as soon as you wear it, while your phone is in your pocket most of the time so looks are less important there.
I don’t want to say this but I’m gonna do it anyway. I don’t like Steve Jobs but I’m sure he’d understand this. He would never let this thing see the light of day. Never, ever.
I never bought anything with an Apple logo on it and I never will, but even I am truly disappointed with this watch.
I understand what you’re saying. I mean, if you’re looking for a fashion accessory and you’re so shallow that you feel you have to impress other people with your clothing and jewelry, these topics are important. But others of us couldn’t be bothered obsessing over such inane bullshit. If you don’t like what I’m wearing on my wrist and choose not to associate with me for that reason, you have my permission to go eat a dick.
For the record, I don’t own a smartwatch and don’t plan to buy one anytime soon, as I don’t think they’re quite ready for prime time just yet. But just like with phones, when I am ready to buy one, looks will be the very LAST thing to factor into my decision. I mean, people waited for the Moto 360 because ‘OMFG it’s round!’, and turns out it appears to be the worst of these watches on the market in every area accept looks. However, I’m sure people will buy them anyway.
Huh? Between being a fashion victim and always wearing the same tired jeans, t-shirt and running shoes there lays a gigantic expanse that fits people who sometimes like to look reasonably attractive.
Not sure how much dick or pussy you eat with your clothing and attitude, but statistics might improve with some self care and a little education.
You seem to know me really well and I feel a lot of frustration in your comment. I don’t think I said anything wrong though, my comment was not meant as a personal attack but you seem to be very offended about it.
Believe me I don’t care about stuff, at all. Shiny cars, motorcycles, a brand new couch I couldn’t care less but dude, clothing is what makes a boy a man. It’s important, from a social point of view. If you look good you feel good which gives you more confidence. Women dress up nice why shouldn’t you?
Wear whatever the hell you want that’s your choice of course, but you’re right if you would wear this smartwatch together with some smart shirt with a huge Apple logo on it then no, I would rather not associate with you.
Sorry man I wish it was different as well, that everybody could do and wear whatever they want but unfortunatley we’re living in a very materialistic world based on looks and status. It’s just the way it is and we’re not gonna change that by wearing a mickey mouse watch.
We all expected big phones, but I’m disappointed that they took away my 4″ screen. I’m sure the Apple press is all, “It’s surprisingly nice and one-handed operation was okay.”
However, pocketability is a big deal. I can take the iPhone 5S, put it in an Lifeproof case, and barely notice it in my pocket. I love that.
And that camera bulge. Just. Ew. It’s disappointing because I got excited for Apple Pay. Yeah, I’ll hang on to my 5S. Not upgrading.
Sadly, us who prefer smaller phones and screens are a dying breed and no one’s interested in catering to us any more. Time to hang on to my 4S as long as possible… yes, I think even the 5S is too big
I have some doubt it is really a “smart” watch. It looks more like a remote display for the iPhone which is doing all the rendering.
Anyway, it will sell like hot cakes. Be ready to see a lot of people playing with it in the underground.
Nothing too exciting here. I don’t need a larger screen so no need to update from the 5S.
The watch looks pretty neat but they didn’t come up with a killer application so for me it’s just as useless as the other smart watches out there. It’s about as much an iPhone on your wrist as Android wear is an Android phone on your wrist. In other words, not at all. It’s definitely different, just too early to tell whether it’s different better, or just different. Not for me in any case.
The really interesting thing is the new payment system. Android has had NFC for years but as usual it will take Apple to actually get it working. Apple has a few key advantages, which is Touch ID and the fact that, like they say, they are not in the business of collecting your private data. Purchase data not shared with Apple which is huge.
Very excited for the payments system. I’ll wait until next year when it will be more widely distributed but then I’ll upgrade to get support for it.
Edited 2014-09-09 22:15 UTC
Neither. I have an old-fashioned watch that goes on my wrist. When I want my phone, I get out my phone. When I just need a quick time check, I check my watch. THis whole thing just seems stupid to me, and there seems even less point to wearing a watch that’s just a relay to a device that’s in my pocket anyway. Are we really becoming this lazy?
At least there wasn’t any Beats by Dre branding on the new products. Phew!!
The Apple Watch is more of a distinctive platform than I thought it would be. Although designed for the wrist the grammar of the new interface is probably adaptable to other wearable scenarios. It seemed like a lot of thought to get tsrta a whole new product line.
The Apple Watch comes in many more variants than I thought it would and is really a whole family of fashion items for the wrist. I expect those variants to continue to increase in number as Apple iterates the Apple Watch product line.
Probably the best way to think about the version 1.0 Apple Watch is to compare it to the original version 1.0 iPhone. The hardware features of the original iPhone now looks very dated and limited but the fundamental structure of iOS is basically the same. Although iOS has evolved and added many new features it’s basic grammar was established in version one and the work of developing the iPhone was partly about getting that OS grammar right for version one. So I expect the Apple Watch OS to evolve but it’s basic grammar is now set, and of course the hardware will evolve very rapidly as hardware always does.
I expect a lot of the members of the Chinese middle classes will own one of these in a year or two. Many will be the solid gold version.
Apple will probably sell a very large number of Apple Watches.
Apple will become an even bigger player in the global fashion world.
Obviously there is still a lot of work to be done prior to an actual release, not least I want to see how payments will work. Apple have confirmed you can make payments just using the watch and won’t need an iPhone as well but I can’t see how the Touch ID would work.
Rene Ritchie tweeted that the Apple Watch uses passcodes to authorize Apple Pay. The Watch is authorized to make payments for as long as skin contact is maintained. If it’s taken off you need to re-enter the pin. That’s a neat solution given the problems of including Touch ID in such a small device and one not running an A7 or A8 chip.
A couple of other neat things mentioned in passing:
Apple Watch can be used as a remote view finder for your iPhone camera. So hold the watch above your head in a crowd and look at your Apple Watch to frame the shot.
Apple Watch can control Apple TV – I would like to know the UI on that.
Two things regarding the way everybody always says that it takes to define a category:
1. NFC – on Android for years, mostly useless, will Apple change that? Since they got Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Wallgreens, Duane Reade, Subway, McDonalds, Whole Foods, Apple retail stores, Disney, Uber, GroupOn, Sephora and other to install terminals then “it just works”, like the fanboys preach. But the thing to take from this is: “It just works, once you have the billions to convince retailers, that is.” And that’s not an “Apple effect(tm)” it’s just a “money effect(tm)”.
2. Apple Watch – You are holding it wrong. level 2: http://i.imgur.com/P7OZXWJ.jpg Is this two handed wielding monster the Hail Mary of this form factor? I hope not.
This entire watch looks a bit like a ripoff of the PalmOS device “Fossil”, and those had a battery life of about a week.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Wrist_PDA
Edited 2014-09-09 23:32 UTC
Curious how over time the battery time seems to be decreasing, “smartwatches” of the 80s ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartwatch#History & http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/nerdwatch/seiko-computer-watch-fun/ ) certainly lasted much longer…
As a fashion accessory, I think they fit the part. I’d wear one for fashion if I cared about that type of thing. Besides the moto watch, all the others look like trash.
Looking forward to Swatch, Timex, Braun, etc getting into the biz.
Except the traditional watchmakers are unlikely to get the software piece right
Wouldn’t they just put Android Wear on it?
These are bigscreen phones 1.0 and Watch 1.0
Apple tried to make “reachability” a thing with the double-tap to reach function, but that looks really halfbaked (top half of the screen black!). And however much they said developers didn’t have to do anything to support the new resolutions they also showed of some adaptable UI where it displays differently on a 4.7 vs 5.5 screen (unknown how it would display on the current 4″ screen).
But most importantly: They seem to have lost performance and battery-efficiency. They now have twice as many transistors, but only 25% more CPU and 50% more GPU which means their new CPU doesn’t really scale well. They also have to run on 138% and 185% more pixels, so performance will actually be lower than before. The battery also got much larger but batterytime only improved a little bit.
I am sure this camera is better than the previous one, but the 5 had 8 MP and this one still does. And still only 16GB of storage for the base model which is ridiculous for this pricing. (16 to 64 “only” 100 more)
Apple Pay….Apple only and US only so doesn’t interest me. But I am happy there will finally be NFC. That will make exchanging data much easier. Is this the end for iBeacon?
The Watch… I saw some nice things, but it all seemed way to cumbersome. Apparently I can draw on it but not pinch-2-zoom so my 1 hand has to operate the dial (sorry, digital crown) for push and rotate and also swipe/shortpress/longpress on the screen to navigate that UI that looked like a dropped box of marbles. Nice charger, that you are going to need to bring and mysteriously is often called wireless. Lots of functionality that is completely undiscoverable and mostly useless. But the most important thing is that everything really looked good on that gigantic screen, but when you saw the man actually handling the watch he constantly had to squint and bring it close to his eyes. That last part makes me think a screen on your wrist is just not going to work for all the things they want it to work with.
I also got very suspicious when Tim Cook didn’t start with “the numbers”. Clearly he had time as he started with “some numbers” anyway but then just magically waved a “everything is okay” into the audience and moved on. Obviously this wouldn’t have been their best quarter with only old products on the shelves so it was a clever way to avoid the bad numbers. I am sure next quarter they WILL list it.
If this wouldn’t have been Apple but any other company that announced a 4.7 and 5.5 inch phone and a future smartwatch, would we still have talked about it so much?
It was telling that they started with a presentation that basically said “others did it first, but only we can do it differently” and then didn’t really do anything differently on their bigger phones. They also had to say this is OUR thinnest/best/biggest phone instead of this is THE thinnest/best/biggest phone.
Final verdict:
Phone: Just playing catchup. I don’t think they can afford to make this their only phones for a whole year.
Payment: Looks good, but US and Apple only.
Watch: Some good, some bad and most importantly, not available for roughly half a year and I just don’t see the usecase
That’s not how it works. They talk about moving more software units to hardware like face detection, and that requires more transistors.
Also not how it works. Just because you have some percentage more pixels to push doesn’t mean it will take an equal percentage more GPU power.
Most likely because of the larger screens.
That’s what Apple always does. They think about what makes a feature better for the user rather than just chasing specs. Just like they went retina but no further.
Yeah I agree they should have upped the base to 32gb.
Also agree with the watch being a dud. The ideas there are interesting, but
Nope. Probably mostly because other companies tend to release way more models of phones in a year.
What’s different is the experience, not so much the hardware. Apple Pay being a big one. TouchID being another big one. Camera also top notch.
I agree with many things that you say, BUT:
I didn’t hear about the “moving more software units to hardware” and that sounds very vague. It also means that you either have to detect if you have that hardware (iphone 6) or not (< iphone6) and run different codepaths which would meant that older hardware would start to suffer
And more pixels do require more CPU/GPU. The relationship is not 1/1 but having 185% more (not 85% but 185%) pixels to push with only 50% more GPU and 25% more CPU is bad!
And didn’t you see the keynote? They DID go further than Retina. They went to Retina HD with these phones (whatever that means)
The iphone 5s camera is still one of the best and maybe it has really improved but we will have to wait for independent tests. During the last tests they were at the top of the entire field, but below most other flagships
Very common that new hardware supports more things. Just look at the list of features (all requiring more transistors) Intel processors support in newer models.
Yes it requires more power but you can’t conclude that it is somehow slower. Wait for the benchmarks.
They didn’t go further on pixel density. It’s still 326 on the iPhone 6 and only higher on the 6+ to fit the 1080 resolution. They improved other aspects of the display though.
Yes I think effort there is still well spent. With the 5s I can take some really nice photos already but I would definitely appreciate the updates
I’m actually a bit surprised by all the negativity surrounding the Apple Watch. But I guess the expectations were way too high.
I think it seems like a pretty solid device. But honestly all of the smart watches coming out now are more or less just proof of concept. With the technology available today, it’s pretty hard to do something that will blow people away.
I agree about the photos app, but I guess the intention with that was to show how the navigation works with something that people are familiar with like photos and maps.
I must say that the UI does seem to be a little unintuitive. The crown is used to navigate in several different ways and to me it doesn’t always seem obvious how it works or even if it works.
And initially I thought that the large button should be the home button because that’s what people are used to on the iPhone. But thinking about it it does make some sense to why the controls are laid out like they are.
It’s not an easy task to make a good UI for a device like this, but this is one of the best I’ve seen so far.
The battery life however will most likely disappoint. It’s already enough to worry about constantly charging the phone, now you have to hunt for a watch charger too? No thanks.
Personally I would like a much simpler device like the Sony Smartband Talk. I was really hoping that Apple would release something like that given their investment in the health tracking department. Could be down the pipeline though.
I was really eagerly expecting the iWatch, really interested in what would they come up with.
I expected them to take the smartwatch concept and polish it and package it in a way that would elevate it far above the rest, like the iPhone did above the smartphones of its time. There were smarphones before the iPhone, but the fluidity of the user interface, the graphics, the permanent internet connection, the ease with which it linked to the internet… It was a mind blowing product.
But now, this is no more and no less than what the competition is selling. Nothing but a port to your wrist of the notification system in your telephone.
You may like Apple’s implementation a little better or a little worse, like you might prefer BMW to Mercedes. Unfortunately for Apple, like Mercedes and BMW, there will be Hyundais that will take exactly the same load to exactly the same places at exactly the same speed for a fraction of the price and slightly worse build.
Edited 2014-09-10 01:36 UTC
At first brush, the Apple Watch design doesn’t really appeal to me. My daily driver is an Aquaracer, so I suppose that my taste lies towards the more traditional, ornate/sporty watches. I prefer round watch faces.
However, I can see the logic behind the design, and why it looks the way it does:
– From a purely functional point of view, a square screen is more usable for a smart watch. It can display more information; certainly more text.
– It’s minimal because that’s what Apple does, but also because they want people to be able to customise it with different bands. It’s the safe bet. This is a tech product first, and a fashion statement, not second, but hopefully. It’s a design that can’t afford to polarise people too much. This isn’t jewellery that Apple is looking to sell to a small market for thousands of dollars[1]. Apple is hoping to sell millions of these.
[1]: We don’t yet know how much the gold Apple Watch Edition will cost. If it’s in the thousands, expect this to be the ultimate status symbol: jewellery that gets obsolete in a couple of years as the tech ages.
haha, 1gb of RAM that is so 2008
Absolutely beautiful. It is an iPod on your wrist. Either you like Apple or you don’t. I guarantee you it will have better battery life than any other Android piece of crap.
Edited 2014-09-10 04:12 UTC
Yeah, like the iPhone battery is much bett… Oh wait!
Given the release timeframe, I would say that it will have better bettery life than the Android Wear devices that exists today, but not sure about the devices from the future.
Smart watches aren’t selling. At all. Not the Moto360, none of the square ones. Apple Watch will not sell either.
Why?
Because people got clocks on their phones, which you need to drag around anyway. People felt liberated when they no longer had to have a timepiece on their wrist.
As cool as smart watches look and sound, it’s not something people actually want. You need that goddamn phone in your pocket anyway.’
I hoped Apple realized this and focused on more useful consumer products instead.
The Moto 360 has sold out, go onto their web site, it sold out pretty quickly.
There is a market for smart watches, it’s just no one has perfected the implementation yet and with release from apple i would say the Moto 360 is the closest yet.
Im really suprised by the eyesore that is the Apple Watch, when they annouced it i thought it was a joke version until they brought out what they really had. I have seen some really elegant mock ups, i really thought the iWatch would have been like a Nike+ Fuelband.
I have a fuelband and it works incredibly well, the dot matrix display is easy to see in daylight and the whole design makes the watch very subtle. Many people think it’s just a plastic band until i show them the time. It lasts for a good two weeks and is easy to charge via usb (which is integrated) and sync’s over bluetooth.
Apple should have used the nike band a a reference built up something that could display texts, calls, music controls and some fitness stuff and they would have been onto a winner. A watch that might make it through a working day is very disappointing.
The iPhone 6 i thought was one of the biggest let downs, bigger screen and NFC, the bigger screen is a couple of years too late as is NFC, these are the things that should have been launched with the iPhone 5, instead of the 4″, perhaps they could have done the 5 and 5+ (4″ and 4.7/5″).
I really don’t understand the phablet which is a true sign that Steve is no longer around. It has a massive screen 5.5″ but doesn’t really make any use of it, the keyboard slightly changes and so do a couple of apps, whoop, surely something like the note with a digitizer or multitasking, some kind of killer feature.
My last moan is apples addiction to thinness, personally i would have taken a iPhone 6 which might even be a little be bigger depth wise if it meant it would last for 3 days on one charge, a working week work have been brillant. It could have been the killer feature, buy and iPhone 6 and have a phone last three days! Surely we have reached a point where we can demand something longer than a day if we’re lucky.
Im an iPhone 5 user sometimes when i go out for the day, say to london, i take a few photos, videos, check the underground, might even load up the maps and i can be sure my battery will be finished by about 2-3pm, which is really annoying. On a usual work day it will last the full day, but i really would like a phone that lasted three days, which is a good weekend’s worth of use.
After all this moaning i will probably still buy the iPhone 6. I like the eco system and although im not app crazy the apps i do use on my iPhone work well and look good. I like the camera on my iPhone 5 more than a Nokia 925 which i found to be a little greeny/white and not as sharp as the 5. I suppose part of my moaning about this mediocre release is the compounded realism that Steve is not there to say no.
You’re in luck: http://www.mophie.com/
IF you are willing to sacrifice the thinness, then you simply have to put your phone in a battery case.
Uh, that doesn’t actually mean anything, since we don’t know what the stock numbers are.
Nobody I know would buy it (poor battery life, and, hey, the phone has a clock anyway)
First of all, unlike a mobile phone, you can’t really judge the aesthetics of a watch without wearing it. Many of those who were invited to the event reported that the watch felt lighter than suggested by the photos, and some noted that the Moto 360 felt chunkier than the Apple Watch.
Nike’s fuel band team has been disbanded, and I am assuming at least some of that has to do with the fuel band’s lacklustre market reception…
Edited 2014-09-10 15:12 UTC
I know we haven’t really been allowed to run this thing through it’s paces, but it’s funny how little of this discussion on OSNews is about the OS, the new UI, or the new hardware of this entirely new iOS platform.
Instead we are treated to a bunch of cheap shots, fashion critiques, comparisons to rushed android attempts, and “no thanks no way” even though the thing doesn’t even ship for 6 months.
A typical response from the anti-apple crowd. If the Watch had any brand on it other than Apple I think many of you would be raving about how it’s “kicking apple’s ass”.
I personally want to get rid of the pocket phone. They didn’t go far enough yet with version 1. I’ve had a hand computer in my pocket or in my hand for 17 years now and I’m tired of it.
Most people slept on the fixed scroll-wheel as being the key feature differentiator of the iPod verses everything else.
Some people slept on the touch screen and fixed interface being the key feature of the iPhone.
To think that you can use touch and voice only to control a tiny smart watch is a mistake. Some sort of scroll selector with advanced touch gestures should navigate better than any other system.
I’ll reserve judgement on the OS until I use it myself, but I think, as usual, the OSNews peanut gallery is completely ignoring the forest for the trees. Apple has developed new human-machine interaction processes for wrist-based computers, putting R&D into such newness, and will probably be rewarded in the marketplace for that.
My general point for defending Apple holds true here — they don’t just want you to buy the product, they want you to love the product. Lots of hearts and emotional appeals in their advertising for the Watch, no coincidence.
Much like every other iOS device debuted here, some of you can determine just by looking at it that you don’t want it and no one can find a use for it. Perhaps you use computers designed to be looked at more than used? You have to use it for yourself, when it’s shipping, to decide if it’s for you.
I think Apple will sell more Watches in 2 months than all their competitors in all of 2015. But only to the “sheeples”, right? Because everyone has so much money to burn these days. 😉
Edited 2014-09-10 12:35 UTC
The OS and the UI have been discussed when Apple announced those. This was about hardware (and payments). And the hardware is very much discussed here. (Although I would still like to know how they are going to keep performance up on the 6plus (3 times more pixels compared to 5S, only 1.25 times the CPU and 1.5 times the GPU. Or in other words: 6plus has the same hardware as 6 but double its pixels).
You say that the Apple Watch runs iOS, but Apple called it a seperate OS of which nothing else was mentioned.
So it is okay for Apple to advertise with feeling, but not for people here to be a fashion critique? This Apple Watch actually feels more like a rushed Apple attempt that will not be ready for another 6 months compared to Android Wear that is now at version 2 and already has real hardware out there in the world.
New human-machine interaction? You mean that “digital crown”? Isn’t that just a zoom-function on a common watch interface (the crown)? All other interaction seemed to be a copy of Android Wear/WebOS (cards interface, swipe up for another function, swipe left/right for more info in the current function.)
I normally use computers that are designed to be used, not to be looked at. These Apple device clearly made some choices that are just the opposite (more thinness, less battery)
And people better have money to burn. Those iPhones are ridiculously expensive. 800 Euro (not dollar!) for a 16 GB phone with 1 GB of memory and 1000 Euro for the 64 GB version. That is Ultrabook territory! (source: http://tweakers.net/product/404593/apple-iphone-6-plus/)
Here is an example of a zoomable interface: http://www.raskinformac.com
It certainly works very well for Maps.
we will see. i think you are all missing the obvious lessons from the iPod and iPhone launch.
apple puts the work into the UI and physical interface. the scroll wheel with drill up/down on the iPod was it’s major difference. the single button touch interface with a touch-only OS was the iPhone’s major difference. both were called toys for the rich and predicted as failures by apple haters. history has proven them wrong.
so perhaps the idea that touch gestures + tap/press + scroll/click is the best wrist UI is real and you should consider such differentiators.
apple’s gestures are the oldest and best implemented touch gestures. their touch sensors are usually better than the competition. apple rules the scroll wheel interface and the single button touch interface. these are all it’s strengths.
i haven’t used the watch so i won’t tell you how great it is, but i can tell you from history that when you touched and used an iPod and an iPhone for the first time, you “got it” really quickly, and soon thereafter apple got your money.
I am in no way writing down these Apple devices. I know many people love them although I think they are now falling behind while still demanding ridiculously high prices. I am doubting the entire concept of a SmartWatch because the screen is simply too small.
I also am doubting Apple’s implementation. It seems like they really want you to do everything with you watch, although it requires a smartphone. So why would I watch pictures on my watch when I have an iPhone in my pocket? And why would I spent SO much money for a second screen?
“apple’s gestures are the oldest and best implemented touch gestures. their touch sensors are usually better than the competition. apple rules the scroll wheel interface and the single button touch interface. these are all it’s strengths. ”
Apple’s gestures are not the oldest by any means, but they are good. They should be, because they got a lot of them from Jeff Han: http://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_han_demos_his_breakthrough_touchscree….
Don’t you think that it is telling that Apple actually needs a button, a scrollwheel+button, a touchscreen to control that userinterface? You are right that their previous interface were easy to get (at least the basics). This interface doesn’t look easy to get at all
On the CPU GPU power topic, like they said the A8 can sustain the peak performance indefinitely while many Android phones quickly overheat and have to throttle back. And it’s not just Apple that says that, John Carmack just said the same thing: http://classic.slashdot.org/story/14/09/05/2128219
Who is “they?”
Apple of course. It has been independently verified that the fast Android phones can’t sustain peak performance, so by next week we’ll know if the A8 can.
LOL suuure, typical.
Edited 2014-09-12 15:36 UTC
I prefer apple gear in general, but not until several versions in. The MacBook air is great but the first version wasnt. Same with the first ipad. Incredibly promising but nothing I would ever buy. Then the iPad 2 and along and nailed it. Same as the iPhone. Didn’t really nail it until the 3GS.
Im a bit more dubious about the watch concept but they will get there. Give it another year.
It’s no watch but a remote for your phone. And many people could use a remote for their phone. On average, a smartphone is taken from its pocket 150 times a day. If these kind of remotes can cut down that number by 2/3 it will be worth it for many users. If you only take your phone into your hands if you really want to use its screen estate, huge phones also become less of a hassle. Combined with a headset the phone itself could also be replaced by a real tablet.
And because it really is no watch it doesn’t matter if it can compete with watches. Of course it can’t, the horrible battery life is enough to disqualify it. It probably isn’t waterproof either.
But Apples “watch” being ugly – hey, have you ever looked at those classic watches they sell? At least 95% are monstrosities. Obviously people still buy those. People like ugly stuff. They even buy millions of garden gnomes.
And ugly or not, Apple will also sell millions of these “Apple Watch” which are definitely more useful and less expensive than lots of other stuff people just have to have.
I won’t buy it because I don’t want to know what my phone wants to tell me most of the time (which runs Android anyway), but I can see why others will buy it.
It seems to have almost as many features as a cheap Casio digital watch.
Yeah, probably 10,000 apps at launch and about 50% of the sci-fi tech shown on star trek in a consumer device for $350.
It’s a 64-bit UNIX sensor array with multiple radios hooked onto your skin, synced with your data and other devices.
That thing can’t do anything.
Is it waterproof, can it run for five years without a recharge and still work after being dropped 100m onto concrete?
i have never owned anything that can do that, why would i possibly expect my computer watch to meet those specs?
even a 1969 Buick can’t do that.
Casio(and others) have being doing it for decasdes. In fact the first Casio G Shock watch was tested by being thrown out of a high rise office window onto concrete. [It wasn’t seriously damaged.]
I don’t agree with this concept that Google’s simplified Wear interface is better than Apple’s upcoming WatchOS (or whatever they call it). My bet is on Apple using past experience and marketplace victories to develop a more cohesive, useful, and friendly wrist interface.
Apple Watch combines scroll/click, single home button, and multi-level touch gestures – three input methods perfected by Apple over the last 15 years and fully accepted by millions of users of all ages and types. It will be interesting to see how much the user can do with each method:
Input method 1 – Scroll & Click Dial
Input method 2 – Multitouch screen with 2-layer clicking
Input method 3 – Haptic (movement like shake or turns)
Input method 4 – Voice, interacting with Siri
Some mixing will be required for total operation, but will the user be able to pick an input method that suits them at that moment and use it for their entire task? The perfect UI would have all of those options completed.
Task1: control Apple TV
Task2: read and reply to a message or email
Task3: read and interact with twitter feed and facebook timeline
Task4: google something that leads to directions
Task5: view calendar, accept invitation to meeting then get directions
If the user needs to mode-change between the input methods to accomplish these types of tasks it could be clumsy, or worse, unusable. Imagine having to touch screen, then scroll the dial, then touch screen again, then click the dial button to get something done.
This is Apple’s specialty and they will keep it a secret, so we will just have to drive it ourselves in a few months to answer the usability questions. I bet they are deciding some of those things now, and the WatchKit API they announced is incomplete at this point.
Battling screen size limitations (about the size of a fingertip), 1 hand operation, plus major battery and space limitations is making designers on this new platform cut corners. The google watches look like beta’s to me, and Apple’s watch looks very version 1.
Look back at iPod version 1 and iPhone version 1 for the model. Apple is following their script perfectly. That watch platform will probably get more updates in the first year than AppleTV has gotten in 5 years.
IMHO The smart watch could be the 21st century object of choice if it’s designed properly. We have predicted it coming for decades. A phone is still just a phone, and a tablet is great but it’s basically a digital book which is different than your personal sensor array on your body.
This could become our communicator pin, and it will become our safety net, our recorder of choice, our interface to the cloud when not in front of a large screen.
I think the concept of a “phone” on every person is long in the tooth. Robot calls, telemarketers & bill collectors that don’t really want to be paid are on the phone lines. Business is more and more done over text, email, facebook, maybe with a quick voice confirmation that VoIP can handle.
BTW — do Google watches really only have touch & voice for input? Touch is nearly useless when the screen is the size of your pointer. I would think the dial would get the most use. I wonder if Apple’s dial will accept 2 types of clicks, like a select click and then the home click? I don’t want to talk to my watch and I don’t want to have to move my finger out of the way every time to read something to click. That’s crazy if that’s how they work, i’ll have to watch some demos of the android watches.