Apple's new product lineup - Today's announcement wrap-up

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#2566653 17-Sep-2020 09:57

@Geektastic I wear my Apple watch to bed and monitor my sleep. I use it to track my exercise and movement something I have found very beneficial. It could be too easy to sit and do nothing but the watch and targets keep me motivated. I have a history of bouts of AF so having the ability to maybe detect that is comforting as well as the fall detection.

I also use to to unlock my iMac. When I am in my wheelchair it is a godsend for checking messages, emails, security alerts and answering or ignoring calls without the battle of trying to retrieve my phone from my jeans, trust me that is a mission in a wheelchair. Also if I have left my phone in another part of the house I don't need to try and rush to it and risk injury. I charge my watch every day once a day but could easily go longer. When I am ready to get up I put it on charge have my shower and get dressed and by then it is charged. Granted I do take longer than most to complete that task.

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#2566665 17-Sep-2020 10:03

With the exception of unlocking your Mac, you could do pretty much all those things with other watches that cost less and have better battery life.

It’s identifying some unique feature that truly sets it apart from the mass of other choices in the sphere that I have trouble with. I expect Apple to make the best and with the watch, I don’t think they’ve achieved that.

A week of battery life would be a reasonable start, not a day and a half.

FineWine

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#2566669 17-Sep-2020 10:08

Geektastic: Still can’t see the point of the watch.

Rubbish battery life. How can it track sleep if you have to charge it at night?! It still seems like an expensive gimmick based on the assumption that everyone lives in a gym and is mentally unstable enough to need a watch to help them deal with stress that apparently we are all crushed by every day and unable to cope with.

Plus of course STILL no Vodafone cellular service for the watch or Esim.

In an Apple person. I have an $11,000 iMac Pro. I so want to like the watch but my Withings, with 30 day battery life and less than $400 price, is still more practical. Suunto and Garmin make better sports watches. Apple just seem obsessed with odd capabilities for the watch.

A very successful gimmick even at its price range. Apple now sells more watches than the entire Swiss watch industry. I don't wear a watch now since retiring from nursing, not even my good watch. I just use my iPhone to tell time when I need to so not in the market for an iWatch. My cousin swears by her gen 3 - it tells her when to breathe 😀. But only uses about 1% of its functionality and only about 10% of her iPhones. She is of the generation (mid 70's) where todays' technology is a mystery and refuses to learn.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

MikeB4

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#2566671 17-Sep-2020 10:11

@Geektastic I have to disagree I have tried Samsung, Garmin, Withings even Fitbit (yuck) and none work with the Apple ecosphere as well as an Apple Watch. That of course is my mileage others will have different needs and experiences. However when it comes to design, build quality, App support, OS and UI Apple in my case wins hands down.

chris021

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#2566673 17-Sep-2020 10:20

@geektastic I am about as fickle as the weather in Auckland when it comes to tech and I dropped all of my Android everything about a year ago to switch to Apple for the watch. I also dropped Voda who I had been since the Bellsouth days to get eSim for the watch.

I also thought the battery life would be an issue and I would get bored and I couldn't have been more wrong. There is little point anyone trying to explain what and how the Apple watch is transformative. I did all the research under the sun before the switch and I knew nothing. The way in which the Apple watch exceeds everything else just isn't something you can explain.

I will upgrade to the new one, just because... The iPhone is a good device but its no better than a lot of Android flagships but the Watch... its something else that you have to live and breath for a bit to get.

Cheers,

Chris021

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#2566685 17-Sep-2020 10:32

Geektastic: With the exception of unlocking your Mac, you could do pretty much all those things with other watches that cost less and have better battery life.

It’s identifying some unique feature that truly sets it apart from the mass of other choices in the sphere that I have trouble with. I expect Apple to make the best and with the watch, I don’t think they’ve achieved that.

A week of battery life would be a reasonable start, not a day and a half.

They must be doing something right as its the best selling watch in the world. https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/5/21125565/apple-watch-sales-2019-swiss-watch-market-estimates-outsold

dafman

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#2566692 17-Sep-2020 10:44

geekiegeek:

They must be doing something right as its the best selling watch in the world. https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/5/21125565/apple-watch-sales-2019-swiss-watch-market-estimates-outsold

Yep, it's called marketing, and Apple are masters at it.

I watched the keynote yesterday. Having saturated the adult market for watches, they are now pushing Apple watches as essential for all your children as well. For safety and good parenting reasons, of course.

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Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

alasta

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#2566720 17-Sep-2020 11:00

I am another Apple Watch skeptic. I owned one for three years and didn't really like it.

It's not really a watch - it's a computer on your wrist, so it comes with all the maintenance and reliability issues that come with any computer. Apple Pay was glitchy, the companion app crashed often, for a period of time it would sometimes freeze when trying to start an activity, and attempting to resolve any of these issues involved long painful phone conversations with AppleCare. Also having a touchscreen on a watch is just dumb because it becomes uncontrollable when it's raining, and it's awkward to start activities at running events because you have that stupid 3 second countdown and then you have to fumble around with locking the screen in case it gets wet while you're out on the course.

Admittedly charging it daily never really bothered me, but the battery life is very marginal if you run full marathons.

GSManiac

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#2566750 17-Sep-2020 11:27

chris021:

@geektastic I am about as fickle as the weather in Auckland when it comes to tech and I dropped all of my Android everything about a year ago to switch to Apple for the watch. I also dropped Voda who I had been since the Bellsouth days to get eSim for the watch.

I also thought the battery life would be an issue and I would get bored and I couldn't have been more wrong. There is little point anyone trying to explain what and how the Apple watch is transformative. I did all the research under the sun before the switch and I knew nothing. The way in which the Apple watch exceeds everything else just isn't something you can explain.

I will upgrade to the new one, just because... The iPhone is a good device but its no better than a lot of Android flagships but the Watch... its something else that you have to live and breath for a bit to get.

Cheers,

Chris021

I agree. It’s impossible to convey how amazing the watch is. It needs to be experienced.
I have a friend who is in the market for a smart watch to replace her Garmin. I suggested an Apple Watch as she already has an iPhone. She said she had investigated it but it seemed too gimmicky for her and wouldn’t meet her needs. So I took some time so show her mine and what it could do. She was blown away and said with all her research into it, none of it came close to conveying the truth to what it can actually do. So now she’s going to get a Watch SE.

id suggest buying it from Apple with the two week no questions asked return policy. Try it out for yourself. If you’re not sold send it back.

GSManiac

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#2566753 17-Sep-2020 11:31

alasta:

I am another Apple Watch skeptic. I owned one for three years and didn't really like it.

It's not really a watch - it's a computer on your wrist, so it comes with all the maintenance and reliability issues that come with any computer. Apple Pay was glitchy, the companion app crashed often, for a period of time it would sometimes freeze when trying to start an activity, and attempting to resolve any of these issues involved long painful phone conversations with AppleCare. Also having a touchscreen on a watch is just dumb because it becomes uncontrollable when it's raining, and it's awkward to start activities at running events because you have that stupid 3 second countdown and then you have to fumble around with locking the screen in case it gets wet while you're out on the course.

Admittedly charging it daily never really bothered me, but the battery life is very marginal if you run full marathons.

you know you can skip the countdown by tapping the screen? I do that every time I do a workout.

never had an issue with Apple Pay either. My only issue has been Siri is slow to respond. So I don’t bother now.

alasta

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#2566799 17-Sep-2020 12:55

GSManiac:

you know you can skip the countdown by tapping the screen? I do that every time I do a workout.

Yes, but to get accurate timing at an event you have to start the activity about two seconds before reaching the start line and then interrupt the countdown the moment you cross the start line. This is very difficult to do in a high pressure environment.

For many decades stopwatches have followed a simple design convention - large start/stop button at the top right and recessed lap button at the lower right. Any 'fitness' watch that doesn't follow that convention is clearly designed by someone who is not an athlete.

moench

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#2567874 18-Sep-2020 23:06

chris021:

Anyone know if Spark will get Apple Watch family setup?

I asked them on Twitter

@SparkNZ when will Apple Watch Family Setup (wearable plan with different phone# for kids, see https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/09/apple-extends-the-apple-watch-experience-to-the-entire-family/) be available on SparkNZ?

and got this answer:

@moenchmeier Hi there Mathias :) Family Setup isn't available in NZ as yet - if/when it does become available we'll be advertising it I'm sure, so keep an eye on the website :)

Very sad, I have three kids here, I would love to give them an Apple Watch to be able to contact and track whereabouts. They are imho to young for smartphones, this would be a great solution. Come on Spark, get you sh** together, I want to send more money your way...

(sorry, no links to the tweets, I can't post url)

mattwnz

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#2567880 19-Sep-2020 00:37

alasta:

GSManiac:

you know you can skip the countdown by tapping the screen? I do that every time I do a workout.

Yes, but to get accurate timing at an event you have to start the activity about two seconds before reaching the start line and then interrupt the countdown the moment you cross the start line. This is very difficult to do in a high pressure environment.

For many decades stopwatches have followed a simple design convention - large start/stop button at the top right and recessed lap button at the lower right. Any 'fitness' watch that doesn't follow that convention is clearly designed by someone who is not an athlete.

What annoys me about it is the bugs. Very difficult to do updates, they more than often failed for no reason. My favorite watch face is buggy as the graphics as an intermittent cropping problems. Also keep getting asked to sign into my account with notifications.

Geektastic

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#2567941 19-Sep-2020 09:53

dafman:
geekiegeek:

They must be doing something right as its the best selling watch in the world. https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/5/21125565/apple-watch-sales-2019-swiss-watch-market-estimates-outsold

Yep, it's called marketing, and Apple are masters at it.

I watched the keynote yesterday. Having saturated the adult market for watches, they are now pushing Apple watches as essential for all your children as well. For safety and good parenting reasons, of course.

I’m not suggesting it’s not a popular product. I’m merely saying that I can’t see much benefit in it. I’m not the only one. I bought my wife one for Christmas last year and she hasn’t worn it for 5 months!

It’s down to what you want from the watch, I suspect. I want the time and my steps counted. That’s it. I don’t want notifications (they’re off on my iPhone 11 for everything too except for calls and texts) and the watch offers little else in return for the money that I would use.

To be honest, even my iPhone is a toy. I really wouldn’t be materially disadvantaged by replacing it with the modern equivalent of a Nokia 7110. I have it more for fun than genuine need, which would possibly apply to that watch too if it ticked a few more boxes than it does.

kharris

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#2567957 19-Sep-2020 10:51

geekiegeek:
Earbanean:

No new Apple TV. I'd been holding off upgrading to a 4K, thinking there might be a new model about now.

I'm thinking they may have more in store for the iPhone event unless they are going to just do a short 1-hour keynote again like today. The added the U1 ultrawideband chip to the watch so maybe airtags?

Slightly off topic but I thought YouTube on Apple TV was going to play 4k. It still doesn’t. Or at lease it doesn’t for me. What gives?

Kirk

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