
My wife had a Garmin. Like many garmins do, the charging port got messed up after just two years. She loved her garmin (really loved it). But when hers died I had just gotten a new watch and convinced her to use my old one. That was two years ago and she has no plans on going back to her garmin. The watch I gave her is now almost 6 years old (AW3-2017) and still gets her through the day with 0 issues.
It's dumb that Garmin (and others) still do proprietary connections, but I learned long ago to always wash my watch after a workout, and that's kept my current Garmin going for almost 4 years now, and I still only have to charge it every ~4-6 days despite wearing it all day including for ~1-2 hours of tracking workouts while playing audio each day, which was really what kept me away from an Apple Watch at the time.
If you're in the Apple ecosystem, though, and you really want that integration, there's really nothing that can compare.
Apple is supposedly making progress on non-invasive blood glucose monitoring. It may still be a ways out for including in an Apple Watch, but that will be a game changer for a lot of people when it arrives.
I love the ability to change watch faces just by swiping right or left. I can have a watch face for different things. A work watch face, a home watch face, a workout watch face, a weather watch face, a music watch face, etc. It's great.
This is one of those things that no one in reviews spends time explaining, but quickly swiping between faces that are each populated with different complications is a huge factor in how useful the Watch can be.
I bought a Series 3 in January 2020. This was three years old at the time. I wasn't convinced how much I'd like it, but after using it for two years, I upgraded to the Series 7 (larger 45 mm version this time). I really love mine.
As others have said, it's critical to curate the notifications you get. While you *can* get notifications for just about everything, you really don't want to do so.
I use mine largely as a fitness tracker. I like the calorie estimation approach to workout tracking. Swimming with it is pretty amazing. It does a great job of not only counting your distance (once you put in the pool length), but it is really good at even detecting what type of stroke you're using. I was amazed the first time I saw that.
You can store downloaded playlists on your watch from Apple Music or Spotify or podcasts from Overcast / Apple Podcasts. This means if you run, you don't have to take your phone with you to have music or podcasts. AirPods connect seamlessly to the watch.
I do use the watch to unlock my Mac feature regularly. Not the most important use, but still useful. Also, since I bike to and from work, I appreciate the connection to the Weather app that tells me when rain is coming and for how long. Allows me to squeeze in a ride home before rain arrives. (In principle...unless I just ignore it like a dumby.)
For me it's more a lot of little things rather than one killer app. It is a high-quality device that just works well. Period. I wish the battery life were 3-4 times longer. If you're just walking about in your daily life, you can probably squeeze two days out of it. I charge mine on a stand every night. If you're using it for exercise tracking, you will pretty much only get one day out of it. Sometimes not that if you're doing intense exercise over many hours. Still, I'm very glad I have mine.
EvilHomer3k wrote:My wife had a Garmin. Like many garmins do, the charging port got messed up after just two years. She loved her garmin (really loved it). But when hers died I had just gotten a new watch and convinced her to use my old one. That was two years ago and she has no plans on going back to her garmin. The watch I gave her is now almost 6 years old (AW3-2017) and still gets her through the day with 0 issues.
It's dumb that Garmin (and others) still do proprietary connections, but I learned long ago to always wash my watch after a workout, and that's kept my current Garmin going for almost 4 years now, and I still only have to charge it every ~4-6 days despite wearing it all day including for ~1-2 hours of tracking workouts while playing audio each day, which was really what kept me away from an Apple Watch at the time.
If you're in the Apple ecosystem, though, and you really want that integration, there's really nothing that can compare.
Proprietary wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so prone to breaking. It's one thing to continue using your proprietary format but quite another when it's so so much worse than anything anyone else does. At the end we had 4 chargers for her watch and none worked. She spent months with a watch that you had to fiddle with the charge it. If it started charging and you touched it it would stop. We'd get a new charger and it would work for a few days or a week but then it would stop working to. Tried cleaning it many times, got covers for the port to keep it clean. In the end it was more frustrating than useful.
I mainly use it as a fitness tracker and I think the fitness goals that Apple provides are just enough for me. I also like using it at the gym and for walks as it allows me to leave my phone behind but still listen to music, podcasts and books and I still have the ability to make a call or txt if needed. I haven't tried Apple fitness yet but i am interested.
I also use it to add items to my lists such as to-do and shopping lists. It's also convenient to use an authentication on the watch. I've had a series 4 since release and it's still good and does all i need it to. The battery just makes it through a typical day so that will be an issue soon.
Okay, I'm just about sold. Thanks, everybody!
The next part would be really easy if I lived anywhere near an Apple Store, but I don't, so... I'm looking for band recommendations, too.
I'd like something breathable -- the silicone band on my Fitbit is one of the things I don't like about it -- so not a Sport Band. Leather is classy but the leather bands from Apple seem expensive, and this might be the year I finally do Couch to 5K. Maybe I want to order the watch with a Sport Loop and buy a third-party leather band for occasional use?
Maybe I want to order the watch with a Sport Loop and buy a third-party leather band for occasional use?
That's what I'd do. The sport loop is a great band. I've had them on my last two watches. Easy to put on, easy to take off, never smells, and very comfortable for me. Much nicer IMO than the silicone ones. Generic sport bands are pretty good (my wife has two) as well. I, personally, never liked the silicone one or the milanese loop. The milanese always caught my arm hair. I have absolutely no complaints about the sport loop.
Okay, I'm just about sold. Thanks, everybody!
The next part would be really easy if I lived anywhere near an Apple Store, but I don't, so... I'm looking for band recommendations, too.
I'd like something breathable -- the silicone band on my Fitbit is one of the things I don't like about it -- so not a Sport Band. Leather is classy but the leather bands from Apple seem expensive, and this might be the year I finally do Couch to 5K. Maybe I want to order the watch with a Sport Loop and buy a third-party leather band for occasional use?
Knock-offs of the Nike Sport Bands in all sorts of color combinations are bountiful and relatively inexpensive in places like eBay and AliExpress. It's plastic, but the holes make them pretty breathable.
I picked up a fabric Apple Watch band that's all one piece that doubles back and fastens in place with velcro. I can't remember the name but they have a ton of them at the local Best Buy. That one is great because I'm not stuck choosing between one hole that's a little too tight and another that's a little too loose. It also breathes a bit better than the default silicone strap, and doesn't pull on my arm hairs as much. I actually have a couple bands so that when the baby gets food on one I can just pop it off the watch and toss it in the laundry.
EvilHomer3k wrote:I love the ability to change watch faces just by swiping right or left. I can have a watch face for different things. A work watch face, a home watch face, a workout watch face, a weather watch face, a music watch face, etc. It's great.
This is one of those things that no one in reviews spends time explaining, but quickly swiping between faces that are each populated with different complications is a huge factor in how useful the Watch can be.
I am curious about this. I haven't messed around with this aspect of the watch that much. Do you mind giving me an idea of what faces you utilize and how they help?
I have one face that has weather, my activity rings, start workout, etc..
I have another that has the "now playing" complication and access to the iPhone camera remote, apple TV remote, and various media controls.
I have a face that's the one with the hands and the current sun position with sunrise and sunset marked that I use when I care more about aesthetics than information. (Or for when I want to know how long I have before sunset.)
I have one that's mostly just an image that's a bright red splat with the word "washing machine." It also has a timer. That one gets shown when there is laundry in the washing machine that must be dealt with before it mildews.
I have one that has big red text that I swap to at night. I have to put gel in my eyes at night so I need the text big enough to read through the blur. It also has a complication that links to Overcast, but that doesn't see much use now that I can control playback from my AirPods.
I have an Apple Watch (5?). The only reason I have it is a long story but ended up with me having a large Apple store credit. I stopped wearing watches back in the 90s because I was always scratching the faces up since I was working inside computers every day.
The only time I take it off is to charge or shower. I have never (intentionally*) swapped the face on it after I initially set it.
I didn't expect to really care about the watch and figured it would be "I could take it or leave it" situation. I was wrong. I love it for many of the reasons stated above and will definitely get another one at some point.
I don't have a fancy model, just the large-faced base model, and the face on it scratches easily.
-BEP
*I change the watch face while sleeping now and then
My new watch was delivered a couple of hours ago. So far, so good!
I was particularly impressed that, when it installed apps based on what was on my phone, Dice by PCalc came up. So I have a D&D dice roller on my wrist now.
And the FitBit app confirmed my good judgment by telling me this morning that I needed to upgrade my phone to iOS 15 (it's running iOS 16.3.1), and then not syncing.
I'm certain I've said this before, but if you want an app that will really show off the Watch, grab Night Sky. It's an augmented reality stargazing guide. You hold your wrist up and it tells you what stars it's pointed at. I don't have occasion to use it anywhere near as often as I'd like, but man is it a cool piece of tech.
I am confused about who this headset is aimed at.
I am be cynical but I don't see that demographic as big enough to keep Apple's profits up.
Looks pretty cool to me. Clearly nowhere near my price point but it doesn’t need to be for now.
I am confused about who this headset is aimed at.
Developers. People who want to have the software ready for when the price drops to (I'm thinking) somewhere in the iPhone range.
Yeah, they're not trying to sell a million of these out of the gate. I'd guess they're trying to set a foundation to build up from for a much more broadly compelling/viable product in 2-3 years from gen 1's launch.
For me, the demo did its job—it converted me from thinking, "Not only do I not need this, I don't particularly want it either," to thinking, "Just how much would I pay to be able to play around with this?" That number sure isn't $3500, but it's higher than I would've thought likely 48 hours ago.
Yeah I don't get it... it absolutely has extremely useful niche scenarios.. but as a general all purpose device that will feature a broad range of uses its DOA. There is nothing fundamentally better about any consumption or creation activity that these improve on.
I'm also thinking about the various HoloLens failures.. I see many parallels with this device and the HoloLens.. granted this is a significant leap forward tech wise but from a functionality perspective not so much.. so whereas Microsoft failed Apple will succeed because Apple?
Apple getting into this space has always felt to me like it was them taking out an insurance policy, in case this niche ends up taking off.
Of course, if they're going to step in, they're gonna make an "Apple" product, not fart out another Oculus Quest.
But I doubt they're gonna be too broken up about it over there if this ends up as just another "remember when Apple made that?" one-and-done product.
With the obscene mountain of cash reserves Apple is sitting on, it makes sense for them to throw a little bit around to make sure they're set up in any tech niche that even has a possibility of becoming a big deal.
I do think it’s hilarious that the same company that developed Screen Time so we can monitor and limit our screen time invented a device whose premise is, “What if screen time is every waking moment?”
My first thought when I saw the presentation was: I could play Tears of the Kingdom in a movie theater.
I don't understand why companies keep thinking people want to browse the web or do spreadsheets in VR. They don't. The tech looks extremely cool but there isn't much functionality people actually want. Even if there were a 2 hour battery life kills that. This is really just a tech demo for youtubers like MKBHD and developers to play with and steer Apple into what they'll eventually have to do to make this successful (hint cut the price way down and get games on it). Facetime with your uncanny valley memoji isn't going to sell this thing.
Honestly if they'd come out with an Apple Quest at $600 I'd be pretty excited. My 10YO and his friends love playing on the quest. Everyone knew they wouldn't but they could have saved themselves a lot of time and money.
But at least they didn't make it with a proprietary cable and just used USB C, right. RIGHT?
Thats the biggest flaw I think this device has.. it won't play games anywhere near as well as the upcoming $500 Quest 3.
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