Smartwatches are getting smarter, though not quickly enough

Apple watch snooze

I am not interested in a watch which appears to be only a second screen display, smaller, of the main smartphone, does not have a "always on" time display (some have thought but with reduced features) , most cannot be read under sunlight, need a stupid gesture to display... the time, ridiculous battery life & finally with uninspired design. I guess they have to improve a lot more points before I can consider one. In the meantime I'll stick to my Swiss made automatic watches which have always been a good conversation starters.

I bought an apple watch. I'm not so impressed overall. It was fun for a little while, but I rarely wear it now. It has its good points - being able to send voice texts when riding my bike is nice, and tracking gym workouts is good too. It's also good for reminders of meetings and whatnot. But overall, I mostly only wear it when I'm going to the gym or riding my bike nowadays. A fitness tracker would probably better suit me.

Gogogo: if Apple Watch is snooze, you must be extremely bored of Wear, which follows on its coattail skin EVERY respect. Just look at the review: every Android entry starts with "As with Apple," or, "which Apple Watch already has". Imagine if Android ever did anything original.

Ive gotten great use out of my watch, despite being overpriced, but look forward to the update. Scribble, which Android will copy, sounds good.

@smithinjapan: They all suck, no one needs a smart watch period and Apple's is the worst.

Gogogo: it always cracks me up how you rush to ANY thread involving Apple to obsess over a product you claim to hate, but are more likely just bitter about. Smacks of bring as insecure as an Android product. If you don't like them, fine, that's your prerogative. So why the need for staccato posts on something you supposedly dislike? Children often do the same with stuff they love.

@smithinjapan: I don't love android, I just think apple's are the fisher price of phones for people that just want "a device that works"... like my mum or grandmother or anyone insecure of themselves.... an apple is a safe bet, no one will say you are not cool and you'll have all the 2 year old features of other phones that "apple has done better".... but not really. Don't forget to buy a case with a hole in to make sure everyone knows you are using an apple... makes me laugh at these brand zombies....

This isn't a personal attack on you, people need to open their eyes that Apple isn't automatically the best.

Each to their own if you are into apple then all good :)

gogogo: I agree. Products that work are the worst!

My smartwatch last about two weeks if I don't switch the GPS on. And it only cost the equivalent of about 16,000 yen. Does anyone know how long the Apple watch works for before the need for charging?

Creating artificial demand for gimmicks that nobody needs and that are made by slave labour in China. Enjoy.

"Creative deconstruction - WatchOS 3 is an admission that Apple's first attempt was all wrong"

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/14/11926314/apple-watch-os3-new-software-faster-third-party-apps-wwdc

Apple’s new Watch software, watchOS 3, isn’t just new software, it’s an admission that Apple had it all wrong when it came to interactions on the first-generation Apple Watch. It’s less of a revamp and more of a rescue of the Watch, an attempt to deconstruct the old software and to focus on the stuff that people actually care about.

It’s a rare thing for Apple to admit that it was wrong on something product-related, even subtly. But that’s what it did onstage yesterday during the company’s annual developer's conference: Kevin Lynch, a vice president of technology at Apple, actually used the previous version of Apple Watch software as a benchmark for how fast the new software is. Collectively, the crowd of 6,000 watched while Lynch opened a third-party soccer app on an Apple Watch running last year’s watchOS 2 software; the app took nearly seven seconds to load.

The next attempt, on an Apple Watch running the new software, was a don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it moment. The message was clear, and if it wasn’t, Apple bullet-pointed it for us: both native apps and third-party apps will load much faster on watchOS 3, since favorite apps will be kept on the device’s memory. But Apple first had to admit that the current software has been painfully slow.

Based on what was shown in the demo, it looks... simpler. In this case, "shallow" has a positive connotation: it’s a smartwatch that requires fewer swipes and taps and less wait time just to get an app going. Why wasn’t it like this before? I do not know.

Maybe even more interestingly, the Watch’s Digital Crown was only briefly mentioned during yesterday’s demo of watchOS 3, when Apple said developers will be able to build apps that use it. So: "glances" are gone, and the Digital Crown wasn't showcased as a primary method of interaction. Even voice control took a backseat, although it was shown in still photos. What this all says to me is that Apple is no longer trying to totally change the paradigm of user-computer interaction with the Apple Watch. If anything, it’s stripping it down to something more familiar.

Sigh... Let me know when they get smart enough to allow a transporter beam to lock onto them along with the attached human and beam them up, lol.

My Apple Watch is useful in that it reminds me to get from my daily workouts to boardroom meetings on time. But for the life of me, it just doesn't fit the image of a wealthy industrialist.

When people start showing up on time more while wearing a smart watch, I'll praise them.

My employees know they can look for another job if I find them looking at them while with a customer.

My employees know they can look for another job if I find them looking at them while with a customer.

That's a problem with the watch. Because it vibrates, it attracts your attention to look at it, but it's rude to be checking your watch when you're with someone.