Apple Watch: What it actually does for you.

By Hadi, 9 January, 2016

Forum

watchOS and Apple Watch Apps

Introduction

Hi there guys. Hadi here from Tehran. I've recently bought an Apple Watch to pare it with my iPhone 6S. This was not an easy choice as both mentioned products were expensive for me so I had to make a hard choice. Before buying the phone and the watch, I had lots of questions racing through my mind. Is it worth the price? Will i be able to do something productive with this? Will it do any significant change to my life if I spend this much money for this technology? Or i'm off better buying just another pickup for my electric guitar. Why lots of people keep criticising this device on the internet? Is it just general apple hatred or not? So i had all of these questions in my mind and I had to make a choice; So i did. Write now that I'm typing this post, The 42mm sport watch is lightly resting on my wrist, bleeping and tapping my wrist every often while It receives headlines from my favourite feeds and websites. So, I made the choice to buy it; but was it worth it? Let's find it out. I'm going to mention the stuff that I'm doing with the watch; The things that i wished the watch was able to do and finally, the things that I deeply dislike about it.

Things that i do with the watch and I like.

Alerts, alerts and alerts!

The main reason that pulled me toward the watch. I am really feeling very great now that I'm able to quickly be alerted on my wrist. why? here's why.

At home, Most of the time I'm wearing the watch. I don't need to walk toward my work desk, grab the phone and check my notifications. I also dislike of carrying the phone with me around the home because I will at some point put it somewhere that I will forget. I rather like to raise my wrist a little, tap the watch and hear my notifications. Let me tell you that I'm a metalhead and most of the time music is playing loud out of my speakers in the living room. So while I'm not in my own room I cannot hear my phone's notification sounds sometimes. If i hear it even, I'm not comfortable to run toward my room just to check a notification which may or not be important.
While I'm out of the home, I'm finally free of this motion of pulling the phone out of my front pocket of my pants, raising it to my ear and read a notification. You see that I'm a lazy guy. I sometimes also am afraid of people bumping to me (Or me bumping into them!!!) that'd make my phone fly out of my hands to oblivion (Well, Asphalt and concrete to be exact). I'm also not a headphone guy when it comes to phones. I only use headphones when I'm listening to music or while I'm at my work desk working with my computer

Alright. I said notifications. but what exactly. What are these alerts that I'm so greatful to have them on my wrist. I love music. specially metal, progressive metal. I'm interested in technology. I'm interested in news (political or social) as well. I like interacting with people, specially those who live in other countries. This leads us to what? well, news feeds and social apps! with the watch I can be as close as i can to technology and rest of the world. I'm obsessed with weather information, specially when I'm traveling. I don't like to wear extra clothing, I'm a cold lover guy. But you see, I've made lots of mistakes Where I was in a situation of shivering to death because I was a jerk. So, Here are the alert types I'm getting on my watch. Don't forget to check the recommended apps at the end of this article.

website feeds and post headlines
music releases, Interview releases for artists and gear release info!
weather alert for even light rain, and temperature changes
social apps, Twitter for example. Also Zello! Can't wait till you could communicate with voice on Zello with Apple watch
reminders. Oh boy, I don't know how expensive is the time. Maybe the Apple watch can teach me to do my tasks at their right time and also teach me how worth is the time?
SMS text messages. Well, I have 90 unread messages on my phone at the moment guys. I just sometimes don't care to check them or delete them even! most of them are advertisement anyway

Quick call with friends button, quick send preset replies

I like this feature of the Apple watch. Fast. accessible and easy. I know that quick call is not much of a deal and It's not comfortable to use it in public But I like it and When I'm able to use it, I feel very comfortable with it. sending preset replies to messages is very useful, totally my favourite.

Control music playback

Airplay lovers, This is for you! control your playback on your wrist. got spotify and a speaker setup on your living room? Hate spotify and you got your own big library of awesome music? That's good, Because All you need to do is to reach up to the watch and control it! (I work for apple, You see these are advertisement lines!) not really, I don't work for Apple and playback controls are very basic and I want it to improve. If they don't improve this I'm going to hate them forever. I want to add music to playlist queue with my voice (I think currently you can't do that).

health and fitness

Finally, The main purpose of Apple watch which They pretty much put their advertisement efforts on it. I know that some people care about this and some do not. But one thing that I'm sure, that Many of you who are reading this article have minimum daily activity. This is not only for people with vision impairments. 90% of the people I meet in college are people who sit in front of a computer/tablet/phone most of their time. This is unhealthy. I know this myself and I still keep sitting here listening to music and playing, working with computers and keeping my physical movements still low! Maybe the watch can solve this problem. I know that in the stock app you can set goals and achieve them, do cool things and record your stats. I haven't setup the fitness app And I'm unaware of other third party apps for this, yet! So All i know that this is a very cool concept. I will let you know about this and provide more feedback when i get to it! Meanwhile, Please put up a comment about this for me and others to read.

quick voice record

This is not available in stock apps; but there are third party apps for doing this. You'd be able to quickly reach your watch on your wrist and start recording the voice around you. this cool ay?

Check the time

Wait what? pretend I didn't say that! It's a watch after all! It's all about time and date, right people? But let me give you my opinion on this one: If you want to buy An Apple watch to only check time, Don't do it. Specially Apple's watch! It's expensive IMO. There are more cool options.

To look cool!

Does this really need to be in here? Oh no! I will be deleting this off as soon as i make the post (!) Well, To be honest, I'm excited about this device and I'd show it to my friends whenever possible, But It's the least reason of me getting it.

Ok fine, But what about Apple watch being terrible? I've heard it a lot, even from the fanboys.

There are things that the watch can't do. There are things that are so annoying about it.

touch Responsiveness with voiceover on

Ok, argue with me as much as you want, But It's not there yet. My watch is not snappy at all when it comes to responsiveness. When you compare it to like iPhone 5 or 5S, Apple watch is very laggy. It can be very, very faster than this. I'm annoyed with it and I wish that It was more faster. I believe that This won't be fixable in the first generation of Apple Watch and It's going to be like this.

No audible or taptick feature for heart rate monitor?

I mean, What the hell. There are four (4) sensors for measuring the heart rate. But how comes You can't hear, or feel your heart beeping with Apple Watch? It's only visual guys. I hate this. I've already sent a feedback about this to Apple, Let's hope this changes.

wake on raise wrist feature is crap

Ok, so I move my hands a lot. That's natural. I use my hands for many things. and that many things includes me moving my hands upwards. You know what? the Watch even wakes up when I move my hand forward. I really don't know how to fix this, maybe more calibration? or better hardware in the device? perhaps in the future when Apple Watch gets a camera, It would only wake up when It saw your face? I don't know but It's really bad right now. I dislike.

Voiceover becomes a jerk after a call has ended

So, It has happened more than once. I'm talking on my apple watch and when i end the call, VoiceOver is one and you can hear audio queues, but It actually doesn't talk for like 30-40 seconds. You gotta press the digital crown sevral time so it starts working again. (I think simply waiting 40 seconds will also fix this problem too). This is bad and is a terrible bug.

So, the watch just stopped tapping my wrist for alerts for some reason...?

Today I was wearing my watch and noticed that It is getting incoming alerts/notifications, but It is only bleeping. no vibration. I double checked all the settings and they were good. Soooo... What? I restarted I turned the watch off and turned it back on, and It fixed itself. This is annoying. I hope it doesn't happen again.

Other notes

Alright, now that the good things and bad things are over, let's talk about other things.

battery

The battery is very important. specially battery's lifetime after a recharge. Currently, It only works for a a day and you have to charge this every night. I don't have a problem with this; In fact, If they asked me, I'd say keep this up and try to add more features, Instead of sacrificing features for more battery lifetime (Though this itself is a challenge). I know that many people camp out at some places that doesn't have even power sources for two or three days. I hope the watch gets a feature to tune down everything on the watch to save battery power. (This feature currently exists, but apparently it hurts VoiceOver.)

So, Should you buy Apple Watch or not!

I wrote this article to share my experience with the watch and write the things that I do and plan to do with it. The comments that I made is completely personal. The fact that I dislike taking my phone around the home or play music 24/7, The fact that I like the alerts to be in my face, The fact that I'm motivated with the fitness features. All of these are personal and while I care, You might not care. So think carefully. My advice, Don't buy it If it sounds like that It doesn't meet your expectations. If you think you're looking for features that don't exist, send feedback to apple, write comments and articles about them. One thing to remember, It's not not cool to mindlessly bash Apple about the watch. I know what a restrictive company they are and I know that their product line is just expensive. But as a technology lover, I like what they're doing and I bought Apple Watch with the current price because they deserve it. If Samsung or other brands make a better watch (Which also starts speaking with a gesture), I will buy it and put up my review about that as well. (But not in applevis i know!) The last thing you could do is to wait for next Apple Watch generations.

Should you care for smart watches at all? Maybe they are just useless tech junk afterall

Alright, so finally this topic that I'm willing to defend till death. My main audience right now is people who are blind and visually impaired, but fear not, those who are handicapped, Voice control is improving at light speed! So, My idea, Smart watches (and future smartwares) are a necessity for blind people. Apple or not, in the future We will have lots of accessible Smart Watches. They are accessible because they are resting on your wrist, easy to reach and will be packed with features that can help you in many ways. You'd be able to use your voice to do many things without actually grabbing a phone and holding it to your mouth. You could navigate, be alerted, control and communicate easily with Smart watches. Please let me know what you think about this.

final notes

I'm not a blog writer and english is not my native languages. The article that i wrote is full of mistakes and I hope that You are able to read and understand it. Please comment and tell me If you love or hate this article. Recommended apps are below!

Recommended apps

Hooks - Alerts and notifications: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hooks-alerts-notifications/id923353363?mt=8 This is a must have Apple watch app IMO. It's a bit hard to work with at the beginning, but once you set it up You'll have alerts for weather (customizable) feeds for your favourite websites, lots of topics (music/movies/tv shows/news?) and lots more alerts! TimeBuzz: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/timebuzz/id993285729?mt=8&uo=8&at=11l4LS simple mic audio recorder (untested): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simplemic-audio-recorder-voice/id546037865?mt=8 I will edit this last section and include more apps When i find them. Guys, Please let me know in the comments of your findings, I will add it.

Options

Comments

subject changed

I just changed the subject. While It was a subject that'd pull readers in, It was a bit unrelated!

I liked it.

Thanks for this. I'm still on the fence about the watch, an it helps to hear others experiences with it.

I look forward to hearing more of your adventures with the watch.

Thanks for the article

Thanks for taking the time to write this article.

Great post

Hi Hadi,

Just wanted to congratulate you on a great post.
As an Apple Watch owner, I share similar experiences to yours. I too am prepared to forgive some of the shortcomings in the name of convenience.
My next goal with the Apple Watch is to set up a Home Kit enabled lighting and power system. The day I can tell my talking watch to start the coffee maker and dim all lights is the day I know I am living in the future.
Keep up the great work.

@SeaNoEvil00

Article updated

Thanks guys for your compliments! I'm also excited for the home kit but I think I'm going to wait on that for a while.
the article is updated. There are now two more items in the section of my hateful list. It's about voiceover and calls, and also the vibration cutting off sometimes. There's also a new item for battery.

P.S, those of you who don't own an apple watch yet, IF there's something you want me to try, Let me know and i will share my experience on it/ Or record it for you.

I like the watch for the same reasons you do.

Hi. I also like being able to get my notifications as a tap on my wrist rather then a ding from my phone because it means that I don't have to pack my phone around the house or keep it in my pocket just to make sure I don't miss a call or text. Other people were also bothered because before I got the watch because my phone would go off a lot and they did not like it. Now I turned the sound on my phone down low and the sound on my watch down low and use the taps from the watch to know what's going on which only I can feel instead of having the sound on my phone turned all the way up so I could hear it from accross the room. I don't have the problem you do of having notifications sometimes not cumming to the watch or voiceover not working after calls. I hope you get these worked out. I also don't mind charging it every night. I use it in the day and in the night I am sleeping so don't need my watch and other devices so they go on the charger. When I am camping I bring external batteries and we also have a generator.

fixing wake on wrist raise activating when I don't want it to.

I also did not like the idea of my watch waking up when I raise my wrist because I did not want it cumming on when I did not need it. This would make unwanted sounds and waste the battery. I have both wake on wrist raise and speak on wrist raise turned off.

I haven't got one yet.

Great information. I have my phone on me all the time so a watch may not be as essential for me. The price also may have a great deal to do with that. If I hit the lottery or one shows up at my door for nothing I would not be to upset. All this to say that I think for me, it would be a toy. A fun toy, but a toy none the less. Having said all this, I will give the watch points for ground breaking features that we all can use, and an interface that isn't hard to learn for those of us who are familiar with IOS.

great comments.

@DPinWI happy you liked it. It's good that you're reading on people's experiences before making the move. Honestly, I did the opposit, Just because currently I was able to aford it. If for some reason It turned out to be against my expectations, It was lots of my savings that was gone for nothing.
@roxtar, no problem!
@Seanoevil It's great that you have access to apple's home kit and other devices. at where i live, I don't think i could buy those things at the moment.
@Jessica Thanks for sharing your experience! I wonder, Will it hurt the watch to leave it charged for the night? It's cool that you're liking the watch. I have to try your settings, turning off the raise on wrist and speak on wrist off. By the way, Where is the setting for speak on raise wrist? I couldn't find that!
@Eric Good comments. You've noticed that I also have pointed out the price being high sevral times in the article. That's a very big disadvantage to me TBH. I wish in the future some event happen that would lead to tech devices getting cheaper and cheaper. The apple watch is not a full-blown Smart Watch That's packed with lots of accessibility features. So, Logic says that You're buying something to play with at this moment, Instead of a full-featured tech device that changes your life.

Well, I just recently bought

Well, I just recently bought myself an Apple Watch and I'm really liking it. The main reasons I got it were for health reasons. I use it to help me remind myself when I should get up and move around. I have cerebral palsy so this really helps a great deal! It also helps so I can easily check my heart rate.

On the fence too

Hello,

Great comments. I am also on the fence as whether I should get an Apple watch.

Last year, I got a pair of Starky Halo hearing aids. Whatever sounds my phone makes, it goes directly to my ears and no one around me can hear it. I can check email or check out facebook while my phone is in my front pocket. Oh yeah, it also allows me to hear better. LOL

So I’m here at the watch forums to see if I can justify getting an Apple watch. I know the watch 2 is around the corner so if it has a glucometer and/or other medical sensors, I”ll get one. In the meantime, I enjoy reading what you folks do with your watches.