Apple Watch thoughts after a few weeks

Overall

“Outrageously awesome”

Here are my thoughts:

Philosophy

• Apple Watch is a second screen, wireless microphone or relay of your iPhone. 
• It does nothing magical on its own.

What’s changed

• I get my iPhone out 80 per cent less (battery life extended greatly)
• I send most text through the watch
• I read most text messages on the watch
• I no longer have my phone on vibrate for when it is on silent (that’s solved by the watch)
• I check most email on the watch
• I am less distracted while driving
• I don’t walk along looking at the iPhone

My key learning

• Voice dictation is awesome

What’s great

• The notifications I get on my iPhone come through on the watch
• Glances for sports scores, audio control (for TuneIn, Downcast, etc) are great.
• Quick phone calls on the watch
• Battery life
• Transport arrival times (Next There)
• Alarms
• Map integration with the phone
• Apple TV control
• Weight (don’t know it is there), size (wouldn’t want it any bigger), band quality, screen clarify
• Going out with just the watch and bluetooth headset and no phone – playing music from the watch to the ears

Downsides

• Some third party apps need a lot of work

What I would like

• The Google app for voice searching on the phone
• Apple Pay in Australia

User advice

• Don’t overload the watch with apps. Be ruthless – only put ones on you will use not less than every few days.
• Take the time to get your user notifications right on the iPhone and mirror it on the watch.
• Tweak the settings in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone

Best apps

• NYT
• BBC
• CNN
• AppleInsider
• 7 Sport – Australian sport
• SMH Skim – Sydney Morning Herald Australian news
• Evernote – for quick notes
• Next three (transport bus arrivals)
• Overcast – podcast player
• TuneIn – radio player
• My fitness pal
• Do notes – post to Evernote, Facebook, Apple Reminders
• Do button – turn on lights control by WeMo
• Twitter and Twitterific

What’s missing

• Apple notes
• Apple reminders

Apps needing work

• Guardian
• FlipBoard

Yet to work out

• Health, pulse, heartbeats, etc monitoring
• Doesn’t talk to myfitnesspal yet

Buyer advice

• Heavy tech users: Buy now.
• Everyday users: Wait until 2nd or 3rd generation when they are half the height and price.

Bottom line

• Paid a lot but get great value out of it
• The best is yet to come as people work out the apps, functionality and places where it can work well

ENDS