Apple Posts Guided Tours of the Features and Functions of the Apple Watch 94
MojoKid writes Wondering if Apple Watch is going to be worth the money? Well, that depends on several factors, including price, features, and how eager you are to jump into the smartwatch category at this point. To help tackle the latter two, Apple has posted a handful of videos that demonstrate what an Apple Watch can do. They play out like tutorial videos and are labeled "Guided Tour," followed by what specifically the video is showcasing. Currently, there are four Guided Tour videos available, one of which is a general introduction to Apple Watch labeled "Guided Tour: Welcome." It's the longest video of the bunch at 4 minutes and 45 seconds.
Good luck with the Home buttons icon's size (Score:2)
Wow, the size of those home button icons look cluttered and hard to be precise.
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You pan with your finger, and zoom with the crown. Seems to me like an easier way to find the right app than paging through many screensful of icons.
Blog spam (Score:4, Informative)
This is blog spam. Link directly to the videos: http://www.apple.com/watch/guided-tours/
My favorite one... (Score:1, Insightful)
It can track and tell time! I can't believe someone has finally taken the sundial and made it both portable, and small enough to fit on your wrist. Only Apple.
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It can track and tell time!
Yes, but not for very long. If you really need to know the time accurately, it is recommended that you also wear a regular watch.
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standards will slip on this as well though. It used to be if you wanted to understand someone on a phone call you would use a land-line - now we just accommodate really poor audio quality. Don't believe me? Ask a transcriptionist what it's like to transcribe something from a cell phone.
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Try audio quality on FaceTime. It's like the person is stanting in your ear. Also try volte.
Re:My favorite one... (Score:4, Informative)
It can track and tell time!
Yes, but not for very long. If you really need to know the time accurately, it is recommended that you also wear a regular watch.
Actually the watch should be accurate within 50ms. Very good by anyone's standards. I assume it checks the official time once per day through the user's iPhone.
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They should also make a video ... cash profit ... wages ... Steve Jobs driving ... I don't like Apple
It's also possible that other people don't like you. Therefore you should have someone follow you around and make a video of everything you do, every tip you leave, how you handle your choice of vegetable purchases, and a picture of your bank statement, overlayed with images of starving people so the rest of the world can see that you are an evil horder who keeps cash on hand when you could be giving it to the 99% of the rest of the world who don't have as much as you.
Or, you could just get a new hobby
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What are you typing on? (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple is the only computer supplier to attempt to give better wages, to issue constant reports on the conditions in the factory.
It's fine that you don't like Apple, I can understand how people want different things from hardware they use. What is not fine is to imply Apple is even as bad as any other computer provider as far as treating workers in factories - because it is a lie.
You are inherently a hypocrite; because whatever you are typing your messages of hate on was made under substantially worse conditions than any Apple product.
P.S. Steve Jobs has been dead a while now. If you still obsess over where he parked you may want to seek professional help. I didn't really care that much about him when he was alive; it's pretty freaky you do long after he is dead.
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You mean someone who left $0 to charity after his death? Jobs was not a nice man. He was a marketing genius... but definitely not someone who is going to win any ethics awards.
Even the evil robber barons of the 1800s like Carnegie and Frick left auditoriums, arts foundations, hospitals, and many other philanthropic works behind. Jobs? Nada. There are no schools he built, no theaters with his name on them. As far as what people see, they see his boat, and nothing but what he spent on himself.
What he is
You have no idea how much he gave (Score:1)
You mean someone who left $0 to charity after his death?
I mean someone who keeps donations private so you cannot say how much he left, how much his family continues to give... why do you prefer publicity donations like the ones Gates makes?
Far better to be generous and quiet about it.
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You mean someone who left $0 to charity after his death?
I mean someone who keeps donations private so you cannot say how much he left, how much his family continues to give... why do you prefer publicity donations like the ones Gates makes?
Far better to be generous and quiet about it.
Yes, I've given trillions of dollars to charity too. I just don't need to brag about it. In fact I've given a trillion times a trillion more than Steve Jobs, so respect him even less. Even if he did die from a non-reaction to homeopathic treatment.
They attempt? (Score:1)
Oh, they require *reports*? How innovative, caring and considerate!
Apple is more and more turning into an *ss*h*le company. The Yosemite update sucks
and steals hundreds of millions of user's time for what, new fonts on the menu bar
and new sounds? They invent a new programming
language (Swift) for something that could've more than easily accomodated in an existing one,
forcing a useless learning exercise upon hundreds of thousands of devel
Tech news? (Score:3)
Yeah, whatever.
Is this really tech news? To me it sounds more like a fashion advert; I'm ok with people falling in a swoon over something 'cool', although I can't see what is cool about it myself, but I'd much rather hear about what engineers have to say about something difficult and technical, or even political, for that matter. I mean just imagine that we started flooding Hello magazine with loads of opinions about the merits of this GPU over that - it wouldn't go down well with the usual readers, I suspect. Hmm, now that's a thought ...
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Well they could at least show us some tech porn pictures of the insides..... I can't wait until iFixit complains about these things.
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This is a "historically stupefying amount of technology":
http://www.enterprise.cam.ac.u... [cam.ac.uk]
- an article about how it is now possible to print microcircuits on very thin materials, cheaply. It isn't shiny or cool in the Apple sense, but if you look into what this company is doing, you will see that it is significant in so many ways:
- they can produce very cheap computers that are small enough to embed into a piece of paper
- they can be equipped with networking
- if this takes off, they are going to be everywhe
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And then the cashier runs it through that little machine they have and pronounces it false.
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Not news. Clickbait. (Score:2)
It's a big neon sign for the people who don't like Apple to come in and talk about how they are SO OVER Apple, and Jobs was a deushbag anyway. Samsung has their own marketing fluff - hell they just came out with new Galaxies - but that's not linked here, because people don't make a point of saying they are SO OVER Samsung.
Over and over and over again.
It makes more sense for the phone to do nothing (Score:2)
And even then your phone is still going to go off and/or vibrate
Why should it if the watch is already alerting you?
People are still going to look at their watch, be distracted for a half second
I sort of agree with you if the people are looking at who is calling/texting. It will be fractionally quicker to look at the watch.
However if you know you con't care who is calling right now, the watch is really much better, because you can stop the buzzing just by covering the watch face with your hand. That is mu
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Meetings: BIGGEST waste of time and effort when actually trying to work to accomplish something.
On meetings (Score:2)
I've rarely been to *ANY* meeting that was worth my attention.
I'm a consultant - once you are paid by the hour those meetings (mostly) go away and you just have the ones that have purpose. :-)
Frankly, I think the watch would be a big help in that its occasional "tapping", might keep me from falling asleep in said meeting
Now THAT would be an awesome feature, even for the ones you know you should be paying attention. Sadly the API does not allow access to the Tapper yet, but that should be coming later this
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How many times have you been in a meeting and someone's smartphone went off? Even if on vibrate? That person reacts to the phone. How much of a distraction is it to the members of the meeting?
So while you are taking care of the distraction, what have you missed of the meeting? Regardless of how many, or boring, the meetings that you attend. What if you had an opinion of what you missed that would have save hundreds of hours of work by not going down the wrong path, the harder path or just another view point on the problem that everyone missed? No they, and you, have missed the opportunity for "good".
Well, then don't allow distractions such as phones, tablets, laptops, and smartwatches to the meeting.
I lost it... (Score:5, Insightful)
I lost it at "The Apple Watch crown is a revolutionary new interface."
IT'S A FUCKING SCROLL WHEEL.
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Apple mouses do not have a scroll wheel. So for them it is revolutionary ;)
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Still, I think this watch is an interesting development. Maybe this will go the way of 3D TV or VR Headsets that make a comeback every so often but always fall a little short in value compared to the cost and effort, and personally I don't really see the appeal of smart watches. But as an app developer I have an excuse to get one, and perhaps wearing i
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It's probably safe to assume that every obvious way of translating a touch on a watchface into some standard UI concept is already patented though. Maybe the goal was to avoiding
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As for the scroll wheel, I wonder why it's there (instead of using gestures on the touch screen)
That was explained in the Keynote last Fall, when the watch was debuted.
Basically, Apple decided that the Watch screen was just too small to reasonably support Zoom and Scroll gestures with average size adult hands.
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I lost it at "The Apple Watch crown is a revolutionary new interface."
IT'S A FUCKING SCROLL WHEEL on a watch.
FTFY.
(This is a direct reference to the "on a computer" patents, for the humour impaired.)
What can it do? (Score:4, Funny)
It can tell everybody around you that you don't know fashion, you don't know tech, you like charging things every night, and you have too much money.
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I think you're on to something here.
Ahrends basically took the uniform of UK chavs and convinced Americans that it's high-end sophisticated fashion. That's more than knowing how to "deal with" the fashion market; that's full-out genius-level *manipulation* of the fashion market.
I think the Apple Watch will do fine in the fashion world, and the /. "no wireless less space than a nomad lame" contingent will be ignored.
Because "fashion" is such a high bar (Score:2)
Reminder: This is fashion too. [wikimedia.org]
And you are thinking the Apple Watch cannot meet the standard of "fashion"?
A bonus reminder: This watch costs $230,000. It is named "Space Pirate" [gizmag.com]
You still think the Apple Watch is too expensive? Considering the utility it doesn't seem like much at all in comparison to the watches most people wear.
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Every night? Try twice a day. Apple say it has 18 hours battery life, which in reality means if you use it much and don't like to run the battery right down to 0% all the time you will probably have to change it in the early evening after you get home from work. As the battery ages it will only get worse, and running it down to near 0% will only accelerate that process, as will repeatedly charging it.
Typically lithium ion batteries last for around 500 cycles. Most phones start feeling like the need a new on
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Apple can swap the battery out for a new one, it's not like an iphone.
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Every night? Try twice a day. Apple say it has 18 hours battery life, which in reality means if you use it much and don't like to run the battery right down to 0% all the time you will probably have to change it in the early evening after you get home from work. As the battery ages it will only get worse, and running it down to near 0% will only accelerate that process, as will repeatedly charging it.
Typically lithium ion batteries last for around 500 cycles. Most phones start feeling like the need a new one around the 2 year mark. I have a feeling smart watches in general are going to need replacements after about 1 year.
Oh you got them, if you decide to not sleep on a given night you will go without a watch for hours. What if you miss that text at 4AM because you phone was all the way back on the counter and your watch was charging, the HORROR!
Maybe I'm weird, but I could get by just fine if my SHOES only worked 18 hours a day.
This is not news, this is advertising. Shame on /. (Score:1)
I hope you got paid for selling out. I have seen people complain about the outright advertisement stories before, but this "story" is the most blatant advertisement I have ever seen on slashdot. I miss the old slashdot.
Here's a direct link to the videos (Score:2)
Since there will be more videos over the next week than the article links to, here's the direct link where you can see the full set without a page of ads (well, OK the whole page is one big ad, but you know what I mean):
Apple Watch Guided Tours [apple.com]
The one I'm really interested in seeing is Maps, the other functions I feel like have already been covered to some extent.
Yawn (Score:5, Informative)
Yawn- so looking through the info, it doesn't really do much more than my Moto 360 can do, yet the Moto 360:
1) Has been available already for 7 months.
2) Has inductive charging and the Apple watch doesn't.
3) Is far less expensive.
4) Is arguably much better looking (for those who want round).
5) Works with many different phones, not just a few iPhone models.
So what is so innovative and impressive? A button on the side? The 360 has a button. It is not a scroll wheel, but despite what Apple's video claims, I have absolutely no problems using the touchscreen to pinch zoom, swipe, or scroll and it doesn't hurt my experience and is far more intuitive.
The ONLY two things I saw of interest were variable touch sensitivity... which is certainly not a new technology, but it novel on a watch. And having a speaker, which I certainly have not missed.
I mean, it looks like a great device, but I fail to understand why people think it is some brilliant new idea or super fantastic breakthrough.
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1) ?
2) It uses a proprietary cable with magnetic device to charge. Meanwhile, the 360 uses standard QI wireless inductive charging. So, whether it is actually "wireless" nor not, it is still more like wired and certainly not standard.
3) You are full of it. I am on a national forum of people that talk about the 360 every day, very, very few people are unhappy with it
4) Yep... and isn't that what Apple products are supposed to be all about?
5) One vendor with 3 models is a far cry from a dozen vendors with
Re:Yawn (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, it looks like a great device, but I fail to understand why people think it is some brilliant new idea or super fantastic breakthrough.
"No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." —Rob Malda, 2001
Many have said this before, but Apple's strength is really not "brilliant new ideas or super fantastic breakthroughs" (though they have those at times). There were personal computers before the Apple I and II. There were GUIs before the Mac. There were smartphones before the iPhone, and tablets before the iPad. So why were those all breakthrough products? Because Apple did them better than other companies did. Especially in the second Jobs era, and since, they do vast amounts of research and testing and refining to make the products great. They make hard design decisions, they don't just check off feature lists, and they make things that they think are good (in other words, they don't simply aim to satisfy customers). Plus, they now have an ecosystem of software that integrates well with their hardware, which is designed to work with their software. Add all that together, and you get breakthrough products, even if they may not be the first examples, or match a competitor feature for feature. Trust me: in five years, the Moto 360 will be remembered only as the Nomad of smart watches. All smart watches will soon start to look and act like Apple's in the same way that all smartphones now look like descendants of the first iPhone.
And the Apple Watch does use inductive charging, with a MagSafe cable.
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Starting with the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhones started to look like other smartphones. Steve Jobs was dead set against larger phones, but apparently Apple risked losing market share to them. (My $100 off-brand Android is 5" diagonally and that seems like an optimal size for my hand.) Jobs was also against smaller tablets, but Apple came out with the iPad Mini.
Apple is an upmarket, trendy/fashion brand. Their products are well-made, but not necessarily the best. Their AirPort Extreme routers lack a lot featur
Re: Yawn (Score:2)
Until I started using nintype, I couldn't find a single swiping keyboard that was faster or more accurate than tapping each letter. I used at least 4 different keyboards and they were all terrible. (Nintype lets me swipe and tap in the same word; it's a far better implementation of a swiping keyboard. And as far as I know, it's still only officially on iOS.)
I think the iPhone 6 is too bigâI think all 5-ish inch phones are too big. I have a 20cm handspan (8") and long fingers. The ergonomics are terribl
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I think the iPhone 6 is too bigâI think all 5-ish inch phones are too big.
That's fine, I think all sub 5" phones are too small. I've had my Note 3 (5.8") for 18 months and couldn't use anything smaller. The great thing about a free market is we each have options to choose from.
the problem is that most people prefer seeing more over better ergonomics.
I fail to see how this is a problem. Ergonomics only matter when using something extensively. Most people only use their device for a few minutes at a time, in that case, a bigger screen is more useful than an ergonomic one.
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People who never actually made any product do not fully understand how wide is the chasm between a product and good product. And that the chasm between a good product and great product is even much wider.
We do understand the concept sometimes as 80:20. The first 80% of a product takes about 20% of time to make and the remaining 20% takes 80% of the time. Well, making a good product is another 80:20 split and making a great product is yet another one if not more. So you really spend 25-30 times more time and
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The chasm between an adjective product and an adjective product is the brand management hype.
Make sure you think different, always carry an Altivec unit, and wear a one button scsi drive on your wrist.
Industrial Design!!!
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Trust me: in five years, the Moto 360 will be remembered only as the Nomad of smart watches.
Trust you? Why, because Apple got it right right once or twice that makes them immune from ever making a mistake in the future? Is that your logic?
In my opinion, in five years people will wonder what the fuck a "smart watch" was supposed to be, and why anyone cared. Just like the Apple Newton, Lisa and other crud Apple failed with.
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>"Don't forget the "Taptic Engine" a haptic feedback mechanism
I didn't miss it, Android wear devices have hepatic feedback also (vibration). I don't see much difference between vibe and "tap". I have been silently notified of alerts since the day I put the 360 on my wrist.
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Android wear devices have hepatic feedback
Exactly what do Android devices do with you Liver to Notify you?
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>Exactly what do Android devices do with you Liver to Notify you?
LOL! *haptic* feedback, I think I cut and pasted his spelling by accident :)
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>Exactly what do Android devices do with you Liver to Notify you?
LOL! *haptic* feedback, I think I cut and pasted his spelling by accident :)
I know; probably an auto-correct error. I just couldn't resist, sorry!
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I'll bite.
Yawn- so looking through the info, it doesn't really do much more than my Moto 360 can do, yet the Moto 360:
1) Has been available already for 7 months.
First doesn't mean best: just like with the original iPod.
2) Has inductive charging and the Apple watch doesn't.
This makes me question whether you're just a troll. In case you're being serious: The Apple Watch DOES in fact charge via inductive charging: https://www.apple.com/watch/te... [apple.com] (look down at "Charge it overnight. Wear it all day.")
3) Is far less expensive.
I don't know about "far" less. Quick glance shows it to be $100 to $150 cheaper than the entry level Apple Watch. That's a good difference... but it's not like the Moto 360 is $50 or something. For something yo
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Many good points.
RE 2) Apple uses a proprietary cable/disc with magnetic device to inductively charge. Meanwhile, the 360 uses standard, multi-vendor QI wireless inductive charging. So, yes my original posting point 2 was flawed. Sorry. It is still nothing new or innovative- just proprietary and likely more expensive.
3) The 360 is a premium device- the lowest cost one still comes with a high-quality leather strap, not rubber. And if you don't think 60% less is a lot less, then I have some stuff to sell ya
Not really round (Score:2)
Well, no-one else has brought it up so... I just can't get past the fact that the 360 is not actually round, the screen that is. It's crazy to me they can round the screen at one end and not the other.
Even a secondary separated LCD screen that was program addressable would have, ah, rounded it out as it were and provided an interesting secondary slice of data. Heck, they could have made that eInk so there'd be no extra power drain.
It's not like I'm just into the Apple Watch either; I ordered a Pebble Time
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Well, I don't know about the rest of your post, but 2 is just plain wrong.
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RE 2) Apple uses a proprietary cable/disc with magnetic device to inductively charge. Meanwhile, the 360 uses standard, multi-vendor QI wireless inductive charging. So, yes my original posting point 2 was flawed. Sorry. It is still nothing new or innovative- just proprietary and likely more expensive.