Finally Here!

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Apple Gadgets Mobile

After seven weeks, my Apple Watch has finally arrived. Its been a long wait. I’ve had various conversations with Apple employees about arrival dates and payment screw-ups. I’ve had chats with colleagues and family members who have all received theirs. For a while there, it seemed as if I was the only one not to have theirs. The amount of time I’ve spent checking the Apple Store app for delivery status is completely ridiculous. Its almost as if I don’t have a full time job and a family to feed.

Then the day came. The email arrived to say Apple was taking payment. Payment was duly taken, and then… nothing. When I say payment was taken, they just received authorisation from the bank to put a hold on the cash until the dispatch date. A whole six days later, the watch finally shipped. If the last seven weeks were long, the final six days were almost an eternity. I rushed home, opened the box, and there it was: my 42mm Apple Watch Sport, black aluminium with black sport strap.

I’ve done a lot of reading about the Watch since I placed the order. I’ve also written a little about it. I’ve largely been excited about its arrival, but now its here, I’m struggling. What do I do with it now? Its here. I get text messages and email. I get prodded and poked to remind me to stand up, and I’ve been interacting with the rather excellent Spy_Watch game. Other than that though, I’m kind of lost. I’m only a couple of days in though, so that will probably change. I hope.

I’ve fallen foul of SMS dictation already. My wife sent a message asking when I’d be home. “About six”, I replied. I actually watched the phrase appear on the screen, and it was correct. By the time I’d tapped send, the text had changed from ‘six’ to ‘sex’. Not the message I wanted to send, and some confusion then ensued. I’m not entirely sure what happened. There wasn’t a suggestion that dictation had misunderstood, it just changed. I watched it change just as I was pressing send. Weird.

Apple do some workshops on how to get the best out of the Watch, so I might pop along to see what they’ve got to say. There’s also the upcoming update to watchOS 2 – that will probably bring some more options, but I guess the largest factor in how well I’ll enjoy the Watch will be the apps. Once developers get to grips with the device, we’ll probably see things improve. It’s taken me this long to get my Watch, so there will be a ton of devs out there who’ve yet to get a hold of theirs. Like the iPhone and iPad, there’s a lot of crap, app-wise. That’ll be the same for the Watch too. One thing I’ve noticed is that in terms of Watch apps or Watch-compatible apps, a higher percentage come at a cost. I wonder if devs are seeing wearables as their big chance to make some cash. If that’s the case, I’d hope it will drive some quality into the process. If the Watch is to have any longevity, we need to see some KILLER apps. Soon.

I’ll do a more in-depth write up of my experiences in a week or so, but for now, I have to go. My Spy_Watch agent needs some help.

1 comment

  1. Tom Garrett

    Had mine for 2 weeks. Not one of life’s essentials but does make life a bit more convenient. Not missing so many texts and phone messages. Yahoo Weather good as is News Republic, Fitness app also good, but having some problems with notifications re third party apps. Current SDK does not give developers full access to the watches bits and bobs so no haptic feedback for some apps. Apple email app crap use Spark it’s much better. Flipboard worse than useless and Yahoo News works great on my iPhone but tells me the watch service coming to the UK ‘soon’! So it just sits there and looks at you! Overall still like the watch and there is a pretty big software update coming soon. The potential for this device is enormous but Apple rushed out what is effectively a beta version and some developers need to get their act together and produce better apps. A device to keep an eye on!

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