A weekend in Australia with the Apple Watch: Is it worth the hype? - Mashable

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Watch-jen

Image: Mashable

When you have an Apple Watch on your wrist you automatically turn into a bit of a tool. My arm was doing totally unnecessary maneuvers — hair flicking all over town, reaching for things I didn't need and I kept purposely pushing my sleeves up.

It was Friday, the 24th of April and I'd picked up my 38mm white Apple Watch Sport for a night on the town. I was talking into my wrist, ordering Ubers by accident and showing off like nobody's business. People oohed and ahhed. The Apple Watch definitely has more mainstream appeal than I predicted, from sideways glances on the bus to people outright touching it in bars.

But with all the street cred, does it actually live up to the hype? After a weekend with the in-demand wearable, I had become at one with its little pokes alerting me of various things, but many of the apps were still causing headaches.

Here's a roundup of my weekend geeking out.

Pros

Text messages on the watch are a dream. You speak into the watch face, it seamlessly converts to text and is then sent to your friend with one click. If there is noise around, you can send an audio file instead. Fishing your phone out from the bottom of your bag becomes a thing of the past, and it feels glorious.

The same goes for answering calls — especially short, quick calls — directly from your wrist. It might be weird when you are walking along the street, but if you have your hands full at home and need to grab a call, it is a winning function.

Telling me to stand up every hour for a minute is actually more beneficial than it is annoying. I am not one for technology telling me what to do, but it did make me realise I am lazier than I could have ever imagined. The activity section — tracking how much you move, exercise and stand up on a neat little circle graph — is a highlight of the watch. There can't be much wrong with making people more aware of their physical activity.

In other words, the majority of the built-in Apple apps are an absolute delight to use and the saviour of the watch.

The favourite friends section — which you access from a button on the side — is handy, and the use of the digital crown to zoom in and out or scroll down lists is sexy in its smoothness.

Cons

The black screensaver appears way too regularly, and it takes a while to work out that it is the movement of your wrist — and not a timer — that is making this happen. If you move it away from your line of sight, it fades to black, and when you flick your wrist back towards you, it comes back to life.

Most apps need to be set up using your phone, so the initial set up time is lengthy and pretty annoying, to be honest. If an app needs you to turn location services on on your iPhone, it doesn't alert you and appears broken until you check your phone and see the alert there.

It is hard to know if the slow load times are the apps or the watch, but many apps still work at a snail's pace and this is obviously pretty frustrating in a world where we don't wait for much at all.

Uber

The Uber app owns the watch. It is a clear frontrunner in the Apple Watch app market. It has gotten rid of every functionality besides the ability to book an UberX. Not only is this promoting a key part of the business, it is also ridiculously easy for a watch owner to use.

The interface is clear and uncomplicated, yet it does everything you need in a watch app — book transport efficiently. It shows the wait time for an UberX, a request button and then a 'contact driver' button. Simple perfection. It is almost too easy to order a ride.

Facebook

Nada. I actually went into a slight panic with the slow realisation that Facebook isn't on the watch. It alerts me on my wrist, but I can't open my Facebook feed. A lot of users were quick to realise the absence of what many consider a fundamental application.

If the Apple Watch does take over the mainstream, this app would want to be there. Not having easy access to it this weekend (I used my phone less than normal), meant I wasn't scrolling through my feed on autopilot like usual. In fact, I think I went on Facebook once or twice over the weekend, when pre-watch I had been having a scroll every hour.

Yelp

It seems the big American companies have the Apple Watch market covered. Yelp is another good example of using the watch to its full advantage by keeping the interface simple. The difference with Yelp, compared to Uber, is that it has a lot more information — but it is just as easily digestible.

The reviews of restaurants or bars come up by your location and the "hot and new" section is a nice addition for exploring the area you are in. The reviews are detailed enough to provide you with a decent choice, yet refined enough that they aren't overwhelming your screen. One friend noted she would have to pull out her glasses every time she wanted to read something, so perhaps this isn't a device for the sight poor.

Twitter

For my Twitter usage, the Twitter Apple Watch app leaves off a major functionality: mentions. Without Facebook on the watch, there aren't many personal social media alerts floating through to give you a little dopamine kick. The Twitter app lets you check the most recent tweets from those you follow, check out top trends (how often you would use this, I am not sure) and send a tweet (via the initially-difficult-to-find "force touch" functionality).

Sure, functionality is limited on the small watch face, but the best apps seem to take the main user experience functions and enhance them on the watch (à la Uber). Twitter unfortunately falls short in achieving this, so the watch is feeling very socially light.

Instagram

This app is pretty much the only social media app with a decent user experience. You can see your feed or your activity, as per the regular app. I am not sure you want to be looking at mini pictures, but for the Insta-obsessive it is definitely nice to get alerts that people are hearting your photos straight to your wrist.

Like the majority of apps, the feed only goes back a short way — in Instagram's case, nine photos. You can click on a photo to like it, see who else has liked it and read the comments. It also allows you to click through to a brief profile of the poster, yet does not let you view their personal feed.

It is definitely enough for a quick update on the latest photos, but those nine spots are often filled with the same user posting a burst of images.

Slack

The chat program, which I use for work purposes, is very slow to load, but once it is up and running it has all you need. Its main features are direct messages and mentions. You can create a new direct message by performing a force touch on the screen. The app's alerts — one of the best features of Slack in general — also work well on the watch.

CNN and NY Times

These two news apps are facing off on the watch, and the winner is CNN — but just by a hair. Being a news junkie, the CNN app has been tap-tapping my wrist over the weekend with breaking news updates. But only the right amount. On the actual app, it delves just that bit deeper into every story — giving a headline and a snippet, just enough to see if you really want to pull out your phone.

The NY Times app seems to flit between headlines, and headlines with summaries. It is early days and they do ask for feedback on the app — so there is no doubt testing going on in the background. On the CNN app, you scroll down for headlines and click in for further information, while on NY Times you scroll across for each headline (and a possible snippet), which is a bit of a clunky user experience.

Realestate.com.au

If you were buying a house, this app could be somewhat handy for a random selection of properties around you on your Saturday morning house hunt. Unfortunately, even with location services turned on, the app still produced Australia-wide search results which don't really serve any purpose.

The other missing component is rental properties, but again, it is early days and like all the local apps — it seems to be starting small.

In strange news, the promised Domain app, is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps hanging out with Facebook? The company says it decided to wait for the device for testing in the end.

TripAdvisor

Like Yelp, this app is fantastic for letting you know the reviews on restaurants, things to do and hotels in your area. Although it is slow to load up, it doesn't skimp on details despite moving onto a small device. It has save functionality, simple versions of the 10 latest reviews, a rating and the address.

The need for hotels on your wrist is questionable, but I guess it doesn't hurt if you were lost in a big city with nowhere to sleep.

Tripview

It took a little while for my watch to update with my favourite trips, but once it did, this app delivered a perfect use case. Transport apps seem to have an easier time moving onto the smaller device, with Tripview bringing your saved trips over in a simple, easy-to-read format. Now I've got no excuse to be late.

Qantas

If you are not a frequent flyer, this app has very little for you. Unless you only travel with Qantas, to keep track of your travel plans, head over to passbook where you can sort your entire itinerary.

Woolworths

The app for the Australian supermarket chain is similar to the other local apps on the watch — too simplified. Without Apple Pay being enabled it is hard to know why you would need a supermarket app. Perhaps I was hoping for GPS guidance to the products? Essentially this app is a glorified shopping list, which for many could be useful, but for someone eating day-to-day, it isn't going to change my world.

I set up a personal shopping list on my iPhone, but it wouldn't load up on the watch. The master list, also set up from your phone, works as expected, allowing the user to tick off products as they are picked up in store and giving an aisle name for each product — which is helpful if you are like me, and can never locate the eggs.

It will be interesting to see the next incarnation of some of these local apps. Currently, they all seem to have kicked off in basic form.

Should you buy one?

To be honest, it depends what you are looking for in a smartwatch. For all your basic needs, the Apple Watch gives a seamless user experience — albeit a little slow — that has you covered. The third-party apps will no doubt improve now that the watch is in the market for testing, but currently they are nothing to write home about.

The Apple Watch is definitely better looking in person, with the face and features more petite than photos indicate, and the notifications are light enough to not bug you, but heavy enough to not let you miss anything important.

It is the perfect sneaky meeting accessory, and for the subtle communication factor alone, I would be keen to keep it around permanently. I've been sleeping with it on, if that gives you any idea to how easily addicted one becomes to the new Apple cult product.

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Topics: Apple, Apple Watch , Apps and Software, Australia, Dev & Design, Gadgets, Mobile, reviews, Tech


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