So fathers day was the biggest surprise of my recent existence, ‘they’ clubbed together and bought me an iwatch, not something I had actually planned for myself, I’d viewed it as a bit of a useless gimmick and not being waterproof hopeless for my lifestyle which involves lots of bikes boats & boards in mud, crap and water.

Couldn’t find a thread about it, so wondered who else might have one and what they’ve experienced.

So far the genuine thrill of actually having this heavy stupidly over packaged box given to me by my girls more for the thought of the gesture than the actual usefulness of the item has been overwhelming, funny how they suddenly become grown up people with thoughts and actions not unlike your own. A few years ago as a committed Apple fanboy I’d have pre-ordered this just as I owned every Mac thing they’ve ever built dating back to the Mac classic.

But… and i don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth here, but it is a little underwhelming unless I’ve missed something, can’t seem to get scotty to beam me up and it’s not charging using my biometrics.

Anyone find anything useful about it?

I got a 1L tub of icecream and you got a £300 watch for fathers day.

Am disappoint 🙁

[not with my Pebble watch though – which is waterproof]

Do you have 150 children?

It seems ok just as a (rather expensive) activity tracker, and as a fancy watch that lets you change faces as you like.

The rest is down to apps, and more keep coming along with useful things. There are some changes coming soon that will allow more autonomy for an app running on the watch which opens up some new possibilities. Much like the earlier days of smartphones, it took a while for genuinely useful and useable stuff to be dreamt up to run on them.

This is a first, they never normally even buy birthday presents, but I’ve been through a bit of a rough period lately and they are grown up and have recently acquired ‘good’ jobs paying more money than I can remember ever earning. It could also be a mortality issue, lots of their pals have lost their fathers and there has also been a realisation that the slightly uncomfortable upbringing they had at the hands of a biker/snowboarder/windsurfer wasn’t actually as bad as it might have seemed for them at the time, so an element of thank you payback for the not inexpensive education I was fortunate to be able to afford them for a while.

Doesn’t help finding the communicator function though, nobody else have one yet? They said it was tough to get hold of, I thought this was Audi owning IT drivers track world everyone told me you were all Orange five riding IT types with huge wallets.

I’m still playing with it as I pen this, I’ve found a Strava button so it’ll activate it but you need your iPhone with you, seems it’s more of a wrist appendage in a sort of client server operation to use IT speak.

I’m a smartwatch advocate as I love my pebble time (and previously original pebble) so I can offer some insight but obviously mine’s very much a pauper one compared to yours.

So, I like that I can see notifications of texts, call, calendar reminders and other apps that I want to see – I’ve only got a few that actually send messages to my watch – and I like being able to reply quickly via the watch so I don’t have to actually get my phone out. I find that particularly good while cycling (I think the iWatch while not waterproof is broadly cycling proof, isn’t it?).

Apps that I like are weather, stopwatch, timer, calendar ones. I did use a fitness/sleep tracker for a while but the results were pretty much what I already knew so I stopped using it.

Our American MD has had one for a while now. In isolation it looks nice in an Apple lind of way but sadly on him it looks a bit try-too-hard, especially when he points at something or waves a sheaf of papers around with his watch hand

I Like the design, I like the look and feel, I like the fact that it’s not obtrusive, I like the colourways.

I’m not buying one until V2.0 comes out though.

I was told (by the Apple lot in Store) that yes it’s an extension of your iPhone and you need your iPhone with you and quite close for the watch to connect etc.
Apps, more coming all the time I was told but quite why they have to be different to those on IOS 8. something or other on iPhones makes me skeptical.

Still, nice thing to have, sure you’ll grow into it.

Happy Dad surely having children thoughtful enough to consider something out of the ordinary.

bikebouy – Member
Happy Dad surely having children thoughtful enough to consider something out of the ordinary.

Absolutely, not that we should put a price on love, but a very over the top and unnecessary gesture on their part, putting that Stannis Baratheon post (I found here) up on my Facebook page now seems excessively mean.

LOL.

I’m a bit of a fanboy – but not in an iWatch way. My dad’s old Lorus suffices.

I will buy one only when I can use it to remote control this giant robot. 😆

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvHToxMLtyI[/video]

Was messing around with it at Apple store few days ago … nice but not nice enough for me.

No ones pointed out its never been called the iwatch..

Of course it hasn’t but it’s still called the iwatch. Just because Apple are arrogant enough to assume that they can take ownership of the word ‘watch’ doesn’t mean we have to go along with it.

Besides, iPhone users typically like to differentiate their phone from others given how many people I hear calling them iPhones rather than just phones or mobiles 😉

wysiwyg – Member
No ones pointed out its never been called the iwatch..

Ha – apologies, assumption is the mother of all… I had no idea so I guess somebody else got there first then, Apple kind of generated that ‘i’ prefix to everything from back in the iPod iMac days..

I had a Sony smartwatch, ending up selling it to a mate who’s a complete geek and loves these kinds of gadgets. He uses public transport a lot, and says it’s handy for controlling the music, reading notifications etc without having to get the phone out.

I go to work on a motorbike, and sitting here at work it’s no more effort to use my phone… I really couldn’t find a decent use for it. So why did I get one? It came “free” with a phone upgrade.

I was given one on Friday evening by the wife.
It actually belongs to her boss but he got bored of it within a week and passed it around the office for people to try out.
Of the 4 wrists its been worn on so far, only one person has liked it.
I personally think its way overpriced for what it does and would never buy one but it’s been good to “test drive” one for a few days to see the limitations.

The Oatmeal reviews it quite well, I think.

I have an original pebble and my pebble time has arrived this morning! The Apple Watch wasn’t on my buy list once I realised it wasn’t waterproof and the battery last a day maybe 2 whereas my original pebble does 5 -7 days depending on how much I use Runkeeper!

Yeah, ditto for me – I figure the pebble does what a smartwatch needs to do (for me at least but it seems like many agree) by keeping it fairly simple and thus allowing a decent battery life.

^^Yup,pebble FTW .

I just lost my FitBit Flex and looked at a more featured device and ended up getting a FitBit Charge HR – just seems a simpler alternative to the iWatch which I think is really overpriced. Three of the guys in the office have them and (aside from being able to check emails whilst on the move quite easily) they seem pretty useless things – they get excited when they get an alert telling them it will rain soon – like no-one had thought about checking the weather on their mobile before :-/

And as above, battery life was an important consideration for me – I couldn’t do with charging it constantly.

they get excited when they get an alert telling them it will rain soon – like no-one had thought about checking the weather on their mobile before :-/

Or looking up at the sky to see gathering stormclouds/or checking to see if the cows are standing up or sitting down 🙂

I am disappointed that those clever apple folk haven’t found a way to use the body to generate electricity or even the dial, I had a cheap Casio years ago that charges from solar via the watch face so it’s hardly new technology.

Your casio didn’t have a lovely looking OLED display though, did it? Not to mention the capabilities of a proper computer from 5(?) years ago.

Nope, nor did it automatically flash up a route map of my planned trip to Amsterdam tomorrow, that was awesomeness… As long as the battery doesn’t run out before I get there.

LOL. Must say, I think Apple have missed a trick making the battery life quite so short.

Must say, I think Apple have missed a trick making the battery life quite so short.

I guess they weighed it up and decided that most people would charge every day anyway so make it last just one day and keep the weight/size down a bit.

It’s not water proof?

That’s a joke, right?

The Oatmeal reviews it quite well, I think.

Worth reading just for the cartoons, marvellous!

Most current smart watches aren’t – typically they’re only ‘splashproof’. Again, that’s a big plus for the pebble for me – I just wear it all the time – swimming, shower, cycling, whatever.

I own a pebble and barely use it. The limited ability to reply to stuff from the watch is annoying compared to Android.

I’ve considered an apple watch but will wait for V2 hardware which will work a bit more autonomously away from the phone.

You can reply via voice on the pebble time 🙂

On the old pebble (with Whatsapp which is what I use most rather than txt) I just used emojis to reply. Friends got used to my replies 😉

Of course it hasn’t but it’s still called the iwatch. Just because Apple are arrogant enough to assume that they can take ownership of the word ‘watch’ doesn’t mean we have to go along with it.

Isn’t it pretty much the opposite of that ?

same reason “Apple TV” isn’t called iTV, someone else got there first, so Apple chose another name.

Also “Apple Pay” rather than iPay or iWallet.

One thing the Watch has going for it, at least for regular commuters who use public transport, is instead of an Oyster Card, or similar pay system. TfL are allowing the Apple Pay system to be used soon, and the Watch is an extension of that.
Not for me, there is nothing I need one for, but I’ve looked at them, and they’re beautiful pieces of design and technology, and will get better and more sophisticated over time.
Sticking with a fully analogue mechanical watch, thank you.

No built in GPS, so for that reason, I’m out.

I bought one last month and have found it useful, mainly for texts and the odd phone call. As to third party apps, the cricket one provides the novelty of updates on selected matches. Haven’t had a problem with battery life, and find the activity monitoring quite inspiring to get a little more exercise in the working day. As CZ mentions, it could be useful when ApplePay comes to the U.K. shortly.
If you use it when cycling, you’ve saved having to get a HRM!

Some features are complete novelties – sending doodles to other watch wearers for example.

Only regret I have is that in my quest to get activity achievements, I’ve not worn any of my other watches since April!

Well the battery conked out before I got home last night, but it was a bit of an exceptionally long day, useful back up to the traffic direction when someone comes on the phone and you’re using maps to navigate.

Like the Siri command to ring folk and change music tracks even got it to search for and play November rain today.

The battery life is an issue though it should charge of body functions.