“Is that the Apple Watch?” asked someone this morning, “Have you regretted buying it yet?”
My answer was a grin. And a definite “nope”.
Now, I do recognise that I am a bit of a geek. And an Apple geek at that. But my Apple Watch is beautiful – and I think I do love it.
Firstly, the answers to the questions that everyone’s asked me over the last couple of days:
- Yes, the size is right. It doesn’t feel as if I’m wearing a brick, or even (forgive me) a large pebble.
- Yes, I can read the display. Even without my glasses. Actually, the screen is delightful.
- No, it doesn’t have GPS. And that’s a bit of a shame. But it talks to my iPhone, which does.
- Yes, the battery easily lasts all day, even with quite heavy use.
- Yes, the Bluetooth link between the Watch and the iPhone is robust. Yesterday I left my phone on my desk in my office and still could interrogate it from my watch when I was downstairs in our conference room.
- No, the current apps aren’t brilliant. Yet. Strava, for instance, needs to be a bit more customisable to be able to replace my trusty Garmin on a run.
- No, it’s not as intuitive as the iPhone. But having worn it for just three days, I’ve got the hang of navigating the operating system and use it now without thinking. The new “Force Touch” is already second nature.
- Yes, it’s sometimes a bit sluggish to respond to requests.
- Yes, Siri does actually work really well on it.
- Yes, you do feel like a complete dork when answering the phone using the watch. And you look like one too.
I feel a bit like I felt when I was twelve and got my first digital watch. It was one of those LED ones where you had to press a little button on the side to make the display light up. With the Apple Watch you raise your arm and the display comes on automatically, but you have to be quite definite in your arm raising to make it work. A quick sneak peek leaves you looking at a blank screen.
I suspect this will improve with the next release of the operating system. The apps will improve then too, as they’ll be written to use the watch’s own system rather than just acting as a remote control for the iPhone, which all third party apps at the moment are forced to do. So maybe Strava will do things rather better quite soon.
Already, I’m loving the calendar reminders that gently tap my wrist 15 minutes before an appointment. I like the designs of the clock face that I can choose between, depending on my mood – though I haven’t yet had any desire to see Mickey Mouse tapping his foot, or a butterfly fluttering its wings. I am really looking forward to using the watch’s inbuilt contactless payment technology once it’s been switched on for the UK.
So, I’ve got cutting edge wearable technology on my wrist. But it’ll be interesting to see whether or not in five years time I will still be wearing an Apple Watch – or whether, like the 17 year old me, I will have reverted to using a normal watch – because, actually, it proves better than the electronic one.
I suspect, this time round, it’ll be the former. Apple have me ensnared. And I am utterly unable to resist the company’s charms.
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