Friday, April 24, 2015

Follow our Apple Watch launch liveblog!

If you live in Australia and ordered early, you've likely already gotten your hands on a new Apple Watch — but for those of us in the States, we still have a few hours to go while we wait.

Yes, it's Apple Watch launch day in the United States, and iMore's going to be with you all day with our thoughts, reactions, and anticipatory UPS-staring. This page will update periodically throughout the day with more info from myself, Rene, Ally, Peter, and guest iMore friends, so stay tuned!

Editor's note: New stuff at the top, old stuff at the bottom.

Jump to a time: 12AM | 8AM | 9AM

9AM PST

Just sketching Hulk heads on the Apple Watch...

A video posted by Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) on




James: I ordered the aluminium black sport watch — it's for development, so I didn't want to spend the extra money on a first-generation product knowing that I'll probably have to replace it in a year or so, but I still wanted something that looked cool — and I think the space grey does look very sleek.

I'll probably get the Apple leather band eventually... or more likely wait and see what other third-party options appear. I am tempted to get a different metal to clash horribly with the black aluminium just because I know it will annoy certain people. I personally liked the two-tone look of the Classic Buckle leather band with the black stainless steel from my try-on.

So far, I've spent the afternoon since it arrived just playing with the different features to see how it all works. I had a brief hands-on at the Apple Store, but that doesn't give you the full experience.

I did the heartbeat thing with Myke Hurley, as pictured, and we tried wrist-calling each other like ten-year-old spies, and that worked fine too. It's a lot smoother than I expected based on some of the earlier reviews; the interface is very fluid. The lengthiest task was the initial setup itself. It does take a while to boot up as well, but once it's up and running it's fine.

I had hoped to include a picture of pre-release PCalc running on the watch at this point, but it is quite the amusing tale. I decided way back to wait until I had a watch of my own and could get a good feel for how things worked, before I would ship any watch version of PCalc. (It wasn't entirely clear if a Casio style watch calculator would even be useful.) Anyway, I worked on a prototype over the last month, and thought I'd just put it on the watch to see how it worked. Turns out, not only do watches count against the 100 test devices you are allowed per year as an Apple developer — I had already maxed out my allocation, and theoretically I can't reset that list until mid-August. So I can't do any development at all with it right now! My, how I laughed when I found that out! :) But hopefully developer relations will let me reset my list sooner rather than later.


Ren: Stillllll waiting. But PCalc developer James Thomson is here to chat about his Apple Watch experience!

8AM PST


Ally: Been up for about 2 hours, writing Apple Watch how to's like a crazy person — which by the way is rather hard without an actual Apple Watch. Both of our household Apple Watches are out for delivery as we speak. Now I'm afraid to pee in fear of missing UPS.


Myke: I think right now I am a little surprised and confused by the Watch. It's a very beautiful thing to look at, both from a software and hardware perspective (I have the 42mm Sport, with the Blue band). The screen is great, and overall I really like the look of the UI.

But what is difficult for me as I am using it today is trying to understand the differences between the Watch and the iPhone. Right now, as I'm downloading apps and poking around at things, I think that I am treating it very much like an iPhone. I am pushing the Watch and interacting with it when really the Watch is intended to push me.

I am using the Apple Watch very actively right now, when it's really more of a passive device. It comes to me with information that I should act on, rather than me trying to completely replace my iPhone by making it my primary communication mechanism.

I am not feeling down about the Watch. Not in the slightest. I just know that I need to learn to spend more time living with it, to form a more true opinion. I think this is something we will all need to do. I believe that things will start to change as developers get their hands on this device. It will enable them to possibly rethink the way that their apps work, to truly take advantage of what this device should be used for.


Ren: I'm kinda lonely chatting here by myself right now, so I asked Relay.fm's Myke Hurley to stop by and give us his initial thoughts about the Apple Watch. Myke, as you might have guessed from the above tweets, has a watch, because he's in Europe and thus more special than the rest of us.


Ren: Loks like our European friends are starting to get their watches. Lucky jerks, being able to send each other their heartbeat and all that cool stuff. (Of course, am I going to be sick of this in a few hours once I've got mine? Probably.)


Ren: I'm awake again!... and sad that my Apple Watch isn't yet out for delivery. Sad emoji face. Guess I'll just read iFixit's teardown while I pace around my front door. And write some more articles, I guess.

MIDNIGHT PST


Ren: So... Rene has an Apple Watch, the lucky devil! Ally and I are still waiting eagerly for ours to arrive from shipping warehouses outside our cities, but rumor has it that they WILL show up in our hands today. I'm pumped. While we wait, though, Rene has been putting an absurd amount of work into writing about the Watch.


Rene: I've been using an Apple loaner watch — 42mm stainless steel with Milanese loop. It's not the black stainless with link I ordered, but it's gorgeous and I'm thrilled to be using now while waiting for my mid-May ship date.

I've already shared a day in the life — with Apple Watch which has some of my early thoughts and feelings. But I really can't wait for all of you to get yours. So I can Sketch bomb you!

And for everyone else — if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them, so have at it in the comments!


Ren: Hey, guys, while Rene records more awesome video with the Watch, why don't we chat a bit about our impending Watches? We've got nothing better to do right now, and it's kind of Christmas morning...

So what watch are you waiting for? I think I mentioned elsewhere on the site, but I pre-ordered the 38mm Apple Watch Sport with White Sport Band, along with a Milanese Loop. After trying on many more watches at the Apple Store, I'm pretty confident in my purchase. Though that Midnight Blue Modern Buckle is also pretty fabulous...


Ally: I went with the 38mm Sport in silver with a white band. I also ordered a Milanese band separately. And no, I don't think it looks bad. Neither should you.


Peter: Mine is the 42mm Apple Watch Sport (in space gray) with black Sport Band. I'd love to pick up a Milanese band at some point — when I tried one on in the store, I couldn't get over how good it felt on the wrist. But sadly, mine isn't coming until June. Womp womp.


Ren: Do you have a watch face you really want to try? I'm partial to Astronomy, which lets you preview the rotation of the Earth, moon, and stars by spinning the Digital Crown. Such a fun way to fidget.


Peter: Mickey Mouse. Brings me right back to childhood; I got a Mickey Mouse watch when I was very young, and would hold it to my ear to listen to it tick-tock.


Ally: Not yet. I think I'll have to play with all of them for a bit before I decide which one suits me best. But I can tell you already that I don't think I'll find Mickey to be very informative.


Ren: What are you most excited about for the Watch? For me, it's a three-way tie for me between notifications, exercise and activity options, and Apple Pay on my wrist. I'm looking forward to seeing how I can dampen down my daily stream of useless notifications and focus on only those that are useful to me, and I'm also hoping there's some sort of tap customization there — harder taps for unignorable people like VIPs, for instance. And I've already talked at length about my excitement for using the Apple Watch while playing and coaching derby.


Peter: Activity and exercise is the main reason I'm interested in the Apple Watch on day one, to be frank. But the thing that excites me the most is not what the Apple Watch will do straight out of the box: It's what's to come.


Ally: I've never been a big watch person but if the Apple Watch can help me be more healthy, I'm all for it. I have been wearing fitness trackers rather consistently for over a year and have lost over 40 pounds. If it can keep me on this same track plus do more without being just another distraction, I'll be happy with my purchase.


Ren: What are you least excited about? I'm a little worried about app management and having too many tiny icons floating around on my screen.


Ally: The fact that no one but you or me will be sending animated emojis for a good while. Insert animated thumbs down here


Peter: As selfish as it sounds, I'm least excited about having to show the watch off to everyone who's gonna notice it on my wrist. I'm kind of hoping that Apple's caught up with demand by the time I get mine, though I'm sure there's still going to be some novelty there for a while, just as there was with the iPhone 6.


Ren: Any third-party app you're most excited to try? I think Twitterrific's new Watch app looks awesome, as does Yelp's and ETA's. I'm just pumped in general for the onslaught of applications and what they'll do for my day-to-day. Like the iPhone, I'm sure there will be a lot of out-of-the-gate duds, but also some apps that could possibly reinvent some of my workflows — and that prospect is genuinely thrilling.


Peter: Twitterrific will be great, I'm sure. I'm really looking forward to Clear for the Apple Watch too — Realmac's to do list manager. I'm curious to see how the Starwood hotels app will work for unlocking rooms and such. Beyond that, I'm taking a bit of a wait and see approach, because I have to figure out what's going to work best for me.


Ally: I'm excited for hotels and boarding passes, even though I'm not convinced these tiny boarding passes actually work. I've tried with larger versions on my iPhone and they grunt and complain. I can't wait for the angry eyes when I hold up a watch face.


Ren: Any extra accessories or cases you have your eye on? I'm probably going to get an Apple Watch charging stand at some point, because I know otherwise I'm going to just lose my cable under a cabinet somewhere, but otherwise Dodocase's stands look like they're going to be something special, and I'm curious to try them out.


Peter: I'll probably pick up a spare charging cable at the very least. As far as stands go, I'm a fan of how Twelve South's HiRise for Apple Watch looks and would like to get my hands on one.


Ally: I have my eye on the same stand Peter does. So hey Peter, hands off!

Check back for more fun launch day coverage! And got a question (or just want to show off your new Watch)? Chime in with a comment!

Apple Watch








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