Apple Watch Series 4 | Hacker News Reader

Apple Watch Series 4

daringfireball.net

After almost 20 years of almost continuous watch-wearing (shower, sleeping...really continuous) I switched to using ambient clocks and my phone in the late 90s. When the Apple watch came out I got one just to see what the fuss was (after all it was a free return in two weeks).

I figured I'd use it a little, then buy version 3 or 4. In the first week I forgot to wear it one morning and turned around in the car on the way to work. It made that much difference.

I have most notifications disabled, but the few that are allowed (a subset of imessage/fb-messenger/whatsapp/who's calling), plus timer and calendar was indeed life changing. I use it more than my phone as its so low impact. But only in my work life. When I'm not working it's just an exercise band.

As someone else in this discussion put it, "it's a dashboard". Yep, but so low cognitive cost that it really works.

I thought of the exact same scenario as you described. But, it failed that thought flow when I realised I needed to charge this thing everyday - and think about/feel anxious about charging this thing every god damn day.

I settled with a Fitbit Charge HR 2 almost a year ago, and this thing never leaves my wrist. Once a week or so when it about to die, I toss it in its charger as soon as I wake up and it is ready for another week when I pick it up before I go to work.

I will consider Apple Watch when the charge times get to a week or there comes a technology breakthrough that charges this thing wirelessly without contact. Until then, y'all enjoy!

I’d actually struggle with something that only required periodic charging. Source: my AirPod case.

With the Watch it’s simple: every night when I go to bed, I place it on the charger.

Yep, bedstand charger does the trick for me too. I never think about my Series 1’s battery.

Yes, but I really like the stats my Fitbit gives me about my quality of sleep. There are days when I stayed in bed for 9 hours but only really sleep like 4 hours. I can look at the sleep stages and clearly see what stage was I at during those woken up hours.

Agreed. If I didn't care about wearing it overnight, I can see how overnight charging almost makes the charging problem disappear.

The battery life is closer to 36 hours than 24, so people do use it that way.

One approach is to drop it on the charger for 20-30 minutes in the evening, wear it overnight, place it on the charger again while getting ready in the morning.

I can’t be bothered, but I will admit I’ve been curious how terrible my sleep is.

Yeah, I don't use it (mechanical watch guy personally), but the appeal is obvious - it does all the functionality that people want in minimalist phones, while being conveniently located and viewable at a glance.

I’m not sure why I feel it’s any different to the other technology I use everyday and love, but smart watches and wearables never really grabbed me the same way phones and tablets did. I have a few nice Seikos and aspire to maybe one day get a used Omega or something, one that’ll hopefully last longer than I do and that my kids might enjoy as a thing to appreciate the detail and craft in one day. That said, the Apple Watch certainly is the one I’d buy if I was in the market, it feels like it was actually designed for people to use and enjoy, rather than just a toy.

    >  smart watches and wearables never really 
    > grabbed me the same way phones and tablets did.

Same here. It's because they're basically dashboards. It's hard to get excited about a dashboard.

I totally disagree with Gruber’s “niceness” argument. The crowning achievement of the Series 4 is the democratizing effect of the technology re: Wharhol’s “A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke...”. Everyone can have the “best” watch. Apple unfortunately got away from this when they launched the watch. I’m glad they are back.

(Yes, I realize the watch is $400 which is outside of some people’s buying power)

The Watch has always been that way. Even the 10k edition was the same technology as the basic model.

What changed with Series 4?

The Series 4 has no Edition model.

Almost makes me want to try an Apple Watch. I've been using Android Wear devices since the original Moto 360, but I've been really dissatisfied with what Google has done with Wear recently.

  > This is why I continue to believe Apple will never open Apple Watch to free-form third-party watch faces.

That's THE feature I'm waiting for.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com