MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — I've spent four days with the new Apple Watch, and have finally worked out the learning curve issues.
Am I in love? Not yet. And if I was looking at buying the year's most-hyped tech device, I'd certainly wait for Apple to iron out the kinks first for
Day 1 with Apple Watch: My rough first day
Day 2 with Apple Watch: :
Here's my bottom line.
— The watch is a beautiful timepiece, designed elegantly in Apple fashion, and fun to play with.
It's best at notifications and telling time. But navigation can be rough — with as many as 30 apps visible on a screen that's less than 1-inch high, they're hard to select.
After using the tiny watch for four days, I've never been more enamored with the iPhone 6 Plus and that massive 5.5-inch screen.
The Apple Watch began shipping Friday and starts at $350, although most models are selling for $500 on up all the way to $17,000. Analysts project initial shipments of 1 million watches, with another 2 million going out to consumers in the next two months.
The watch is sold out at Apple Stores through June, and is only available via preorder
What you need to know: While the Apple Watch has been sold as a timepiece that works like an iPhone on the wrist, it's not. It's an add-on that works hand in hand with the iPhone, sometimes to its detriment, for quick glances at information.
You will be nagged many times during your early days to open the iPhone app first, to either register apps, as in the case of many, like Chipotle, Pandora or Uber, or to finish the transaction.
What the watch does well:
— Twitter and text notifications are good examples of things that worked for me 100% of the time.
— The Apple apps are well-designed and thought-out. Sunday, I took a hike through the mountains and wanted to see how many steps I had walked. It was nice to be able to reach over to the wrist, hit the digital crown, open the Pedometer app and see that I'd crossed 10,000. Otherwise, I would have reached into my pocket and yanked out the phone.
— The watch is beautiful to look at, with a nice assortment of watch faces to choose from. (Nothing beats the animated Mickey Mouse for me, though.)
Where it needs improvement:
— Navigation is not as intuitive as the iPhone. There are many new force commands, gestures, pokes, pinches and the like to learn, and it can take awhile
— Fixes for third-party apps should be priority number one. There are more than 3,000 of them, and obviously I couldn't check them all, but many I did see were either slow, buggy or just didn't open at all. The best app I've come across is Dark Sky, which simply tells you how much more daylight is left for the day, and when some clouds might start appearing. Also good: any of the "remote control" apps, like Pandora, Tunein direct
The biggest omission in appland
— Too much dark screen. The watch face goes black most of the time, unless you flick your wrist to turn it on. I understand this is to save battery life. But sometimes there's a maddening delay, and your expensive bragging device has nothing to show for it. This is frustrating.
— Fix the passcode issue. When I first got the watch, I stopped by photo website Smugmug to show it off to a group of guys there, and we passed it around the room, similar to (I've got to imagine) what other folks did when they played show and tell with their new purchase. Apple makes you sign in with a passcode every time the watch comes to life if it's off the wrist. And that's a drag.
— Battery life issues. Saturday, I was 100% charged at 10 a.m. and dead by 7 p.m. That's not something most watch users would expect from a wristwatch. Apple believes that because I used the workout app to monitor my activity for a four-hour stretch, that was the culprit that ate away at the battery. So Sunday, I took the company at its word and didn't run any of the background apps. I checked email, texts and responded to some, made a few phone calls and, as I mentioned, monitored my steps. Fully charged at 10 a.m , by 5:30 p.m. I had 66% capacity.
I've heard from some readers who were faring just fine with battery life, others who experienced surprisingly short supply like I did.
I'll go back to heavy usage Monday and report back my results.
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