7 ms·

The entire time I was reading this piece, I couldn't help but think, "I wouldn't be surprised if Apple explicitly omitted that feature from the API to keep batt

by cbhl 9y ago

The entire time I was reading this piece, I couldn't help but think, "I wouldn't be surprised if Apple explicitly omitted that feature from the API to keep battery life reasonable on the Apple Watch." Syncing progress for a podcast once every minute is excessive. Rather than polling, the app should update progress on the boundary transition (when starting the podcast app, when playback pauses, when bluetooth headphones disconnect, just before and after going to next/previous podcast).

chime 9y ago
That's exactly what I thought too. Apple generally prefers to limit features in order to provide adequate performance/usability. The moment hardware gets advanced enough to handle the features without issues, they build them in.
- kobeya 9y ago
  If that were true they’d be making something more like the Pebble Time series of watches with week long battery life, essentials built in, and minimal API. Apple Watch is a battery hog, culprit number one being the sexy watchOS UI. If you want practicality and pragmatic trade offs, it is nowhere near what others have demonstrated.
  - bpicolo 9y ago
    They're clearly optimizing for a single waking-day of battery life, which is (imo) a reasonable thing to aim for. I don't want to wear a watch when I'm sleeping anyway. It's a different tradeoff than Pebble that allows them to do more. It's also something they've worked hard to pack features into (e.g. Siri voice on-watch in series 3)
simplyluke 9y ago
Agreed on battery but it raises a question of UX vs battery life. I'd rather have a very useful watch for 6 hours than a mediocre one for 18 (less on the newer LTE models apparently). Audio is in many ways what should be the killer app for the watch. The watch should make it so I can go on a run and leave my phone at home, but omitting features like this make it a lot more difficult to fill that role. The lifetime of a $350+++ Fitbit/notification screen is limited. Apple needs to improve the software side quickly - the hardware has come a long way from the first version. Things like omitting error handling are just poor software design though.
- mercer 9y ago
  I suspect a full day's worth of battery is a minimum requirement for a massive number of people though.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- bosie 9y ago
  Genuine question but what would you do after the battery of your watch is dead at 1pm?
  - scarface74 9y ago
    It depends on the use case. If I just wanted a watch to use when I’m running or at the gym so I could leave my phone at home, I would give up battery life for functionality. That would also limit the market for the watch.
    - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
      Sounds more like you want a mini mp3 player than a smart-watch.
      - scarface74 9y ago
        A mini MP3 player doesn’t have a GPS to track my running speed or heart rate in real time or allow me to leave my phone in the car and still get calls and messages like the Series 3. Apple Music will be a game changer for many people on the Apple Watch, but I don’t listen to music that often. No native support for podcasts is a deal breaker for me. Currently, if I were still an outdoor runner, I would get the cheapest Apple Watch I could to display GPS info and control audio playback and I would have an iPhone SE - the smallest phone possible - in an arm band. My 6s isn’t unwieldy with an armband but I use an iPad with cellular when I need a usable screen.
abalone 9y ago
He actually did ask for boundary transition events.[1] But he asked for polling too. Not sure why. You should be able to track progress from state change events alone, no? [1] "Minimum fix: During WKAudioFilePlayer playback, wake the host app... on state-change events, such as pausing, seeking, and reaching the end of a file."
- hmmokthatwork 9y ago
  Probably to account for the inevitable buggy applications.
- MBCook 9y ago
  Market would like pulling to because state change events may be rare. What if I’m listening to a two hour podcast but don’t pause it at any point? That’s a lot of possible data loss if something happens that pulling every five minutes (which is way too slow) would fix.
tzahola 9y ago
Actually this is how the “now playing info center” on iOS works too: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mediaplayer/mpnowplayinginfocenter https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mediaplayer/mpnowp... You’re supposed to set the metadata when your track starts and don’t touch it unless playback have finished or the user pauses it. The system updates the progress bar based on the duration and the playback rate you’ve set in the now playing info.
rhinoceraptor 9y ago
The battery life (at least on my 7 month old series 2) is already much better than I need it to be. I’m a bit of an obsessive charger, but I almost never get it down past 40% by night time, even if I do a 2 hour bike ride workout with it.

by cbhl 9y ago

chime 9y ago

That's exactly what I thought too. Apple generally prefers to limit features in order to provide adequate performance/usability. The moment hardware gets advanced enough to handle the features without issues, they build them in.

kobeya 9y ago
If that were true they’d be making something more like the Pebble Time series of watches with week long battery life, essentials built in, and minimal API. Apple Watch is a battery hog, culprit number one being the sexy watchOS UI. If you want practicality and pragmatic trade offs, it is nowhere near what others have demonstrated.
- bpicolo 9y ago
  They're clearly optimizing for a single waking-day of battery life, which is (imo) a reasonable thing to aim for. I don't want to wear a watch when I'm sleeping anyway. It's a different tradeoff than Pebble that allows them to do more. It's also something they've worked hard to pack features into (e.g. Siri voice on-watch in series 3)

simplyluke 9y ago

Agreed on battery but it raises a question of UX vs battery life. I'd rather have a very useful watch for 6 hours than a mediocre one for 18 (less on the newer LTE models apparently). Audio is in many ways what should be the killer app for the watch. The watch should make it so I can go on a run and leave my phone at home, but omitting features like this make it a lot more difficult to fill that role. The lifetime of a $350+++ Fitbit/notification screen is limited. Apple needs to improve the software side quickly - the hardware has come a long way from the first version. Things like omitting error handling are just poor software design though.

mercer 9y ago
I suspect a full day's worth of battery is a minimum requirement for a massive number of people though.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
bosie 9y ago
Genuine question but what would you do after the battery of your watch is dead at 1pm?
- scarface74 9y ago
  It depends on the use case. If I just wanted a watch to use when I’m running or at the gym so I could leave my phone at home, I would give up battery life for functionality. That would also limit the market for the watch.
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    Sounds more like you want a mini mp3 player than a smart-watch.
    - scarface74 9y ago
      A mini MP3 player doesn’t have a GPS to track my running speed or heart rate in real time or allow me to leave my phone in the car and still get calls and messages like the Series 3. Apple Music will be a game changer for many people on the Apple Watch, but I don’t listen to music that often. No native support for podcasts is a deal breaker for me. Currently, if I were still an outdoor runner, I would get the cheapest Apple Watch I could to display GPS info and control audio playback and I would have an iPhone SE - the smallest phone possible - in an arm band. My 6s isn’t unwieldy with an armband but I use an iPad with cellular when I need a usable screen.

abalone 9y ago

He actually did ask for boundary transition events.[1] But he asked for polling too. Not sure why. You should be able to track progress from state change events alone, no? [1] "Minimum fix: During WKAudioFilePlayer playback, wake the host app... on state-change events, such as pausing, seeking, and reaching the end of a file."

hmmokthatwork 9y ago
Probably to account for the inevitable buggy applications.
MBCook 9y ago
Market would like pulling to because state change events may be rare. What if I’m listening to a two hour podcast but don’t pause it at any point? That’s a lot of possible data loss if something happens that pulling every five minutes (which is way too slow) would fix.

tzahola 9y ago

Actually this is how the “now playing info center” on iOS works too: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mediaplayer/mpnowplayinginfocenter https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mediaplayer/mpnowp... You’re supposed to set the metadata when your track starts and don’t touch it unless playback have finished or the user pauses it. The system updates the progress bar based on the duration and the playback rate you’ve set in the now playing info.

rhinoceraptor 9y ago

The battery life (at least on my 7 month old series 2) is already much better than I need it to be. I’m a bit of an obsessive charger, but I almost never get it down past 40% by night time, even if I do a 2 hour bike ride workout with it.