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All of my friends told me something similar, so I got one. It just collects dust now. - The health tracking and gamification of exercise was somewhere between

by csa 6y ago

All of my friends told me something similar, so I got one. It just collects dust now. - The health tracking and gamification of exercise was somewhere between meh and useless for me. I don’t have exercise issues. - The freedom from the phone has potential, but the ostensible ease of use just isn’t worth the hassle of wearing a watch. I’m ok just pulling out my phone. - The deep breathing option was probably the app i liked most. Now I just do deep breathing exercises at regular times during the day for, what I assume, are similar effects. I can certainly imagine that it can improve the quality of life for some (many?) people, but I don’t find myself to be one of these people. That said, I really wish I did have a profound experience with it. I’m always down for good quality of life improvements. If anyone has ideas for using the Apple Watch that some people seem to miss, please let me know. I’m willing to give it another go.

extrapickles 6y ago
I haven’t come across anything profound with it, it mainly reduces friction from not needing to be taken out of a pocket and unlocked. Contactless payments are fairly nice as you can double tap the button, and hold the watchface over a reader, no need to get out your wallet and find the card you want to pay with. Back when going out with others was a thing, it’s calculator has features for tips and splitting checks.
andreilys 6y ago
My biggest value-add is being able to leave my phone at home. Being able to listen to podcasts and audio-books on my watch while going for walks and running errands has been great. With Apple Pay I don't even need to take my wallet with me and can just tap with my watch. Also the reminder to "close my rings" and being able to enter "competitions" with friends has been a great motivator for me to exercise.
- matsemann 6y ago
  As for exercising, if one's into that one might as well buy a proper watch for that. My Garmin can play music via BT and pay without my phone present. In addition it's tracking and fitness functions are way better than a normal smart watch. And the battery lasts longer than a day. More than a week even though I use the gps for an hour a day.
  - andreilys 6y ago
    I don’t think Garmin offers enough fitness features to justify having two different watches. The Apple Watch is much more versatile and general purpose. Having access to Siri on my wrist has been pretty helpful, paired with AirPods and I can navigate most of life without my phone. We’re quite habituated to charging our phones every night. Doing the same with your watch (especially if you purchase a stand for it), is a very low friction habit to follow.
    - matsemann 6y ago
      For me it's the opposite. Fitness is the most important, and the basic smart watch features on the Garmin is enough that I can't justify a second smart watch.
  - SyzygistSix 6y ago
    >can play music via BT What is BT?
    - IkmoIkmo 6y ago
      bluetooth
  - IkmoIkmo 6y ago
    Agreed, I'd say one is a smartwatch, the other is a fitness tracker. The Garmin can't make calls or send text messages, for example. Most don't even have NFC or wifi, although the Felix 6 pro does, but it's also quite a lot more expensive than the 6, let alone the SE. The resolution is typically about half as much, the screen size is smaller, thicker, heavier, brightness is lower, and the screen to bezel is much worse. It's just not something I'd wear with a suit to the office, or at a dinner, or when I go clubbing because it just doesn't look very nice. It's something I'd wear during workouts. But because of that, it's more limited in use, has less value, and isn't quite worth the price for me. It also means I'm not wearing it all day, so it won't give me all-day health data tracking. Dancing for 4 hours at a party would get tracked, heartrate, calories etc, on my apple watch. But I wouldn't bring the garmin felix 6 pro to such an occasion. (there's smaller versions but I find their specs/feature set is a lot worse). As a fitness tracker I'd say it's superior to the apple watch.
IkmoIkmo 6y ago
> I don’t have exercise issues. Well that's what I told my brother, don't get one because you do sports 3-4 times a week anyway. For me it was a motivational thing, seeing my trends in activity, getting nudges, doing competitions with friends, seeing my Vo2max go up over-time, are all great, but unnecessary for my brother. > the ostensible ease of use just isn’t worth the hassle of wearing a watch. I’m ok just pulling out my phone. I'd say there's a mix-up here. The watch isn't easy to use versus the phone, which is the primary reason that it allows freedom from a digital device that demands constant attention. Secondly, if you're okay pulling out your phone, then you're really saying you don't have any wish to be free from your phone, so there's an audience mismatch here. The freedom from the phone first requires you to actually agree that you need it, for many of us that's the case. If you do, the second part is being able to leave your phone at home when you go for a walk, go to the gym, go see friends, go clubbing etc. But for many that's a step too far, without any alternative offering functionality like payments, music, maps, messages, calls. The watch offers that, but in a way that's not super easy to use, but will get the job done. This is why the watch will never be a place where you scroll through social media for hours, or refresh your 5 news apps for the news junkies among us, but the easy-to-use phone, will be.
corytheboyd 6y ago
It sounds like you bought this expecting life changing gains, and maybe that is how OP is coming across too? These things are not life changing, but they have their fun use cases. If you can accept that it’s not going to 10x your productivity and just want something technically neat maybe you’ll find a use for it again. Or not, and you can just sell it for a quick buck :p

by csa 6y ago

extrapickles 6y ago

I haven’t come across anything profound with it, it mainly reduces friction from not needing to be taken out of a pocket and unlocked. Contactless payments are fairly nice as you can double tap the button, and hold the watchface over a reader, no need to get out your wallet and find the card you want to pay with. Back when going out with others was a thing, it’s calculator has features for tips and splitting checks.

andreilys 6y ago

My biggest value-add is being able to leave my phone at home. Being able to listen to podcasts and audio-books on my watch while going for walks and running errands has been great. With Apple Pay I don't even need to take my wallet with me and can just tap with my watch. Also the reminder to "close my rings" and being able to enter "competitions" with friends has been a great motivator for me to exercise.

matsemann 6y ago
As for exercising, if one's into that one might as well buy a proper watch for that. My Garmin can play music via BT and pay without my phone present. In addition it's tracking and fitness functions are way better than a normal smart watch. And the battery lasts longer than a day. More than a week even though I use the gps for an hour a day.
- andreilys 6y ago
  I don’t think Garmin offers enough fitness features to justify having two different watches. The Apple Watch is much more versatile and general purpose. Having access to Siri on my wrist has been pretty helpful, paired with AirPods and I can navigate most of life without my phone. We’re quite habituated to charging our phones every night. Doing the same with your watch (especially if you purchase a stand for it), is a very low friction habit to follow.
  - matsemann 6y ago
    For me it's the opposite. Fitness is the most important, and the basic smart watch features on the Garmin is enough that I can't justify a second smart watch.
- SyzygistSix 6y ago
  >can play music via BT What is BT?
  - IkmoIkmo 6y ago
    bluetooth
- IkmoIkmo 6y ago
  Agreed, I'd say one is a smartwatch, the other is a fitness tracker. The Garmin can't make calls or send text messages, for example. Most don't even have NFC or wifi, although the Felix 6 pro does, but it's also quite a lot more expensive than the 6, let alone the SE. The resolution is typically about half as much, the screen size is smaller, thicker, heavier, brightness is lower, and the screen to bezel is much worse. It's just not something I'd wear with a suit to the office, or at a dinner, or when I go clubbing because it just doesn't look very nice. It's something I'd wear during workouts. But because of that, it's more limited in use, has less value, and isn't quite worth the price for me. It also means I'm not wearing it all day, so it won't give me all-day health data tracking. Dancing for 4 hours at a party would get tracked, heartrate, calories etc, on my apple watch. But I wouldn't bring the garmin felix 6 pro to such an occasion. (there's smaller versions but I find their specs/feature set is a lot worse). As a fitness tracker I'd say it's superior to the apple watch.

IkmoIkmo 6y ago

> I don’t have exercise issues. Well that's what I told my brother, don't get one because you do sports 3-4 times a week anyway. For me it was a motivational thing, seeing my trends in activity, getting nudges, doing competitions with friends, seeing my Vo2max go up over-time, are all great, but unnecessary for my brother. > the ostensible ease of use just isn’t worth the hassle of wearing a watch. I’m ok just pulling out my phone. I'd say there's a mix-up here. The watch isn't easy to use versus the phone, which is the primary reason that it allows freedom from a digital device that demands constant attention. Secondly, if you're okay pulling out your phone, then you're really saying you don't have any wish to be free from your phone, so there's an audience mismatch here. The freedom from the phone first requires you to actually agree that you need it, for many of us that's the case. If you do, the second part is being able to leave your phone at home when you go for a walk, go to the gym, go see friends, go clubbing etc. But for many that's a step too far, without any alternative offering functionality like payments, music, maps, messages, calls. The watch offers that, but in a way that's not super easy to use, but will get the job done. This is why the watch will never be a place where you scroll through social media for hours, or refresh your 5 news apps for the news junkies among us, but the easy-to-use phone, will be.

corytheboyd 6y ago

It sounds like you bought this expecting life changing gains, and maybe that is how OP is coming across too? These things are not life changing, but they have their fun use cases. If you can accept that it’s not going to 10x your productivity and just want something technically neat maybe you’ll find a use for it again. Or not, and you can just sell it for a quick buck :p