14 ms·

you want a watch (wrist or pocket)

by wahnfrieden 4y ago

hedora 4y ago
Does a standalone cellular watch exist (as a daily driver for everything you’d expect in that form factor)?
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  I absolutely love my watch and mostly stopped using my phone since getting it, but it’s mind blowing that such an expensive and capable device is forced to piggy back off of a phone. Why can’t my watch be supported by MacOS rather than iOS? I mean, I know why, but it’s crazy. As soon as I find a high quality standalone watch I’ll start to seriously consider not having a phone at all. Or perhaps just not an expensive iPhone. Watches cover pretty much every use case I have with a phone.
  - wahnfrieden 4y ago
    what do you still need the phone for since they added standalone capabilities?
    - paulmd 4y ago
      You need an iphone at least to register the watch to the account, although I don't think anything forces you to keep it after.
      - varenc 4y ago
        Can the Apple watch last all day if it’s using cellular for data and doesn’t have wifi or a phone to piggyback from?
        steve_adams_86 4y ago
        The Apple Watch Ultra can quite easily (I listen to podcasts, make phone calls, respond to messages, monitor sleep, and always make it through a day and end up charging the next evening), but it's extremely expensive for something that isn't properly standalone. The other watches seem to come close, but should be topped up pretty much daily (with my level of usage) from what I understand.
      - steve_adams_86 4y ago
        > I don't think anything forces you to keep it after Many watchOS apps and features require an iPhone in order to be set up. For example: Oceanic+, Waterlamma, Overcast, various Apple Health features, or Sleep Cycle. That's a pretty wide variety from my own experience so I suspect it's quite common. Until that stops being a thing, we'll need iOS to maintain our watches. In some cases it sort of makes sense because you're using apps that function sort of like a sidecar to iOS apps, not a standalone app. There are several where this isn't the case at all though, and it feels a lot like unnecessary tethering which limits our ability to use an otherwise very capable device on its own. I think we'll get there; other manufacturers won't have the same incentive to keep watch apps tethered to phones, and I suspect that freedom will become increasingly appealing to Apple Watch users. I could be wrong, but I imagine eventually that limitation will seem too ridiculous to consumers. I don't expect to happen for quite a while still, though.
    - kungito 4y ago
      The battery life is horrible if you try to use it a bit more often like you would a phone
    - steve_adams_86 4y ago
      Unfortunately several apps and features (both Apple and 3rd party) require the phone for set up and configuration.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- wahnfrieden 4y ago
  i'm pretty sure the apple watch is standalone as of some years back but i'm not certain
  - varenc 4y ago
    You still need a iphone for setup. It’s a hard requirement. But they did semi-recently create a flow where one phone could setup a watch for someone else like you're in a "Family Sharing" group with: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211768 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211768
- 999900000999 4y ago
  You have full Android phones in a watch, but it's much closer to an emergency backup phone than something you want to use daily. I keep mine in Sports mode, which is basically just a smart watch , most of the time

you want a watch (wrist or pocket)

hedora 4y ago

Does a standalone cellular watch exist (as a daily driver for everything you’d expect in that form factor)?

steve_adams_86 4y ago
I absolutely love my watch and mostly stopped using my phone since getting it, but it’s mind blowing that such an expensive and capable device is forced to piggy back off of a phone. Why can’t my watch be supported by MacOS rather than iOS? I mean, I know why, but it’s crazy. As soon as I find a high quality standalone watch I’ll start to seriously consider not having a phone at all. Or perhaps just not an expensive iPhone. Watches cover pretty much every use case I have with a phone.
- wahnfrieden 4y ago
  what do you still need the phone for since they added standalone capabilities?
  - paulmd 4y ago
    You need an iphone at least to register the watch to the account, although I don't think anything forces you to keep it after.
    - varenc 4y ago
      Can the Apple watch last all day if it’s using cellular for data and doesn’t have wifi or a phone to piggyback from?
      - steve_adams_86 4y ago
        The Apple Watch Ultra can quite easily (I listen to podcasts, make phone calls, respond to messages, monitor sleep, and always make it through a day and end up charging the next evening), but it's extremely expensive for something that isn't properly standalone. The other watches seem to come close, but should be topped up pretty much daily (with my level of usage) from what I understand.
    - steve_adams_86 4y ago
      > I don't think anything forces you to keep it after Many watchOS apps and features require an iPhone in order to be set up. For example: Oceanic+, Waterlamma, Overcast, various Apple Health features, or Sleep Cycle. That's a pretty wide variety from my own experience so I suspect it's quite common. Until that stops being a thing, we'll need iOS to maintain our watches. In some cases it sort of makes sense because you're using apps that function sort of like a sidecar to iOS apps, not a standalone app. There are several where this isn't the case at all though, and it feels a lot like unnecessary tethering which limits our ability to use an otherwise very capable device on its own. I think we'll get there; other manufacturers won't have the same incentive to keep watch apps tethered to phones, and I suspect that freedom will become increasingly appealing to Apple Watch users. I could be wrong, but I imagine eventually that limitation will seem too ridiculous to consumers. I don't expect to happen for quite a while still, though.
  - kungito 4y ago
    The battery life is horrible if you try to use it a bit more often like you would a phone
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    Unfortunately several apps and features (both Apple and 3rd party) require the phone for set up and configuration.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
wahnfrieden 4y ago
i'm pretty sure the apple watch is standalone as of some years back but i'm not certain
- varenc 4y ago
  You still need a iphone for setup. It’s a hard requirement. But they did semi-recently create a flow where one phone could setup a watch for someone else like you're in a "Family Sharing" group with: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211768 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211768
999900000999 4y ago
You have full Android phones in a watch, but it's much closer to an emergency backup phone than something you want to use daily. I keep mine in Sports mode, which is basically just a smart watch , most of the time