2 Months of Wearables

I’ve never thought so much about a gadget I’ve bought or wanted so much as I have with the Apple Watch. When the iPhone first came out I thought it might be cool, but it wasn’t until the 3GS was released that I really started salivating for one. Same is true for the iPad; I scoffed at the first couple iterations of it and when one was released to market with Retina Display, it’s all I wanted.

But the Apple Watch was a little different. I didn’t really want it at first. The watch, like the Apple TV, doesn’t have any web views, so not a whole lot do with anything I could reasonably create for it. But it’s a new interface method all the same, so I was a little curious but not $400-curious.

I finally cracked and got the Apple Watch, mostly because everyone else I work with had one and I didn’t want to be the odd man out. The tide has pushed me to do worse things.

Now two months later I’m still not really sure what you’d want to do with this thing. It’s not an ideal replacement for a FitBit. It’s not a device really meant for composing anything. And its main strength is to alert me to things I otherwise would’ve reached to my phone for.

Where it Shines

At best the Apple Watch is really great at telling me things on the fly. For instance: if I’m close to things I need to find in Seattle, like Kings Street Station or when buses are due, if my wife is texting me, getting DMs from Slack and Twitter (via Tweetbot) or if I need to be in a meeting (from Fantastical).

Other than that, I haven’t found a whole lot of use for the watch. (Except Calcbot, it’s the best calculator app on the market on any device it runs on.)

Consumption

There are lots of remote apps for NPR One, Overcast and Instapaper that connect to their iPhone counterparts to control the players in those apps. It doesn’t exactly blow my hair back. Plus there’s nothing in me that makes me feel like I want to read emails or read Facebook Messages or my credit card statement from my wrist.

News apps like the New York Times sending headline updates to my wrist are quick and interesting and make me more interested in the topics at hand (see what I did there). I would love to see a certain awesome news reader follow suit.

Horizons

To-do lists and productivity apps seem like a real avenue in their infancy on the Apple Watch. When most apps are trying to have a tethered experience to the iPhone (or worse a retrofitted iPhone experience) these apps feel more complementary. For some reason having a reminder hit you on your wrist is more intimate and less obnoxious than having it on my phone interrupting an existing task I’m performing. Crossing things off in Clear always feels productive and that I’ve accomplished something.

(I haven’t checked out Omnifocus yet, but I definitely think I should in the coming year. I’ve only heard good things.)

IFTTT & Do Button are really convenient together and having those predefined tasks set-up and being a button press away trump things like Launch Pad Pro (which I am very fond of).

On a separate note, gaming hasn’t ever really been a lot of interest; even still I’ve spent a fair amount of time with quick-fix games like Boxpop and Letterpad. I’m excited to see more.

Every time iMore publishes a best Apple Watch apps listicle, I’m quick to devour to it, and always on the look out for different applications to try, so send any recommendations my way.