More Apple Watch

I'm thinking about returning it.

1. IT'S A LOUSY WATCH

I'm addicted to time, I want to know what it is, and the Apple Watch performs this function very poorly. In that its face is not always on.

But I could live with that if it came up when it was supposed to, every time I flipped my wrist. But it doesn't, especially when I'm lying on the floor doing my back exercises, it can't cope with that.

Even worse, I can do no timing. Because the damn thing shuts off almost instantly, or at best stays alive for twenty seconds, and most of my back exercises are thirty seconds. So, how can I study the watch when I can't see it? And oftentimes can't touch it, because my hands are holding my knees! And when I'm in the bathroom, I can't time how long to clean my contact lenses, nor can I prop it up while I'm in the shower to see how much time I have left before I've got to leave. All things I can do with my Rolex. Or even the cheap Timex I wear to third world locations. It's frustrating. And I could buy a series of clocks, but...

2. I CAN'T SEE IT

I'm too old, my eyes are too bad.

Actually, they're not that bad, since I wear RGP contact lenses my reading power is actually pretty good, my prescription is +1.25, which is miniscule. But so is the type on the watch. If you're aged and you don't wear bifocals 24/7 I'm not sure the Watch is for you. There's great functionality you just can't see at an arm's length away.

And that's a huge problem, the number one reason to return the watch, but it gets worse.

The glare.

Do some research and you'll find out the cheaper Apple Watch is better in sunlight, but the middle one, with the sapphire glass... In sun, it's hard to read. Why is this? My aforementioned Rolex with sapphire isn't hard to read in sunlight.

Even worse, the damn thing keeps coming on when you wish it wouldn't. Like when you're driving at night, and you're turning the steering wheel, it keeps going off and on...

So, the damn watch is awake when I don't want it to be and asleep when I need it.

CONCLUSION

Now I could wear two watches. One on each wrist.

Or I could just suck it up and try to look cool, but it's too expensive for that, and lacking too much usability.

I'm sure there are workarounds, but I don't have long to send it back, and I certainly don't want to damage/scratch it, which happens with watches on a regular basis.

But I'm completely flummoxed how Apple screwed up so bad. Really makes me believe the company is doomed. Because there's no Steve Jobs, there's no VISIONARY, no one to say what's right or wrong, when to go or stop.

First and foremost the watch should be BIGGER! As we've already established, it's a lousy timepiece, but a good computer, as long as you can see it. Why not a bigger screen? If the Watch survives it'll have a Plus iteration. But Apple was too busy thinking "watch" when it should have been thinking "computer."

And the UI is comprehensible after study, but far from intuitive. Steve Jobs would say not to start if you couldn't make it easy. This iteration of the watch will never go mainstream, not because people don't have a need, but because they won't be able to figure it out!

That's techies for you. Talking on and on about wearables. It seems we continue to live in a Microsoft world, where there's too much functionality and not enough usablity. That's the problem with the Watch, it can do a lot of things, but the basics are performed poorly.

Sometimes you've got to say no. Maybe Apple shouldn't have made a watch.

Sometimes you've got to break the paradigm. They were so busy making it look like a watch, they should have begun with a blank slate.

My heart says to keep it.

But my brain says no.


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