Mixed weeks, these - some work, some travelling. Managed to get the battery down to <10% on one day, which was weird because I hadn’t used it that much. I find the battery life troubling; I’ve been seeing lots of tech writers saying how Apple had (deliberately?) underestimated the battery life, and how it was working out great for them - iMore’s Rene Richie claims to end a heavy work day with ~40% of battery left, and Asymco’s Horace Dediu tweeted he had 6% left after 2 days heavy usage - all of which makes me wonder just how they manage that?? I'm not a heavy user by any means (I don’t really use any non-core apps, and my daily email and notification count would make most tech writers either wet themselves laughing, or weep with envy) but I routinely finish the day with less than 20% remaining. So is there something wrong with my watch? Is there some kind of magic voodoo going on with the techies that makes their battery life so great? It’s odd.
Other than that, the watch has been working out pretty well. It’s still nice to be able to dismiss notifications from my wrist, or speed-read email subject lines. After the first couple of weeks I’m finding I haven't used Siri much - with no way to edit the transcript it has limited function for me, and I've been in public places much more, recently, where I find it to be less useful/accurate. Far and away my biggest use of the watch is the ’now playing’ glance, which is excellent, and simply seeing the time, which remains an issue.
I’ve written before that the ’raise your wrist to light up the watch’ feature just hasn't worked well for me, and I'm sorry to say it still doesn't work reliably, lighting up the watch face regularly when I reach for my coffee mug but failing hopelessly to show me the time when I actually want to see it. It’s actually had me looking at other smart watches that can show the time on the screen permanently - no, not the Pebble (no, no, no) but perhaps one of the LG watches - though I dont know how well, if at all, they'll work with an iPhone. But the fact that I’m even considering this over an apple watch is interesting, and a little unsettling.
Somebody asked me last week if I’d replace it if was lost or broken, and I'm honestly not sure that I would; my iPhone and iPad, absolutely, in a heartbeat, but the watch? It’s handy, and I'm glad I have it, but I'm not sure I'd miss it if I didn't; it certainly hasn't integrated itself into my life the way the iPad did, or become an essential tool the way the iPhone did. It's the classic ’killer app’ conundrum, and I haven't found mine for the watch, yet.
