We’ve released an update to our popular app, Bus Pal, which provides timetable information for Metro Tasmania’s services operating in Hobart, Launceston, and Burnie. We even added an Apple Watch App!
There’s a bit more info on the Secret Lab blog.
We’ve released an update to our popular app, Bus Pal, which provides timetable information for Metro Tasmania’s services operating in Hobart, Launceston, and Burnie. We even added an Apple Watch App!
There’s a bit more info on the Secret Lab blog.
The following quotes from from Daring Fireball. Emphasis is mine.
It’s best to think of Apple Watch as having two modes: watch mode, and app mode.
You do not need to understand this to use the watch. Most Apple Watch owners will never really think about this. But this idea of two modes is central to understanding the design of the overall interaction model.
Then, further on in the piece:
Watch mode is where you take quick glances at information and notifications; app mode is where you go to “do something”.
Watch mode is where most people will spend the majority — perhaps the overwhelming majority — of their time using Apple Watch. App mode is a simple one-level hierarchy for “everything else”.
It’s so simple, he needs to dedicated a 1,500 word post to explaining how simple it is, and (apparently, possibly) more than 12 hours of cumulative podcast:
@parisba It’s quite incredible. I think he is approaching 12 hours of dedicated podcast to it
— El Coõko Ninõ (@dobes) May 22, 2015
I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t like it. Especially when you compare it to past commentary.
The Apple Watch deeply confuses me. On the one hand, I love the idea of a tiny wrist-mounted computer that I can write software for. It’s the sort of thing I’ve wanted since I was a child. On the other hand, Apple’s explanatory and marketing copy for the Apple Watch are unconvincing at best (e.g. “They let you do familiar things more quickly and conveniently. As well as some things that simply weren’t possible before.“), and completely bizarre at worst (“Apple Watch represents a new chapter in the relationship people have with technology“), and the product itself is not what I expect from Apple.
It’s complex to set up, it’s slow and unresponsive a lot of the time, and the learning curve is substantial. I’ve had the opportunity to play with a few watches. The good bits are:
Some of the bad bits are:
When Tim Cook announced the Apple Watch, he described it as the next chapter in Apple’s story. If this is the next chapter in Apple’s story, then it’s probably time to stop reading since the book just got clunky to use, hard to understand, and really unnecessary. I’m disappointed, because I’ve spent years telling people that Apple products are better because, well, they were better, and I’ve always been convinced that Apple users didn’t just buy things because they were trendy. The flaws in the watch product, and the outpouring of gibberish from Apple fans and commentators has done a lot to convince me that fanboys are pretty awful.
I’ll post more about the watch in a few days, once I’ve had a chance to think more. I’m looking forward to my Pebble Time arriving next month.
Into the bin, Apple Watch!