The Apple Watch from a Non-Watch Wearers Perspective

May 4, 2015 James Saye

I've never really worn a watch before. I've been given a couple of nice watches as presents and have certainly tried wearing them but have just never got on with them. I've always found them uncomfortable and actually kind of pointless - there's nearly always a clock around (in the car, in the office, at home) and I've always got my phone in my pocket. So when the Apple Watch was first announced back in September I was quite sceptical as to it's real utility and whether it would really be a hit, particularly given the number of people like me who don't wear a watch. Over the last couple of months though Apple's relentless marketing and video guides had persuaded me of the utility of the Watch but I was still a bit unsure about how non-watch wearers would take to the device. For wearables to be successful they have to be accepted by the general public (this is somewhere Google Glass went wrong) and I was not convinced the smartwatch would be.

However, given that I'm a bit of technology nerd and well engrained in the Apple ecosystem I thought I would give the Apple Watch a go and so at 8am on launch day I ordered the 38mm Space Grey Sport with Black Band - I think it's the best looking of the cheaper Sport model. I was given a delivery date range of 12th - 26th May but it was actually delivered just a few days ago on 1st May.

Now that I've had a couple of full days of use the first thing I've noticed is the comfort. The watch itself is remarkably small and light and the plastic sport band is super smooth and comfy. I genuinely hardly notice I'm wearing it and in fact on one occasion had a mild panic when I thought it had fallen off underneath my jumper - it hadn't moved an inch. For someone who doesn't normally wear a watch this comfort is a big thing.

It's all about Glances

One thing I have realised in just the few days I've been using the Watch is that it's really all about glances. Its absolutely not designed to be used for even minutes at a time but is for just seconds at a time. Swiping up on the screen when in watch mode (I'll come to this later) brings up something new and that is the Glances screen. This show snippets such as the top news story from BBC News, a snapshot of current weather in your current location only, an overview of activity etc. I've found myself uses these Glances far more than any other function and certainly more than the apps themselves.

Speaking of Apps, there's still a lot of work to do. Most of them are far too complicated and much easier and better to use on the phone making the Watch version pretty useless. The Twitter app is a great example of this. It loads about five tweets at a time and you have to press 'More' when you've read all five. The tweets themselves are kind of difficult to read with links, regular text, @s, and #s all blending into one lump of unreadable text. Images are also very difficult to see with no zoom functionality. I have come across some good Apps though. Amazon and Uber spring to mind as being very simple and easy to use on the Watch. I'm sure that as developers get used to the platform and get more and more feedback from users this will improve though.

Too Many Interactions

Most people pick up an Apple device and generally know how to use it with minimal instruction. The learning curve on the Apple Watch though is different and the reason, I think, is that there are far too many ways different types of interaction with the device - the only thing carried over from iOS is swipe down for notifications, everything else is different. On the side of the Watch is a small rectangular button which looks exactly like the lock button on iPhones but it does something completely different, it brings up your list of favourite friends. Instead the 'Digital Crown' acts more like the lock button, but also a bit like the home button, but not exactly. Swiping up on the screen brings Glances, but only from the watch app. Lightly tapping the screen does one thing and pressing the screen does something completely different, again, depending which app your in. There's just far too many different ways of interacting with the device and if you're not a techy like me I can see that it would just be confusing.

The best thing I've found with the Apple Watch so far though is the activity and workout tracker. Throughout the day the Watch is constantly monitoring movement, whether you're standing or sitting, and how much light exercise you've done. If you've been sitting down for too long then it reminds you to stand up and so on. This is a surprisingly good feature and something most people will enjoy using. For those more in to fitness there's a dedicated workout app which more closely monitors you via GPS (if running, walking or cycling outdoors) and the heart rate sensor. I, again, found this to be a really good feature and has to be one of the things the Apple Watch does best.

The downside of this great feature though is that it absolutely rinses the battery life. During a 40 minute workout I lost over 25% of the battery life. If you're using the gym in the evening after a days work this could prove to be a real problem. It shows how much battery the sophisticated sensors on the back of the device are using as during normal use I could have easily got more than a days life out of the battery.

Just an expensive notification centre?

So overall then I have to say I'm generally pleased with my purchase, particularly when taking in to account the fact that it's a first generation product in a completely new category. There's a few issues to be worked out - mostly software related which should be reasonably easy to fix in the coming months and years. If this wasn't a first gen product though I would be saying it's just a very expensive notification centre so let's hope these issues do get sorted before Apple Watch v2.0 is released.

Update (21/06/15): I have recently returned my Apple Watch for a refund. Although it is a very nice piece of hardware I struggled to find a good use for it. While I can see how some will find it very useful - probably those that rush between back-to-back meetings all day, those really in to fitness, and importantly those that actually want/need to wear a watch, I just couldn't find a use for it to justify the £300 price tag. I'm sure though that as app developers work the watch out properly I will come back to it. I imagine this wont be before Apple Watch v3.0 though

Top 5 Start-Ups from TechCrunch Disrupt Europe

November 2, 2014 James Saye

It's been a good couple of weeks since TechCrunch Disrupt Europe in London and now the hype as settled I can get to a top 5. This was a really difficult task to do as there were so many brilliant start-ups exhibiting at the conference without even mentioning those that made it to the Battlefield and those in the Battlefield Final. Anyway, this is my top 5 from across the two days. Oh, and there's no order to this top 5 - I couldn't decide.

1. Intelligent Energy

Although they're not exactly a start-up any more, I think they were an event sponsor or something, Intelligent Energy were showing off a really cool product called the Upp. It's essentially a portable phone/device charger that uses Hydrogen fuel cells rather than the traditional lithium batteries you would see in these kinds of things. Now of course you can't recharge a Hydrogen fuel cell as you would a battery from the mains so all you do is exchange your empty cartridge for a new one at hopefully one of many stockists around the UK, although there don't appear to be any at the moment. They reckon a single cartridge will last around two weeks once you've got in to a routine and of course depending on how much you actually use it. At the moment they're saying around five full charges.

Upp is certainly not the lightest thing ever weighing a whopping 620g in total but it does look nice and also has an associated app to manage the charging and tell you how much is left and where to get a new cartridge.

There's no official word on cost as far as I can tell but I'd guess at around £150 for the device and <£10 for a cartridge.

So, it's not quite the most convenient solution yet but I really see the potential in this and it's certainly cutting edge. Let's hope they get the weight down and number of charges up.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCJ287P7APY[/embed]

Find out more at BeUpp.com.

2. cloudcannon

These guys started off in New Zealand and have now moved to San Francisco - I guess there's not a big start-up scene in NZ. Their offering is really quite simple but delivers something really useful and that is editable HTML websites. It's essentially a CMS that at the moment seems aimed at freelancers who as you'd expect love creating and developing but hate doing the mundane content bits and trivial day-to-day updates that most websites need.

So as a designer you build a beautiful website in HTML and then your client can easily edit select parts from a WYSIWYG interface without breaking the website.

The company was started little over a year ago and consists of only four guys but they've already managed to raise $500,000 and moved to Silicon Valley. I think this company is really going to go somewhere.

Find out more at cloudcannon.com.

3.Mous

Time for another British start-up and this one is also in the hardware game. Although not quite as high tech as Hydrogen fuel cells their product is just as useful and simple.

Mous are just about to launch a Kickstarter campaign for an iPhone case that allows your Apple headphones to be integrated in to. This means you no longer lose your headphones, forget to take them with you and when you want to use them they're not in a tangled mess.

Personally, I tend not to use Apple headphones but apparently 70 something percent of iPhone users do so it makes sense for these to be the ones to fit. The case is quite bulky but feels very light and will be available in a number of different colours or you can mix and match colours to create something more distinctive and personal.

Their hoping to raise £10,000 in their Kickstarter campaign which is launching in 6 days on 8th November. They're also part of Virgin Start-up.

This product isn't going to change the world but I really do wish these guys the best of luck and I'm confident they'll more than exceed their Kickstarter goal.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tg8gJ_0B_4[/embed]

Find out more at mous.co and Kickstarter

4. PredicSis

Big data is a bit of a buzzword at the moment and there's so many companies out there offering a full spectrum of solutions and PredicSis are one of them. That sounds quite negative but I think this company are offering something a bit different and with the start-up mentality they can probably survive the inevitable downturn more than others could.

PredicSis are using Machine Learning to predict customer behaviour such as buying a product, switching providers etc.

This is a big thing for many businesses who are keen to better understand what their customers are going to do next so they can tailor their marketing around this.

They're based in Paris, France where there's a big start-up scene with lot's of potential customers and investors.

Predictive Analytics is a very promising area and is the future of big data as more and more companies have more data on customers they need a way to analyse it and predicting future behaviour really gives a tangible return which decision makers like to see. Once again, I can see this company doing well.

Find out more at predicsis.com.

5.Kinetise

Everybody wants an app but many can't afford the cost of development and this is where Kinetise comes in. Kinetise is a website that allows you to very easily create good looking and very functional websites in very little time.

They were demoing a number of apps at TechCrunch and one they had built was an almost exact replica of Facebook, this had been created in less than 24 hours.

The drag and drop interface will be very easy to use for most but don't forget that at least some technical knowledge is needed to develop any app and it's the same here. If you're developing a dynamic app you'll data sources for example.

Once you've created and are happy with your app you can download it instantly to your phone or tablet for testing and demoing. To publish the app you simply pay $1000, which is a fraction of the cost of a developer, and the app is sent to the app stores for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry, plus a version's available in Java for other uses. Of course, your app does have to be approved first to be published on certain app stores.

I think this is a really interesting platform and the possibilities are far more than anything similar that I've seen out there.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox2H-o5jX98[/embed]

Find out more at kinetise.com.

So that's my Top 5 from TechCrunch Disrupt Europe held in London this year. There really were so many interesting and amazing start-ups there and choosing a top 5 was really difficult.

What were your favourites? Comment below.

Should You Buy The New Tesco Hudl 2?

October 12, 2014 James Saye

We all know that the budget end of the tablet market is filled with horribly impossible to use small Android tablets (apart from Google's own of course) but now surprisingly the UK's biggest Supermarket, Tesco, has got in on the act and has done a brilliant job. As the name suggests the Hudle 2 is the next iteration to Tesco's budget Android tablet and after the huge success of the original nobody can blame them for going at it again. At only £130 the Hudl 2 is perfect for kids and those that are perhaps new to tablets and won't use or need the features of a larger more expensive device. At that price you'd expect fairly lacklustre tech specs but Tesco have pulled out all the stops with this one.

The 8.3" Full HD screen makes using the device a joy and the crisp, clear text makes it perfect for a bit of Facebook, online shopping and reading books while the Intel Atom quad-core processor and 2GB RAM makes it great for watching HD films and even gaming. It comes with the latest version of Android (at the time of writing anyway) which is called KitKat meaning you get a great choice of apps from the Google Play store. Unfortunately Tesco have loaded a few of their own which can't be deleted but they don't really get in the way too much. However, one of these apps, the child safety app, is very useful. It lets you set profiles for everybody in the family and with this you can set which apps and websites they can use and even how long and what times of the day they can use the tablet - essential for any family.

But, and there's always a but, the battery life is really the thing you'll notice on the Hudl 2, at most it'll give you 8 hours of web browsing and book reading but as soon as you play a movie or processor intensive game the battery will really start to drain - you'll certainly be charging it almost daily. It's also not the greatest looking of tablets and weighs just over 400g which is significantly heavier than the 330g iPad Mini, but then it is half the price. The cameras are pretty pointless t00 with a 5MP rear and 1.2MP at the front - although nobody should ever being using a tablet to take masterpiece photos anyway.

So, should you buy the Tesco Hudl 2 tablet?

If you're looking for a budget tablet for your kids, something cheap to use around the house or a gift for your parents or grandparents then absolutely yes, you should buy one - it's a really great tablet.

If you're looking for a sleek, good looking, feature filled tablet for more than web browsing and the odd bit of gaming then no, you'd be better going for an iPad Mini, Nexus 7 or Amazon Fire HD.

This week in Tech and Social Media

August 31, 2014 James Saye

It's been quite a week in technology and social media, here are the highlights. 1. Apple sent out invitations for it's 9th September event. The new iPhone, possibly to be named iPhone 6, is a guarantee and there may even be a wearable unveiling. However, it's unlikely that a wearable (probably a watch) will go on sale straight away with some sources claiming it won't be this side of Christmas.

2. Amazon purchased the video game streaming site Twitch for $1 Billion (£600 million). This came after talks between Twitch and Google didn't end in a sale and I don't think anybody was quite expecting Amazon to go for the company. It really shows how Amazon are starting to branch out from e-commerce though and is certainly a good buy - Twitch has an amazingly engaged audience with the average viewer watching for 1 hour 45 mins each day.

3. Instagram launched a new app called Hyperlapse. As you'd expect from Instagram it's a really nice and simple app to use and it essentially allows users to take good quality time lapses which are also image stabilised. There's some great examples here: http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/28/6075803/25-of-the-most-amazing-hyperlapse-videos-weve-seen-so-far