Apple the new Samsung?
So with almost ever phone Samsung releases in recent history there has always been a number of feature that where done only for advertising reasons. They didn't really bring much use to the end user, and most of the times where over complex and fixed problems that didn't need fixing.
Now when I was watching the keynote the Apple Watch came across as a Samsung product, I saw useless gimmick feature after useless gimmick feature.
- Travelling to the Moon
- Seeing a live image of the solar system
- Weird 3d smileys
- Drawing to each other on a watch
- Tapping to each other - this made me cringe so hard in the keynote. Oh when I want to meet my friend for lunch I send him this 3 tap pattern. No, no you don't.
- Sending your heart beat??? Meh
- Remote camera? I could see it being useful for a DSRL on a tripod, not so much an iPhone.
- Photos. Yes I've always wanted to view my pictures on a 1.5" display, over a 4"+ display.
There is a lot right with this device. but at the same time it seems so mess, the UI is not very intuitive, it does way too much, it has far too many useless features. Its not the typically focused Apple product, and it looks like whoever was in charge didn't say no enough. So many of the features I list really are advertising/demo products, once I see the travel to the moon thing I won't ever want to do it again, moreover if I hit it my mistake then I've just wasted my own time.
The health stuff for example I think are spot on, and I really like it, the different bands again shows a company that has it together but I think they really need to go back and slim down what it does to the barebones, notifications, fitness, time related tasks, and a few select apps that are very useful with everything else being a 3rd party add on.
The custom SoC is also great, I was dying for Moto 360 to use something custom tailored to the watch, and maybe work on the 8X platform they started with the OG Moto X but was let down. I think just using phone SoC downclocked is wrong, there totally different product categories. The taptic feedback also seems great, I've heard a lot of people complain their Android Wear smartwatches was very loud when it vibrated and that would ruin the whole ideal of being discrete I feel. You also know that every designer is going to jump onboard soon and have a line of watchbands and that ecosystem is just going to grow and grow and grow.
That section of the keynote was hugely cringe worthy at times, and the features all struck me as something Samsung might do. The part where he demos how he tells his co-worker to go lunch was painful, almost as painful as when Tim and Bono touched fingers, ouch.
Without actual seeing it in person, or much more outside of demos and the keynote I think its the most interesting smart watch, but also the most confusing at times.