The Apple Beat: The day-to-day Watch experience

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

It's been over a week since I've received my Apple Watch and while the initial thrill of using a new wearable hasn't diminished, I keep discovering new things about the Watch that make me want to keep on using it.

People know what an Apple Watch is. It may be the bright baby blue Sport Band or the unique brushed aluminum finish,  but it gets noticed, and  I've been 'told' various times, "hey, that's an Apple Watch." Most people want to know how I like it, what I do with it, and when they can get one. Some, even want to try it on. 

I've not had this sort of reaction wearing a Pebble or an Android Wear watch, ok maybe the enormous Samsung Galaxy Gear S got some people talking (the reaction was more like, "what is THAT?"). 

There seems to be some sincere interest in the Watch, maybe because there's been a lot of buildup to the launch and also because Apple products are heavily covered and make headline news.

In the Wild

What continues to surprise me about the Watch is the battery life. Some days of heavy use I'll have 30 per cent battery left by the time I am ready to sleep but with moderate use there's usually more than 60 per cent battery life. That's pretty decent it does seem that after a few charge cycles, the Watch has an improved battery than when you first try it on.

Throughout the past few days, I've managed to fine-tune notifications and alerts so that they're not intrusive but I also don't miss any important communications. The Taptic alerts, combined with the audible alerts are subtle but certain to get my attention.

Being able to force touch to clear all the messages and alerts in one go is a great feature and something I hope will be implemented on the iPhone once Force Touch eventually makes it beyond the Watch and the new trackpads.

The ability to take calls on the Watch is a huge feature for me and I love that I don't have to raise or speak into the Watch secret-service style in order to have a conversations (provided my surroundings aren't too noisy).

We're all busy people and are often multitasking, the ability to instantly have take a handsfree call while washing the dishes, cutting carrots, or driving (only if absolutely necessary) is convenient, that the Watch does it so well is a big bonus.

The fitness and health tracking are features that I've gotten used to and I'll admit that I have been motivated to work harder on getting my steps up and exercising harder and longer. Receiving the Achievements for my hard work in the activity application is good motivation for most people.

More Apps daily

As more apps and widgets support Apple Watch, I keep being surprised by alerts and functionality that makes monitoring various applications possible. I recently installed a Canary smart home security system, (stay tuned for a full-review of that device and its apps.)

The Canary monitors your home or office and sends alerts through your iPhone. I was surprised to see the Canary logo flashing on my Watch to alert me of movement in my home (it was my cat, Jango), I didn't even check to see if the Canary app or widget had installed on the Watch.

As app developers add functionality for the Watch, I expect to see more functionality to move from my iPhone to the Watch.  It just makes sense because it can save many users lots of time and that's one of the best features of the Watch, that it can shorten the time it takes stay on top of things.