Directions On My Wrist

As you can probably tell from all the recent travel-related posts, I’m on the road a lot as of late. One of the nicest surprises for me with the Apple Watch in my travels is walking directions on the Apple Watch.

I’ve always felt like walking around with my phone out for directions was like painting a sign over my head that says “I’m a lost tourist. Please come mug me.” This was particularly true in San Francisco as I walked around at all hours of the day.

The Apple Watch removes that. Once you set a destination on your phone (or on your Watch via Siri), you can put your phone in your pocket and not look so obvious. Your directions will then begin showing up on your wrist.

The screen shows your estimated time of arrival and distance to your next turn. It’s really quite nice. It gets better though.

As you are walking down the street, Apple Watch talks to you in secret code. If you are coming up on a right turn, you get a steady stream of 12 taps on your wrist. If you need to turn left you get three series of two taps to turn left. If you aren’t sure, just look at your watch like you are checking the time when, in reality, you are getting directions like a secret agent in cold-war Berlin.

Once you arrive at your destination the watch vibrates again. Force tap your screen to stop the directions. Having done this now for several weeks, I can’t imagine going back to getting walking direction on my phone.

Apple Watch and Bold Text

A few weeks ago I guested on The Talk Show and John Gruber and I talked about everyone’s favorite new gadget. John made the comment that he turned on Bold Text in the Brightness and Text Size setting. This is a strange setting and requires you to reboot the watch to take effect. During the show, I went ahead and switched it on and have kept it that way since. I don’t have much to add to what John said during the show except an endorsement. With Bold Text turned on, complications are easier to read and look better and in most other views text is also easier to read but doesn’t usually look better.

Activating “Hey Siri” On Apple Watch

I recently ran into a problem where “Hey Siri” wasn’t working on my Apple Watch. I was sitting there, calling out “Hey Siri” with increasing volume and Siri had no interest in me. In fact, I said “Hey Siri” so loud that I set it off on my phone, which was in the next room charging. MacRumors published an article that shed some light.

In order for “Hey Siri” to work on your Apple Watch, the screen needs to be lit. It won’t activate when the screen is dark. If the screen is lit from you twisting your wrist or tapping the screen to wake it up or pressing the digital crown to wake up the watch, “Hey Siri” works. However, if you are in a glance or in an app, saying “Hey Siri” doesn’t work. The above linked Mac Rumors article explains that if you are at the watch face as a result of pressing the digital crown from another view (like the home screen or an app), “Hey Siri” also doesn’t work. However, in my testing “Hey Siri” worked just fine in that scenario.

Apple Watch Underwater

Ray Maker is the first person I’ve seen really test the Apple Watch’s water resistence. He swam with it, jumped in off a 10M diving board with it, and simulated 40M depth water pressure with it and the Watch kept on ticking. While all of this is comforting to know, after spending $400 on a watch for the first time in my life, I still take it off before showering. (I do, however, keep it on while washing dishes.)

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“Hey Siri, Send”

For the first week I used my Apple Watch, it drove me nuts that I still had to tap the screen to confirm sending text messages I’d dictated via “Hey Siri”. Then I decided to try dictating the button press. When presented with the confirmation button before sending a text message, saying “Send”, which is most intuitive, doesn’t work. However, saying “Hey Siri, Send” does. In fact, for any confirmation button that shows up while dictating into the watch, all you have to do do is say “Hey Siri” and then the name of the button.

“Hey Siri, Tell Daisy I’m in jail. Bring bail money.”

Pause

“Hey Siri, Send.”

It is strange that you have to preface every button press with “Hey Siri” and this behavior is different from the iPhone, which asks you to confirm and you just say “yes” or “confirm”. The iPhone method is better. However, if you want to send a text message from your Apple Watch hands free, get ready to say “Hey Siri” a lot.

Update:

Turns out, the iDownload blog figured this out before I did and even made a clever video.

Marco Arment on Apple Watch App Design

I enjoy Marco Arment’s articles on App design and layout. Making an App truly user friendly is a combination of art and science and Marco is one of the best at it. Moreover, he has a way of explaining his thought process that is fascinating to me. This week he wrote about the re-design of Overcast for the Apple Watch.

As an aside, Overcast is one of my favorite apps on the Apple Watch. Being able to start, stop, and change podcasts from my wrist is golden. I have it active as a glance and then tap on it to get the app and it works swell.

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The Reserve Strap for the Apple Watch

There is a lot of digital ink being spilled today over the Reserve Strap for the Apple Watch. They came up with a clever design that plugs into the watch’s diagnostic port and makes the strap a lot sleeker. Setting aside my concerns about a permanent connection to the diagnostic port as you wear your watch around all day, I have to wonder how many people actually need more power for their Apple Watch. Yesterday I wore my watch 16 hours and had 40% battery left when I took it off. As I write these words, it is 12:38 pm and I currently have 87% of my battery left.

If you need extra power, this may be the strap you are looking for but I’d advise to make sure you actually need that extra power first. I don’t.

Talking Apple Watch on the Maccast

This week I joined Adam Christianson and some other smart geeks on the Maccast to talk about the Apple Watch. The guests include Ken Ray (Mac OS Ken), Allison Sheridan (Nosillacast), Veronica Belmont (Sword & Laser, Vaginal Fantasy), Erfon Elijah (Cultcast, Cult of Mac), and me. It’s a fun listen.

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Needs Versus Wants

John Gruber had an excellent post yesterday about the Apple Watch.

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“… Of course you don’t need it. No one, not one person on the face of the earth, needs any $400 watch, Apple Watch or otherwise.3

The right question is simply “Do you want one?””

This really gets to the point. I’ve already grown very attached to my watch but I could get by without it. In fact, I (along with the rest of the world) got by just fine without an Apple Watch for a long time. The difference it makes in my life is many small conveniences as I go throughout my day. The trouble is that the Apple Watch is like your first In-N-Out Burger. You know lived just fine without it before but after tasting it, you can’t imagine going back to life without it.

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Watch App Screen: X Marks the Spot

I’m having trouble with the app launcher screen on the Apple Watch. (I’m intentionally not calling it the home screen.) The touch targets are small. You can zoom in with the digital crown, but doing so makes it easy to get lost in exactly where you are in your big clump of apps. I also don’t like the way they sort themselves, which seems random.

I started playing around with the iPhone’s App Layout screen and tried several solutions before landing on this one. The apps lend themselves to this X style organization. I’m going to clump application types together in different branches of the X. For example, I have all time and fitness related apps in the lower left branch.

So far I like this this organizational method. It makes it easier to find what I’m looking for and since the apps aren’t so densely packed, it is easier to launch an app without tapping the wrong one. I’m not sure this is final solution but, for now, X marks the spot.