Om Malik wrote a very interesting story today on time. I usually try to post a paragraph from the story to give you an idea of what you’re going to read, but this whole article is interesting, so just go read it.
Apple Watch and time
Om Malik wrote a very interesting story today on time. I usually try to post a paragraph from the story to give you an idea of what you’re going to read, but this whole article is interesting, so just go read it.
It’s interesting, but also not correct.
By far the #1 use case I use my Watch for is the time. It turns out I work in an office, and my son is in school, and both are totally dominated by time. There are commute hours, meetings, lunchtime hours, pick-up time, bedtime. My life is utterly dominated by the clock. I wish my Series 2 would show the clock faster. Heck, I wear my Watch on my wrist at night so I can check the time without bothering my wife.
What makes the Apple Watch so compelling to me is that it handles the #2 (notifications), #3 (communication), #4 (fitness) use cases really well, but while delivering on #1.
Does Om have a day office job at this point? I wonder if this is a sentiment shared by folks who work from home, and wonder if his is the exceptional perspective.
(Oh, and: even if I wanted to think in terms of information streams, that’s exactly what the Siri Watch face is for. Time only occupies a small part of it.)
I ended up being skeptical at the beginning of the second paragraph, in which he describes mechanical clocks during the dark ages – which ended 800 years before they were invented. When you lead off with history that bad, it makes it hard to take any of the rest of it seriously.
My biggest issue with the substance of the argument is that it comes from a techie community bubble. There’s nothing wrong with arguing from your own perspective; the problem arises when you don’t seem to comprehend that your perspective doesn’t apply to everyone – or even most people.
Normally I love the articles linked from The Loop. This one wasn’t too great. I wear my Apple Watch primarily because its a beautiful timepiece. The 3 non-time related task I do on my watch is iMessage, Strava (track my biking), and receive 2FA codes. Maybe 95% of my use is on the watch face.