Smartwatches (huh?)

ronemca said:

Which model are those photos from?

Click to expand...

It really doesn't matter, the UI/UX is [mostly] a function of the OS, not the hardware. So you'll get all that on an S0 through an S3

ronemca said:

Which model are those photos from?

Click to expand...

The latest

So Apple Watch Aluminum Sport 42mm with Cellular

If you look at the photo with the watch on the red band - the crown is red - that signifies cellular. Some people don't like the red - I don't mind. I'm sure someone sells a sticker for it by now to change the color.

If you buy new - the PITA is new, they come with limited band selections - but Apple sells more bands separate as well as Amazon et all. So just pick a band you like, then if you want something different / more specific - buy that.

Because it's a watch and you'll wear it often - it's wise to have at least 2 bands. 1 for shit work (landscaping, working on the car, whatever) and 1 nice to go out with. Like I said, the silicon bands clean up easy, but they do get dirty.

Wife is home so here is a photo comparing the size of the 38mm to the 42mm - as common in other watches, mens watches are usually bigger then womens watches but Apple doesn't sell them like that. Just 2 different sizes.

Trying to use a Zippo to gauge size, lol...

Just bought a Garmin Fenix 5x Sapphire watch yesterday. This is an amazing smart watch. The GPS and mapping capabilities are outstanding and the entire thing is fully customizable using simple steps.

In my opinion Apple is behind on the watches. Things they are releasing now I have been able to do with the last 3 generations of the Samsung series.

Well gentlemen, based upon your kind advice I have purchased a SPORT watch - Series 1 - in Space Grey. I'm just shopping around for bands now...and then I need to go & fetch it (being shipped to an address in the CONUS)

Once it's in my hands and paired to my iPhone...will it take me 5 minutes to configure it or more like 2 hours?

And does it download content from the iPhone or is it more like a fancy BT headset?

ronemca said:

Well gentlemen, based upon your kind advice I have purchased a SPORT watch - Series 1 - in Space Grey. I'm just shopping around for bands now...and then I need to go & fetch it (being shipped to an address in the CONUS)

Once it's in my hands and paired to my iPhone...will it take me 5 minutes to configure it or more like 2 hours?

And does it download content from the iPhone or is it more like a fancy BT headset?

Click to expand...

The initial sync can take maybe 10-15 minutes ish? Only ever do it once per new phone so I don't remember exactly. No more then a half hour. Even on the latest watch - updates and initial setup can take a bit of time. Never update if your rushing out the door.

Syncing happens on the fly - so if you download a new app on the phone - it'll send it to the watch automatically (so long as that feature is turned on)

How long you spend configuring a watch face is down to how anal you are lol - never takes more then a few minutes to scroll through the features.

So after initial setup, everything is pretty automatic from there.

If your a Mac user also - you can unlock the Mac with the watch. So your morning goes:
Put on the watch
Unlock your phone - this in turn, unlocks the watch
Wake up the Mac desktop / laptop - it'll see the watch in proximity and unlock automatically.

Those of us in IT with complex passwords, this is a godsend in getting through MacOS security. Definitely a nice feature / bonus.

I've been wearing it every day for awhile now, and I like it alot. I've customized the faces and generally had fun with it. I'm pleased with my choice, and I'm grateful for the advice I received here.

But one thing still makes me a little nervous:

I went back&forth with my seller a fair bit before pulling the trigger, and my main concern was the various levels of "locking". I admitted that I was not an expert Apple watch user...and as such was apprehensive about the possibility of receiving a watch that was still "locked to icloud" (and therefore unusable by anyone else) My seller seemed equally uncertain as to how to "de-lock" or "de-associate" his watch from his icloud account...and indeed whether he had even been successful in doing so. But he promised to work with me if I had any issues.

When I received it, I was excited that it happily and instantly paired with my iPhone. I thought to myself: "Yay - he did it right!"

Um...no.

After it finished pairing, it wanted me to "enter the APPLE ID that it had originally been set up with."

Uh-oh.

So I reached out to him and he came through immediately. He sent me his icloud account name & PW and when I plugged it into the watch it unlocked and allowed me to carry on with an OS update (2 hours) and a SYNC. And it did show up on the list of ALL DEVICES on my icloud FIND MY IPHONE page.

During the initial set-up (before the first unlock using the seller's ID) I performed a hard reset in the hope that it would purge the security settings, but it made no difference. Since then I haven't done that again, because it takes forever to re-awaken! But -- despite being fairly certain that it is now "mine" in the security sense -- I remain slightly uneasy about the possibility of seeing that "enter the APPLE ID that it had originally been set up with" message...and it NOT being satisfied with my APPLE ID.

I guess the nice young folks at a nearby APPLE store could investigate/verify this issue for me(?)

I have an Samsung S3 Frontier LTE. I have had a few smart watches, and this one by far is my favorite when paired up with the Note 8. It also works very well when on it's own. When taking calls, the speaker is loud and clear on both ends.