You know, I have Time buzz, but regardless what scheme I use, I can't wrap my
head around it quickly enough. I understand the logic of how things work with
it, and how the vibration patters work, but trying to interpret it in my head
to me, just feels real real clunky. When I want the time, darnit, I want the
time, not to have to mathematically think through, OK, that vibration meant 0,
ok, that longer one meant 5, that meant put my face in the door, and slammit,
LOL! OK, I'm just kidding, but you get the point.
---
Christopher Gilland
JAWS Certified, 2016.
Training Instructor.
clgillan...@gmail.com
Phone: (704) 256-8010 Extension 401.
----- Original Message -----
From: Jenine Stanley
To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2016 9:22 PM
Subject: Re: Apple Watch: I love it, but I hate it.
Hi Christopher,
I completely understand your thoughts on the Watch.
I’d say a couple things, not to retort yoursituations, but to agree and add
my thoughts to them.
Volume: I think a higher quality voice and variety of voices, US male as well
as female, plus the slight volume boost might help people with some hearing
loss. I had mine set for the British voice which is male, Daniel in fact, but
it was too broken up at 9% volume and anything below 80% I can’t really hear
unless in a very quiet place. It was like the old compact voices on the iphone.
GPS: Why did I think Maps also could give you verbal turn by turn directions
as well as haptics? I agree that developers could do so much more with GPs and
haptics plus speech. I wish Blind Square would do so. It does have a couple
Watch features but not enough imho.
App Loading: this is probably my one and only real issue with the Watch over
all. apps take what feels like forever to load. Apparently it’s not just with
VO on either as plenty of sighted users complain about this.
Beyond that, I do love my Watch and wear it every day. I was recently in the
hospital for a few days for gall bladder surgery and didn’t take my Watch with
me. I spent most of the time poking at my naked wrist. It was just weird.
I have turned the sounds off and just have Voice Over speaking plus the
haptics and love it.
Also, Time Buzz did it right as well, really pushing the API and it and Just
Press Record will pretty much always be complications on my watch face.
Due is another app I like for reminders and Uber’s Watch notifications for
ETA on your driver are priceless for me.
So yep, you have been heard and understood here.
Jenine Stanley
dragonwalke...@gmail.com
On Mar 27, 2016, at 9:01 PM, Christopher-Mark Gilland
<clgillan...@gmail.com> wrote:
Guys, let me intro this post by saying a few things, just to make sure none
of us get off on the wrong foot.
This post isn't going to be like a lot of things I've posted where I just
flat out bash a product to shreds. I do have a bad tendency to do that.
Actually, if anything, I plan in this message to give both the good and the
bad, and to fairly contrast. My feelings actually of the watch are more good
than they are bad, but I do have a few issues, and I'd like to see if any of
you other watch owners feel the same way.
So, a little background to start with. One of my friends, Jessie
Hernandez, called me up one day about half a year ago. He had just gotten
himself an Apple Watch, and wanted to tell me about it, and how floored he was
at how well it worked.
At first, I was really sceptical. I mean, really! really! sceptical. I
thought, OK, firstly, how in the world can you type on the thing being it's a
small watch face screen? Realize that this was before I understood that you
kind a don't. It's all done with Siri dictation.
I also thought to myself, OK, so I can check the time, set timers and
alarms, send and receive texts/e-mails, and make/receive phone calls. Big
whoo. I can't browse the web, I can't this, I can't that. I just didn't see
how the watch really could be all that useful. Why not just use my phone to do
what I need?
I decided I'd have an open mind, and would give it a fair chance though. I
therefore setup a time with Jessie to spend about an hour just going through
the watch with me, and demonstrating for me over the phone how it worked. I
must say that by the end of the hour, I was absolutely blown away! True, there
were things I wanted the watch to do, that it simply put, couldn't. That said
though, I was extremely impressed at how seemless the watch integraded with the
phone, and how easy it was to do the things with it that it could! do.
As the next few months went on, I debated back and forth if I really wanted
to get a watch for myself. I was really torn. On the one hand, I loved what
I'd seen, yet on the other hand, the new Apple TV 4 was coming out pretty soon,
and the things I'd heard about it vs. the 3rd generation had me absolutely
drewling! So, yeah, I was pretty torn. I couldn't afford both. It either had
to be one or the other.
I won't bore you with more background. I'll just get right to the point of
the watch, but long story short, I wound up giving in, and I got the 38M
stainless steel Apple Watch with the Milinese loop band.
Once I got the watch, the first thing I realized was though very small,
I'll give you that, to my defense, the speaker on the IPhone 6S is about the
same size, maybe a little bigger, but not by much than that of the watch. That
said though, on the watch when turned up all the way, it's ridiculously quiet!
Don't get me wrong, if you're in a quiet area, and I do mean quiet, it is
audible. It's certainly doable, but I guess I just would have expected it to
be ever so slightly louder. When I listened to the demos that David Woodbridge
did on Applevis, his watch sounded quite louder. Now, in his defense, he was!
using a 42M, not a 38, but even still.
So, the first few days, I wore my watch literally constantly. I wouldn't
let the thing out of my sight. I really really enjoyed keeping the phone on
the desk, or in my pocket, yet being able to get push notifications on my
wrist, etc. I also really really! liked, and still do really like the cosmetic
appearance of the watch along with the Milinese band. It looks very
businesslike, and very masculine. It just looks very... well... me. I even
went out a few times for lunch with my grandmother and got compliments from
people walking by, or would overhear people talking, like, wooo, look at that
guy over there. He's got an Apple Watch! Dang does it look nice!
So, you probably by now are wonderring why I say, I love my watch, but I
hate it, as up to this point, everything I've said indicates I am in love with
the thing. For the most part, I am. I guess I'm just a little disappointed
though with a few things.
For one, obviously the sound quality. I was really really hoping that the
volume would be a little bit louder. Yes, I know about turning up the volume
of voiceover. Trust me. I've already done that. That did help some, yes, but
not much. Realize though that I do have a quite moderate hearing loss, so that
could be playing a factor in this, to Apple's credit. It might not be all them.
After a while though, I confess, I've kind a quit wearing the watch so
regularly. Don't get me wrong here, guys. I love the watch, but meh... I
dunno. After a while, it just kind a got to the point where it got kind of
old. I see the watch more now not so much as a killer product as I did at
first, but more as a convenience.
What I mean by that is this. Really honestly, all the watch really truly
seems to do is maybe give me access to a few things without grabbing my phone.
things like setting alarms, checking upcoming appointments, checking the time,
setting timers, looking at the weather, etc.
As for 3rd party apps, yeah, they're great, but realistically speaking, all
they really do for the most part is one of two things. Either 1, they do
nothing really more than just push notifications to the watch. OK, in some
ways, this is kind a cool. I'll grantcha that. Admittedly, it is kind a nice
to not have to grab my phone every time a notification comes through. The
thing though is, I get a push notification, I raise my wrist, I tap the screen
of the watch to see what it is, and hear Voiceover tell me. OK, let's say it's
something important. OK, so I then double tap the face of the watch. This
either pops me into the app on the watch, if I have it installed, or it just
simply tells me it can help me on my phone. If the app is! installed on my
watch, then usually it's incredibly limited. Anything that I try doing, it's
gonna not carry out on the watch. At some point, I'm gonna have to grab my
phone to finnish the task. Never mind, if I'm in a loud area, I can't really
hear the watch anyway, which practically makes it useless.
Here's another thing. What about developers not taking full advantage of
all the API's that are available. Let me give you a very very simple example.
Let's take the app Just Press Record. Nothing wrong with the app. In fact,
this dev actually did things right in my opinion. Clearly, they used all
API's. They have the ability to listen to your notes locally on the watch
speaker. You don't have to listen on your phone. I mean, you can! don't get
me wrong, but it's not required. Also, when recording, it doesn't make you hit
record on the watch, then hand it off to your phone. I can't tell you how many
apps I know of which would use your mike or would use audio do this. More that
use audio.
Skype, for instance: why on earth give me an app for the watch, when all
it does is let's me text chat? And even worse. I can't even access my contact
list from the watch. I first have to add my contacts from the phone into my
favorites. then, and only! then, can I access them on the watch, but yet
still! only engage via text, not via voice. I could see no video ability, I
mean, that would be absurd, but at least! give us voice ability. The API's are
both there for sound through the watch speaker, and for using the watch's
internal microphone, so, what gives?
What about Zello? This one's even more! a nightmare! I can see my contact
list, but if someone zellos me, all I get is a notification on the watch saying
Jane Doe is talking. Double tap that notification, and bam. Zello opens on my
phone. Say on the watch I double tap on Jane Doe to initiate a conversation.
Oh, I get the hold and talk button, yeah, but as soon as I double tap it and
hold, I hear the chirp sound on my phone, not my watch, which never mind, is in
my pocket, and never mind that it's now routing what I say through my phone's
microphone, not the watch.
Let's talk GPS.
I love that maps works so seemlessly on the watch. There's just one
problem as a blind person. The watch won't verbally give you turn by turn
directions unless you physically tap on the screen. Yeah, it'll vibrate to
tell you you have an upcoming turn, and believe me, I love that! But, then, I
have to take my other hand, touch the watch, and see what it says. This is
horrible! As how am I effectively going to hold my cane, or my dog's harnis,
while touching the face of my watch? I didn't say it can't be done, but I
probably look like a total dweebe doing it. Hold on hare Fido, let mih check
mih wristers. Hee'ee'eel, fido. Goo'oo'ood doggy. LOL! You get the point.
Never mind the treelemb I just smashed into because I was not using my cane
while trying to look at the clock face. You say, that's why you stop while you
look. Yeah yeah, I know. Don't rub it in. LOL! My point still stands.
I dono. Clearly apps have ways to use the internal speaker, so why can't
Apple make an option to either play voice guidance through the watch speaker,
vibrate only, or do both. I like choices, of which right now, choices we don't
exactly have.
So, yeah, in conclusion, I love my watch, but after having it now going on
about 4 months, I dono. I have mixed feelings. I'm not disappointed I got the
thing, and I have no plans to sell it, nor get rid of it, but admittedly, I am
a little bit saddened that in some ways it's very limited.
Now one thing I do! like, is using Hey Siri on the watch. That is so
convenient! Like today, I was eating an Easter lunch with family. I was
putting the final touches on the deviled eggs, so obviously I had egg, and mayo
all over my hands. Obviously, you don't wanna be touching the watch with your
hands in that condition. So, while that was going, my mom put the apple pie,
no pun intended, in the oven, and asked me to set the timer, being that the
timer on our oven is broken for some weird reason. So, no biggy. I just
raised my wrist, and set my timer with Hey Siri, no hand interaction at all.
Or if I'm sitting across the room, and have my phone docked on my stereo,
or am lying in bed. I can stay chillin in my recliner/bed and just say, Hey
Siri, play the Greatest Hits by Alan Jackson. Boom! Seconds later, there
comes Chatahoochee out my speakers. I can go to the next song, or previous
song, stop and start playing, turn on and off repeat and shuffle, love a
track/album, start a station, turn my crown to move the volume up or down, etc.
So from the standpoint of the music app, that is gorgeous with hey siri
integration.
So yeah, there're things I love, but there are just enough that I also hate.
What are you all's thoughts?
---
Christopher Gilland
JAWS Certified, 2016.
Training Instructor.
clgillan...@gmail.com
Phone: (704) 256-8010 Extension 401.
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