Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang and with me is special guests and show favorite Scott Stein hi Scott you've had the Apple watch series for now for about week yep so what are your impressions what do you think well I think that if you were looking for a larger watch and a little bit of a design change that's really nice I think that the possibility is a possibility because I have not we have not seen the ECG feature activated but Apple has an electrocardiogram heart rate technology on this that's FDA cleared that's a that's a first in any sort of a wearable in that category so but what that's for we don't really know in terms of like its it's for you and your doctor and it's for looking at it's looking for a rhythm yeah so basically you know that that's TBD the rest of the watches is a nice upgrade I don't think a lot of the features are really all that different in everyday use including battery life so the big question I have a series three for folks who have the older generation watches is it worth an upgrade I don't think so and I think a lot of people are really I'm really excited about the size and the size of those things when you look back the series 3 now seems bulkier you know classic looks worse in the rear view mirror the new version is more of a subtle but overdue upgrade the watch faces there aren't that many new watch faces there are a couple that are great but complications not all of them hook in yet and I know you're always you know talking with the app the watch face store yeah that's a cool watch play store is still not here yet no there's two things I really needed an Apple watch one is a watch face store so you cannot download any other watch faces other than the immediately bit 25 which is a lot that Apple includes that are customizable but if you want to look for anything new and different there isn't anything else there were only two unique ones to the Apple watch series for now the other thing is battery life it's about a day and a half right now and there are other watches that are striving for more battery life and that equation has not changed so watch for a story battery life and isn't that day and a half that's pretty comparable to last year's no the series 3 right yeah it's very much the same I and and and that means a solid day on a charge plus but if you're looking for a multi-day I mean Qualcomm is trying to work towards that on its chips to get to you know more basic functions over multiple days fitness trackers can last a wee longer I think for for health if you want to put this on someone's wrist this has now fall detection that we never was test I was so is that available yet that is available now so like how have have you tried like falling to test it or no I've not tried falling yet I'm going to try falling we're trying to set up a condition where I don't kill myself but you know just like a real fall and it's off by default you have to turn it on hmm and it's the idea is that if you fall and you stay down it will send an SOS automatically like the same way if you press and hold yes like help me a phone I can't get up medical devices right now Apple doesn't claim even in the settings that it will detect all falls and that's the thing if you're looking for a hundred percent accuracy in detection there's no claim there is it better than not having that sure by you know that that's a question as far as I could you put it on and would you trust yeah I wouldn't use it as a replacement for watching somebody who might be falling but it might be an extra failsafe it's certainly are nice direction to go into I mean they upgraded the accelerometer the gyroscope and the heart rate the question is what other features will unlock down the road for that right now it seems like a lot of the basic functions including basic fitness are all pretty much the same as on series three there's extra battery life if you're on runs but by about an hour we're still testing that but it's not a great leap there other dedicated Fitness Watchers do a lot better for that for GPS and what about running this on just the LTE radio lonely because the battery is still terrible or yeah battery life drains quickly on that I mean I think you're not gonna get a full day if you put on LTE the reception is improved and that they they replace the the back made it all ceramic so that's nice and so far it does seem like receptions better and and do things do seem generally faster you know already I think it was perfectly fast on the s3 it bridged that but now it's things are loading ridiculously quickly to the point where we used to complain about that on the Apple watch and it is nice to see that that now runs at iPhone speed I feel with loading apps oh there you have it for more on the Apple watch coverage check us on CNET I'm Roger Cheng I'm Scott Stein thanks for listening and thanks everybody for sticking with us and be impatient when we're running behind Scott is a very busy man but we appreciate him being here now that being said Scott still let's test this fall damage shall we if you do it first time ever yeah let's do it you do it on live video that's the best time let's do it let's do it this is the first time I've done fault has I do it well I don't know that was a joke I was gonna pretend to come push you oh my god no I'm actually gonna do it I think he's gonna do it right do it now I got to make sure I've got it on cellular I don't curious about that would you would you be willing to buy this for like you know a parent an aging parent or an aging relative that you know I guess would be prone to these kinds of accidents possibly but the thing is and between that like walkie-talkie and ways you keep in touch it's not easy to set up an Apple watch so you'd have to set it up for them and I don't know I feel like not Apple like at all right the whole point is these things are supposed to be easy to set up oh yeah no no it's a it's a it's a somewhat complicated process you mean there is a way to instantly aim it and pair it with your watch but then there's like a whole loading process that takes a while it's faster than it used to be but here emergency SOS so I don't know I would I would I would talk to my doctor or nurse for the person I was caring for yeah and I would say what do you recommend that's the same thing with ECG it's basically like I would talk to my doctor and say well do you think that would be good for me like in a way has been a reviewer ECG thing really I questioned the actual purpose for you and on everyday basis like I get that data is important for a doctor to have but like yeah are you and me taking a CGS of yourself like every day no what's the point right ECG what is a is a if you've never done it and I've seen it demoed on the Apple watch but it's not available yet you take a 30 second sample yeah stationary so this is not like when you're out and about right and then that is a more accurate sensor for things like heart rate rhythm irregularities it's still not a replacement it cannot detect according Apple it's not it will not detect heart attack so it's like a three lead ECG versus a one lead used doctors have even more leads for ECG so real doctors office ECG is more advanced than this but it's a step we looked at one last year kardia band that was an accessory that does this um another another solid step but yeah who would use that basically someone who's concerned that their heart rate right might be a little weird and you might be testing it but I mean I like the fact that Apple is kind of normalized because there are a number of people out there with conditions it's really not that dissimilar in my mind from somebody who maybe has diabetes and has to have a pump or an insulin I mean if there is something that could be very seamless and casual to just keep on your person that will help you maintain your health when you have very specific requirements like that I mean I applaud that yeah yeah as long as it works well is a huge step to be FDA cleared and I think that that was it was a surprising moment because a lot of companies have been dancing around it trying to get to that point and Apple got there first compared to competitors and so I think that that's great it's not not cleared for all functions that's for things like certain things with heart rate so yeah but you're right like it's like it's a great move but it may not be something that I think an everyday person is really going to use yep so like it's an applaud the effort in TBD right but I would be hesitant to say go out and buy the Apple watch series for for it because also I don't even know how it works yet we don't know how that ECG works we have any movie but we have not tested it but here I'm gonna try falling okay how are you gonna do this I'm gonna fall wait I'll detection I don't know all right chair go ahead it's not gonna work this is like not a real fall so like what am I gonna do I'm just gonna slowly fall okay all right camera angles there here we go oh that sounded like it hurt actually okay I'm worried about your arms bracing yourself for that fall at that point I'm not ready to do another yeah yeah well not totally work out the tests like Kaiser like my knees are like wasn't great no but did it give you any kind of indication at all no no they said something about it's more about the arm movement like the flail yeah that triggers it I just I just went down on my knees and sure I was like the flame you have to I think the watch knew though you're that you're half-assing that fall so the Excel or napple the the accelerometer can now detect greater G's great okay for so yeah so that's a lot of it too is that I think it's when it registers an impact of a certain amount of G's met it well I don't know what that is but it triggers it so you you really have to have a you know like a real impact right also apparently it can sense motions of your hand that might indicate something algorithmically for what a fall would be so it could be like if your hand splays out or just something yeah I imagine has to it's a couple of things yeah there has to be a few criteria to me cuz then you'll have a lot of false positives and it's just then it's annoying right so yeah so I mean yeah it's one of those things you're probably not going to notice and so interestingly to I guess it's that it's for Falls it falls off a bike it could be a possibility for this detective guy and thought about crashes no it is not is not set up for that so I actually I started to think about that I thought well you know as a general impact detector that would be useful but it won't it wouldn't even short work for something like that in the future that would be great because if you got into a crash or something something that would immediately send an alert would be a great idea but I don't know yeah that would be really difficult to set the watch for detection right I think so and then still at the point where like Do Not Disturb while driving goes on while I'm on the train oh yeah for my phone and like you know I'm always like no I'm not driving so yeah there's a lot of I mean we're making progress but and that's not that's up to us Ari's burping it's hate radio apologize there we go live live Bert moments no subtle burp I think I think there are very important steps but they're not ones that I'm obviously encountering on a daily basis right well Brian do have any questions yeah well first and foremost we and the chat do applaud you Scott for making the effort so thanks for doing that we gotta test this more I do really want to see this thing work because it really could be a fantastic implementation we want to do fall tests yeah we'll figure something out it's gonna happen it might be happen in SF with someone who's fitter and has like a I don't know why I'm saying San Francisco has all the fit people I'm not sure you're fit people oh yeah I yeah I would just have to get ready you drugged me and have me fall over if you have any suggestions for how I could fall in a video game mattress I would a detect that you're landing on something soft probably the watch would be like yeah the chat was saying like if they knew what was a quote-unquote Daddy fall just like wimp yeah exactly that's what it is life improvement did point out though something that factored into the to the lack of reaction and in this corner quick test it's the fact you got right back up again I think they'd pointed out that it's like if you fall and you stay down and it knows you're hurt that's exactly that's a good point yeah sure so that's or something yeah I think it's I don't know how long but it's so yeah there's a pretty that's great point there's a period of inactivity let's go through before I think they start but I think that's for calling your emergency contact is they exactly right it is so well so it's probably like hey wait what oh wait nevermind you're fine yeah it first calls emergency services then it calls someone on your contact list okay so it goes in that order with the idea that the emergency calls the you know the 9-1-1 is just important way yeah and it sends says like i notifies that it follows happened and sends your location now did it go off on sunday was on sunday first day of fall ah no I have pun detection off those like a Jets reference result yeah thought so too I was like he's talking about beer that was like I said fall not fail my real the real fall when the gas lost to the brand go bills anyways ok so right off the bat we had a really excellent question from Priority One before we even got the show started yeah he says I'm in a wheelchair would the watch register every push of the wheel and be interesting to see my miles a day that we got to get apples attention on this because if that isn't a meter that they can read yet that would be a fascinating addition to it no no it already does that actually Apple had made a big deal of this last year that they have made and I have not used it but there are fitness tracking does recognize wheelchairs check on that on their site but we have not done accessibility you know testing for that but that is something that Apple has addressed so that's something that should be in last year's Apple watch I believe that's like a watch OS feature I don't know how far back it goes but yes it should give you credit I don't know how that gets tracked and turned on and believe it's it's a sub activity feature I'm sorry I don't know the details on that I should but I remember that that was addressed it was a big deal I think last at the last Apple watch event when it was being discussed or watch os unveiling so I believe you should be in good hands with that like I think that that's I think that that's a should be a good support feature TBD from a big thank you to DC for one four seven saying look for someone who does Aikido those people are trained so fall over I think that's a great suggestion if I want to do a real great fall test I think I remember seeing something about how a lot of stunt performers in Hollywood they trained in Aikido on that behalf I make a tell me if I'm wrong but I think I remember that reference yeah yeah sure I don't know I don't know specifically which marshal I think that sounds right that's something to keep in mind when were like maybe we should yeah maybe should go to like an Aikido studio and like it's thrown around the throw throw URL safely I guess and then we get like three hours into it and realize Scott forgot to put the watch exactly that again okay more questions before we run out of time from James I would love to find out how well the ECG monitor works and if it lives up to the hype now you were just saying yeah we haven't been able to spend enough real time with the ECG later in a software update I had kicked over the shoulder of somebody showing a demonstration reading of ECG just for demo purpose of showing what it looks like but that's it yeah it's not live yet Apple has not even announced a launch date they just said it's coming later this year whether that has to do with final FDA clearance it's it's going to be in the u.s. first as far as like wear it well it's oh it's another thing to keep in mind if you're in an overseas market you may not have that feature unlocked depending on whether it's been been cleared for use so I'm sure they're working on that but I'm curious too I did use the cardia band last year which is an already existing Apple watch accessory they also make a standalone that does ECG reading basically it gives you like your Hospital readout ping we're all of a sudden you start seeing the heart rate as you'd see it yeah you know like in your in your TV movie that would be hooked up we've been in the hospital so it gives you it records that 30-second heart rate apples will also analyze that and make a statement as far as detecting arrhythmia oh really yeah we'll say something like not nothing too too much of a a judgement but it might say like we're detecting an arrhythmia or there does not seem to be an arrhythmia and the idea is that it's all from there between you and your doctor right by design a lot of these are not making health claims helices they're not making like health recommendations they're not making a diagnosis or recommendation that that's part of the restriction of what this can and cannot do so that it's something that you record then send to your doctor as a PDF to that's another interesting thing so I know that you can send us a PDF or have it going to the health app and then you know it's one of those things that they just want to see a current reading or if you're like I may need to come in here's my recent reading I'm just curious if you'll be able to move from person to person like if like I want to give my dad an EKG - can I take off the locks put on him and just run it and then get those stats where they serve is it personalized to like your profile well it would be you know like Apple health is all for you and it's you know so like it wouldn't change anything you would probably just go into your own it would go to your data file you can then delete the yeah you could probably ting or you could just send that off and okay I send that file and say by the way this is I think you could use it for that but it's not but but the abstract was advice to be liked by another Apple right why don't you go in France yeah but it would not like it wouldn't like the calibration I don't think would change over time okay it would who knows but um I think that would that would work out okay I mean there's no different user settings for Apple watches anyhow it's like okay yeah in order to change it to another setting if to put on different device right repair and set it up all over again like the full set of all reinstall basically kind of nice like you know if that's got like relatives who may not have an Apple watch like older phones I'd be like here yo let's just see how that whole tickers doing so absolutely speaking of that do we think that that's gonna be a big strategy for Apple because there is concern like people who might need this for the ECG for the fall detection etc people who don't tend to gravitate towards technology not to say there aren't exceptions to the rule but let's be honest my grandparents weren't exactly rushing out to get the new fancy phone um do we think that that's gonna be a challenge how Apple is going to get over that do you think people will gravitate towards that naturally I mean I think though well I mean especially if they get like insurance copies involved I think that that would help a lot if all the son who's paying for it yeah sure it's companies like if you wear this Apple watch whatever we'll know you you get this for free and you can knock off five bucks from your premium or something that's smart yeah that makes a lot of sense yeah yeah you've got the fall detector you've got things that appeal to folks who may not necessarily have considered an Apple watch before but they they might or it's more I guess like for me I would be more interested in buying one of these for my my parents as they get older and and this is probably a device that they wouldn't be necessarily ashamed to wear as opposed to one of those traditional fall detection devices which have that negative stigma that's true I I think that also the watch I mean people are fine setting up the Apple watch now I guess and many people have them I still feel like the set up is a little bit cumbersome you know it's it's like you take so well or somebody did you also need to have a phone to make it work though is that I'm doing yeah that's what I was about to get to is that it would be really nice for the Apple watch to be a standalone device and it's not yet it could very well be in the future like I mean I do remember it at UPS the iPhone used to have to be am I crazy that you had to plug it in yeah you had to like set it up and plug it in for iTunes and there was a lot more connected pairing right the iPhone is a fully standalone device that gets its own music and its other things well it was in of a later development it worked as a phone but if you wanted to implement all the smartphone features get music on it yeah you had to use a plug it is good to plug it in so and then we look now when you go oh well now you set up an iPhone used to have to set up an iPhone first on a computer now it's fully on its own you never you know a computer never is involved about to be fair it took about seven or eight years for that to happen yeah in a while it may take that little rabbit yeah blow watches challenges because it's smaller like things like battery things like LTE radio things I can make it independent are still fairly limited by the physics right there physical restriction so in battery life is part of that like I still want to see it a better battery life and that that is probably gonna have to do with more efficient processors than it has to do with sticking a larger battery in there yeah because the battery technology is not gonna change right oh yeah for sure alright we're running the one time there's a couple really really great questions I want us to get to does the watch take advantage of the larger display like a bigger face larger widgets and how is the screen is brighter great questions screen brightness I think is about the same larger screen I'm let down by how much it's it's taken advantage of or not everything is bigger which again that could really matter for people you know for me I didn't need it but you know the very simple thing of text being more readable etc there are only two unique watch faces on this one the ones you probably saw in the keynotes the infograph yeah info graph modular they're very like lots of things going on in them I was let down because the number of what the complications the bits of information that tap in some of them have extra nice little readouts and features like the temperature range where things others don't like heart rate when I put heart rate on there instead of showing what you think will be there which is recent heart rate reading or range resting heart rate it just shows a heart icon which is a shortcut so that's not helpful and some of the complications don't even link back to existing apps so third-party apps or even first party apps like I couldn't get text messages to show up as one of the things for other types of messages and there were only five or six for one of the types that I could even pick from on the watch and it's unclear whether others will tap in or not and the amount of customization on all the watch faces to me is still lacking like I can't add extra bits of information if I wanted to right and you can't change the watch display to be different or to change the layout sometimes it's very finicky lots of options but not always the options you'd want mmm you need that plus a watch face store liked it's all about the time it's all about lanes but in the watch face store come on Apple make it happen come on I'm gonna lead the watch face store team there you go oh I just want her now maybe see that to join not happening the actual watch just I'm just a team yeah that's playing a sport maybe that that's all the watch face store team wears playing softball that's what we're doing cool softball name I just want I think that would be a huge moment when that arrives and also I just think more customization of watch faces it's not happening fast enough you know kinda like I feel about the iPhone max the 10s max doesn't make enough of the display for some of the apps where you could possibly split up and make it more on I mean I imagine that's the dilemma they face today if they start building so specifically for that bigger screen size then they start to fragment and then you yes I mean no it is a very interesting conundrum with that with the different apples always kind of erred on the side of controlling things right kind of keeping things cast in uniform I mean that's one thing one reason why I do kind respect where OS right I feel like they're a little bit more flexible when it comes to watch faces or it's more flexible although the watch faces can can get very clunky on those like there are more of them yeah but they really I think apples are really nice in the number of complications in general versus the competition but they are strangely rigid in the rules that they yeah yeah but where West does does have like I mean if you wanted to make another type of watch face you could put it on they do mostly tend to do similar types of things there's a there's also a wear OS update that's coming that's gonna change some of the interfaces but that's still it does make you appreciate that apples is is very finessed oh for sure a limited number of well produced polished watch face yeah but sometimes you want that chaos right not everyone wants that polish right I just want like things I want to be able to make my own dashboard and I still feel with the Apple watch that I can't make it my own dashboard the weight the way to which I really want and what is that really like who knows but it could be like looking at little messages pop up on a feed or it could be like sports scores and like it's there but it's not it's still kind of annoying all right you have any last questions yeah real quick first and foremost from me I hate that they call them complications I I do too yeah it's a Water Street open for discussion it's stupid you know what it's not them so that's a watch industry term that goes back to like mechanical watches that all those were complicated right well also like they were they yeah they were complicated and they were things that you were almost like show off features yeah the idea was like you've engineered something to now tell the time like a beautiful automaton that right as these gears that complexity is and you're like well yeah that's treated as a positive like the term complications on a SmartWatch I hate it seems yeah I want to call it what do we so what do we call it widgets widgets widgets widgets the little widgets that's not bad at all were used to widgets and basically they're widgets okay what about seizures do we can this detect seizures since that could happen to a person who's not necessarily standing there already down to detect that I know there's been no claim of that they I don't think they'd ever would even get near that claim now that would be there's so much more testing an FDA scrutiny that I don't think Apple at least now or anytime soon would consider that I think down the road there's always hope that these devices will with more accurate sensors be able to detect more things but yeah the point of which you can make those claims and get approved for it is is that's a long road I mean it will again I think the seizures is more about detecting the fall if you have a seizure but it wouldn't detect the presence of a seizure at all there's nothing with that maybe another really great one for them to implement down the line okay home stretch here so proposed situation is if you already have an elderly member your family and you're thinking like oh this new watch might be something very beneficial to them but they're kind of stuck in their ways and you've already got them into the smartphone train but they haven't upgraded in a few years let's say they're running an iPhone 5 yeah will this ECG monitor and any of the other fall detection applet type widget things will that function with older model phones so yeah any any phone yes it'll work with I don't know to what degree going back that's interesting what to go check but if you're if the watch is pairing and the watch is connected and it's running watch OS 5 that'll all work is it's all on watch and the rest of it just get you know like for sending a message etc that just gets brokered the way it would always happen via phone so fall detection is on watch ECG is on watch that's all that's all watch you'll be available in the series 3 and older no ECG is is hardware based that's an election is all detection is also just the new hardware okay so sorry that is only on the new watch but working with older phones it should as long as the phone is paired sure it got and connected because that's just about relaying sending a phone call but but yeah the fall detection is because of improved accelerometer that they say contect a greater range ECG is literally an electrical circuit right that has been put in there that completes by holding up to the that goes through to the crown mm-hmm which we haven't tried out but that's basically what you do good question I mean the problem with all these things that detect stuff that are supposed to be lifesavers is you know it's like you want it to work all the time so if I were to get this for somebody I want it to work all the time I don't want to screw up and have a problem where and this could be any of these things that the battery life runs and yeah and the connectivity is not there and it couldn't complete the phone call or if like it didn't sense the drop or just all these variables that yeah the issue things ever perfect the issue with it is I don't know yet these other medical devices you know they run you know for days right this thing would have a charge every day every other day like we have to make sure as charging so that's I think that's still a question mark that's true too I mean the charging is about it's about an hour to charge you know or something you charge it at night but that's the other thing at night this brings up one other thing that we didn't even get to these watches are not meant to be worn at night right now they don't do sleep tracking and they don't do heartrate awareness at night now that is something an apple has really not gotten into not touched for obvious reasons because the battery life won't last it but I think it's a big missing link here yeah and by all means when Apple does make that move they're gonna make a big deal out of it because all the other wearables out there that they're competing against have sleep tracking right the Samsung Galaxy watch's sleep tracking well where Wes no Fitbit has sleep tracking garments have sleep tracking like your basic wearables have sleep tracking and some of them like Fitbit are aiming to be much more aware of heart conditions when you're sleeping that Fitbit is still working on apnea detection mmm now that's not there yet but they're working on trying to detect that it could be that Apple and Fitbit arrived through the gate at the same time on that but I think that there are things like that about there are there further roads to check out and if your heart rate gets abnormally low which is the new thing in the series for well if you're not wearing the at night then you won't necessarily know Plus would you even be aware if the notification went off right so yeah in actual practice there are a lot of questions I have and you agree Imran their blood pressure watch which is not out yet but they were talking about how the goal there and say yes back in January was that people don't wear it don't recharge things yeah so if you give it as someone who's elderly like really elderly is wearing this you know two weeks or a week or whatever else because they're just not gonna remember nurse won't remember so the Apple watch doesn't seem like it would slide well at all yeah into real elderly care like where they'd have to they may not be aware very much or they may need care and you have to have the phone then you have to have the phone set up and say who's monitoring the phone who's the phone plugged in is that charge is the fun of the watch someone's gonna have to look after that stuff yep so I just think like it'll become a little bit like talked ourselves out of this whole this whole idea I mean health families doctors so I think about this a lot yeah it's a I mean you know it's like I think about medicine I'm not a doctor but um but I talked to them a lot and yeah I know it's a interesting question I haven't talking about of it but I would say that the Apple watch series for proposition is not an immediate slam dunk right of like and I think the bigger design is great but I would like to see it taking advantage of more battery we are out of time but we got one last quick quick stressing quick question from Waleed who's been extremely patient Scott what do you like to sport loop were the original black oh wait sport what's the original black the original black band comfort on the band's Oh for the rubber support loop is super comfy but it looks really bulky a lot of the time the sport loop it depends on the colors sometimes I feel like I'm wearing like a like a kids you know like slap bracelet or something oh yeah and it just gets like very bulky but there was one color spore troop support loop I liked a lot it's it's the easiest most comfortable one to attach so but the but the band the rubber one looks a little better I think and every day is a little complicated to put on yeah but if you're like doing workouts and stuff anything sport loop is is a good one to get okay just go and then reattach you have to make sounds like that though yeah sounds huh and then you readjust it the velcro holds holds in there I think wearing one for a year the sport loop didn't really wear out all too much all right that was one of the my more favorite Apple shows we've done in a long time and I'm as you know really sick and tired of hearing about it well that was why we have some really tremendously excellent questions yeah yeah yeah so thanks everybody and we did think it go and thanks for being patient with us we're running a little behind today the floor yeah of course thank you thank you and what is the full review come on yeah the full review is not out yet so there's a lot of a stay tuned it's probably gonna come out hopefully soon we're still working on what do fitness testing so it was an ongoing thing but maybe end of this week or beginning in next week we really want to make sure we get a measured reaction and once ECG is available we'll be doing even more so stay tuned for a lot of that all right B 359 podcast is available on iTunes tune in stitcher feedburner soundcloud google play music and the amazon alexa see you all tomorrow bye folks you you