Hands-On with the Apple Watch

By David Woodbridge, 9 April, 2015

When I spent a few hours with the Apple watch on April 8th 2015, I jotted down notes about the Apple watch’s physical description, general overall points, low vision and speech features, hearing, and Siri.

Some Initial Points

In a recent podcast of mine looking at the click wheel on the iPod nano 4/5th generations, and the touch screen access on the iPod nano 6/7th generations, VoiceOver access on the Apple watch has far exceeded my expectations.

It is important to note that the Apple watch is a companion to the iPhone and is designed to work in conjunction with the phone.

This is the first truly accessible main stream smart watch for people who require various types of accessibility options such as large print, speech output, mono audio etc.

Now on to my notes:

Physical Description of the Apple Watch

  1. The Apple watch is Rectangular in shape with rounded edges.
  2. With the Apple watch on your left wrist, holding your arm in front of you: Left edge: directly across from digital crown, speaker slit, and directly across from “friends” button, microphone slit. Right edge: round Digital crown at top, and oval side (friends) button at bottom. Top face: touch screen with the screen ending at the curved sides. Back face: raised convex housing in the middle which contains the magnetic charger plus the sensors. Two pin holes on either side near where the bands connect to allow the bands to be detached by pressing in on them. I.e. the bands fill like they have slotted in to the Apple watch rather than being attached on either side by band pins.

General Notes

  1. During my brief play with the Apple watch, I did not have the opportunity to set the watch up itself: either using the Apple watch and the Apple watch app on the iPhone. In addition, I was more looking at the low vision and VoiceOver experience when navigating the interface, rather than using the apps which are accessible.
  2. The Apple watch feels very very nice in the hand, like a smooth square peace of glass.
  3. The Digital crown was extremely easy to turn/press, and the friends button just as easy to press. The digital crown does not click when turned, but has a very smooth action. The digital crown itself is bevelled. In actual fact, rather than turning the digital crown around with two fingers, I just found myself using one finger on top of the digital crown to move it.
  4. Easy to connect the magnetic charger to the Apple watch. The side of the charger that connects to the Apple watch has an indented edge and the magnet moves the connection to the correct place. Not a hard connection click, quite gentle.
  5. I only had an opportunity to look at the leather loop band and the rubber band. The leather loop band felt quite nice, but had some difficulty in doing it up due to the fact that I had to put it on my wrist and then do it up. The rubber band wasn’t a problem putting on as with the leather loop as it was more a point of sliding the band through to get to a point where you could put the pin through, and then tuck it in to the slot on the band to hide the end.
  6. The touch screen of the watch is the full face of the watch and stops as you come to the curve around the edges: very easy to identify, and certainly had no problems using gestures on the face of the watch. i.e. didn’t go off the edges when using gestures.
  7. Much preferred the wait of the Apple watch over the Apple Watch Sport. The sport is quite a bit lighter. I just prefer a bit of weight on my wrist.
  8. As far as using the glass surface on either the Sports or the Apple watch, it didn’t really make any difference in performing gestures.
  9. For me, the 42 millimetres Apple watch was a good size, and did not feel to big on my wrist. You can tell the size difference between the 38 and the 42. It may be better for low vision folks to perhaps use the 42..
  10. If you take the Apple watch off your wrist and put it back on again, you have to enter in a security pin on an on-screen keyboard.
  11. When the watch screen locks after 5 seconds, a gentle bleep sound can be heard.
  12. To unlock the watch screen, tap the screen, move your wrist or press the digital crown. This will make the clock face appear (and if VoiceOver is on, speak the time). Pressing the digital crown again will bring up the app screen.
  13. Just in case your worried, no the watch will not speak after you wake it up unless you actually touch the screen with a finger.
  14. Pressing the digital crown twice will switch the user between the app screen and the last app used.
  15. The Apple watch alarm function can do vibration only, not just sound/vibration if you mute sound. I think this will be a great feature as I currently use a silent vibrating alarm on my iPhone so I don’t wake up my partner.
  16. There is no “home click speed” as found on the iPhone to adjust the rate of press of the digital crown. This would be useful for those folks who may have trouble pressing the digital crown twice or 3 times within the default time period.
  17. Taptic feedback felt fine, not to hard or soft: discrete.
  18. I Was able to pair the Apple watch to my JamBox speaker, but not to my current Beats Wireless headset: I’m assuming that the firmware needs to be updated. In fact, writing these notes the day after the demo play, it was confirmed that the Apple watch works with the current beats wireless headsets.
  19. You can enable VoiceOver or Zoom when setting up the Apple watch via triple pressing the digital crown for VoiceOver or two finger double tap for Zoom.
  20. VoiceOver or Zoom can also be toggled on via the Apple watch app, but advisable to turn it on via the watch during the setup process.
  21. You can tell what accessibility options are on within the Apple watch app, and course toggle them on or off.
  22. On the Apple watch itself within the Settings panel, you can turn on VoiceOver, Zoom, reduce motion, and on/off labels.
  23. The Apple watch app has lots of functionality once watch is paired. To access accessibility, General, Accessibility. Using the Apple watch app felt much like you using the Settings screens on the iPhone. Of course fully accessible with VoiceOver.
  24. On the Apple watch app, have more accessibility options to work with: grey scale, transparency, bolded text, mono audio, stereo balance, and the access short-cut (besides VoiceOver and Zoom of course).

Low Vision Features

  1. Zoom can be activated by triple pressing the digital crown as set up by the watch app. Two finger double tap on watch screen during setup to turn on Zoom.
  2. Zoom comes on at 500%, and can go up to 1500%.
  3. Zoom can be also toggled on and off by two finger double tap.
  4. Zoom magnification adjusted by two finger double tap and hold, then drag up or down to adjust magnification.
  5. When Zoom turned on, can drag two fingers around the screen to pan the screen or you can use the digital crown to move across and down the screen in a grid pattern.
  6. Not in the accessibility setting screen, but can access dynamic text.
  7. One of the clock faces is X-Large for large numbers for the time.
  8. Whilst the background can not be changed, the foreground colour can be modified.
  9. Don’t forget as well: grey scale, transparency, reduce motion, bolded text, and on/off labels.

Speech-Related Features

  1. VoiceOver can be activated by triple pressing the digital crown.
  2. When you turn on VoiceOver via a triple press of the digital crown, VoiceOver takes about 3 seconds to come on. When turning VoiceOver off via the triple press of the digital crown, VoiceOver turns off immediately. Good to note here that the Apple watch is a watch, not a full blown iOs device.
  3. As on the iPhone, using VoiceOver was very responsive on the Apple watch: no lagging when using gestures.
  4. Basic navigation of VoiceOver on the Apple watch: 1 finger flick left or right to move by item,, 1 finger drag around screen, 1 finger double tap on an item to activate, two finger flick back to the left to move back to the previous screen (of course you can press the digital crown to go back to the app screen), 2 finger double tap and hold/drag up or down to adjust volume, and 1 finger flick up or down adjust options within an app. You can also do a two finger split tap if you need to. Scrolling the digital crown does not appear to affect VoiceOver.
  5. To perform a deep press, 1 finger tap and hold: brings up clock faces (when on the clock face) or additional controls within an app.
  6. When at the Clock face, two finger flick down for Notifications, and two finger flick up for Glances.
  7. VoiceOver on the Apple watch does not have any three or four finger gestures, and there is no rotor function.
  8. The default speech rate that voiceOver came on with on the Apple watch was a comfortable speech rate. The speech rate can be changed in VoiceOver settings via the Apple watch app.
  9. VoiceOver does duck music and other sounds.
  10. VoiceOver on the watch does have screen curtain. However, it is not activated by a gesture, but can be toggle on or off via the Apple watch app on the iPhone.
  11. VoiceOver supports 14 languages, and has US Samantha, UK Daniel, and Australian Karen. They appear to be the full enhanced versions of the software synthesisers. Us Alex is not available.
  12. If you take the watch off/put it back on again the pin number keypad appears: with the pin code on the watch to unlock, VoiceOver is in standard typing mode: i.e. 1 finger double tap on each of the keypad numbers.
  13. When waking up watch from pressing the digital crown or touching the watch screen, VoiceOver will speak the time. Pressing the digital crown again will take user to the apps screen.
  14. Volume of the watch is reasonably loud in a quiet room, suggest Bluetooth head phones for out and about use.
  15. VoiceOver on the Apple watch does not support the use of refreshable Braille display as this is seen as being part of the iPhone Braille support.
  16. All of the inbuilt apps in the watch are fully accessible, including the Activity and Workout apps. As this is a full version of VoiceOver with its gesture set modified for the watch, accessibility to other apps will depend on how they are developed as it does on the iPhone. I.e. this is not just text to speech on the watch, its VoiceOver.
  17. There are VoiceOver sounds as with VoiceOver on the iPhone. I found these more noticeable when using VoiceOver through a Bluetooth head set or speaker.
  18. Using the watch with VoiceOver felt very much like using VoiceOver on the iPhone. .

Hearing-Related Features

The Apple watch supports:

  1. Mono audio., and
  2. Left/right stereo balance.

Siri:

We might all remember the Siri demo held earlier this year where Siri did not speak. This is still the case, Siri only displays text on the screen. However, if your using VoiceOver, this text will be read out loud.

  1. You can use Siri to turn VoiceOver on or off, and launch apps.
  2. When you raise your wrist, you can say “hay Siri” followed by your instruction.
  3. As with the iPhone with the Home button, you can hold in the digital crown and give Siri instructions.
  4. You can use Siri to dictate emails or messages.
  5. Sometimes I noticed that VoiceOver would not speak the resulting text from Siri automatically, I had to use VoiceOver gestures to read the text.

Options

Comments

By Karok on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

david,do you think that when a notification comes in we can just raise our wrist and glance at it like sighted peers or do we need to stop and interact with the watch to get at the important information we are being alerted about?also, i wonder how the moon phases will work, the activity rings, and the battery level indicator on the face of the watch, plus, how can we install apps to the watch?again, thanks for this along with your other in-depth accessibility review.are you planning to do a podcast (or is one already produced) to demonstrate the features?

By MarkSarch on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Thanks David and very nice description
Very nice review and hardware description but I didn't find nothing about speaker build on the device itself.
Seems as the Apple Watch docent include speaker Only you are able to listen voiceOver via some Bluetooth device

By Michael Hansen on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hello Marco,

To the best of my knowledge, the Apple Watch does include a speaker. David's post references the speaker volume in item 14 under the "Speech-Related Features" heading:

  1. Volume of the watch is reasonably loud in a quiet room, suggest Bluetooth head phones for out and about use.

By David Woodbridge on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

In reply to by Michael Hansen

Yes it does have an internal speaker, but as I say in the notes, its not that loud so when out and about, use BT head phones.

I'm not sure about notifications etc. As soon as I get my own unit I will be doing a whole series of podcasts on the Apple watch and the Apple watch app.

By Justin on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

No, the apple watch has a built-in speaker, the VoiceOver clicks that you get just weren't that noticeable until he connected a bluetooth speaker.

By Jesus R on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Hi,
Thanks for the look at accessibility features. I figured there would be a speaker as iun other articles say that you can talk on the watch. Well see if I can take a look at one once the cround calms down a bit and I don't feel crouded in at my local apple store.

By rdfreak on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Wow, this all sounds so exciting; thanks David for this excellent post.
I have to say, even though I don't exactly need one, I want one, really want one. :) Lol Though as I've read others say in other threads, I'd be waiting for at least the next build.

By Ray on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Thanks David. That's very helpful.. Now, shall I or shall I not.... Humm....

By Tree on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

I want to thank David and the rest of the Apple vis team for this amazing and helpful information. I had no idea that anyone was going to get any hands on time with the watch before it was available in stores. I must admit that I questioned Apple vis's decision to discourage talk about the watch before things were made official, but of course now I understand that decision very well, and I'm glad the team is making efforts to have good relations with Apple; such relations are obviously paying off.

There is one question that I have, David, about a feature of the watch.

You might not have had access to the product long enough to be able to comment on this, but for a long time I have been very curious about how the raise to wake option will work for voice over users. I think its a really cool feature, but I have been worried that if voice over announces the time every time we raise our writs the watch could have too many false positives and get annoying. For example, I don't want to go to hug my fiancé, only to hear the time. The info you already gave about this feature was really good and informative; I don't think the true nature of this feature can be fully known without the daily experience of using it for a while, but I was wondering if you could say anything more about it David.

Once again I just want to thank the Apple vis team. your work on reporting about the watch has illustrated the power of this site to be a meaningful source for news.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

While I like the review they did mention some accessibility bugs. for example sometimes voice over did not read what was on the creen. it seems like some of the same bugs that are in ios are on ios on the watch. I hope those get fixed or I will not consider getting one for any reason. good job on the review.

By Megan on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

I would first like to thank David and the rest of the Applevis team for the work you do. This was a very well written review and much appreciated. Also, thank you to the poster who suggested calling ahead to make sure that I could see an Apple Watch with voice over… The person I talked to was very helpful and said that he would make a note of it so that there is one ready at my appointment tomorrow. This said… Does anyone know if there is a less obtrusive way to tell the time with the Apple Watch? I, for one, am not a big fan of talking watches. There is nothing quite as disruptive as being in a meeting and hearing a bunch of them go off to tell the time. I was hoping to see apple include a way to use the TapTic engine to do this quietly. Has it been done?
Thanks for the feedback!
Megan

By Jim on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

I am curious to say the least but I will wait for the next generation.

By Mike Freeman on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

I can't resist saying that while I certainly understand the reluctance of some to use a talking watch (and thus hoping for a less obtrusive way for the Apple Watch to convey the time), talking watches are great in meetings *precisely* for the reason most people don't like them: almost every meeting goes on far longer than it needs to and a dozen talking watches tends to make this obvious with a singular lack of subtlety! (grin)

On a different note, I can't fathom why Apple didn't make an option to install an expansion band on the watch. I absolutely refuse to use watches that don't use expansion bands. I can't fathom why American companies tend to get this and all "ferin" companies don't! (tongue firmly in cheek)

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

I ware an expanding bane for a while and let me tell you, they pinch and leave a nice impression of the gismo on your rist when you take the watch off.

By David Woodbridge on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

In reply to by Tree

I should have mentioned this, but the watch will not talk unless you actually touch the screen. So if you raise your wrist, screen becomes live, but you still have to touch the screen to make it talk: i.e. in this case get the time etc.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Ah makes sence. Not easy if you have a cane in your hand and are walking. But good to know.

take care.

By David on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

It would make sense for Apple to add an announcement option for speech without touching the screen. Given the accelerometers used, one could easily add a wrist flick motion to get notifications or glance information spoken without touching the screen. Raising the wrist alone would be too prone to inappropriate activation when brushing your hair or reaching for something across the desk, for example. But by adding a simple rotary flick motion of the wrist, one could be sure that it was a specific request for information.

An extension of that could then be to introduce single, double or even directional flicks of the wrist to denote different requests. There would be a limit, of course, but for the main types of response, I wouldn't see the need for more than half a dozen wrist actions.

I do wonder about the requests for a haptic method for telling the time though. The vast majority of blind people don't know things like Morse code, which is antiquated anyway. Coming up with a sufficiently brief and easily understood vibration code to tell the time isn't that easy. I don't want to have to stand there counting how many times the thing vibrates for the hour and minutes, as that could take quite some time at 11:59. What might work is if touching the screen produced a vibration based on whether you were touching the hands of an anologue watch. Simply running your finger around in a circle would produce two quick vibrations when your finger meets the hour and minute hand locations. It would only be approximate, but since most sighted people only use analogue hands for a quick glance to get the rough time, it would be serving the same purpose. I can't think of a practical haptic method to accurately tel the time that wouldn't be tedious or complicated to learn.

You make some interesting points David. I must admit that I am disappointed that Apple did not come up with a way for us to access notifications without touching the watch face. This means that it pretty much takes two hands to read incoming notifications, since the watch hand has to be held steady, and the other hand has to be used to read.

it really is a difficult dilemma, it doesn't matter if sited people get false positives when they raise their wrist, because all that does is light the screen up for a few seconds, something that one would probably not even notice if you were not paying attention to the watch. On the other hand, no pun intended, if we receive false positives voice over is going to be announcing the time at annoying moments. so the issue is specific to voice over users. I guess Apple does not feel like its raise to wake feature is precise enough to deal with the issue at this moment, which is unfortunate, but as I previously said this is something I have been worried about for a long time so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I had hoped for some creative Apple solutions, after all, this is the first Company that gave us mainstream access to touch screen smart phones.

Hear is my best attempt at a solution to the problem. for now, don't allow voice over to announce the time when you raise your wrist, but when you get an incoming notification, have it red with a raise of your wrist. So in other words, if you get an alert on your phone and raise your wrist within ten seconds after you receive the alert voice over would speak. This would solve many of the issues, because the only false positives that the watch would get would have to happen right after notifications. So if you raise your wrist to hug someone, or brush your hair voice over will remain silent, unless yo u happen to get a notification right at that moment. Even if you get a notification, right as you accidentally raise your wrist, the unwanted announcement of the notification would not be that much more intrusive then a current iPhone notification, that typically makes a sound and then has voice over announce the time.

One other thing that could help the situation is that, from what I understand, if a sited person gets a notification, and then raises their wrist, they are first only notified of what kind of alert they are getting. So upon raising their wrist they are first met with the screen saying twitter or something. It is only after they continue to hold their wrist up that the full contents of the notification appear on the screen. This is my understanding of how it currently works. If I accidentally raise my wrist, right as I get a notification, and voice over just says twitter and nothing els because I then lower my wrist, I believe that I would be fine with that.

I wish that Apple would allow us to at least have the option, even if we found it to be too annoying.

I think your idea about different wrist gestures is an interesting one David. It could be a possible solution, but I imagine that the gyroscope in the watch just might not be advance enough yet. I could see custom motions being something that everyone, including sighted people, could find interesting. If I had to put money on why Apple might not utilize specific types of twist motions on your wrist, its probably because they think such a motion would be two unnatural, and its apple's way to give up some utility in exchange for ease of use.

Reflecting on your thoughts on haptic methods of telling the time. Being able to tell the time in a way that does not depend on audio would be a very valuable option to have for us. its true that counting vibrations might take a moment, but I actually do not think it would be that bad. For a great example of how such a method can be practical, you should download an iPhone app called pocket time. its a nifty little program that does exactly what your talking about. Its current use on the phone is some what limited, since you have to go into the app ahead of time, and leave your phone unlocked, with voice over off, during your meeting or whatever, but it works. It announces one digit at a time; so for example, if the time is twelve twenty seven, the app starts by vibrating once for the one at the start of the number twelve. it then vibrates twice for the two in twelve. In this example it would then vibrate twice again for the third digit, the two in the twenty seven, followed finally by seven vibrations, for the seven of course. This sounds much more complicated then it actually is, and I have not done the best job explaining it hear.

If your interested in such time telling, the best thing is really just to try out the pocket time iPhone app. I think such time telling could be really great on the watch. It is very intuitive, takes no time to learn, and it takes little time to announce the time. Its true that such vibrations would be slightly slower then being told the time through a audio, but only by a little. I just used pocket time, and it informed me that the time in around five seconds.

your suggestion, David, for reding the time, is interesting, and would approximate the experience of a braille watch. however, I actually believe that I would prefer the pocket time solution for several reasons.

Being told the time through counted vibrations would require a single tap of the screen, while circling the screen to find the vibrated time would require much more manipulation of the screen.

Counting vibrations would be more precise then circling the screen.

The face of the apple watch is square, not circle, so trying to trace the face of a circular clock would be difficult, for example what if your finger moves too much at a right angle? after all you won't be able to trace the outside edge of the screen.

For all of these reasons I would vote for Pocket time's solution, although I would welcome any, viable, method for tactile time.

By the way I'm sorry that this post is so long, I just have lots of thoughts on the subject.

By Toonhead on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Wow, reading over those last few comments, my head is spinning! lets keep this nice and simple, guys. Remember this comes down to programming and what technology will allow. The more features you try to stuff into the watch, the more chances something else is going to break. I think it's amazing that the watch has what features it does, let alone new ones that haven't even been thought of yet. None of us have even seen it in action, this is all pure speculation.

By Laurent on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Thanks for this very descriptive post…

But personally, I don't see why should I need a watch if I still need my iPhone? I think I'm going to wait for the next generation, when the AppleWatch will be an iPhone...

Cheers.

By Justin on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Nah, I'm not waiting for the next gen. I actually like the fact that the watch is tethered to the phone, so it allows the data to be sinced to the watch constantly. Agree that we need to keep it simple. No vibrations for telling the time. Honestly, talking watches have come so far now, no bong and annoying voice telling the time anymore if you go for the better watches in my opinion. I also like the activate VO by touching the screen and it announces the time, simple and easy.

By Tree on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

I have never fully understood why people think that the watch having to be connected to the phone is a bad thing. I personally can not think of any tie where I would want to go out without my phone even if I could use the watch by itself. I guess if you run for exercise you might feel differently. Plus I have heard some professorers say that wearing a LTE device on your body all of the time could have serious health issues long term. I don't know if thats true, but its what I have heard. Its very good to hear that talking watches are better and less intrusive now. I have not used one for a long time, but I can't wait to start using the best and most accessible talking watch ever in a few weeks.

By Justin on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

agreed tree. The watch will be a wonderful addition to the wearable arsenal of devices. I personally love the fact that the watch is tethered to the phone as it allows singing of data constantly. Plus it'll be using Bluetooth low energy so not much battery consumption at all for the transference of data.

By Eric Davis on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

I went to the Apple Store this afternoon. The fellow who was assisting me stated that he could not activate any of the accessibility features on any of the watches because all were in demo mode. This included the one that was tied to the iPad. When I questioned him he was told by the manager that "Voice Over and other accessibility features were not installed on the watch and I would have to hold off until version 2 of the device to get that functionality." My wife and I were a little taken aback by this. We had to go out of our way on a Saturday afternoon to look at the device. I think that my wife would have rather been doing something else than going to the Apple Store. She wanted to give me the opportunity to see if the device was for me or not. I can't say at this time if it is something that I require yet. The reason I can't is due to a possible lack of training on the part of staff or an incomplete training module. If apple wants to continue to make us happy they will have to pick up there game in the training of the staff in the Apple Stores.
I appologise for the rant but I wanted to tell others about what took place so I could prevent someone from feeling as my wife stated," You are treated like a third class citizin."

By Megan on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

David,
Your suggestion for how haptic feedback could be implemented is almost exactly what I was thinking. A company called Tissot did this with their T-Touch watch several years ago, but the watch was unfortunately only made for men and as a result was too big for my wrist. The way it worked was that when you touched the area corresponding to the hour, you got a solid vibration. When you touched the area closest to the minute, you got a number of vibrations based on how far past the time you were. For example, if the time was 12:48 you would get a solid vibration while your finger was at the 12 position, then three short vibrations when you were at the 9 position, showing that you were 3 minutes past 45. It sounds complicated, I know, but in actuality it took about 30 seconds to get the hang of it. I think something like that could be very useful on the watch, but I'm also excited about Tree's idea of possible implementation as it sounds more straightforward. I don't really care, as long as there's a way to do it. :) hopefully Apple will either open face designs to third parties, or will implement it themselves. I'd be very interested in coding something like this.
For now, I eagerly await my Apple watch sport. Even having control over the volume at which the time is spoken is an improvement and makes me want to start wearing a watch again.
For now, time is a-ticking and they'll be in our hands before we know it. Happy waiting!

When I went to Apple today I was assured that I would have access to a unit with VoiceOver. The tech I spoke with told me that they had been able to get accessibility up on screen and could enable voiceover for me special when I got there. However, of the roughly 150 units they had, every watch was running the demo loop. It sounds like even the staff don't have access to the full software yet. Sounds like, from what I've heard, the failure to include access to voiceover and other accessibility features was an oversight from on high that they're hoping to remedy. I was told that at the very least, there will be access to watches running the full software on the 24th. Not particularly reassuring, but at least we know it's a feature and they know this is an issue and will be trying to address it in the meantime.

By Justin on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

Right. As someone said yesterday, access solutions to the watch weren't implemented in the demo versions. I went to the apple store yesterday and they talked about the wrist bands. I'd wait like ya said till the 24th when the full version is available in a couple of weeks!!

By Eric Davis on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

I was told that it wouldn't be until after the first of May when the full versions of the watch were in the stores.

By Justin on Sunday, April 5, 2015 - 20:11

I heard at the store I went to they said that it would be available on the 24th of april.

By Eric Davis on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - 20:11

The people at the store I went to seem to be all new. The store was just renovated in the last two months and I think that all the people are new. This could account for the issues I had with inaccurate information.

By sockhopsinger on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - 20:11

This is all interesting, but I still don't think the Apple Watch is for me. To those who get it and like it, that's awesome. I have enough things I carry on me to keep track of. Perhaps in the future, I shall reconsider, or perhaps technology will force me to get one which seems more likely at this rate. At any rate, I still look forward to listening to any podcasts and user experiences that come out. Cheers.

By thebigt on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - 20:11

I was told that if i ring up the store this week they can find a working model as when i went in on Friday they were all demmo models. I'm still between convincing myself that i would like one for the workout app and telling myself just to keep on with the phone lol.

By riyu12345 (not verified) on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - 20:11

I'm getting it for the workout app myself. If it's good, I'll tell you guys. If I don't think it is, I'll tell you guys. Thing is; if we buy this one and it turns out bad, we just don't buy the next one. Or at least that's what I think.

By Aliya on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - 20:11

Hello. I would like to know whether I can turn on accessibility features (VoiceOver for example) by triple pressing on the Digital Crown without pairing Watch with my phone. Or it is necessarily to pair Apple Watch with iPhone and only after it to enable accessibility.
Thanks in advance.

By Justin on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - 20:11

No. David said somewhere in the article that you can turn on VO just by triple pressing the crown of the watch. You'd still want to pair the watch with the phone to sing the data though.
HTH

By nano junky on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - 20:11

It is good it can be connected to the phone, and the watch app on the phone seem very nice, but I stil don't know if its werth the money at this stage to get something that cannot really function independently from the phone? I would hope that oneday both will be possible, so you can stil configure and control some things with the phone, but also work it without. I understand its the first version so I won't be to critical. Hopefully later this year when we get it I can go look and play on it at the store.

By Gopi krishna on Sunday, November 5, 2017 - 20:11

Ian using apple watch series 3 gps
Can any one guide me how to add battery complication on my watch face

By Just Another B… on Wednesday, January 5, 2022 - 20:11

Can somebody explain the uses for the digital crown? I understand that there are two ways to use it including controlling VoiceOver. However, what about if that toggle is turned off? On the watch face, when I turn the dial, I get numerical announcements but have no idea what they are for. Sometimes the digital crown is used to unlock the watch during Do Not Disturb or swimming. Anything else?

So far I really enjoy my Series 7.

Thanks