Pros and Cons of the new Apple Watch

So by now, you’ve probably heard about Apple’s new Apple Watch. This is Apple’s answer to similar products like Samsung’s SmartWatch3 and the Nike Fuelband. It’s essentially a small computer that you wear on your wrist that has slightly more limited capabilities. It was announced on Tuesday, September 9, 2014 at the iPhone 6 release conference. We each chose to take a side and give you our feedback on the Apple Watch. 

Pros

• ·      It’s just plain convenient – the watch will host a bunch of Apple’s staple applications, such as iMessage, Maps, and a music player. Notifications from your phone (which has to be an iPhone 5, 5C,  5S, 6 or 6 Plus) are sent to the watch, eliminating the need to constantly pull your phone out an check it. It will also be compatible with Siri, so that there’s not much need to type on one of the two sizes of tiny screen.
• ·      It will speed up the checkout line at more than 220,000 retailers – Apple Watch will have Apple Pay added as a feature in early 2015. Apple Pay is another new announcement from the conference. The iPhone 6, 6 Plus and the Apple Watch with Apple Pay will hold your credit card information as loaded into iTunes, which will allow you to hold the screen up to any contactless payment system and pay for your purchases. No more fumbling around for your wallet while an angry mob forms behind you at the grocery store!
• ·      It will make you fit! – just kidding, but it will be a useful tool to track workouts and daily activity. The watch features heart rate monitors built into the back of the device to get a more comprehensive look at your overall health than just tracking your distance and pace when running. It even knows when you sit down! The information is also sent to the Fitness app on your phone. I think it’s an amazing feature that could help people better understand where their level of health is and what they should be doing to make themselves healthier.

-Hillary Hill

Source

Cons

• Cost - $349 (I haven’t owned a watch in a while, but this seems pretty expensive, since you still have to have an iphone and plan.)
• Watch requires an iPhone - This means that you have to already have an iPhone in order for the watch to work. Apple says the watch will work with some of its current phones, such as the 5, 5C and 5S. I guess that means that my friends that still have the 4 series won’t be getting one.
• Another issue is that it tracks your heart rate. Keeping track of heart rate during exercise is a good thing, but I question who is going to ultimately get this information. Will I go in to sign up for a life insurance policy and have them say “No” and explain that my heartbeat is irregular or is too high too often.  I know this sounds paranoid, but it could happen.
• The Apple Watch reads your text messages and suggests short replies. That seems annoying.
• The Apple Watch will send notifications as a smartphone would. I honestly don’t want a watch that is constantly beeping at me and just gives me something else to have to turn off.
• The new Apple Watch isn’t going to be very marketable to younger generations, they never wore watches and probably won’t want to start now.

This is just my opinion. I won’t be running out and buying an Apple Watch. I would love to hear other people’s opinions. - Gilly Hegenbart