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Apple emails watch owners with links to guided tour videos

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Apple has started emailing early buyers of the Apple Watch with links to the guided tour videos on its website. The email highlights the videos for Messages, Siri and Digital Touch, but provides individual links to each of the other videos. It also contains a link to the user guide … 

Apple first started adding videos to the Apple Watch section of its website in early April, adding Phone, Siri, Maps and Music mid-month before Apple Pay, Activity and Workout were uploaded just a couple of days before launch.

Apple seems to recognize that the watch is less immediately intuitive than its other products, offering workshops and online personal setup to help new owners get to grips with the wearable, in addition to a series of ads which provide a feel for the difference an Apple Watch can make to our daily lives.

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Comments

  1. sehu1 - 9 years ago

    Every time I read these posts, I go and check my order! Still the ‘processing’ status on my 42mm Stainless steel with black sports band. Email confirmation received in 10th April @ 08:04!

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      Yes, that one appears to be in particularly high demand

      • Zorawar Randhawa - 9 years ago

        I ordered mine 4 minutes after it came out, so at 12:04 PST and it still says will ship between May 13-27 :(

  2. Milorad Ivović - 9 years ago

    I shall expect this comment to be deleted as well, like the ones previous in which I call out tech writers who struggle to find their way around a device with precisely two buttons.

    How embarrassing.

    • Milorad Ivović - 9 years ago

      Oh quick off the mark there… Best hide your shame, eh?

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      I have always viewed ad hominems as a commentary on the author rather than the target. By the way, the total number of ways of interacting with the watch UI include pressing each button, long-pressing each, pressing both together, rotating the crown, swiping up/down/left/right, tapping the screen, force-touching the screen. Glad to hear you immediately divined the function of each.

      • Milorad Ivović - 9 years ago

        It’s no more complicated than your phone, Ben. Touch ID, Single press, long press for siri, double press, triple press, volume for camera, swipe down, swipe up, swipe left and right for back/forward, pinch to zoom, etc. Or an iPad. Four fingered swipe, five-fingered scrunching action.

        It’s simply not complicated compared to devices we’re already very used to. Protesting as to the confusing nature of an interface simpler than your phone is not doing you any favours.

        At least 80% of those actions are so blindingly obvious that children do them instinctively.

      • Milorad Ivović - 9 years ago

        Oh and just FYI, ad hominem doesn’t mean what you think it means. An example… If I suggested that your argument was invalid because I think your avatar photo is a cheesy pose, that would be ad hominem… but I am doing no such thing.

        Since you’re making personal observations based on personal experience, and your paragraphs begin with “I” then there’s no other basis for questioning your argument, other than to question your fitness to make the observation is there? That’s not ad hominem, that’s directly questioning the merit-basis that you yourself have chosen.

        When one offers only personal experience, one can only be challenged on that basis. Do you propose that you are not to be challenged at all? That would be a neat trick.

  3. Luis Alejandro Masanti - 9 years ago

    “Apple seems to recognize that the watch is less immediately intuitive than its other products, ”

    Maybe you are too young to remember when Apple introduced the Macintosh back in 1984.
    It also have an ad for ‘exercising’ you finger to use in the mouse.
    I trained zillions of users in how to use the mouse. ¿The typical mistake? People pointed their eyes to the hand with the mouse (as if they had a pencil).

    Do you remember all the crap articles about the smartphone without keyboard?

    Every new UI is hard to conquer!

    Also, in the Macintosh days only truly computer experts use those things.
    With the iPhone… remember, they only sold 8M in the first year. (Oct-Dec 2014 > 74M!)

    And with the Watch… maybe 2-3 in the first weekend. (Hope we’ll know the 27th!)
    And already there are like 3000 apps!

    One thing that I think it is worth to compare is what was the efforts made by Pebble, Samsung, Motorola, etc. to train user and provide help.

  4. rogifan - 9 years ago

    It’s nice to see Apple doing this. MG Siegler tweeted he thought Apple Watch would be one of the few Apple products that will be harder for diehards to use vs. regular folks. Based on what I’m seeing in my Twitter feed I have to agree, I’m seeing people using it and liking it more than any of these earlier tech reviewers did. Same thing with the MacBook. Average consumers who have it love it – including the keyboard. The complete opposite of say, Jason Snell, who didn’t give it a very good review and absolutely hated the keyboard.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      In a sense, I think it’s not surprising, as techies want to try *everything* the watch can do, while the average consumer is likely to be happy with a modest number of functions. But I think a bit of a false impression has been created simply because so much reporting was based on a brief try-out of the watch. This is one of the reasons I’ve opted for the diary format, so people get both first impressions and evolving usage.

  5. rogifan - 9 years ago

    Oh and for complaints about the Watch UI being too complex (oddly, mostly coming from techies) consider this: there are 7 different things the home button on iPhone can be used for. Are these same techies complaining that iPhone is too complex?

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      I’m not sure people are saying it’s too complex, rather than it’s not all immediately obvious. This is one of the topics I’ll be covering in my next diary piece on Monday.

      • philboogie - 9 years ago

        And I thank you for this. Skimming through old emails first, and will enjoy the one with your #day2 post

  6. archie0527 - 9 years ago

    How about they email me telling me my watch has shipped.. that would be nice

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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