I’m sure this is exciting news for those of you in the Apple cult. And it’s a good thing because Apple usually comes out with some new feature that will inspire Android development. And it’s good to see Apple catching up with where Android was 4 years ago.

Up until now Apple had the smallest screens of any modern phone. I have a RAZR M and it’s considered tiny these days and it’s still bigger than the iPhone 5. And Apple is FINALLY including an NFC chip. Something the Android phones have had for years. In fact, Apple was holding things up for the rest of us because there were few people in the financial world wanting to adopt NFC technology for “pay with your phone” because it didn’t work with Apple phones. So now I’ll be able to use Google Wallet because of Apple!

As to the watch – that’s wide open territory. I’m not seeing anything yet that makes me want to wear a watch again. But with Apple doing something different maybe in a few years someone will have something I want to buy. But for the most part a watch is to tell me what time it is. My phone does that, so why buy a watch? Especially something I have to charge all the time. Maybe if they had a way to “wind the watch” that charges the battery I might be more interested.



  1. Rick Cherry says:

    The only reason that I still wear a watch at all is because I am in meetings where it is frowned upon to look at your phone to see the time. If I am trying to keep the meeting on schedule, I need to glance at the time using something other than a phone. At times no computers or cell phones are allowed in these meetings too.

  2. Sticky Fingerz says:

    Yes, When Apple does something, it does it right and an industry standard is born. When Google/Android does it first, its buggy and nobody cares. Sorry to hear you were waiting on Apple, carrying around that NFC chip for all those years for nothing. I guess having it first isn’t so much of a bragging right if you can’t use it.

    So you think in today’s tech world a watch’s main function is to tell the time? You do know this is 2014, right? How is it you pretend you’re professor high tech in the first two paragraphs and by the third your intelligence is stumped by thinking a watch is only for telling the time? Hello!

    If only you would take a look at technology without a closed mind and be open to solutions instead of hell bent on downing an innovative American company.

    • NewFormatSux says:

      IPhone 6+,

      They finally acknowledge it’s a toy and release the appropriate age.

  3. McCullough says:

    Big phones look dumb. I think this is a mistake on Apples part.
    A watch married to a big phone is even dumber(er).

    • spsffan says:

      Yep! And, since the big phone won’t fit into your pocket comfortably, you will have it out where you can see it, completely negating the alleged usefulness of the watch.

      Oh, and, as if the credit card problems with Target and Home Depot weren’t enough, now you want to use your phone, which are notorious for being stolen and misplaced to pay for stuff? Some folks never learn.

      • Jimmy says:

        Man, you are terribly misinformed.

        If you have a big phone, maybe you do t keep it in your pocket. Maybe it goes in your bag or briefcase, which makes the watch very useful.

        And, the Target and Home Depot breaches wouldn’t have happened if everyone used their phones. Electronic NFC payments use tokenized account numbers, meaning the store never gets your credit card number. If there’s a breach of the tokenized payment system, the hacker just gets token numbers, that have long-since expired.

        If you lose your phone, your payments won’t work because you need the password or the TouchID to authorize. Apple keeps a token of your card number, so even if a hacker literally takes apart your phone to get to the secure memory where payment info is stored, disassembles the transistors and reverse engineers the silicon, they don’t get a card number. You know who does have that card number? Every waitress you’ve ever given your credit card to. Plastic cards are the least secure way to pay for things.

        Finally, yes. Android had big screens and NFC a while ago. But Google Wallet never took off because Google can’t negotiate with actual humans. When your Google Wallet goes awry, who do you call? Good doesn’t have customer service at all.

        When iOS 8 comes out, everyone with a compatible device gets it on Day One. Most Android users have to wait weeks or months for the updates, if the carriers update at all.

    • Marc Perkel says:

      My phone is 4.3 inch and I think it’s about the right size. I’ve thought about maybe getting 4.7 inches next time but haven’t decided.

  4. Captain Obvious says:

    You still use the phrase “Apple Cult”. Nice.

    I hear Microsoft will be releasing Windows XP soon.

    • Marc Perkel says:

      I think Apple is still a cult. If not for the cult they wouldn’t sell much product just on the merits of their product.

      • Captain Obvious says:

        “Apple Cult” have become a code words for analysts and bloggers who are out of touch. It was cute when 90’s or even the early 00’s but now it just sounds like Grandpa Simpson with an onion on his belt. Apple’s iPhone business is bigger than all of Microsoft combined, so they aren’t exactly a niche company anymore.

        Apple has the most valuable brand in the world. I would argue it’s their most valuable asset. Does this watch help or hurt that brand?

        Android phones have had NFC chips in them for years but no one has built a profitable business out of it. Why you think Apple will fail like Android/Google has?

        • NewFormatSux says:

          So they’re a very big cult.

        • NewFormatSux says:

          I thought your point was that he used the word Apple, instead of ‘IPhone cult’.

          Those cult members are a cult because of how angry they were that Steve Jobs cut a deal with Microsoft. Why Bill Gates was on screen as Big Brother right at the Apple presentation!

          • Captain Obvious says:

            Nice. That was literally last century. And gosh I bet you miss MS-DOS too.

          • NewFormatSux says:

            I wonder if you have on your wall a big C:\NGRTLTNS.W95

          • Captain Obvious says:

            And you remember when the Kaiser stole your DOS prompt…

    • NewFormatSux says:

      Don’t worry. Perkel is trying to get his cult up to the level of Apple, and is jealous that it has to actual provide a quality product.

    • NewFormatSux says:

      To be honest, I think I’d be in the cult, if ITunes didn’t require you to provide a credit card, and instead I could just plug my IPod in and drag and drop, like you can with Android and Kindle and just about everything else, including the crappy Polaroid tablet that has no support whatsoever.

    • NewFormatSux says:

      If Microsoft released Windows XP, I think I would stand in line for that.

  5. Jerald says:

    My, but aren’t we the unbiased journalist? Might as well tattoo “Google” on your forehead.

  6. Kerpow says:

    Oh Marc, If Elon had released this we all know you’d be creaming yourself.

  7. Shaunvis says:

    So a few days ago you dig the Motorola watch and it makes you want to wear a watch again! And don’t worry about it’s shortcomings, it’s a first gem product and will only get better!

    Then Apple releases their watch that featurewise blows the Motorola away. But if you like this, you must be in a cult, it’s lame, there’s nothing new, it doesn’t make you want to wear a watch….

    So you belong to a cult of you enjoy a company’s products? Or just when its Apple?

    You Are obviously a member of the new cult, the “Bash Apple no matter what Cult”.

    This whole “you’re stupid if you like Apple products” thing is tired and lame. Obviously none of you have ever hung out with people that like the same band and slept out for concert tickets, or lined up early for a midnight movie premiere. There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying something and enjoying experiencing that excitement you have with others.

    It seems like you are all just desperate to be noticed and are nothingore than hipster douchebags “I like THIS because nobody has heard of it”, etc.

    • Captain Obvious says:

      Simple math. If Apple sells a watch to 10% of their customers, that’s 80 million watches. Most companies would cream their tweeds for that kind of market.

      • NewFormatSux says:

        Yes, keep providing the cult with more.

      • Cap'n Kangaroo says:

        So 10% of customers will buy the watch whether the apple product works with the watch or not? That would be much like a cult.

        My understanding is the watch will work with iPhone 5, 5s, 5c and the upcoming 6 models.

        So please keep your “simple math” to these sales.

    • NewFormatSux says:

      >Obviously none of you have ever hung out with people that like the same band and slept out for concert tickets, or lined up early for a midnight movie premiere.

      Most people grow out of it.

    • NewFormatSux says:

      >Obviously none of you have ever hung out with people that like the same band and slept out for concert tickets, or lined up early for a midnight movie premiere.

      No one who has done those things has ever tried to justify it to me what a great thing they did, how wonderful it is to be the first to see a movie, or how absolutely mindblowing the band is.

  8. Sticky Fingerz says:

    All these companies embrace each other through competition, driving technology and innovation forward. You get to choose the best solutions to your problems. If Apple was as bad as some of you suggest with all your vitriol chatter, it wouldn’t be in the position its in. The truth is you guys don’t really understand technology, thats why you’re still low level tech journalists garnering pittance respect.

    • NewFormatSux says:

      So even when Apple is behind, it is because Apple is a leader! Is that what Obama meant?

  9. bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist and junior culture critic says:

    http://digitaltrends.com/mobile/10-funny-reactions-to-apples-watch-announcement/

  10. NewFormatSux says:

    So it has nothing to with the Apple cult and everything to do with the cult of Elon. From Dvorak’s column:

    What isn’t yet fully understood is the virtual tap-to-pay for online payments. The company made an off-handed slam at PayPal.

  11. NewFormatSux says:

    One more sign that this is a cult- deliberately designed inferior so as to get people to upgrade when they add more compatibility, such as being able to operate without an IPhone nearby.

    This is really just a flipphone.

  12. anonymous Coward says:

    Besides sharing your heart beat (what a stupid feature), every single features demonstrated can be achieved without this watch by… get this… taking your iphone out of your pocket!

    • NewFormatSux says:

      actually, no. If you have an older IPhone without a NFC chip, this watch can work with that allowing you to buy things the Apple way.

  13. anonymous Coward says:

    $350 to take the misery out of having to take your Iphone out of your pocket!

    • NewFormatSux says:

      Yea, the whole point of an IPhone is to show off that you have an IPhone to everyone else. Now you are using your watch and not showing off the phone?

      • Cap'n Kangaroo says:

        But now, with the watch, the Apple bling is always on display to others. And it provides the opportunity to also take out the phone as the declare they no longer need to take out the phone.

  14. Duhvorac says:

    Wow I found the Mister Rodgers Land of Make Believe forum.
    How long before I can get a tin foil hat issued by the ole geezer himself? Does it really put me in the same Matrix as you catfish?

  15. Paul says:

    Sony adapted the old automatic spring watch winding mechanism to charge a battery back in 1986. They don’t produce much power but with some of the current technology it should be possible to at least top-up a battery in a smart watch?

    http://www.seikowatches.com/world/technology/kinetic/

  16. Captain Obvious says:

    All trolling aside (It’s just so easy sometimes) I expect this will do moderately well against mid-range types of watches. Since no one has actually used one you have to guess that implementation is slightly better than, say, the Motorola 360 since Apple has better control of the entire ecosystem.

    High end watch owners like mechanical watches. It’s part of the cache. I don’t anyone who buys a Rolex will exchange it for a glorified digital watch. Overall, it’s “OK”. God knows I’ll never buy one.

  17. Captain Obvious says:

    As for the NFC thing, Apple will do well here because the timing is right. NFC has gone nowhere for 10 years because the infrastructure isn’t there. In 2015 merchants, payment transactors, and banks will be moving to EMV which means more accountability for fraud by the merchants. The banks really don’t care that much since the phone will only be a piece of plastic from their point of view.

    The Android guys like ISIS (or whatever they’re called now) and Google Wallet are kludgey to use (it’s still easier just to use your plastic) and they stuck their nose into the transaction side to compete against VISA/MC/AMEX. Apple is staying out of the transaction and banking side so that’s why the cc companies and banks have signed on. Merchants are signing on since it will reduce their exposure to fraud with EMV.

    As for competing with Paypal, I don’t think it’s going to make much difference. Paypal is trying to compete on the backside so from Apple’s point of view they are just another cc or bank. They’ll probably support Apple Pay eventually since the two companies are solving two different problems.

  18. Paul says:

    It’s interesting looking at this discussion, I was a retail buyer for a very large International chain of Jewellers based in the UK. I am seeing quite a bit of talk about how watches are not used as much and how they have been taken over by the use of the mobile phone. In the UK the value of the watch market is conservatively valued at in excess of £1 Billion a year and again some $7 Billion in the US. If you look at adding the Apple factor to this all I can see is a very good business decision that will make apple a very health profit irrespective if you like Apple or not. If you link this to the convenience of just placing your wrist up to a pay point as part of it’s functionality rather than having to find your phone or card. More importantly however is sorting out a solid business model that will draw in the Banks and Credit Card companies on what will appear to be on their terms is again a very good business model. It did no harm to the music industry and iTunes did it? The really clever bit however is the fact that they are saying that they will not have any details of any of the transactions, that will have the banks tripping up over themselves to sign up and QED: more profit for Apple. I just don’t see a down side

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