Comment by _ph_ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by _ph_ | Hacker News Reader

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As I have big wrists and my eyes aren't getting better, I like a larger screen a lot. But for me, the most important update might be, that the screen now updates every second instead of every minute in the "inactive" mode. I do use the seconds display of any watch a lot when timing short things, especially when cooking. Whenever I want to watch the seconds, with my current watch I have to keep shaking my wrist to keep it active. Having a seconds display all the time is the big step to make it a real watch. I hope they also add a digital watch face with seconds display.

I would have like a bit better run time - as the CPU is getting more efficient, I hope Apple is downplaying any enhancements. With my 7 series Apple watch I do still get 24 hours of run time (wearing it at night) after 3 years, so it is just sufficient. But a bit more would add safety margin.

A future Ultra 3 would be tempting with a longer run time and especially the red "night vision" watch face. I would so much like to have it on the plain Apple watch - clearly that is an artificial limitation.

With my 9 my watch sometimes falls off my charger as a result of it being 3D printed and my watch having a rubber case on it. The result is sometimes I don’t get a good charge for a day or two and it chugs along. On the newer watches it presents the option to charge to 80% and stop to extend the battery cycle life.

I think you’ll be pretty happy with the incremental energy efficiency gains.

One of the stupid activity/sport faces has a digital seconds display. I wish there were a better one. I think Modular + digital seconds complication is probably the closest, but it doesn’t give HH:mm:ss like it should.

You can add digital or analog seconds to most of the faces that accept complications. I use the Solar face with the analog seconds view, which is larger than the complications.

I hope they add a hh:mm:ss watch face/option soon.

I used to use smartwatch timers a lot. I bought a couple magnet timers to throw onto my fridge instead. Best $3 purchase I've ever made. Just smash the buttons, hit it, and go about your day.

Agreed, the UX of a magnet timer on the fridge beats using any kind of smart device for the task of setting kitchen timers. Most of them start a simple count up if not programmed for a specific duration, so you can watch the seconds.

Most magnet timers also remember the last duration, so if you use the same timer a lot for the same task (tea, for example), it’s literally a single button press. The same operation on any kind of smart device contains a staggering number of steps, each of which requires cognition and attention.

Magnet timers are also super cheap, so you can get another one if you have two favorite durations. A simple solution meets a simple problem

And the fact that the digits are big enough to see them meters away. And it has big buttons so you can manipulate them with your knuckles.

For me it is quite simple: if a watch has a seconds hand, I wand to be able to see it :) So I consider this change really an important part of "always on". I hope, they adjust most watch faces not to hide parts any more in idle state.

touch it with your nose to wake it

Well, shaking the arm will do the trick. But I really look forward to have the seconds hand visible all the time. The always-on display was a huge step for the Apple watch and this enhancement completes it, as all hands keep visible all time. I hope, that affects all watch face elements which were hidden so far.

Bud whad if you don’d have a nose?

Hopefully you still have two ears and a tongue.

For cooking I like Alexa as a timer.

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