The Apple Watch Ultra owners thread (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

And if they fight and lose…

I don’t know how this goes because it looks like Apple is infringing and could lose a legal challenge.

 

[John Dirk]

And if they fight and lose…

I don’t know how this goes because it looks like Apple is infringing and could lose a legal challenge.

Remember though, the way things look to you and me may be very different than how they look to a highly motivated [paid] legal team. Apple might be able to secretly pay damages while not publicly ever admitting to any wrongdoing. Tragically, something similar happened in the 2021 Boeing Supermax case.

 

[DaveF]

certainly. I first wrote that before editing to my above comment. Undisclosed payment without admission of infringement is possible. But if so, that’s still failure and will be seen by the industry and if that’s the goal, seems like they’d have written the check before Christmas to no affect post-Christmas shopping.

But I’m just a dog on the internet so I know nothing.

 

[mylan]

I just bought a series 9 Apple watch for my wife for Christmas just for the health feature, i'm not too concerned about the pulse ox feature not working but hoping she will get some use out of it. I am hoping the sleep apnea and EKG work on this model, there is no way I can upgrade to the Ultra 2.

 

[John Dirk]

certainly. I first wrote that before editing to my above comment. Undisclosed payment without admission of infringement is possible. But if so, that’s still failure and will be seen by the industry and if that’s the goal, seems like they’d have written the check before Christmas to no affect post-Christmas shopping.

But I’m just a dog on the internet so I know nothing.

Ditto but, in your case, I'd have thought you would have gone with "a cat on the Internet."

 

[John Dirk]

Open question.

I have a run of the mill Bluetooth-enabled smart watch [several, actually], and aside from reading text messages find it of little use. Would an actual Apple watch be significantly more functional? If so, how?

 

[DaveF]

Open question.

I have a run of the mill Bluetooth-enabled smart watch [several, actually], and aside from reading text messages find it of little use. Would an actual Apple watch be significantly more functional? If so, how?

Unfortunately no one can be told what the Watch is, you have to see it for yourself.

my best advice is get a cheap / free used Watch and try it out to see. That’s what I did.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I use my Apple Watch for receiving texts or phone calls if I left my phone in another room, tracking my workout activity, and Apple Pay. That’s it. The ECG feature is neat but I’ve only used it a few times as a demo for others who have asked about it. It’s constantly checking for Afib in the background as well so that’s a good thing since I have a family history of heart-related ailments. I have a Series 4 that still has a good enough battery to last all day and still have 25% when I go to bed. Will I buy another Apple Watch whenever this ones goes obsolete? Sure, mainly for the continued use of Apple Pay on my wrist. Will it be an Ultra edition? Nope. It’ll be whatever the standard release is for that year.

 

[John Dirk]

I use my Apple Watch for receiving texts or phone calls if I left my phone in another room, tracking my workout activity, and Apple Pay. That’s it.

Interesting. My generic Bluetooth-enabled watch does all of that and, honestly, I find the phone call thing annoying and disable it.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Open question.

I have a run of the mill Bluetooth-enabled smart watch [several, actually], and aside from reading text messages find it of little use. Would an actual Apple watch be significantly more functional? If so, how?

I find it an essential part of my daily life. My phone stays either in my pocket or on its charger and everything else is tracked through my watch.

- Read and sometimes reply to email messages (voice)
- Read and respond to texts (voice)
- Answer Phone Calls
- Check alerts from my RING and NEST cameras (along with camera snapshots or live video shown on the face)
- Weather alerts
- Breaking news alerts
- Shazam inquiries right from the watch

But most of all...

- Integrates with Apple Fitness. Tracks my steps, and calories, and syncs with Apple TV Fitness+ workouts

It also helps keep you healthier as it monitors for irregular heart conditions (AFIB), and excessively loud noises and when it detects a fall, allows you to immediately call out for help.

 

[DaveF]

I use it for weekends, fitness, and vacations.

My main screen gives quick access to my evenings and weekend needs. I have a photo watch face I use when I’m out for fun and I have a classic face if we’re going someplace nicer.

I like the new scroll up widgets to get fast access to features like noise level.

The FitBod watch app is great, which I use routinely to guide me through workouts.

The maps app is regularly used for walking directions when on vacation.

It serves as biometric ID to unlock my Mac without my password which is handy.

And I use raise to Siri feature for home automation stuff, and have started using the watch to set cooking timers (vs shouting at the Alexa puck).

 

[John Dirk]

I find it an essential part of my daily life. My phone stays either in my pocket or on its charger and everything else is tracked through my watch.

- Read and sometimes reply to email messages (voice)
- Read and respond to texts (voice)
- Answer Phone Calls
- Check alerts from my RING and NEST cameras (along with camera snapshots or live video shown on the face)
- Weather alerts
- Breaking news alerts
- Shazam inquiries right from the watch

But most of all...

- Integrates with Apple Fitness. Tracks my steps, and calories, and syncs with Apple TV Fitness+ workouts

It also helps keep you healthier as it monitors for irregular heart conditions (AFIB), and excessively loud noises and when it detects a fall, allows you to immediately call out for help.

Interesting. Mine can't be used to respond to anything. It just allows me to read and delete texts and has no email support at all. It can answer calls but I don't personally care for that feature. It has a weather app but it's pretty flaky and not to be relied upon. I don't know what Shazam is but it sounds pretty cool.

 

[DaveF]

Shazam? The song recognition app? Never used it?

 

[John Dirk]

Shazam? The song recognition app? Never used it?

Oh, that one. I've heard of it but, nope, never felt a need to actually use it.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Shazam? The song recognition app? Never used it?

It's amazing how many times I am sitting in a restaurant or shopping at a store and there is a song playing in the background that catches my ear. I hit the Shazam complication and it stores that song in a playlist devoted to the app.

 

[Nelson Au]

Guys, my Ultra 2 watch is still waiting under the tree. I’m going to open it and set it up on Monday likely. ( yes, I checked the Apple Store app, I see the Apple Watch series 9 and Ultra 2 are not available.)

i have a question for the power users. The Apple sales associate suggested I first unpair my current Series 4 watch before I pair to the new Ultra 2. The reason is this will not duplicate the watch faces being used on the series 4. That makes sense as this is an Ultra, I want to use the Ultra faces too. Or I’ve read, I can still keep the Series 4 paired and pair the Ultra 2 as a new watch and it’s doing the same thing, setting it up without duplicating the series 4 faces. Just asking which route to take when I set it up.

To answer the question about what I use my Apple Watch for, I use it for previewing text messages that come in and I can preview and see who might be calling me before I need to pull the iphone from my pocket. As I’m doing a lot more cooking, I use the timer a lot, a lot! At work we use Teams Messaging so I can see and preview those messages when they come in.

As Ron said, I really like that my watch will track my activity and excercise. I use it daily for my cycling work out. Amd I like that it tracks how many steps I take a day as well as how many steps I climb. When I go cycling outside again, I look forward to see how the tracking functions will work for outside activities, that’s a new function the Ultra has for me.

My series 4 watch’s ECG function stopped working a year into ownership. While I don’t think I have heart issues now, it was cool to be able to check it. I don’t know if I’m one of those people’s whose body doesn’t work for the ECG. It did work initially. So I look forward to try that. And I’ve very curious to see what the pulse-ox functionality will work. While I’m not a woman, I was curious about the body temperature functionality. I had wondered if it will check my temperature, though I realize that is not its function.

I’ve used the watch for doing Apple Pay, though I’m more used to doing that with the phone. I have answered and taken phone calls with the watch a few times when my hands were full. I’ve even used it to check what the time and date is. I still like to wear a mechanical watch, so I have a watch on the other wrist for analog time telling.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I can't answer your question about setting up two watches at the same time as I have never been in that situation.

Usually, I unpair the old watch before pairing the new one. Your phone should back up your older phone settings so it should import over from that backup.

When you import the series 4 to the Ultra, it should keep the S4 faces and setup you had AND add the new Ultra faces as well.

Let us know how that works out for you, Nelson. Also would like to hear how well it looks on your wrist as it's a much bigger watch.

 

[John Dirk]

To answer the question about what I use my Apple Watch for, I use it for previewing text messages that come in and I can preview and see who might be calling me before I need to pull the iphone from my pocket. As I’m doing a lot more cooking, I use the timer a lot, a lot! At work we use Teams Messaging so I can see and preview those messages when they come in.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm always curious when I see a pricey product adopted so widely without an obvious "killer" function. Most of the things I've heard you all using the Apple watch for can be achieved with a generic, Bluetooth-enabled watch and most of those can be had for under $100.00. A couple of the features Ron mentioned (replying to text messages and emails) cannot but those don't really interest me anyway.

I'm not judging as each should do what pleases them but I haven't heard a compelling case to own one just yet.

 

[Robert Saccone]

Guys, my Ultra 2 watch is still waiting under the tree. I’m going to open it and set it up on Monday likely. ( yes, I checked the Apple Store app, I see the Apple Watch series 9 and Ultra 2 are not available.)

i have a question for the power users. The Apple sales associate suggested I first unpair my current Series 4 watch before I pair to the new Ultra 2. The reason is this will not duplicate the watch faces being used on the series 4. That makes sense as this is an Ultra, I want to use the Ultra faces too. Or I’ve read, I can still keep the Series 4 paired and pair the Ultra 2 as a new watch and it’s doing the same thing, setting it up without duplicating the series 4 faces. Just asking which route to take when I set it up.

To answer the question about what I use my Apple Watch for, I use it for previewing text messages that come in and I can preview and see who might be calling me before I need to pull the iphone from my pocket. As I’m doing a lot more cooking, I use the timer a lot, a lot! At work we use Teams Messaging so I can see and preview those messages when they come in.

As Ron said, I really like that my watch will track my activity and excercise. I use it daily for my cycling work out. Amd I like that it tracks how many steps I take a day as well as how many steps I climb. When I go cycling outside again, I look forward to see how the tracking functions will work for outside activities, that’s a new function the Ultra has for me.

My series 4 watch’s ECG function stopped working a year into ownership. While I don’t think I have heart issues now, it was cool to be able to check it. I don’t know if I’m one of those people’s whose body doesn’t work for the ECG. It did work initially. So I look forward to try that. And I’ve very curious to see what the pulse-ox functionality will work. While I’m not a woman, I was curious about the body temperature functionality. I had wondered if it will check my temperature, though I realize that is not its function.

I’ve used the watch for doing Apple Pay, though I’m more used to doing that with the phone. I have answered and taken phone calls with the watch a few times when my hands were full. I’ve even used it to check what the time and date is. I still like to wear a mechanical watch, so I have a watch on the other wrist for analog time telling.

I keep both my Ultra and my Series 6 paired simultaneously. Sometimes I want to wear a thinner smaller watch and this gives me the flexibility to switch between them. It also lets me test code on two different devices. That may not be a concern to you though. In any case I do enjoy having both available. For some reason the Snoopy face seems wrong on the Ultra and so I will use that on my Series 6.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hi Ron and Robert, thanks for the input for setting up the new watch. I was heavily leaning to do it the way you suggested Ron. Then after reading what Robert suggested, keeping the old Series 4 active, I kind of liked that idea. I did do that for a short period from the Apple Watch Series 1 to the Series 4. But ultimately, I stopped wearing the Series 1. But in this case, I’ll have the slimmer Series 4 and the Ultra 2. So there’s a small chance I might wear the Series 4 still. I‘ll ponder that one more.