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A comment on What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch podcast apps.

Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by DavidAdams on Sunday September 24, 2017 @11:21PM (#15327838)
This article is a great example of how the Apple Watch has failed to reach its potential almost entirely because of indifferent software product design on Apple's part. I'm sure that ever Watch owner and developer can come up with a few other examples of things that the apple watch ought to be able to do but can't. When I bought my Apple Watch, I had assumed that I'd be able to use it to view and control the podcasts I'm listening to on my attached iPhone, which is even more fundamental than what's described in this blog post. But nope, not in any meaningful or useful way.

That being said, the Apple watch is still pretty good at pretty much one thing: when my phone beeps with a notification from one of many sources (SMS, eBay, Invision Trello, Messenger, etc) I need only glance at my watch. It's also a decent exercise tracker.

But it could be so much more. Sadly, I think Apple has probably missed it's best chance to recruit top developers, so it's likely it will be relegated to fancy text reader and step counter forever.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by speg on Monday September 25, 2017 @11:22AM (#15331162)
How about viewing the monthly calendar more than a month in advance? I haven’t updated yet so I don’t know if they’ve fixed that.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by kn0where on Wednesday September 27, 2017 @01:51PM (#15350405)
It still only lets you see the current month. Which is annoying when it's, say, September 27.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by Spooky23 on Monday September 25, 2017 @06:29AM (#15329288)
Try using apps like Workflow, Homekit and others. There’s lots of Tim wresting highs to do with the watch. Podcasts are a dusty corner of the portfolio and barely get attention. I’m sure they’ll gobble the function into Apple Music.

I get what Marco is talking about here, but Overcast is already so complex it can barely play a podcast without crashing if interrupted. I don’t need that drama on my watch, where complex stuff either doesn’t work or sucks battery.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by cytzol on Monday September 25, 2017 @07:07AM (#15329445)
> There’s lots of Tim wresting highs to do with the watch.

"Interesting things"?

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by Spooky23 on Monday September 25, 2017 @08:40AM (#15329898)
Haha. Had I used my Apple Watch, Siri would have been better than autocorrect. :)
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by cmrx64 on Monday September 25, 2017 @10:06AM (#15330569)
>Overcast is already so complex it can barely play a podcast without crashing if interrupted

do you have a repro? I use overcast extremely heavily and haven't had a crash in a few months.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by atomical on Sunday September 24, 2017 @11:24PM (#15327852)
Average podcast is over 30 minutes, right? That means you would need to pull out your phone every 30 minutes to select the next podcast. Is that a big deal to you?
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by jonknee on Sunday September 24, 2017 @11:33PM (#15327884)
The literal first sentence of the post:

> The Apple Watch desperately needs standalone podcast playback, especially with the LTE-equipped Series 3, which was designed specifically for exercising without an iPhone.

So yes, pulling out the phone that you don't have with you is a deal breaker.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by atomical on Sunday September 24, 2017 @11:40PM (#15327902)
Do people really want to exercise without their phone? It seems like a non-starter for the folks that go to a gym. I run with a watch and Bragi Dash. The onboard storage of the Dash works fine for me, but most people end up using the bluetooth because they want their phone available for browsing the internet all the time anyway.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by jakobegger on Monday September 25, 2017 @01:11AM (#15328218)
Being able to go for a run without taking my giant phone with me would be the only reason that I would buy a watch in the first place.

It looks like Apple Watch isn’t there yet. Maybe an Android watch is?

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by drewg123 on Monday September 25, 2017 @10:01AM (#15330521)
Nope. See my downvoted comment below, begging for somebody to make a podcast player for Android Wear.

Google Play Music is (AFAIK) the only media player that works on AW. However, you're unable to sync podcasts to a watch, only music (even though podcasts via GPM work on the phone). So over the last 1.5 years with 2 AW watches (Moto360 sport, Polar M600) across 2 major Wear releases, I've had to listen to music on my runs, rather than the podcasts I'd have preferred. And I take my phone on walks / hikes to listen to podcasts, when I'd prefer to leave it home.

If the apple watch supported podcasts, I'd probably switch.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by alexee on Monday September 25, 2017 @10:17AM (#15330674)
Why do you think it isn't there? Actually I bought Apple watch series 2 for exactly this reason, running without a phone. It has everything you need (GPS+heart rate monitor+music), and you can even have podcasts with third-party apps.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by jakobegger on Monday September 25, 2017 @11:45AM (#15331362)
Wasn't the whole article about how standalone podcast apps on the watch aren't possible? What 3rd party apps allow playing podcasts on the Watch without iPhone?
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by jonknee on Monday September 25, 2017 @12:40PM (#15331877)
There may be some half assed solutions, the article was why a good standalone podcast app isn't currently possible.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by canuckintime on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @03:35AM (#15336868)
did you know about Watchcast[1]? It's been offering offline Watch podcast playback long before Marco failed at the feature and requested new APIs...

[1] https://brianmcburney.github.io/

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by anonred on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @02:09PM (#15341158)
Watchcast has the same issues Marco brought up. Developers should not condone Apple's overly-aggressive platform limitations by sacrificing good UX just to release a feature.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by bpicolo on Monday September 25, 2017 @08:34AM (#15329859)
It's mostly there. Podcasts might have a UX issue, but works great for music on the go
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by stdgy on Monday September 25, 2017 @12:27AM (#15328060)
Absolutely! I go on every run without my phone. I've managed to cheat the Apple Watch into letting me sneak podcasts on to it through iTunes, but it's a hack and it doesn't sync back to my podcasts on my phone/computer.

Still, at least I'm able to go on runs with my music podcasts.

Edit: Changed iWatch to Apple Watch.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by csydas on Monday September 25, 2017 @04:24AM (#15328787)
Yes, I'd really like to be able to run with just a small device while still getting the basic updates. I'm a jogger and my partner prefers cycling, meaning if we go out to exercise together, she's a few kilometers away from wherever I am at any given time, so coordinating finishing up her hour of cycling and my hour of running can be a chore.

I really don't like carrying around a large 5.5" screen phone while running; the armband pouches are about as convenient as you can get and I appreciate them for what they are, but just having a small watch device would be far better for me (and for many I assume). Easier to waterproof so I don't have to worry about it when it rains, less to break should an accident happen (I trip, collision with cyclist, etc), lighter overall. That plus having a means of shooting off a quick message via Siri or whatever voice service to just keep track of people would be wonderful.

Do I need it? No, but boy do I want it.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by grzm on Sunday September 24, 2017 @11:44PM (#15327927)
> Do people really want to exercise without their phone?

Yes. If I'm exercising, I want to carry the absolute minimum. If I'm doing a lot of daily tasks, I want to carry the absolute minimum. If I can get by without something phone-sized in my pocket by wearing something watch-sized on my wrist, I'd prefer the former.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by jonknee on Sunday September 24, 2017 @11:56PM (#15327966)
Yes, otherwise why would LTE be useful at all on the watch?
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by richman777 on Sunday September 24, 2017 @11:47PM (#15327942)
Running outside, I definitely don't want to carry my 7+. It's large and I have the watch.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by ska on Monday September 25, 2017 @10:02AM (#15330539) 

   Do people really want to exercise without their phone?
Yes, yes they do.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by spookthesunset on Monday September 25, 2017 @11:19AM (#15331146)
> Do people really want to exercise without their phone?

Yes. That is the entire reason I bought mine... Those phones are huge. It would be like strapping a plate to my arm while I run.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by raverbashing on Monday September 25, 2017 @05:01AM (#15328914)
My phone stays at home when I work out.

Which is good because I don't use the gym benches to fiddle with my phone

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by captain_crabs on Sunday September 24, 2017 @11:30PM (#15327871)
Depending on what you're doing, you might need to pause/play/rewind the podcast a lot. I walk to coffee shops through some neighborhood area, and then some busy roads. So I make sure to pause for traffic noises, often I've gotta do so to talk with neighbors, and then so on. I don't even have an apple watch, but not having to deal with pulling my phone out a good number of times per walk over a lot of walks means a lot less times I could potentially drop my phone.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by djrogers on Monday September 25, 2017 @12:40PM (#15331881)
> Depending on what you're doing, you might need to pause/play/rewind the podcast a lot.

The existing 'now playing' capabilities of the watch handle this perfectly well. They don't handle selecting podcasts to play though.

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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by k3liutZu on Monday September 25, 2017 @02:05AM (#15328378)
I think the one's I'm listening to average to somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes. More agains the 90 min mark.
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Re:What we need from Apple to make standalone Apple Watch po... by sneak on Sunday September 24, 2017 @11:28PM (#15327866)
Where we’re going, we don’t need phones.
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