Will you buy an Apple Watch?

[kshaw]

I have been a big fan of the Casio Protek watches for everything I do. It has a solar charge feature and I never have to replace batteries, it is very rugid, it is waterproof down to SCUBA depths, and it sychonizes time every night. That's all I need and it is under $300.

 

[harshness]

I have been a big fan of the Casio Protek watches for everything I do. It has a solar charge feature and I never have to replace batteries, it is very rugid, it is waterproof down to SCUBA depths, and it sychonizes time every night. That's all I need and it is under $300.

Casio has been peddling solar atomic watches for 21 years but none of them are particularly smart (the alarm capability is pretty disappointing on the newer models and the Databank feature has been largely abandoned). The Casio Protrek is an in-your-face styled timepiece with some weather station features.

The Apple Watch is about as smart as watches get (though far from the only smart watch). It is a Personal Digital Assistant that arguably looks like it might have come out of a bubble gum machine.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Wife surprised me with a new Apple Watch Ultra today. Up until now I have been using an Apple Watch Series 4.

This may sound strange, but this watch does not seem that much of an upgrade to my Series 4. All the apps I use seem to load just as fast as they did on my Series 4.
I do however like the sound from the Ultra Watch, I use an app called StreamLets which lets you listen to Internet Radio stations via the speaker on the watch. And it's nice and loud and sounds great!

Are there any apps people suggest which are optimized for the Ultra? I am excited about the reported batter life.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

TheForce

So Don, are you still using the Wristcam? Has it got any better? I got an Apple Watch Ultra for Christmas and was looking at this but having a hard time finding actual video and pictures from it. Would you buy it again?

 

[navychop]

No watch for me, at least not for a while. But off to buy a four pack of Apple Air Tags. Anyone familiar with them?

As my XS Max is at 80% battery capacity/life, I figure I’ve got 1-2 more years out of it. Maybe more, if I pay them to replace the battery. How far back does Apple go for replacing iPhone batteries? I know our iPad 3 is a lost cause.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have Air Tags, to replace the batteries is very easy push down on the cover and turn, and put a new battery in.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jylbd-SF28k
Not sure how far back they go replacing batteries, but the job is not that hard to do if you have the tools. I replaced my sons without issue.

 

[navychop]

No Apple Air Tags in NoVA area. Backlogged. Will have to order later.

 

[osu1991]

There was nothing wrong my with Series 5 watch, but for various reasons I needed to upgrade a lot of my business tech, so I got an Ultra in early December as part of those upgrades.

Battery life is really good and the slightly bigger screen is good on the old eyes. The case being larger, I have had to adjust it slightly higher on my wrist for comfort. The old one was just fine for my daily uses, so I haven't really noticed much performance improvement in my use case. Opens/closes garage door, email and text alerts, tracks my daily walks, tracks sleeping. I'll probably try it in the pool next summer swimming laps, I didn't use the old one for that as I didn't have a band conducive to swimming. I may start using apple pay more with the watch. I didn't use it much before as it wasn't accepted at the few places I go, but that seems to be changing.

I did like the new Ultra watch bands being larger, but buying new did cause me to look for new bands, which I should have done sooner. I really needed one more link in the metal band I had for my Series 5. I found these on an Amazon lightning deal over the holidays and really like them.

Amazon product ASIN B096RY7KTN
View: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096RY7KTN?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1&psc=1
They work well on both watches. I gave the old watch to my mom for the fall protection, general alerts and being able to call with it. I needed a stretchable easy to put on band for her and these work great for that and are really comfortable.

 

[klang]

Bought a 3 pack of the Air Tags when they first came out. Have one on my keychain and another in my hiking backpack. They work but I don't think I've ever come close to forgetting either. May break out the other to put in my suitcase next trip in February.

 

[TheForce]

If you are debating to buy an Apple Watch, better act quickly as our President is planning to ban the import of Apple watches due to a claim that the O2 and EKG sensors violate another company's patents. However a ruling that the technology is not patentable which they have appealed. If they win the appeal, Apple will be forced to stop selling all Apple watches series 4 and newer. Normally a US President doesn't interfere with legal matters like this but a precedent was set by Obama when he denied a Samsung claim that ipads violated their IP. That decision was in Apple's favor.

 

[rvvaquero]

Apple will be forced to stop selling all Apple watches series 4 and newer.

Why couldn't they just do a Tesla OTA recall and disable those features?

 

[navychop]

REFUNDS!

 

[harshness]

If you are debating to buy an Apple Watch, better act quickly as our President is planning to ban the import of Apple watches due to a claim that the O2 and EKG sensors violate another company's patents.

Not blocking the ban isn't the same thing as planning the ban. The ban is being initiated by the U.S. International Trade Commission, not the POTUS as you claim.

If Apple can't win on appeal, they've infringed and they'll need to license the technology that they're currently using without permission. In the interim, the ban won't be enforced.

 

[TheForce]

Pullquoted from articles in MacWorld:
"We applaud President Biden for upholding the ITC's ruling and holding Apple accountable for infringing the patents that underpin our industry-leading ECG technology," said Priya Abani, CEO of AliveCor.

In effect, President Biden overruled the US Patent and Trademark decision that Alive's patents were not valid.

In the December ruling, the ITC recommended a limited exclusion order and a cease-and-desist order for Apple Watch models with ECG features. Were it to be enforced, Apple would no longer be able to import new Apple Watch models that support the ECG app. Apple plans to appeal the ITC's decision in a federal courthouse.

While the ITC decision could end up in an Apple Watch ban, the US Patent and Trademark Office in December also invalidated some of AliveCor's patents, which the medical tech company says it will appeal. At the time, Apple said the ITC's decision confirms that the patents AliveCor asserted in the ITC against Apple cannot be infringed.

AliveCor and Apple are embroiled in several legal battles, as AliveCor has also filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and Apple has sued AliveCor for patent infringement. Apple is also battling a patent infringement case brought by medical technology company Masimo, which asserts Apple Watch models that use light sensors to measure blood oxygen levels infringe its pulse oximeter patents.

AliveCor's KardiaBand was actually rated superior to AW4's EKG by 4% but AliveCor didn't market the product and instead switched to the KardiaMobile device.

As I recall from my days in chemical research the patent requirements render a patent invalid if the inventor does not make the patent commercially available within a year. The problem was before that ruling, inventors would dream up all sorts of ideas, file a patent and then wait for someone to come along to sue for infringement. US Patent law did away with frivolous Patents. The Kardiaband was considered a superior product by the FDA but that does not validate a patent. AW4's ECG feature came out after after AliveCor expired the deadline to commercialize the Kardiaband. I don't know if the deadline to market the patent was the reason the US Patent office invalidated their patent or whether the ITC has a similar ruling on the timing but it seems there is the reason.

Why President Biden is overruling our own US Patent and Trademark law seems odd. It is interesting that the claim is to ban import of all Apple Watches to the US. Or maybe I misinterpreted Biden's position that if the courts rule the import ban is to proceed in the Appeals case then Biden won't interfere as in won't enforce US Patent law.

Let them fight it out in the courts. Personally, I would prefer Apple to win because they have a product on the market and that's the letter of the law.

Personally, I use the EKG feature and the oximeter which has been personally validated at my cardiologist when compared to the 6 lead EKG and a finger pulse oximeter.

 

[navychop]

I’d like to see Apple pull off a miracle. Somehow get the watch to monitor BP. I’d place an order immediately.

 

[Foxbat]

Apple may just purchase AliveCor and solve it that way.

 

[navychop]

Open the Petty Cash drawer.

 

[harshness]

Why President Biden is overruling our own US Patent and Trademark law seems odd.

I'm not sure where you get the idea that Biden has made any "ruling" (or "overruling") in this case. Your quote from MacWorld interprets the Reuters article as confirming that Biden is NOT going to veto (overrule) the ITC ruling.

Biden admin won't veto ITC's Apple Watch import ban ruling

The Biden Administration will not overrule a U.S. International Trade Commission decision that could block imports of Apple Inc's Apple Watches for infringing AliveCor Inc patents related to heart monitoring, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Tuesday.

www.reuters.com

That the Biden Administration has chosen NOT to overrule suggests that it believes that the ITC ruling is indeed in accordance with the law.

Personally, I would prefer Apple to win because they have a product on the market and that's the letter of the law.

This presumes that Apple had obtained a patent on the technology. This would appear to be impossible to do if AliveCor already had a patent on the technology (whether the patent was valid or not). Invalidation of the AliveCor patents does not confer any patents to Apple.

The Kardiaband was on the market before the Apple Watch delivered the technology so I'm not sure Apple has any claims on firsts. That the Kardiaband was pulled doesn't change its use in consumating the AliveCor patent.

Press releases from Apple that claim to provide interpretation of patent law are legion and should not be confused with judicial rulings.

 

[TheForce]

I'm not sure where you get the idea that Biden has made any "ruling" (or "overruling") in this case. Your quote from MacWorld interprets the Reuters article as confirming that Biden is NOT going to veto (overrule) the ITC ruling.

Yes, I believe I did correct that assumption. My error was based on a number of comments by others who made the same claim based on President's not siding with the US Patent and Trademark ruling that the patent was invalid. Thus the conflict and the need for a court settlement. There was also the case where Obama did weigh in on a patent ruling. Wait for the outcome in the court case.

 

[harshness]

In effect, President Biden overruled the US Patent and Trademark decision that Alive's patents were not valid.

Or maybe I misinterpreted Biden's position that if the courts rule the import ban is to proceed in the Appeals case then Biden won't interfere as in won't enforce US Patent law.

Yes, I believe I did correct that assumption.

I don't think you were successful in making it clear that there was no Biden (or Biden Administration) ruling one way or the other as you have previously insisted.