Well, I guess this shows that I have truly joined the Cult of Apple. Before, I only had a MacBook Pro laptop, an iPhone, an iPad, Apple TV, AirPods, and HomePod speakers.
That speaks of abject devotion to all things Apple, but isn't quite cultish. However, now that I also have an Apple Watch, Series 9 variety, I believe that I qualify for membership in the Cult of Apple. (Don't need an invitation; I'm self-selected.)
For a long time I looked down on people with an Apple Watch, or indeed any sort of smart watch, as being techno-snobs. I proudly wore my Casio watch that was solar powered and kept time via transmissions from the atomic clock in Colorado, I think it is. That was plenty high tech for me.
Bu then my interest was piqued when Apple released some new products, including an updated Apple Watch. Since this happened near my birthday, I figured it wouldn't hurt to check out the Series 9 as a potential present from Me to Me.
I'm glad I did. Because I've come to know and love my Apple Watch, even though I haven't learned more than a small percentage of all the things it can do.
My first revelation was that it's marvelous to be able to choose what sort of display a watch has. When the Apple Watch arrived, I switched between several watch faces that appealed to me. Soon, though, I settled on the colorful and informative face shown in the photo above.
The globe at the top left shows where I am. OK, that's not informative, since I'm aware of being in Oregon. Next to it is the easy-to-see date and time. Naturally the time is always correct. It was pleasant to not have to fuss with changing a watch when Daylight Saving Time ended, as my Casio usually required me to get out the manual and refresh my memory about how to do this.
The Apple Watch is waterproof, by the way, as was my Casio. One difference is that sometimes when I take a shower with the Apple Watch, a warning pops up that my hearing could be endangered by high decibels, which must be the result of shower spray hitting the watch.
In the second row is a weather summary that I assume comes from the Apple Weather app. It shows the current temperature in Salem along with the high and low temperature for today. Now and the next four hours are shown with the forecasted temperature and whether it is expected to be sunny, cloudy, or rainy. Or, dark.
The left side of the bottom row is an exercise indicator. The red circle shows movement (calories burned, steps, miles walked) in relation to a goal, 10,000 steps a day, I recall I set it to be. The green circle is exercise. The blue circle is standing (which I nail every day, because I made the goal just three hours, I believe).
My Apple Watch sends me periodic messages to stand when I've been sitting for a while, and praise when I hit a fitness goal. I used to find this kind of annoying, but now I view the messages as my watch trying to make me healthier, instead of being a nag.
I haven't made use of the compass yet. I do enjoy checking the elevation, though (368 feet at our rural south Salem home) and the offer to record my route in case I get lost.
The temperature info on the bottom right is the same as what's shown above. However, I like how the color of the semicircle indicates how cold or hot it is. This Apple Watch face comes in a wide variety of colors. I've stuck with this multi-colored option in part because it provides more information than a single color would.
Like I said, I haven't delved much into other tricks my Apple Watch can do. It will tell me if my heart rate is much too slow or much too fast, or I guess if my heart has stopped. I didn't get a watch with a cellular connection, figuring that since I almost always have my iPhone with me, I don't need that.
At first I wondered how I'd time 60 seconds, which is how long I use mouthwash twice a day. Then I realized that if I made the Apple Watch apps appear in alphabetical order rather than as icons, it was easy to have the Timer near at hand, where I could set timers for various lengths.
One benefit of timing with the Apple Watch is when whole wheat spaghetti is cooking for 11 minutes while I'm watching TV with my Apple AirPods in my ears. I couldn't hear the timer on our microwave with the AirPods in, but the Apple Watch vibrates when a timer is completed, so now I have no problem knowing when the spaghetti is ready.
The band I got is very comfortable and easy to fasten. It's great to be able to easily change a watchband, though I haven't needed to do this yet, rather than having to fiddle with those little pins on traditional watchbands.
So I'm pleased with my Apple Watch. It charges every night, though it looks like it could go several days without charging. Thus I don't have it with me when I'm sleeping. I put it on first thing in the morning, looking upon it like a friend I haven't seen for a while -- which I never did with my Casio watch.
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