Apple Watch | At Home with Tech

March 17, 2024

How Long Should an Apple Watch Last?

I didn’t plan on buying a new Apple Watch. But fate had a different directive. Here’s how you might want to better integrate the inevitable into your home-tech upgrade planning.

Last summer, my old iPhone drowned. It was the result of my little kayaking adventure mishap. (With a spectacular demonstration of clumsiness, I slipped on a submerged rock and fell into knee-deep water as I was getting out of my kayak.) My iPhone was only submerged for a moment, but it was enough.

I later rushed it to the Apple Store as my iPhone struggled to boot up, but it was too late. They called it as my iPhone lay on the cold table, surrounded by Apple Geniuses. One reviewed the diagnostic. It was hopeless. R.I.P. my dear iPhone.

Don’t Wait for the Tragic Last Day
I’ve thought a bit about that day since then. And I’ve come to realize that human error may not have been entirely to blame for this tech tragedy. My almost five-year-old iPhone XS Max had been acting a bit glitchy.

Earlier in the summer, it had exhibited charging anomalies. When I plugged it in, the screen complained about moisture in the charging port. (Yes, it had been raining earlier.) Of course, I was concerned that it wouldn’t charge for hours at a time. So, I took it to the Apple Store. My iPhone received a clean slate.

Fast forward a couple months. My iPhone was dead.

Coincidence? Not necessarily. But in hindsight, perhaps my five-year-old device was simply getting old and beginning to reach its natural end.

Tech doesn’t last forever.

Maybe waiting for the very end is always going to end in some tragic way.

The Logic Board in my Apple Watch Series 4
Let me tell you a different story. It’s about my old Apple Watch Series 4 that’s also five years old. Guess what? It had also been acting glitchy.

It was inexplicably crashing every so often and rebooting. And then its battery suddenly couldn’t power it through even one day. (I knew Apple Watch batteries don’t last forever, but this was a sudden change.)

So, I recently took it to the Apple Store. And the Apple Genius attempted to do a diagnostic. That process required my own iPhone (now a mighty iPhone 15 Pro Max) to do the health check with its linked companion.

My aging Apple Watch wouldn’t cooperate, and even though it was still successfully paired to my iPhone, it wouldn’t let my iPhone do the diagnostic.

Is that bad? Yeah, it’s bad.

The Apple Genius shook his head, looked at me and said my Apple Watch would have to be sent out for repair, and that cost could range from $99 for a new battery to over $200. And then he said the dreaded ‘L’ word.

“It’s probably a logic board problem.”

Logic board?! My Apple Watch was long past its Apple Care days. The likely cost to repair this old piece of tech would simply not be worth it.

So, I called it. Goodbye dear Apple Watch.

One piece of good news: I received $70 to trade in my failing Apple Watch for a new Apple Watch Series 9.

Five Years is Enough
No, this wasn’t as traumatic an experience as my iPhone story. Of course, I knew that I might need to buy a new Apple Watch. I was prepared for that likelihood.

I got five years out of my Apple Watch. That’s a good run… I think.

You have to remember that newer software will inevitably slow down old hardware. And eventually, you won’t be able to even update the software on an Apple Watch. And who really wants to go through that? Even if you’re a glutton for that kind of punishment, the hardware can/will also fail eventually.

Gone are the days when you can maintain your grandparent’s watch forever. Certainly not with an Apple Watch.

Plan for the Inevitable
Yes, wearing an Apple Watch is a relatively expensive way to know what time it is. (Of course, Apple Watches do much more than that. And obviously, I enjoyed my first Apple Watch enough to get another one.)

We all know what the Apple ecosystem costs. No surprises there. This is more about better understanding recommended replacement cycles.

Give Yourself Enough Time for a Smooth Transition
If there’s a lesson learned from my past year of Apple upgrades (I also recently bought a Mac Studio to replace my old iMac), it’s not to squeeze every last day out of your tech to get the most value from your original spend.

Three years? Four? Maybe five years? After that, I think you’re asking for trouble. And when the early signs of obsolescence show up, don’t dismiss them as minor inconvenience.

Sure, you can always choose to upgrade much faster to get the latest and greatest. And I think that’s fine if you feel a compelling reason to do that.

But if you’re happy with what you’ve got, just remember the status quo can’t last forever.

It’s always best to upgrade your tech while you still have the choice. Emergency technology purchases can really make anyone nauseous.

The Silver Lining
Happily, this time, upgrading to my new Apple Watch was a smooth experience that I was prepared for.

And of course, the silver lining when you’re forced to upgrade is that you get all the benefits of your newer tech.

Welcome home, Apple Watch Series 9!

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February 11, 2024

How to Stop Apple Watch’s Haptic Feedback from Disrupting your World

Does your Apple Watch sometimes make you feel like your existence is fracturing? (Imagery generated by Adobe Firefly) Well, it could be time to cut back on all that haptic feedback from too many chatty apps on your iPhone. Here’s how.

It used to be all the annoying pings from my iPhone. They were so distracting. So, I shut it down and muted my digital companion. Sure, my iPhone would still perform its vibration dance. But that was an imperfect fix, as I would miss some alerts that were actually important.

I thought I had solved the problem when I bought my Apple Watch, strapped it on for the first time and gleamed as it took over as my digital-communications overlord.

Zapped and Trapped
With its haptic-vibration superpower, my Apple Watch could silently communicate with me as if we were neurally connected (all with a few secret taps to my wrist). Then, I could easily glance over at my Apple Watch’s face and almost imperceptibly consume the headline of whatever information one of my iPhone’s apps was sending me.

I no longer had to rudely pull out my iPhone from my pocket to discover what was going on in my world.

It was perfect. But years later, I woke up one morning while it was still dark, and I realized I was a perfect prisoner.

What was I doing? I had become a helpless mouse in a case, zapped by miniscule amounts of electricity through my wrist to pay attention to incoming messages.

Of course, there’s no actual electricity involved. But when that little buzz comes in, how important is it? How are you supposed to know?

So, you HAVE to look.

A Mission for John Connor
My Apple Watch had been perfectly serving up its endless flow of vibration-proclamations onto my left wrist, like a Terminator that can’t be stopped. What’s a human to do? Apparently, I had passively adapted to the onslaught and adjusted into an overwhelmed numbness.

Finally, in this moment of pre-dawn pitch black, I decided I needed to take back control and reduce the data stream. I had to pair back the haptic feedback to what mattered most.

The fix came down to prioritizing which apps were allowed to use haptic feedback.

Yeah, you can do that
Yes, it’s in the menu settings
Human suffering no longer required

The only twist is you don’t access Skynet through your Apple Watch. You go in through your iPhone.

I embodied my inner John Connor from “The Terminator” movies and got to work.

How to Adjust Apple Watch’s Haptic Feedback Settings
Here are the steps to gain back haptic control.

On your iPhone that’s linked to your Apple Watch, go to the ‘Watch’ app
Tap Notifications
Go into each listed app and adjust as needed
Also scroll down to “Mirror iPhone Alerts from”
Deselect the ones that don’t need haptic access to your wrist

When I began this review, I immediately saw that so many apps had default access to my wrist. Access granted? Nope.

You can also globally turn off Haptic Alerts under Sounds & Haptics, but I think that’s an extreme move (swinging the vibration-pendulum too far in the other direction).

Free Yourself
Ultimately, this is just another example that demonstrates if you want control over your life, you’ve got to put in the work. (And it’s not really that hard).

There’s nothing inherently wrong with your apps trying to reach out and tap you. I think we all just need to actively manage that process.

The default haptic settings are, at best, a starting point. At their worst, they can become a real ball and chain for your day.

Even if you set it, you should never forget it.

Time to break free!

November 28, 2021

3 Holiday Gifts to Buy a Tween Boy

Our son is eleven, and It’s unavoidable that technology is at the center of what he’s asked to receive. Here’s how I handled this complicated gifting terrain.

It’s that time of year again, and I must admit it’s been hard to figure out which gifts to get our eleven-year-old boy this holiday season. He’s simply aging out of traditional kids toys. (Time really flies!)

Of course, now he’s on the cusp of wanting major technology like an iPhone. But my wife and I are waiting as long as we can on that one. He does have access to the ‘family’ iPad, which he now dominates. (He loves playing Minecraft.)

But the iPad is not enough. His growing interest in traditional consumer tech is unavoidable. And I know he’s not alone in his age group. For better or worse, it’s today’s perceived path to growing up.

If you have a similar shopping dilemma for your tween, here are three gifting decisions I made for our six grader that might be helpful to hear about.

Casio Watch
Recently, our son has become enamored with my Apple Watch. So much so that he’s hesitantly suggested that it would be really cool to have one. But it’s clear he knows it’s a stretch request.

I like the idea of my son having some kind of smart watch, but an Apple Watch is just too fragile (and expensive) to survive on his wrist for long. And there isn’t another option out there for tweens.

That said, he definitely needs a new watch. The band on his cheapo ticker that I bought him two years ago broke recently. He still loves that watch, but it can barely count off a minute without losing a couple seconds. My boy would often call me over to resync the time on his watch with my Apple Watch.

It was clearly time to move him to an adult-level timepiece.

I grew up wearing Casio watches. I got my first one when I was in high school. Though I haven’t bought one in over a decade, I’m still sweet on the brand. Plus, many models are relatively inexpensive.

I think Casios are a smart choice for any age group, and many models contain interesting features behind the standard alarm, timer and stopwatch (though still nowhere near what a smartwatch can do).

After doing a little research, I identified this Casio which sports a digital thermometer and compass.

Casio Men’s SGW-100-2BCF Twin Sensor Digital Display Quartz Black Watch
$41.99 on Amazon

My boy loves figuring out technology settings, and I expect this watch will be a perfect time keeper for him.

Click.

Apple HomePod Mini
Let’s recap which Apple products we’re not getting our son:

No iPhone
No Apple Watch
And no AirPods… He’s still absolutely fine with wired headsets.

But I wanted to find another way to give him his own access to a piece of the Apple ecosystem.

He loves talking to Siri and Alexa on my devices. So I thought about smart speakers and an Apple HomePod Mini ($99)

A voice-operated speaker for his bedroom seemed like a reasonable bite into Apple for our tween. Plus, I can give the HomePod Mini access to my new Apple Music subscription (six months free with my new AirPods 3).

Click.

Nintendo Switch OLED
Our sixth grader’s main ask for a holiday gift this year was a Nintendo Switch. (No, he doesn’t have a video game system yet.)

It’s a huge request, and he knew it. (He’s familiar with the Switch, because a close friend has one.)

Actually, he didn’t really know how big an ask he made. He understood that a Nintendo Switch is expensive, but he seemed unconvinced when I told him that they’re mostly out of stock. (I think he may feel that our broken global supply chain is just an excuse I used.)

Plus, there’s the new Nintendo Switch OLED model out there, which is even harder to find and costs $50 more. Our son wasn’t aware of the newer model, and when I brought that detail to his attention, he said he didn’t care which model he might get. He was more focused on the when as opposed to the what.

That said, this daddy is inclined to impose his own technology purchasing strategies on this decision… Newer tech usually lasts longer.

Against all odds, I did spot the Nintendo Switch OLED in stock online at GameStop on Thanksgiving morning at 6am. But there was a catch. The system cost more, because it was packaged with a few items I might not otherwise have bought (including a screen protector and case).

Well, at least I was getting something for the added cost, as opposed to paying over list price for the base system. (Sadly, Walmart has been offering that terrible option.)

Click.

At Home with Expensive Tech
There’s no way around the fact that this is an expensive group of gifts. And I need to admit that I drove the forward momentum on these choices, not my wife. Of course, I’ve tried to rationalize these purchases.

Every kid needs a decent watch. So, the Casio was an easy decision.
Yes, there are less expensive smart speakers out there, but I like taking advantage of my Apple Music subscription.
As for the Nintendo Switch OLED, you could say that a video game console is unavoidable for this generation.

No?

Okay… I spent a lot of money. That’s what happened. I acknowledge that I didn’t need to do it. But I did. For now, let’s leave it at that.

Happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas.

And a big thank you to the greater universe that my family is safe and healthy, and that we have the means to afford this tech for our ‘not-so-little’ boy.

Tag: Apple Watch

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