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Thank you. Hello. Hi. Welcome, hello.
Welcome to the Vergecast. I'm just going to preface the show. Just preface. Preface.
Preface. I am very tired. It's good name for a product. Preface.
The Motorola Preface. Yeah. The HTC Preface I think would be a flop. Yeah.
Obviously. Oh boy. Do my job this week. I did that.
Deeter to the MacBook. Error. Whatever. The MacBook.
The MacBook. The Mac. That's a review this week. We have basically just been.
Joanna. That was going to be a surprise. Damn man. Swear.
I was looking at the mic. Joanna had the same problem. So hello. Welcome to the Vergecast.
I'm just letting you know it's going to get weird. But I'm you. I am Deeter. We have a special guest.
Jay Stern. Joanna Stern. Hello. I'd like to use this mic as a pillow.
I'm so tired. Yeah. We're all very tired. And then my man.
I'm not really parisquipping. Good. A, one, you could be lying. No one would know.
B, no one can watch your periscope because it's later. There was a hard split of people that were like, you're going to cannibalize the stream. And it's like, no, we want to see. It's like, wouldn't you want to see my face for 40 minutes straight?
I want to see your face for 40 minutes. Thank you. I'm kind of doing a choice. I just want to.
I'm looking directly at you. It's a great sight. It's a great sight. Joanna called me old.
So for those that don't know, Joanna used to work at Engadget with all of us. And she was at the Verge for a bit too. And so we got each other. I got it.
Well, us is in like me and Eli and Joanna. And basically, Joanna called me old. And I'm 24. And I don't think I'm old.
So Joanna, I'm a little hurt. Sam, I used to be your mother. Well, this is your last year of freedom. I gave birth to Sam when I lived in England.
And he was my child. You were my Jewish mother. That is true. I was Jewish mother.
And my Jewish mother called me old. So I'd have a breast and I'd have a bar mitzvah. And he was a baby man. She saw all of Jewish events in your life.
I think he was even in high school, maybe, when we were working at Engadget. Were in high school? No, I was a sophomore college. But same thing.
I was like, you were in high school. Thank you. Stern burn. So what's your young?
And now you're old. I never. So lovely to see you look very nice. You've got a nice style today.
I like your hair. You have your own desk. What are you going to get a girlfriend, Sam? You should be an ice girl.
I'm just so proud of your success. Thank you, Joanna. I really appreciate that. But you call me old, so.
No, it was in a good way. You look mature. I mean, also another 24, you're going to have to start settling when it comes to finding a girlfriend. Yeah.
I prefer to settle in Catan. Wow. I don't know that was quite the return burn that you thought it was. I was more about.
And I'll be alone with the board game. Which is fair. I mean, if that's that's your speed, we're we love everyone. I love you.
All right, let's begin. Somehow you're wearing a thing. I'm wearing a thing. What do you want?
Just like close your laptop. You're done. I know we have free Wi-Fi here. You're going to use it.
You want to buy it free? Somebody just come. You're not talking. It's not a Starbucks in it logs you out every 20 minutes.
It just keeps you going. That's it. Somebody needs to come and read. It's at that time.
It's a box media free Wi-Fi. I love it here. I'm wearing a watch. Which what do you wear?
I've got the 38. Yes. This is the small one. You have the 42.
It's funny a lot of people asking. You think they are? I saw I saw him on Fox yesterday with Lance Eardin from Mashable. He seemed to be able to hit the targets better on his bigger screen and I've been wondering.
Does everyone hear him? No. Is he even there? God is he not talking to us.
I'm sorry people are listening. I keep hearing someone in the control room or in heaven talking to me in my ear saying I need to stay on the mic. This is way smaller. It is way smaller.
I love the size. It's really small. really small weird wrists and apparently hairy wrists as the YouTube comments are talking about. And so I love the size of this, but I have been noticing that people, I mean, I have normal size fingers, right?
And so I'm noticing maybe the bigger screen you can hit the targets better. I think that would be a big difference for people. Yeah, so just to set the stage here, like me, you've had to watch for about 10 days, something like that. You wrote your review.
Yes, I heard Murdock did a cameo in your video review, which was amazing. Both of us adopted the same theme for the review, which is to describe what it's like to live a full day with this thing. My video review was that. I wrote a written piece too, which was just sort of about fashion and fitness and that would be my stuff was all over the place.
Yeah, just why? There's so many, my review hit 7,000 words before Deedor tried to delete a thousand them and I slowly added them back over time. That's how I do things. I found it very difficult to review the actual product and not review the concept of a smartwatch.
Because there happens to our watches, Deedor's trying to get you watch R. Obviously there's not much out there. They all do the same things. And this is, I think the thing with the Apple watch right now is that fundamentally the list of things it does is the list of things a smartwatch does.
It doesn't do much more. It has apps, but the apps are not there yet. But it does notifications, it does a little bit of fitness tracking. It can send hard beats.
It can give you ambient information, like little widgets and whatnot. But it's a very similar list. But what is also true is that most people don't know what that list of things is. So a lot of the reviews I read were basically like, here's this generic list of things a smartwatch does.
And how they affect your life. Is that cool? And you have to do it because the whole world doesn't know what that list of things is. But then you actually I found it very difficult to not then review the Apple watch and how it executes those things.
And there are so many ways to cut and slice and write about it. So you wrote two wildly different pieces and wrote a piece and made a wildly different video. Ours is just like the sprawling thing. Yeah, we divided it because like you said, there's so many parts of this.
And Apple is, I, Groomer's interview was interesting. Kind of talked about those three things. They're talking about those two martics. And then there was a fan fiction at the end.
A young boy with a crush and a girl. And he taps her with his watch. But that would be as far as I was concerned. But I think.
I think. Can I just have one question. And I love John and actually throughout the, you can only talk to some people who have the thing. So he had one so it's talking a little bit.
It's been great talking about it. But that story, I just, how does the young boy get the girl's phone number into his watch so that he can tap her? Um, that student directory. Like it's just really important.
Yeah. His friend who had an Apple watch sent him a voice message with the number. It's just, it's a long press. He forced touched on the Apple watch to save it.
So if you don't know, John Groomer's interview ended. I just, this is actually like him saying that. There's so many things that this thing does. I just figured out how to hit reply on an email.
I just figured out how to make the emoji change color. What? Yes. Wow.
So, uh, so you go to thirsty. Go to thirsty. Go to thirsty. So we named this smiley face thirsty.
His full name is Thurston. By like, uh, go to Neeliah's Apple watch review and type the word thirsty while you're on the web page. He's our mascot. So you go to thirsty and then you have forced touch and he goes from yellow to red.
He gets mad. He gets super mad. Oh my God. Yeah.
I mean, he's got steam go on his ears. Do you go to other colors? You know, it's, it's yellow and red on thirsty and then the heart goes from red to blue to purple. So he is not quen.
What about on creepy mind hands? Mind hand is nothing. No, that's master hand. No, that's creepy mind hand.
That's the real straight. Your point. Seriously. The idea that actually it's from Zelda.
Guys. Oh, this was the blue. The heart's going to blue. Yeah, I just I just said that.
I was not that purple. The red has to be back for a short nap. Okay. This kind of illustration point like whoa, if two professional tech reviewers don't think to like right.
I got a professional. At this moment, Joanna, I think that is accurate. You're so happy. I mean, it's insane.
I've known Joanna for a long time. We've been through a lot of things. I've never seen her in a state of child like glee. Is it the purple hearts on her smartwatch?
Would I come out and discover that? No one. I figured out by accident. There's so many layers of this product.
It's insane. Right. But there's so many things going on here. I don't know about you guys.
But whenever I get a new tech gadget, I usually just go super deep as I like as deep as I can, like way into the settings and like, so around this. No, this is an exciting thing. This is more complicated. You have to look at thirsty and think.
What happens if I force touch thirsty? And the answer is you would never think to do that. Why would you think that? What other like force touches like a right click?
It's a context. It's unclear what it's for. So on the watch face, you do it to customize on thirsty. It changes color.
On the Twitter app, it brings up the button for a new tweet. Yeah. Like how do you do it? Do a new tweet?
No, you have to force touch it. And it brings up a button that says new to right. So how do you work out app? It brings up the pause and cancel buttons.
That kind of makes sense. But how do you know what's going to happen when you hit it? I don't know. It's a good question.
But the thing that gets me from your reviews still in the heart. No, just I was like, I was like, what kicked off this conversation was me telling you. Like I just figured out that you could force touch on an email. Oh.
I thought it was all the prompts to mark it on red and put it in trash. I thought at some point I saw a reply thing. I don't know. You can't reply.
I know you can't reply an email. But I think it may be if you force touch on an eye message. So what happens if you force touch on a glance? Nothing.
Nothing. How do you know? Maybe maybe maybe. Look, it's for.
I still think it's insane that the only way to get to a glance is to know that you have a normal watch face. If you force touch on your eye message, you can hit replies and location and details. Oh, no. I think it's a location.
That's cool. It's like a whole new world that I'm discovered just like. Yeah, but I'm saying it's the most undiscoverable thing on the phone. Really?
My sister keeps asking how my watch, my iPhone watches. That's, that's. By the way, can I just say? That's what most people think.
Going on morning TV is the worst experience that any human being can have. I had a miserable morning, like just the worst morning. Is this a humble brag like me? Yes.
Dude, I got like mugged by the host of Good Morning New York. Like he came charging down the hallway and was like, is that the Apple Watch guy? And then he like grabbed my wrist, took my, took it, which I'm not supposed to do. I'm not like, he took it put it on his wrist.
He's like, I just want to try it on and then he like pretended to get a producer call and his friend. I was like, I just fucking mugged. I got mugged and then I had to run onto the set. He went and started doing the show.
He was like, I got the Apple Watch. And I was like, I'm going to get arrested. Like, like, the James Cook's bodyguards are going to come arrest right now. And then the commercial break, I had to walk onto the set and be like, I need the watch back.
Wow. And he's like, no, just sit down. Was it? Huh?
And so I just sat down. I was like, okay, I'll just sit here. We're not supposed to allow other people to wear the watch. It's been a whole.
I mean, and it's standard for many NDAs that we signed. Yeah, it'd be whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
I tried to get back into her mind. She was like, play. And actually that was to me like one of the most interesting things of the week because it at Far Hods lead of the New York Times, the New York Times review, which talks about how long it takes to sort of learn this thing. It's fascinating to try and watch some of their how to use this.
Yeah. And I didn't want to help it. Did you help? No.
No. I mean, and like I wanted video that, but we can't allow people to use it. So, you know, whatever. But yeah, like she was just getting very angry at trying to use it.
So what are they going to do in the Apple stores? They're going to have like demo loops? I think this is why they have all those videos. And they haven't released the rest of the guided tours yet either, which is really interesting.
Yeah. Well, they don't need to. Those videos, like watching them, I like Photoshop the thing of the original iPhone demo guy and then like a physicist at a chalkboard with formulas behind them. There's so many of them.
And they like they, they, they, they, there seems to be no coherent story between how things work in this, in this video to how things work in the next video. Right. Yeah. You know, like what you keep saying about the button, the button on the, on the watch is 100% on.
Like that is the lock button on your iPhone and your iPad and your iPod. And it's like you were going to, even do you still make that mistake? You press that. I do too.
I feel like an idiot every time. No, it's wrong. Yeah. You still do it.
Okay. What, what, should I put this in my mouth? Yeah. I don't like it there.
Who does? Um, but yeah, you make that mistake too, but you know it's wrong. Yeah, you still do it. It's like from such happiness, such sadness.
I like actually keep getting confused, which buttons I should press. And that was one of the things I did highlight in the video, which is like, yeah, this interface is small and then you like, you know, that doll hands line, like you want to keep touching it. But then you're like, you got these other buttons and you've got this digital crown and I never use the digital crown to scroll through things. Yeah.
I like it. Sometimes it zooms. I mean, I got two pastes in my digital crown. Wait, what app do you zoom?
You can zoom on the home screen. I never open maps. Maps me. They're really.
Yeah. Why the hell would you want to use maps on a one screen? I would. I think Android.
I think around New York City, like I feel like such a goon holding my phone out. Like everybody knows what Eric said for me. Please, I would watch a little bit. One thing.
Yeah. One thing we cut from the video is me walking and saying like, you know, if this was Android where I would have told me already, how long would it take me to get to work? That's really useful. Yeah.
I mean, it's just the maps really load slow. Yeah. That's super slow. I love that little part in your review.
Yeah. That's spinning Uber thing because that's been my world all week. Yeah. I haven't the apps are slow.
So I don't use them. And it's I'm going to humble break again all the morning TV anchors in the world. What's your favorite app? And I was like, notification.
I was just tweeted. This is amazing. What? Oh, the thirsty thing?
That's our, uh, somebody made that's if you go to the other end type thirsty. Yeah. Go to the room. Yeah.
It's like a Easter egg. Exactly what it is. This review is like another level. It is like insane.
I didn't sleep either, but all I had to show is one video. The selfie stick. Are there greater signs of success? Then those things.
All right. So I'm going to ask you the questions everybody asked me. You're ready? Yeah.
Do you like it? Yeah. Do you like it? Yeah.
Are you getting one? Yeah. Exactly. Do you like it?
It's just like how hard is it to answer that question? It's impossible. But I'm asking it's so hard to and then they want it like it's like the first thing they asked on TV. So yeah.
All the time. So we're going to run. Today on CNBC. It made a dick joke.
I love it. I love it. I do like it. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I said in my piece like I wrote all these great things and started at the end. I'm starting to like don't get one.
I got that watch. I kind of say like don't get one. But it doesn't mean I don't like it. Right.
I mean, there are reasons I don't think normal everyday people should get this. I think that's the right thing to tell people but I still like using it. So I think that's a really... But you like gadgets.
I love gadgets. That's why I'm probably getting one. Right. I love gadgets and I'm fascinated by this.
Right. And it's we're going to get them. fascinated by this gadget and that's cool. And like, there's a reason we blew out the review because the verges read by people who like gadgets, or at least a lot of people who like gadgets.
Some people who hate all gadgets from one company, some people who hate all gadgets from another company. But then general gadgets are of interest. But it's a gadget. It's the most gadgety gadget Apple has ever made.
Yeah, though I kind of think in some of this. Newton. No. Newton is gadgety, Newton is gadgetyier than this.
The E-mate, the Batman laptop. No, no, no, those things have like, okay. Deaters in the 80s right now. No, I understand what Deaters say.
Right, but those things were like, yeah, okay. I think it's a gadget, but one of the things that I, I don't know if it came through in the piece that I wrote, but it does feel like more than that. It could be. And in many ways, I turned this into something that wasn't as gadgety.
I tried to focus over the week on, yes, the notifications, but I really tried not to go towards the apps. And like as much as we enjoyed messaging each other, I think that is a really useless thing about this piece of technology. That's my heart beat buddy. Yeah, you know that Kelly Clarkson's on?
To the beat of your arm. This is my heart, please. Yeah. Did you sing that every time you sang your heart beat?
Yeah, I sang it every time. What did she send me? But I think like, when I used it, I really did really enjoy using this as a watch and sort of as this device that keeps me on schedule. I love having my calendar on my wrist for some odd reason.
Did it turn on when you looked at it? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it doesn't.
That would do you have to do like the whole gesture until I... I honestly have been feeling like since I showered with it, maybe it doesn't work as well. Oh, you did showered with it. Did you not watch her video?
No, I had not. She strapped a DSLR to her face. I saw the pictures, I haven't seen the video yet. No, I mean, you showered with it.
I showered with it. I mean, also I got toothpaste in it. How do you pull that off? Joanna Brousser, teeth with eyebrows.
Yeah, I was just not sure. Can you tell me... Just back to that point, I really do think as a fitness device, I know a lot of the reviews I've been focusing on, you didn't think it was as good. I think it's actually a really good fitness device.
I think it has this huge potential to be that. And that is a gadget, but I think it has this potential just to kind of fade to the background, and that's a really good thing. Right. So, yeah.
No, and I think you and I talked about this while we were writing these. It's... So, like, it's easy to fall into the trap of reviewing the concept of a smartwatch. It was equally easy to fall into the trap of reviewing the potential of the Apple Watch.
Yeah. And I struggled just mightily to review this product at this moment in time against what is an insane range of prices. Yeah, that's correct. That was the other thing that killed me.
Because if I had gotten the cheaper one that was like 350, I would have gotten the $400 sport, the bigger sport. You're getting that one, right? That's probably the one. I mean, if I buy one, that's what I buy.
That's what I'm getting. But if I'd gotten that one, instead of a $700 watch of the light move, I don't know if I would have thought about it totally differently. But every time I told anybody this watch is $700, they would like gasp. This is $650.
That's a lot. That's a lot. What if I get the 38 millimeter with that leather band? How much is it?
Pipe check. You're not going to check. Are you asking me to pipe check? I'm going to pipe check.
Sorry, I can do it. I can do it. Price check and I will pipe. I think it's this black sport model, this scratch.
Is it going to this black and hold up? Huh? Is it black and hold up on this sport model? What do you mean the band?
Yeah, no, I mean. The standardization. Yeah. So I had, well, it might ding.
So I had my, I've only held one like ever so briefly that model, but it was very much like, you know, the I had classics when they're black. Oh. Oh, interesting. It's like mad.
It's like mad. It's like mad. It's like mad. It's like mad.
It's like mad. It's mad. It's mad. It's mad.
It's mad. It's like scratch badly, but you could definitely ding them. Yeah. I don't know if it's exactly the same.
That's just what it reminded me of. I will say that the same as the one is getting dinged up. This one is very much like, you know, when I pod set sandal backs, that's what this is like. That's so like, yeah, people have already noticed in the videos, like literally all I did with this, all I did with it really this week is like make videos with it, right?
Yeah. You just wore it. Why wore it? I didn't like get it and figure it out.
Yeah. Yeah. I didn't start wearing the helmet until Friday. Okay.
Thursday night. Thursday night with the helmet. Yeah. I don't remember where I was going with that, but somebody just tweeted me that so it's a great fitness space.
Can't even make it through the shower. It actually can make it through the shower. I say that because I'm like a little bit worried that maybe something happened to it and I'm like very paranoid Jewish person. Okay.
But. Same as you want to just like seriously exchange to look like you know me. Yeah. We had a moment.
But no, I mean, it can definitely withstand like a ton of sweat and Apple says that it's fine for even taking the shower, but should not get soap and shampoo on it. And that's why another reason it just is not a good idea to get anything on it. I guess. But you can't submerge it.
So should you or should you not shower with it? You should probably not shower with it, but nothing. If you're walking in the rain, don't worry about it. Okay.
Yeah. If you're right. That's what they say. I don't want to have to take this off.
You definitely take it off. Why? I mean, certainly if you buy a very expensive version, you should take it off. No, I'm going to charge it.
If you don't take it off. So my theory is going to slip the thing between the shoes. I walk around the juice pack in my pocket. No, my theory with this.
I want to wear the watch until it dies and then charge it. So like if it dies at two in the afternoon, because like I've used it and then, you know, I just want to be on that cycle. I want to like, Oh, it's like time to take it off, put it in the charger. And then you're going to 100% be honest.
You want to do that. It does nothing for you when you're sleeping. Does it not? It doesn't track your sleep.
No. I'm going to put that in my review too. Sam, let's just do it. You read ours, I hope.
Yes. You read sternum. I haven't read. I haven't read any others.
Yes. Okay. You've got a general vibe. You read all of it.
Oh, no, I got around. I got like 65% through and then I watch the video. It is. I read it all.
I mean, I check Apple Watch. Oh, did you see the Verge? It's approaching dangerous levels right now. Really?
Yeah. They're like, every normal and random is like random and normal are talking about this now. Like this is it. This is the Apple Watch.
It's here. It's 10 out of 10 easily. 10 out of 10 hype. Check.
I mean, the reviews are like the reviews are like. You know, it's like a nice thing, but it's like, do you need it? Do you want it? Is it for you?
Are you going to buy one? It's not like you need to buy this like. I don't know, probably like six and a half or seven. Yeah.
Realistically. Yeah. But I'm buying one. What are you typing?
I'm replying to a dude. Shut down her Wi-Fi. Peter, are you buying one? So if I were not an editor at the Verge.com, I probably would not.
Right. Well, you know what? You are an editor at the first time. If you were you, but your personality, and you like loved gadgets, but I would.
I would wait. No, no, like this is like, I love gadgets. I buy the first versions of lots of things that I ought not by the first version of, but the consistently everybody said it takes a take to turn on when you look at it because it's not on all the time and it's kind of slow. Yeah.
It does really. Most of the time it is very long time. I don't want my I'm already on a yearly cycle of spending somewhere in the neighborhood of five, six hundred dollars on a phone. I'm a snap.
I don't want another yearly cycle spending $400 on a watch. So you do have to do it. I want to do it. I don't I don't think they're gonna come out every year and I think they're gonna slash the prices.
You're gonna slash the prices. No, I really feel like I'm coming out with them. I think the first generation will be updated within a year and a half. Yeah.
Yeah. I think I so here's my theory on performance and battery life. Have you noticed this? I go from a hundred percent battery life to 85 percent relative to fast.
That last 15 percent is like a war march set of phrase death march. It is just endless. It's just like that's the last 15 percent of battery last four. Is it that the experience on the iPhone two?
I feel like when like most people freak out when they get down to 20 percent, but if you actually use your phone when it's down to 20 percent, it chugs. You can get through a significant amount like for your phone to actually die, you have to be like using Google Maps at one percent and like really, really kicking it. I come on my phone all the time. Yeah.
I find that 3 percent all the time. I come on my phone twice a day. But I will say so here's my point. And it's entirely possible the iPhone doesn't do right.
It's like shared architecture. Yeah. But I think they aggressively manage the performance CPU to maintain that battery life. So I think they're constantly ramping the CPU as low as it can go.
Which is why it takes it's like it's like resting now and then when you boot it, it's like oh, got to come up now. I actually think like this is an old screen. I should have just put this on the side. I don't want to do it.
It's like a macro photo of the screen because Apple won't confirm if it's old or not. It's definitely a pentile on screen. It's RGB. It's got the blue stripe and the red.
You know what I mean? Yeah. I'll send it to you. No, that's fine.
It's shocking to me that you could see something pental and not like have a pencil popping. No, it's like a pencil screen too, right? Or an old pen. Who cares?
Exactly. It's because of what it's gotten doing now. But even old screens, so you can usually just leave it on old screen like you can take the like they're like power, all these power features. Yeah.
Like the black doesn't take up as much power. Right. So you can like run like three pixels because the screen is effectively off. Right.
Which is what a bunch of Android. Where washes do. Right. So this is, um, yeah.
So that's like the default mode. Right. So that's just off. And it's just like some of the pixels.
Right. So in the black text and power. So I think it is fascinating that Apple went all the way off. Yeah.
Like it's that is how crazy they are for battery life. And where all sorts of other devices with the same kind of screen keep some things lit up because they know it's important. And Apple goes all the way off just for that extra little like half percent. Yeah.
It's kind of like when you put your iPhone in your pocket. It's more than half percent. But I think it'll be, you know what I mean? No, like on the Moto 360, like especially the first iteration of it.
Like if you if you leave that ambient screen on your host. Isn't it the 360 and LCE? I think the 360 is also. Oh, there you go.
Yeah. I think we should come back in exactly a year from now and do another virtual on the Apple watch because no, we're talking about the Apple watch. I mean, I think I think no, I think firm, but it's a season. I'll see it come back from the dead to talk about the Apple watch.
I think I think remember like iPhone 2G and then iPhone 3G like that is leaps. The 3G is leaps and bounds better than the original iPhone. So this is the problem with evaluating the Apple watch right now is the 3G was had only two differences from the original iPhone. It had three G had a redesigned body.
It was way faster. That was the only one that mattered. It wasn't way faster. The 3G was way faster.
The only difference really the 3G and the app store. The app store came to the first iPhone 2. The only domain that's why that's why within everyone. Yeah, but I was going to say the difference is that the extra came to the first iPhone 2.