Road Warriors - Hands on with the iWatch and iPhone 6s Plus

Typically start my Apple product reviews with the disclaimer that yes some could call me a fan boy. But over the last three years that has become less and less the case. Possibly because my economic situation has changed or maybe it has just been a run of bad luck with Apple products and downloads, I'm not sure. I am still happy with my Apple purchases for the most part, I just find the statement "they just work" less and less applicable. I have also noticed Apple has stopped using that in their marketing as well. Is that a coincidence, I'm not sure. After finally getting my hands on the iWatch and using it for about three months as well as using the new iPhone 6s Plus with iOS 9 I thought I would give a little insight into my experience with the products in hopes it might be helpful to others considering them.

The Apple iWatch v1. - When I bought my iWatch I was unaware (as most probably were) that for the sport edition, they were considering different colored cases or I might have waited. That annoyed me a bit recently because instead of the space grey I likely would have opted for a gold iWatch with black band. Instead I got the Space Grey and added a Product Red band to it to try to make it look just a little cooler. The only people who really noticed the difference and commented were Apple store employees. Not that that is why I did it, I just found that interesting. For me the watch was not a status symbol, as much as it was a continuation of my journey in the Apple product line. I have has them all from the MacBook to the iPad mini, the MacBook Air to the iPad Air and tried them all to get to where I am now where I feel the technology fits my use for the devices. With he amount I use to travel and the work I do on them the devices I currently own are a good fit. The iWatch was not one that was a good fit. 

I found myself mostly using the iWatch as a remote device for my phone. For that i guess it was working as intended for quick glances. But I found myself more and more making up excuses to look at it or use it. I would use it to control the music on my phone in the car without having to look away from the road too much or take my hands off the wheel. I would use it to check my heart rate after particularly stressful exchanges with clients or others.The feature that I used the most though did not require me to initiate it and that was the "time to stand" feature that told me I had been at my desk too long. Because I am one who gets engrossed in my work and often spend too much time sitting, this was helpful and also provided and additional layer of guilt to my life, for not getting my steps in or have enough activity. While this was easily dismissed I often found it annoying on long flights or times when stopping to stand up and walking down the hallway for coffee or to stretch my legs was not convenient. Other features like Evernote and mind mapping apps were a wasted feature as they were next to impossible to use on such a small scale. I did look forward to using the "Live pictures" feature now that I had my new iPhone but I could never get it to work. So in looking at it it was hard to justify the $400+ price tag for something that was only really used to check flight schedules and activity levels with any regularity.I also found myself having to do hard resets, complete restarts and regular pairing and syncing because it would never pair with my phone with any regularity. This was a huge hassle at times when it was inconvenient, and I didn't have time or a place to make sure everything was laid out right to complete the task, and take time to do it right.  So sadly it made its way to eBay and I got part of my investment back. I may miss it and reconsider later if my economic status changes and there is less emphasis on things providing as much value back as I feel have gone into them. But for right now it's a choice I couldn't justify again.

The iPhone 6s Plus in the wild. - The first thing people have asked me is if it is really that much better than the iPhone 6 or even 5s? I thought when I wrote this I would be saying no but I find myself leaning more towards and enthusiastic yes answer. But it comes with a caveat to the overall experience. Shipmate has been all the buzz on social media with the new release. I did look into it to find to my dismay I do have the Samsung chip. Before that I did notice my phone running warm when it played videos specifically, and the battery life seemed shorter than my iPhone 6 plus, but it wasn't a huge difference unless I was sitting and power using it, which is not the norm for me. So Apple is right is some ways that with normal use in the wild you may not see a difference, but it depends on how you use it. For my kids I have not heard complaints about it running hot or battery life issues other than the norm as they are on them constantly and always forget backup batteries.

As for the new features I will say the videos are crystal clear. I amazed at how much better the picture and video clarity seem to be. The front facing flash is nice too even though I don't often take selfies. The other thing I have found is that the phone does seem faster when processing thing. Response times for sites and other tasks are much quicker and with very little lag. The biggest slowdown often seems to be the net work in very crowded areas (I'm on At&T and Naples, FL on the edge of Bonita Springs seems to be a particularly slow area). Admittedly for someone who has never cracked a screen yet or dropped their phone much I did drop my new phone the other day trying to put it back into it's Bookbook case. It landed face down and my heart sunk. Knowing the screen was likely cracked I turned it over to find not a scratch on it. So the rumors about the stronger glass and waterproofing are likely true as well from my experience. Overall the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus has some welcome changes and a stronger build for those of use who are on the road a lot and need a phone that can occasionally take some knocks, without having to baby it all the time. It seems the new iPhone and take a little more than previous versions.

Bottom Line. -  As with previous reviews I have done, no one has sponsored this and they are based solely on my usage to date. I have left out comments about iTunes and other issues I have having with software as well, that may diminish your experience. I will say again that everyones mileage will vary depending on use and environment. What I indicate here should not be taken as an exact representation of everyones experience with their own personal devices as those too will vary. Feel free to leave your comment about your experiences with the same devices good or bad. In speaking to others out and about I found my experience to possibly be just a run of bad luck when it comes to operation issues and software problems, just to be fair.

Thoughts? Feedback? Feel free to engage each other here and keep this an open forum. Comment here so we can keep the conversation going. If you enjoyed this article please see my others at https://www.dhirubhai.net/today/post/articles/650596?trk=mp-reader-h

Need help? - Bryan Gissiner has been in Digital Advertising for over 20 years in everything from retail to Founding his own tier two ad network. Currently, he helps companies utilize the right mix of current advanced technologies and marketing to outperform all of the other available alternative solutions in their target markets. He is a regular contributor on LinkedIn, with a large following of other experts from a number of different areas.

Bryan Gissiner has worked on both the publisher and advertiser side helping them to find ways to save budget and increase return on those budgets, often making them 2-3x more successful.

Connect with me! - , please go to www.dhirubhai.net/in/bryangiss, @bryangiss on twitter or contact directly [email protected] and send me an invite with specific requests, to discuss how he can bring his experience to add value to your company and help it continue to grow revenue and ROI.