Hands on: Apple Watch review

By: Unknown on 6:13 AM

Apple finally attacks the wrist

Our early verdict

"Probably one of the best smartwatches on the market - but still not enough to convince us this is a real category."

For

• Clever interface
• Multiple sizes

Against

• Slightly chunky
• Could be expensive at higher models

Most of us expected the Apple Watch to appear in 2015, but it's made a (semi) surprise launch with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

It sadly won't be seen until next year though, which means this is a deliberate ploy by Apple to make sure you're not buying a Samsung, LG or Moto 360option in the run up to Christmas.

But there's a pretty good reason for most to hang on – this is a very stylish wearable indeed.

Apple's clearly aiming this at the fashion market as much as the person who loves to be an early adopter – given the smartwatch market is still yet to take off, it makes sense to focus further afield in terms of consumer targeting.

It also packs NFC, allowing it to be used as part of the new Apple Pay system - something that's either going to be really helpful or a big turn off to some.

But essentially this is a product that defines a new chapter for Apple. Well, that's if it's any good, of course.

Design

The Apple Watch is coming in six different versions: there's the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Sport and the Apple Watch Edition. And each of these comes in two sizes, for those that like a larger or smaller device for their wrist.

You can't call it a lady or man's watch, but there will be those that do, and it's opened Apple up to a new market in doing so.

While I expected it to be rounded, the fact is the Apple Watch looks like a small fusion between iPhone 6 and iPod Nano. It's not unattractive, but it is on the chunkier side of things.

It's rounded at the sides, which works in its favour, and the very-slightly curved back makes it feel nice, if a little heavy (depending on the band) on the wrist.

The Edition... edition is a properly heavy device on the wrist. It's one that will look great but feel like you've spent a thousand dollars on it. Actually, given we don't know the price of this 18 carat gold and sapphire watch, that might not be too far off.

The interface is curious, but I really think Apple has done better than most with the way it's approached interacting with a wrist-dwelling device.

The Digital Crown is essentially a scroll wheel that lets you zoom in and out of the interface, so for apps (with a fun new home screen that looks NOTHING like the iPhone's version, more a spherical look at all the apps available on the watch) it's a new way of doing things.

The spherical interface is going to take some getting used to. The demos I saw showed a slightly tricky method of hitting the right area to open the app you want, leading to needing to use the Digital Crown more often than not.

It's got a very smooth action, where I expected it to be a clicking feel (just because that's what you get with a watch). It will be interesting to see if this becomes embedded as a way of using the Watch, but anything that takes away from having to touch the screen will be a good thing.

Tapping the crown inwards sends you back to the home screen, but you can also use the touchscreen on the Watch to to interact with apps.

The button below the Digital Crown serves two functions: one to take you to your contacts, and the other to work as a way into activating the Watch as a payment vehicle.

The contacts app is interesting, as it allows you to send things through to your friends that go beyond the normal messaging paradigm.

That said, the Apple Watch is adept at doing the basic smartwatch things: you can make and receive calls from your wrist (with mic and speaker) and it will scan messages coming in to work out if it can generate an easy response for you to tap.

So if someone asks 'Fish or Chips for dinner?' the Watch will ask you to tap Fish or Chips as a reply. Although if it's really smart, it will offer both as an option.

Beyond that though, you can send some really weird things. For instance, you can draw pictures and send them over (although let's be honest, you're going to be getting lots of pictures of male genitalia from your friends sent to your wrist when you're presenting) or a vibration code that you've predefined with a pal.

Or you can even hit the screen with two fingers to send over a heart rate image, which vibrates on that person's arm. The graphic is kind of intense - but it doesn't explain why Apple has offered this.

The Apple Watch is neither a fitness band, watch or fashion accessory though, despite taking a bit from each of those camps. It's hard to define what it really is, which means that users may struggle to justify the purchase.

I think its greatest chance of success is in the health market, as Apple has made this a decent choice for people looking to get a little bit healthier.

Not just checking steps or heart rate once in a while, the watch will be able to help you be a bit less sedentary as well as noting when you run around and how hard the exertion is.

Of course, it needs an iPhone to work really effectively, but it works very well autonomously too in terms of tracking the above.

This partly explains why Samsung has teamed up with Nike to make the Gear S a running companion – but at least Apple has got its own internal system to allow for it.

As a smartwatch, the Apple Watch is a pretty nifty device too. Its discreet dimensions mean that while it's obvious when it lights up, most of the time most won't know you're wearing a smartwatch.

It's annoying needs to be flicked upwards to turn the screen on – unlike the Android Wear devices which are visible when in standby mode – and I wasn't able to test this function during my limited hands on time.

The Apple Watch will also come with the ability to pay for things with the aptly-named Apple Pay – however, this wasn't available for demo, and therefore I can't work out how the security aspect will be handled.

With the phone you'll need to hold the TouchID element to confirm it's you that's paying, and without that on the Watch it's hard to see how you'll manage it.

If you have to press it on your phone, it kind of makes it redundant as a mechanism on the watch.

Apple has confirmed that you'll need to charge this device every day, which is a bit of a shame - with the lack of GPS I was hoping that it would at least match the competition and only need to be plugged in every 48 hours.

At least the charger is attractive: it's an inductive option that clasps to the back of the Watch through magnets. It looks the business, although it doesn't look cheap to replace if it breaks, unlike a Lightning cable.

Early verdict

The Apple Watch is a device that many will want to own with the iPhone 6, as the stylings match really well, and let's be honest: people like buying wholeheartedly into the Apple ecosystem.

It's annoying we don't know the price or the exact release date then, as it's hard to say how successful the Apple Watch will be as a result. The battery life is a shame, but then again it's not unexpected.

One thing's for sure – now Apple has brought visibility of wearables to the wider market through the Apple Watch, everyone will benefit through higher consumer traction.

Will we see everyone wearing one? Probably not, but then again not everyone owned an iPad or iPhone at the start. This is phase one of a much longer product game – but the Apple Watch One is a quite good start.

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iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: The Differences Between The New Apple iPhones

By: Unknown on 5:44 AM

Apple AAPL +3.06%’s much heralded September 9 launch has come and gone and as expected we have two new iPhones: the ‘iPhone 6’ and the ‘iPhone 6 Plus’.Also as expected they come in two new, much larger sizes: 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches. But their differences are far more than skin deep so let’s break them down:

Design – Curves And An Aluminium Unibody

The leaks were on the money. Both new iPhones ditch the hard angles and glass backs of their predecessor, the iPhone 5S, in favour of a more rounded, unibody anodized aluminium chassis available in silver, gold or ‘space gray’. The Apple logo on the back will be in stainless steel.

One area of concern for some is the confirmation of a protruding camera (more later), but on the whole the new chassis promises a significant step forward in durability. There is also a sensible evolution with Apple moving the power button to the side to make it easier to reach (HTC take note).

Size And Weight – Bigger But Not Monstrous 

Once again the leaks were right. I discussed the fact the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 would have virtually identical dimensions to the 5-inch Nexus 5 and that is also true of the weight.

The iPhone 6 measures 5.44 x 2.64 x 0.27 inches (138.1 x 67 x 6.9mm) and weighs 4.55 ounces (129g) – a weight increase that is roughly proportional to its 16% volume increase compared to the iPhone 5S.

A Nexus 5? 5.43 x 2.72 x 0.34 inches (137.9 x 69.2 x 8.6 mm) and 4.55 ounces (129g).

Meanwhile the iPhone 6 Plus clearly has the 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in its sights. The Plus measures 6.22 x 3.06 x 0.28 inches (158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1mm) and weighs 6.07 ounces (172g).

For reference the Galaxy Note 4 comes in at 6.04 x 3.09 x 0.33-inches (153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm) and 6.21oz (176g).

Ultimately those with big hands may just get away with using the iPhone 6 one handed but, even though Apple has done well to keep their respective weights down with the move to aluminium, both models will take some getting used to for long term iPhone owners. Below are some tips.

Display – 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches

The size of the display for the new iPhones was never in doubt, but both theirresolution and materials remained in doubt. Now we can clear up both and it is a mixture of good and bad news.

First the good: the iPhone 6 Plus will have a standard 1920 x 1080 pixel native resolution which is significantly higher than the 1704 x 960 pixels that had been widely mooted. Video will be the big winner here with the resolution being Full HD, though it falls behind the recent trend for ’2k’ 2560 x 1440 pixels displays as seen on the Note 4 and LG G3.

On the flip side the iPhone 6 Plus resolution delivers 401 pixels per inch (ppi) – significantly ahead of the 326ppi Apple claims constitutes a ‘Retina Display’ (where the naked eye can no longer distinguish between individual pixels) – so there are unlikely to be many complaints.

iPhone 6 owners on the other hand may feel slightly aggrieved. The 4.7-inch display’s 1334 x 750 pixel count is a step behind the 1080p displays we have become used to seeing on similar sized phones (the original HTC One delivered a 1080p 4.7-inch display in early 2013). As such the iPhone 6 just hits the 326ppi measurement, but it is no improvement on the pixel density Apple has offered since the iPhone 4.

Of course there is more to a display than just pixels and here Apple has done well. Both iPhones have strong contrast ratios (iPhone 6 – 1400:1, iPhone 6 Plus 1300:1) and brightness ratings (500 cd/m2) despite Apple stating that it slimmed down both phone’s display backlights.

Alleged sapphire iPhone 6 display leak – image courtesy of Marques Brownlee

Sapphire Goes Missing

Perhaps the biggest shock of the event was Apple made no mention of either handset having a much touted sapphire display. Instead Apple spoke of “Ion-strengthened glass” and even Apple’s formal specifications don’t mention sapphire by name.

Of course it could still come to pass that sapphire is a core component or layer within the new screen, but having written that evidence supporting sapphire displays was anecdotal it would be a shame to be proved right. Unless Apple offers up more details in the near future it seems only chemical analysis will confirm or disprove it once and for all.

One Handed Use – Apple Makes Concessions 

While not the smallest of phones, the iPhone 6 obviously has an inherent advantage over the larger iPhone 6 Plus, but Apple has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. Most logical is its extension of the swipe-to-go-back gesture seen in Safari to the rest of the UI. Repeating this gesture over and over may become tiresome, but it is a neat solution.

In a more surprising move though Apple has also commandeered the home button double tap command to enable what it is calling ‘Reachability’. This is a fancy term for just moving the whole UI halfway down the screen to make it easier to tap the navigation buttons in the top corners. I warned this would be a problem.

That said one handed use, whether by swipes or Reachability will at least make both handsets technically friendly for one handed use. How practical or enjoyable they prove, only time will tell.

Image courtesy of Apple

Apps – Better Scaling

If size and one handed use are the downsides of a bigger display, the good news is Apple plans to use the extra real estate wisely. Apple demonstrated this with the iPhone 6 Plus which – like an iPad – can display its homescreen in both portrait and landscape modes and apps themselves get a touch of the iPad about them with additional functionality when horizontal.

Apple has already adapted a number of its own apps to take advantage of this and it shouldn’t be long before third party developers get in on the act. Samsung has long worked on additional functionality for its Note phablet and this change sees Apple bring its iPads and iPhones much closer together (curiously Apple didn’t name drop the iPad all night).

As for existing apps, Apple is keen to stress both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners should not worry. The company said iOS 8 will integrate a ‘desktop class scaler’ which should be a lot smarter than the old ‘zoom’ that hit the iPhone 4 when the Retina Display was introduced or how iPhone apps are still handled on the iPad to this day. Apple didn’t state whether the scaler could also be used to improve the iPad’s display of iPhone apps, but it would seem a logical extension.

Performance – Surprisingly Inseparable 

Typically this is a big one with new iPhones, but Apple made much less noise about it than in previous launches. Like the A7 chip in the iPhone 5S, the A8 within the new iPhone 6es will be 64bit and Apple is claiming 50% and 20% better graphics and CPU performance respectively. This is a long way off the gains Apple has touted in past generational step ups (the iPhone 5S doubled the CPU and GPU performance of the iPhone 5, for example) but gaming should take another leap forward and no-one could accuse the iPhone 5S of feeling slow in the first place.

Interestingly during the event Apple was less focused on raw performance than refinement of performance. What this translated to is greater sustained performance with far less heat build up. Fingers crossed Apple has pulled this off because numerous red hot rivals need to take note.

As for the A8 chip itself Apple stated that it is 13% smaller than the A7 and built using the 20nm fabrication process, but the company made no differentiation between its performance on the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. I remain convinced the iPhone 6 Plus will run at a higher clock speed, but if not the iPhone 6 could prove the more powerful phone as it is driving considerably less pixels. Benchmarking will solve this as it is the sort of nitty gritty Apple is never happy to divulge.

In addition to the A8, both phones also get the new M8 motion coprocessor. Like the M7 it is primarily aimed at fitness applications and can now distinguish between running, cycling and elevation. The latter thanks to the well leaked inclusion of a barometer.

Lastly we come to connectivity. I’ll deal with NFC in a dedicated section so aside from that the big news is the integration of 150Mbit capable LTE on both models. Neither gets LTE Advanced (capable of 300Mbit+ though yet to widely roll out) but arguably more useful is both phones’ compatibility with no less than 20 LTE bands. This should make the new iPhones work with 4G services almost anywhere in the world, so your roaming bill can get bigger faster than ever before!

Interestingly both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will also sport VoLTE (Voice over LTE). Like LTE Advanced this is also something not many networks offer, but Apple said it is working specifically with T-Mobile in the US and EE in the UK to make it happen and it enables far higher quality voice calls. Meanwhile the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will also offer 802.11ac WiFi just like the iPhone 5S.

Image courtesy of Apple

Camera – Same Resolution, But iPhone 6 Plus Comes Out Ahead

Apple has never been one to join the megapixels race and it resisted once again keeping the count on the iPhone 6 and 6S the same eight megapixels as seen on the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5/5C and iPhone 4S.

More surprisingly the sensor itself on both new iPhones  is not improved from the iPhone 5S and it sports the same f/2.2 aperture. On the upside there is an upgraded ‘True Tone’ flash for more realistic flash lighting and new ‘Focus Pixels’ which Apple claims will halve autofocus times and enable faster face and smile detection as well as continuous autofocus in video.

Another benefit – and where the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus differ – is their image stabilisation. Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) has become a mainstay of most premium smartphones (it moves the lens around to minimise camera shake that causes blurred shots) and it comes to the iPhone 6 Plus. Strangely though the iPhone 6 has to do with digital image stabilisation, a cheaper software-based alternative. Apple may have worked miracles here but I expect the iPhone 6 Plus to take the better shots, particularly at night where a steady hand for longer exposure times is crucial.

As for the front facing FaceTime Camera, it is a disappointing tie. Both iPhones’ front cameras take in 81% more light, gain HDR, improved face detection and a burst mode for better selfies (actually name dropped by Apple) though the resolution itself remains a measly 1.2 megapixels. Apple may not be playing the megapixel game, but it could do better here.

Video is also a tie. Both iPhones offer 1080p video recording at 30fps and 60fps (frames per second) as well as 120-240fps in slo-mo. A lack of 4k video recording is more of a shame for the spec sheet than in reality, but you can betSamsung, LG and Motorola (who have all released 4k capable smartphones) will use its absence from both iPhone 6es to attack Apple from now on.

Memory – Finally 128GB

At long last Apple has made the step up to 128GB and with solid state memory prices having crashed in recent years hopefully it will see rivals follow suit.

Of course Apple’s philosophy of shunning expandable microSD storage makes the capacity boost particularly pertinent, though the company’s decision to still offer a 16GB edition as its baseline rather than increasing it to 32GB (a capacity which has been ditched altogether) is a shame.

Battery Life – iPhone 6 Plus Scores Big

With battery leaks hinting that the iPhone 6 may offer little improvement over the iPhone 5S, it was welcome news to find improvements have been made. Audio, video and WiFi browsing increase 10% to 50, 11 and 11 hours respectively while 3G browsing increases 20% to 10 hours. These are fairly subtle improvements, but 3G talk time gets a 40% bump to 14 hours even if standby time remains the same at 10 days. LTE-based browsing unfortunately doesn’t improve staying at 10 hours.

By contrast (and as we have seen from other phablets) the 6 Plus uses its extra size well to push iPhone battery life to a whole new level. The big winners are audio (doubling to 80 hours), video (a 40% boost to 14 hours) 3G talk time (from 10 to 24 hours), 3G browsing (8 to 12 hours) and standby (up to 16 days). Arguably the most pertinent ratings – WiFi browsing and LTE browsing – only increase 20 per cent to 12 hours, but it remains the biggest generational leap in iPhone history.

Image courtesy of Apple

NFC And Apple Pay – The iPhone 6 And 6 Plus Ace Card

I won’t go into great detail on iOS 8 here as that is an article in itself, but where the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus stand out from their forebears is in iOS 8’s debut in the world of mobile payments.

Dubbed ‘Apple Pay’ it combines the Touch ID, Passbook and – in the case of the new iPhone 6es – NFC to bring a truly digital wallet and touch payments to the company’s handsets for the first time. Furthermore adding NFC to both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus should help the wider payment industry as Apple’s rivals have been waiting for Apple to adopt the standard for years.

The good news is Apple is aboard in fine style. Apple Pay launches with the backing of American Express, MasterCard and Visa along with Citibank, Bank of America, Capital One, Well Fargo and Chase giving it access to 80% of the US market.

There are 22,000 retailers at launch as well such as Whole Foods, Staples, Starbucks, Subway, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Groupon and McDonalds (including drive throughs!) and third party apps can offer the ability to use Apple Pay to process external payments. For example, OpenTable restaurant bookings.

As you might have spotted these partners indicate Apple will launch Pay first in the US and we await news of its wider international plans. That said with chip and pin and touch payments increasingly common in the rest of the world, and in the UK in particular, it should be an accessible market when Apple does expand.

In short: should Apple Pay take off it could well prove one of the biggest drivers of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales.

Price And Availability – No ‘Budget’ Option

So what will all this cost you? The good news is if you’re a fan of smaller handsets the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C have just got much cheaper ($99 and free respectively on two year contracts) so get them while you can. The bad news: the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus do not replace those two handset’s original price points.

On a two year contract it will cost $199 upfront for a 16GB iPhone 6, $299 for 64GB and $399 for 128GB. Meanwhile the iPhone 6 Plus adds $100 onto these prices coming in at $299 for 16GB, $399 for 64GB and $499 for 128GB, again on a two year contract. Contract-free pricing has yet to be announced.

As for availability, you won’t have to wait long. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will launch in the US on September 19 with pre-orders starting on September 12.  Apple says it will release the new phones in a remarkable 115 countries before the end of 2014.

Meanwhile existing iPhone owners will get iOS 8 on September 17. It will be compatible with the iPhone 4S, iPod touch 5th generation, iPad 2 and above.

Read more: Why Apple Made Massive New iPhones

Image courtesy of Apple

Bottom Line

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus represent Apple’s biggest ever iPhone redesign . Key selling points will be the larger screens, anodized aluminium chassis, improved battery life, enlarged memory and the NFC-enabled Apple Pay.

The handsets were not without their disappointments though. Sapphire appears to be a major casualty, the iPhone 6 has a disappointingly low native resolution and OIS really should have been offered on the iPhone 6 not just the iPhone 6 Plus.

Meanwhile the ‘Reachability’ workaround for iOS 8 feels like a stop gap until Apple works out a better way system for reaching the key navigation buttons it still positions in the top left and right screen corners.

Despite this a lot more could have gone wrong when Apple super sized its iPhones, but it is fair to say for the vast majority Apple has nailed it. The iPhone 6 is likely to be the bigger seller, but for me the iPhone 6 Plus is the more complete handset.

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A New Yorker’s Take On Swarm

By: Unknown on 5:30 AM

When foursquare split its app into two and launched Swarm, I decided to take some time to get to know it before sharing some thoughts. As a New Yorker who has never been sold on social location apps, I’m pleasantly surprised by its ability to make me act, remember to use it, and to create the possibility for great experiences. That goes far beyond what any app like it has managed to do — for me at least.

But I have complaints, many of which are compounded by the fact that foursquare is our New York City champion. It’s the darling of Silicon Alley. You’re here in NYC, foursquare. So why is the app so confused by our great metropolis?

Let’s start with all the great things about the app.

Matthew Panzarino sees Swarm as a strong signifier of change in the mobile app landscape, where once attention-hungry products disappear into background, ambient services. And while Swarm’s background work is part of what makes it great, I hardly agree with Matthew when he says that it’s in a category of apps that either don’t want or deserve your active engagement.

Swarm, with its push notifications galore (more on that later) and almost constant promise ofsomething to do, has me opening the app all day. Not always with satisfaction, but I’m using the app nonetheless.

No longer do I hit that ugly old blue check mark whenever I’m offered a deal for a foursquare check-in, but I’m randomly opening the app throughout the day.

I’m not sure how things work outside of the city — I’ve been here for eight years now, which is the adult third of my life — but here plans are made on the fly, in many cases, and they’re based around a certain level of convenience. I live within a couple of square miles of almost all of my friends, and the rest are just barely further than that. The difference between friends who are five miles away and friends who are one mile away is a big one. To see the former, I probably need to get on a train, and maybe even venture from Brooklyn into Manhattan. It’s a whole thing. The latter I can probably walk to see, or even better, it’s close enough for them to come to a place near me.

Because Swarm doesn’t rely heavily on the check-in to give me this information, I’m actually morelikely to use the app regularly. No longer do I hit that ugly old blue check mark whenever I’m offered a deal for a foursquare check-in, but I’m randomly opening the app throughout the day, to see who’s nearby.

As long as your neighborhood locator is turned on, I can see how close you are whether you check in or not. Perhaps it sounds stalkerish, but I think we’re beyond that, and besides, everyone’s a stalker on the Internet.

And why does Swarm feel different from every other location social app before it, like Highlight?

Because foursquare. Foursquare knows better than to send me a push notification that a total stranger, who is also interested in “How I Met Your Mother” on Facebook, is just a few blocks away. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

Continuing with gamification only turns most of their users into losers.

Foursquare has been around long enough to know (at least to a much greater degree than other startups) what we want to know and who we want to know about. We’ve handed over all of our friends, and all of our favorite restaurants, and in some cases, the path we take to work and back home.

Which is why gamification has been stripped right out of the app. This has many people upset, and if you’ve been fiercely competitive on foursquare for a long time, I understand your frustration. But think of it this way (and I’m sure this has been said before): Foursquare only relied on gamification to incentivize check-ins at a time before location data was as precise as it is today. Now they have that data, and continuing with gamification only turns most of their users into losers.

With Swarm, we all have the chance to be actual winners who go out and spend time with their friends. Who can turn seeing a check-in into actually hanging out.

I say this with conviction because I’ve been using Swarm for a few weeks and have had fun experiences with multiple people on different occasions so far, just from opening up the app. The balance of friends, serendipity and convenience is perfect for the way I spend time with friends. And I consider myself a pretty average twenty-something New Yorker.

“Push notifications have been tough,” Swarm product director Nick Burton told me. “We have people who have two different use cases for push notifications: when any regular friend is nearby, and then notifications about someone they really care about being anywhere. Balancing that, as well as the complexity of the settings within the UI, has been difficult.”But as such, I see multiple opportunities for improvement, mostly where push notifications are concerned.

I have a friend who lives less than a mile away named Sean. Sean and I both use Swarm pretty actively. More than once, the app has notified me that Sean is in Uptown Manhattan, which is at least a 30-minute trip for me. I don’t want to know that Sean is uptown. That does nothing for me.

Swarm has a “Plans” functionality that lets you post what you want to do, like “Drinks” or a “trip to Central Park” for later in the day. If, late Saturday morning, Swarm sent me a push notification telling me that Sean was planning to go uptown to Central Park that afternoon, I may very well have texted him and seen what was up. We could go together. But at 4 p.m., when I’m doing my own thing in Brooklyn, I don’t care that Sean is far away on a push notification level.

I’m much more interested in when he’s coming back to Williamsburg. I’m also interested when a friend who lives uptown is in Brooklyn, or near my office downtown, or even hanging out in an area that’s on my usual train line. I’m interested when a friend who lives in the Lower East Side is on my side of the bridge. These occurrences warrant a push.

My sister lives in Georgia, but I don’t mind seeing push notifications for everything she does. It’s nice to follow her along through the day, because I love her. I don’t feel the same about pretty much anyone else who is outside of my direct lower Manhattan/Brooklyn area.

Alongside the ability to turn off nearby notifications and check-in notifications, Swarm has tried to master this balancing act by giving users control over push notifications on a per-user basis. You can see all check-ins, check-ins in your city, or none at all.

Two problems here: if you have a lot of friends, it simply takes too much time and energy to turn off most of them.

“If you have a growing group of friends, the notifications can get pretty noisy, which is why we let you turn them off entirely if you want to,” said Burton.

The other problem is that foursquare considers “within my city” to be within 26 miles. The furthest that I ever go is the 15-mile trip to Newark Airport — in another state. New York is simply too condensed for 26 miles to be a good in-between designation for which push notifications I want and don’t want.

Social planning has been damn near impossible. I’ve heard pitches from dozens of companies about how they plan to get people hanging out together, using gamification and messaging and event ticketing and, of course, ambient location services. The problem is that none of them had the balance of structure and serendipity. Swarm risks losing that balance as well.

These apps need to have some rules — like who I’m seeing information about and how I can interact with them — as well as a running list of past data (such as check-ins). Beyond that, there need not be any rules. You can’t force people to make plans; you have to simply give them the opportunity.

I remember an app called TheWhoot that asked you to always post your plans for the night, into buckets like Hanging At Home, Going Out, Raging, and Working. Your friends were then supposed to propose places and times, and chat out the details within the app. And then everyone was supposed to show up.

That app is long dead.

Each push notification is weighed by the user: Would I have wanted to know this if I didn’t get a push about it? Each time the app gets it wrong, the effectiveness of the notification wanes.Swarm understands that we can’t be pushed into action, but rather given the tools to act ourselves. And the push notifications from Swarm are an effective method of reminding us to engage with it. But, as we all know, push notifications are hard.

Foursquare, more so than any company trying to do this, has a solid foundation from which to make these push-notification decisions. Years of experience with social apps and enough data about its users to know everything from their taste in pizza to their daily route to work should translate into an amazing push-notification experience.

But Swarm hasn’t quite figured that out.

Burton tells me that, internally, the team has been fiddling with two different features that may solve these problems. “Very nearby” tells you when anyone on your friends list is within 400 meters, as that’s literally just a few steps to connect to otherwise oblivious people. In my opinion, this is totally worth it. Ship that sucker.

The second feature is even better: “Unusually Nearby,” which is pretty much exactly what I’ve been asking for. It sends you a push notification whenever someone who isn’t usually hanging in your neck of the woods turns up nearby. According to Burton, these features are still in internal testing and haven’t exactly been tweaked to the point where they significantly increase engagement. In other words, these features have not been stamped to actually appear in the app at all, but here’s to hoping.

The Swarm alert flashes across the screen as a beacon of opportunity, and that’s a powerful feeling to get from a notification.

In speaking with Burton, it’s clear that a lot of time and attention goes into the user experience of Swarm, from the little emoticons on a check-in all the way to push notifications. If Swarm can get its push notifications right, maybe the app won’t need to rely on them as much. But he also admitted that the app does rely on them, to an extent, to get people engaged with the app. The beautiful thing about Swarm is that it doesn’t need many push notifications.

The ever-updating chart of people nearby and the will to check in every time I visit a new place are more than enough to keep me visiting the app. On Swarm, the outright declaration of what’s going on mixed with the more vague murmurings of my general proximity is a beautiful thing. There’s no need to depend on push notifications or the check-in any longer.

I will admit that when I first downloaded the app, the notifications were what reeled me in. They’re different from any other kind of notification I got. Rather than seeing action going down in the virtual world, as I do with an Instagram like, a Swarm notification means that people are on the move. Things are happening. And I could get in on it.

The Swarm notification flashes across the screen as a beacon of opportunity to spend time with someone you care about, or someone you haven’t seen for a long time, or someone you see every day. It’s a powerful feeling to get from a push notification.

But when the honeymoon phase is over, and the majority of my notifications are the same old check-ins from the same old people, those pushes stop being friendly reminders that “Swarm means opportunity” and start becoming really annoying. And then I get numb. And start missing actual notifications I care about.

I want to check in to Swarm. I want to open Swarm every once in a while, unprompted, to see who’s doing what. And each time I get a push notification that tells me Sean is within a few blocks instead of a mile away, I’m more and more likely to open the app on my own.

My hope is that foursquare thinks of this big leap into the future as a small step, one that can be improved upon greatly. It could go either way. As the app reaches critical mass, the usefulness will diminish. When everyone is around you then no one is around you. However, with a bit of curation and some sensible updates, I can see Swarm taking me places that foursquare never could.

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Is Facebook Slingshot Third Time’s A Charm Or Strike Three?

By: Unknown on 5:27 AM

Facebook has today launched strike three against Camp Snapchat with Slingshot. As with many of Facebook’s recent products (like Paper), Slingshot is an already-proven idea dressed up in an expensive UI with an established distribution network of billions. Despite the fact that most social apps fail, it should be a home run.

But it won’t be. And not because it’s different from Snapchat, and not because it’s the same. Not because it’s prettier, and not because it has the cool “reciprocation” feature. The reason Slingshot will flop, just like Paper and Poke and Camera and whatever else, is because of Facebook.

Slingshot marks Facebook’s third attempt in two years to capture the Snapchat audience. It’s an undefined group, but assumed to be young — ranging from teenagers all the way up to 35-year-olds who are “keeping it real.” It’s a coveted group of trend-setting future spenders, and it’s the same group that has slowly migrated off of the almighty Facebook platform.

The company’s endless attempts at ephemerality, and to attract that magical trend-setting demographic, are clear… There was Poke, and Paper for a hot minute, and then the rumored $3 billion Snapchat acquisition attempt. So far, nothing has stuck.

Facebook is 10 years old. We’re no longer watching Zuck wade into the wide world of advertising. Facebook is a major global corporation. Just look at the company’s strategic moves in the past few years: Facebook pays $2 billion for being behind Google in wearables and VR. Facebook pays $19 billion for not having a mobile OS. Facebook pays $1 billion to make sure it’s the center of the world’s photos. I don’t see world-changing ideas playing out. I see one of our four platform horseman in the midst of a Cold War.

So, when we laughed at Facebook’s first punch (or should I say Poke) at Snapchat, Zuckerberg loosened up the purse strings and reportedly made a $3 billion offer to buy it. To be fair, an acquisition isn’t technically an attempt to “clone,” but the intent remains the same. When Facebook couldn’t half-heartedly clone Snapchat the first time around, it threw money at the problem.

Fast forward to today, and we all have front-row seats to Facebook’s third at-bat to win over the Snapchat crew. And as it so often does, history will repeat itself once again.

Unlike Poke, which mimicked every single feature of Snapchat down to a T, Slingshot tries to be a different kind of ephemeral. Slingshot promises reciprocation by forcing you to respond to a message before you can see the content inside. It’s a clever trick to differentiate, but hardly a new idea. Povio did something similar long ago, and an app called Look launched recently in Los Angeles with the same core feature set.

And so you might think, now that Facebook’s assault on Snapchat includes a new weapon, maybe the fates will smile on blue instead of yellow. But no. I’m placing my bets now: Slingshot is the next Poke.

See, the problem isn’t timing. It’s not that Snapchat beat Facebook to ephemerality, although of course that plays a role. It’s also not ephemerality itself, or photos or videos or text messages. The problem isn’t that Poke was too similar to Snapchat, or that Slingshot is too different. The problem isn’t even reciprocation, despite how attractive that is as a feature.

The problem is Facebook.

The group that Facebook is chasing is a group that will never rest easy being a part of the majority.

There is a reason the “Snapchat demographic” is so valuable: They set trends, which are then followed by the rest of the world. I’m not just talking about teens, though teens do play a vital role in this group. I’m simply talking about the category of people that are intrinsically rooting for the underdog. The people who hate Starbucks and Apple just because they’re Starbucks and Apple. The people who want to try something different. And when that something different also appeals to a group of people obsessed with fitting in (like teenagers), you’re really in business.

The evidence of this trend setters’ exodus from Facebook is anecdotal. But the sentiment is echoed over and over again: To the cool kids, Facebook just isn’t that cool anymore. Facebook even admitted decreased usage among teens last year.But how can a group of people set trends without going against the incumbent? If everyone blindly (lol) went to LensCrafters for their whole life and never even thought to look elsewhere, there would be no Warby Parker. But because there are a group of people who are willing to try something new and different, companies like Airbnb and Tom’s and Snapchat exist.

The world of technology moves fast, and that’s a lazy understatement. Without blinking an eye, Facebook went from a homegrown, underground, exclusive social network to Coca-Cola. To Merrill Lynch. To the man.

The same kids that were desperate to turn 13 just so they could get a Facebook profile now understand the complexities of what’s happening. Their friendships, photos, locations, relationships, age and everything else about them is being used to sell ads to them. They watched as Facebook went public. They saw stories about billionaire Zuck wearing a hoodie. They witnessed the $1 billion Instagram acquisition and the $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition. The subtlety of the business isn’t so subtle anymore.

But Snapchat doesn’t feel like a business yet.

Remember the original Snapchat? All ugly and bubbly? It looked like the first draft of something, and still, as Snapchat’s user numbers grew and the company found itself in features in the New York Times, the ugly UI remained. The company left the app rough around the edges for a reason: It made users feel like they were in on the ground level of something.

Eventually, the app outgrew its childish UI (sort of), and eventually it will outgrow the hip and cool demographic. Every trendy new thing does.

Slingshot, unfortunately, will probably not get that chance.

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