Wesley's Tool-Box

While the iPhone 7 I got from Japan was busy getting reviewed, the iPhone 7 Plus and the Apple Watch Series 2 I asked my friend Andy in the United States to preorder for me was traveling around the world. The 7 Plus in particular was actually stuck in here South Korea for a while in transit from China to United States due to shipping issues. Once it landed in the States, Andy sent it back across the Pacific so I could have it in my hands. And that's why it took three weeks to arrive.


The box for the iPhone 7 Plus is the same size as the one for 6S Plus, but with the same new design as the 7. It seems the new Apple Watch Series 2 also come in the same-sized box as the previous version. I ordered a Stainless Steel one this time, unlike the Aluminum (Sport) version last year and was a bit surprised how heavy the box was. Shipping weight was 1.2kg for the watch and 0.5kg for the phone; even with the shipment box removed the boxes weighed 880g and 460g, respectively.

It's now been one full year since I started wearing Apple Watch Sport and now is a good time to give you an update. I have been wearing it all the time except when it needs to be charged, so it has been through a lot. Daily showers and occasional swimming sessions may have caused a bit of degradation on the left edge of the screen, and an encounter with a rough surface left the glass with noticeable scratch lines. Despite all this, it's holding up well and functioning normally. I'll probably send the device in for replacement using AppleCare+ after I buy the next version, though.

In terms of battery life, it has consistently delivered at least 24 hours of use for me, except during early watchOS 2.0 betas. So I'm now accustomed to about 22 hours of use (with about 10 to 30% left as I take it off) and 2 hours of charging. The only times I wish the battery life was longer is when I do long-distance travelling, where the active time might stretch beyond 30 hours.

As for its uses, I've settled on the watch mainly being a quick notification-response device and a fitness tracker. Those two functions currently work fairly well. Meanwhile, the native app support with watchOS 2 has been hampered with the relatively slow performance. It often makes me want to reach for my iPhone instead of loading the relevant app on the watch. This needs to be addressed in the near future if Apple Watch is to be taken seriously beyond being an "accessory."

Now, the fitness tracker part of the watch was something I was looking forward to when I bought it. I have lost weight through exercise before, but lack of reminders once the goal was reached resulted in regaining some of that weight after a few months. So I decided to make good use of Apple Watch to keep me stay fit. I made sure to reach the daily Move goal every day, which had been set to 450 kcal after the first month. Missing this goal only a couple of times, I was able to earn the "365" badge you see above two days ago. Let's see the activity and weight trends in detail.


Why did I choose the 450 kcal mark? This is generally about 200 kcal more than I would normally burn through a normal day. 50 minutes of walking or 20 minutes of jogging can fill that in - these activities can easily blend into the daily routine and also conveniently make me reach the 30-minute Exercise goal in the process. Basically, I can get the bare minimum amount of exercise that Apple Watch recommends via its three-ring system with that setting. The graph evidently shows that I don't actively seek out to go beyond this goal unless something else is going on, like when I'm traveling. Some of the big spikes correlate to my overseas trips - New Zealand in May (2015), UK in July, and Japan in September, to name a few.

As a side note, the data for the resting calories starts on July 9 because this is when watchOS 2.0 beta 3 came out and made Apple Watch start recording this data on iPhone's Health database. Before that, the data resided only within the Activity app, likely because it was rudimentary and static, not to mention less accurate - it was about 40 to 50% more than expected. Since the update, the resting calories data is recorded in real time and seems to be more in line with the mainstream calculations.

Interestingly, I noticed that just reaching the Move and Exercise goals wasn't doing a particularly good job of shedding the weight in the early months. I did have a weight scale and occasionally checked my weight with it, but it hovered between 83 and 84kg without any upward or downward trend during that time. Besides, I never got around to recording the data anyway. The only data point during the period was from the annual check-up at my workplace. I decided to do something about it and got myself a so-called "smart scale" with Bluetooth connectivity in August.

Nearly a decade ago, you would have seen me wearing all sorts of gadgets around my waist, as evidenced by this television broadcast. The problem with this was clearly illustrated in that video - it takes a bit of time to put them all on the belt, however useful they may be.

I haven't let go of the carry-them-all attitude, but things have worked in my favour. A lot of the gadgets I had to carry separately were now integrated into a single device (smartphone). That meant less stuff to carry, and I was able to reduce the number of pouches and bags on the belt over the years. I ended up with a phone and an external battery each in a holster, and a bag that held adapters, cables, and other miscellany.


But then large iPhones came along. When I put it on my belt, it occupied a sizable area of my waist. This got me thinking: since the phone is thin enough, maybe I could put it in a belt bag that can store other stuff with it. And this is how I now just have this one bag hanging from my waist.

As you can see here, my iPhone 6S Plus and the slim external battery fit nicely into the front pockets of the bag. They're accessible by opening up the flap usually held in place with a hook-and-loop fastener. I also have a paper clip there in case I need to change the SIM card or poke a reset button.

Of course, there's a lot more hiding behind. Let's take a look at the rear compartment.