Joanna Stern reviews the Apple Watch, with a good mix of thoughts on fashion, notifications, and fitness.

There are so many things the watch can do, so many menus and features you must spend time figuring out, that for better or worse, you end up shaping your own experience. Some may find usefulness in hailing Ubers with a tap on the wrist, or transmitting a heartbeat to a beloved. My colleague Geoffrey Fowler explored the Apple Watch as a gateway to the iPhone for many quick activities. I sought a simpler experience, turning it into a stylish watch to keep me on schedule and a workout companion to keep me moving.

Also: don’t miss her Apple Watch video. Easily the best video review you’ll watch today.

Farhad Manjoo, writing for The New York Times, has also spent some time with the Apple Watch. His review makes an interesting point – that it took him three days to fully understand the role of the device in his everyday life. I found this bit about notifications and taps fascinating:

These situations suggest that the Watch may push us to new heights of collective narcissism. Yet in my week with the device, I became intrigued by the opposite possibility — that it could address some of the social angst wrought by smartphones. The Apple Watch’s most ingenious feature is its “taptic engine,” which alerts you to different digital notifications by silently tapping out one of several distinct patterns on your wrist. As you learn the taps over time, you will begin to register some of them almost subconsciously: incoming phone calls and alarms feel throbbing and insistent, a text feels like a gentle massage from a friendly bumblebee, and a coming calendar appointment is like the persistent pluck of a harp. After a few days, I began to get snippets of information from the digital world without having to look at the screen — or, if I had to look, I glanced for a few seconds rather than minutes.

Manjoo wasn’t impressed with the first third-party Watch apps he tried – a common theme among early reviews that suggests a native SDK could be a major aspect of the next WWDC.

Other problems: Third-party apps are mostly useless right now. The Uber app didn’t load for me, the Twitter app is confusing and the app for Starwood hotels mysteriously deleted itself and then hung up on loading when I reinstalled it. In the end, though, it did let me open a room at the W Hotel in Manhattan just by touching the watch face to the door.

Ben Bajarin has a thoughtful take on the Apple Watch as a new computing platform that uniquely blends new hardware and software.

Unlike other tech reviews published today, he’s a fan of notification filtering done from the Apple Watch app on an iPhone:

The Apple Watch became my primary notification panel/dashboard. It is not only the most natural place to be notified and to decide what action needs to be done but, because the entire user experience was built for quick interactions, notifications may have found where they were destined to exist.

Apple allows for a tight filtering of the notifications you want to occur. By limiting what I want to be notified of, I ensured only the most important things — from email, to texts, to calls, and even relevant app notifications — are exactly what I want to be notified about. It ensures each notification is meaningful.

In a tweet, he also confirms that the Watch automatically adjusted its activity goals over the course of a week.

@gruber @viticci mine had unreasonably high goals for me from the start. It adjusted downward ;)

— Ben Bajarin (@BenBajarin) April 8, 2015

The first Apple Watch reviews are out today, and the first one I read was John Gruber’s.

Gruber, I think, has a done a good job at covering the Watch from the perspective of a traditional watch wearer and iOS user. His article has some great points about the Apple Watch compared to traditional watches, as well as the Watch as a new Apple device with an array of new features.

Here’s Gruber on the Watch as a watch:

I’ve worn a watch every day since I was in 7th grade, almost 30 years ago. I’m used to being able to see the time with just a glance whenever there is sufficient light. Apple Watch is somewhat frustrating in this regard. Even when Wrist Raise detection works perfectly, it takes a moment for the watch face to appear. There’s an inherent tiny amount of lag that isn’t there with a regular watch.

And on Force Touch and the Taptic Engine:

This is the introduction of a new dimension in input and output, and for me, it’s central to the appeal of Apple Watch. By default, Apple Watch has sounds turned on for incoming notifications. I can see why this is the default, but in practice, I keep sounds turned off all the time, not just in contexts where I typically silence my phone. Taps are all I need for notifications. They’re strong enough that you notice them, but subtle enough that they don’t feel like an interruption. When my phone vibrates, it feels like it’s telling me, Hey, I need you now. When the Apple Watch taps me, it feels like it’s telling me, Hey, when you get the chance, I’ve got something for you.

Highly recommended read.

After confirming that pre-orders will kick off at 12:01 AM PT next Friday, Apple has launched a new webpage with guided tours for the Apple Watch.

To take advantage of its size and location on your wrist, we’ve given Apple Watch new interactions and technologies.These Guided Tour videos will show you how to use them to do all kinds of amazing things.

As the company did with the iPhone before, these short videos demonstrate the device’s UI, built-in apps, and user interactions. Right now, you can find videos for Messages, Faces, Digital Touch, and the general user interface of the Watch; more are coming soon.

Two details that stood out to me: Apple often says “press firmly” instead of “use Force Touch”; at one point, they clearly state that the Digital Crown is the equivalent of the click wheel on the iPod.