Dealing with Disappointment

Today, the iPhone 6 was released. I’ve been half-paying attention to the frenzy of people waiting at Apple stores to get one on launch day. It’s crazy. I normally pre-order but I screwed up this year. I’m on a flight to Seattle right now that I forgot about. I preordered a few nights ago and mine will arrive at my door in about two weeks.

I was panicky earlier this week, trying to move around my schedule so that I could be at the T-Mobile store (I’m switching providers) as soon as they open and still catch my flight. It wouldn’t have worked. It was stressing me out. I decided that I really shouldn’t care as much as I was, threw my hands in the air and moved on with my life.

I’ve had an Xbox 360 for something like five years now. I’ve played video games since my dad brought home an original Nintendo. I really liked the Xbox. The interface felt better designed and more intuitive then the Playstation UI was to me. The controller fit better in my hand.

When the Xbox One and Playstation 4 were announced and released, I was loosely following along. I haven’t been in a position to buy a brand new console in a long time, but I was thinking about it this time. My Xbox lasted me a good number of years and it wasn’t even new at the time. A new console would probably last me just as long, if not longer, and have much better graphics.

I bought a Playstation 4 a couple weeks ago. The specs are almost the same on both consoles, with the Playstation just a tad better. That didn’t really make the decision for me though.

The Xbox has some fancy feature to connect your cable box watch TV through it. “Xbox, watch Boardwalk Empire” and you’d be watching it. They want you to rent and buy movies on there. The Xbox wants to be the center of your “entertainment system.”

I don’t have, nor want, cable. I have an Apple TV for Netflix and HBO Go and it works great. Although I’ve really liked my Xbox the past five years, it was trying to do too much. More then I needed. What I want with a video game console was to play video games. And that’s what the Playstation offered me. A streamlined, video-game focused, console. It’s not perfect. The interface could still use a bit of work. But if the decision is between “do everything” and “do one thing really well,” I’ll go with the later.

I was sitting on my couch 10 days ago, dealing with the miserableness that was the Apple live stream. I’m not gonna harp on that too much though. People make mistakes. I was very curious what the new Apple product would be, if there’d even be one. All the rumors leading up to the event claimed it was going to be a watch. People have been talking about an Apple watch for a year or two now.

I won’t lie, I’ve speculating what sort of gadget they might release. I’m still hoping for a TV eventually. As far as a “wearable,” which is a super gross term, I was thinking a bracelet or maybe a ring. Something without a screen that would act as a sensor and maybe input device for another Apple device.

Spoiler alert: It was a watch. I was, and still am, pretty disappointed. The first and only watch I’ve ever had was a high school graduation present. I wore it for about 6 months, and then put it in a drawer and never wore it again. I’m not a watch person.

I want to wear a watch about as much as I want to carry around a sack of coins like I’m a douchey aristocrat from the 1700s. Sure, actual currency is pretty convenient at times, but rarely do I have a problem paying with a card somewhere. Granted, Apple only showed off the hardware of the watch, but I didn’t see a single feature that would benefit me.

This brings me to my point. With the Apple Watch, I’m not sure I’m their target audience anymore. Since the iPod, which was my first foray into Apple gadgets, every new major product category they offered was something I wanted. Something that seemed like it was tailored specifically to me. I’ve gone through three iPods, about four iPhones, two iPads, three MacBook Pros and an iMac.

What do I do now that this new “revolutionary” product isn’t something I want? What if the company I’ve relied on to give me exactly the tech I needed isn’t doing it anymore? I know this isn’t the end of the world like I’m making it sound, but it’s a disappointing idea to me.