Apple Launches Apple Watch 9

For those using the Apple Watch: would you recommend it?<p>I was an early(ish) adopter of smart watches&#x2F;wearables - think Pebble and LG G Watch era. I walked away from that experience with the perception they exist solely as expensive distraction machines with an extremely short functional life and have been enjoying mechanical watches since.<p>This tech has me on the verge of trying again. It&#x27;s seems to be getting pretty close a ubicomp device. There&#x27;s enough compute onboard to do useful things with the sensors, particularly with the addition of the neural cores. The UWB proximity awareness look interesting too for someone with other apple devices (HomePods etc).<p>What I&#x27;m not familiar with is the current software ecosystem. Are there any core functions or third party apps that make use of this outside of just slinging notifications?

The gesture thing (double tap?) seemed like an odd announcement, since they pretty much already announced that feature a year ago. They tried to tie this feature to the AW9, as if the new processor made it possible. But it seems basically identical to the accessibility feature they announced last year: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.macrumors.com&#x2F;how-to&#x2F;use-hand-gestures-control-apple-watch&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.macrumors.com&#x2F;how-to&#x2F;use-hand-gestures-control-a...</a>

Link is 404 (and yet 6 upvote points as of this writing?). Perhaps <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.apple.com&#x2F;newsroom&#x2F;2023&#x2F;09&#x2F;apple-introduces-the-advanced-new-apple-watch-series-9&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.apple.com&#x2F;newsroom&#x2F;2023&#x2F;09&#x2F;apple-introduces-the-...</a>

5 billion transistors, GPU, and a 4 core neural engine - in a watch! Just do mind blowing to me. It could power a desktop gaming PC if Apple would allow it.

Mh, seems to be a lack of innovation. Double tap and UWB as the only new sensor features.