¶ 10 Years of Apple Watch

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For the past 3,652 days I have worn an Apple Watch on my left wrist. I haven’t missed a single day since my Series 0 was delivered on launch day. I originally bought it for the fitness tracking, to replace a pocket-clip style FitBit that I lost while on a work trip. And admittedly, the idea of answering a phone call on my wrist like Dick Tracy was pretty cool, too.

I remember the first year of Apple Watch being a year of experimentation. Apple didn’t quite have a firm stance on what it wanted Apple Watch to be. Was it a fashion icon? An iPhone on your wrist? A fitness tracker? A way to send heartbeats to your loved one?

10 years on, it’s actually still all those things.

An Apple Watch Series 10 still looks a lot like a Series 0. The Digital Crown and side button have endured. It still looks fashionable, and it is undeniably iconic.

While it is not quite an iPhone on your wrist, it can be a phone with the cellular version, and it has become a capable mini-computer for specific tasks as its hardware and software have matured.

The fitness features landed really well from the get-go, and have only gotten better. The fitness rings are a great motivator, and I have fervently pursued every special fitness award available to me in the U.S. over the years — including today’s first-ever Global Close Your Rings Day award in honor of the 10th anniversary. I even went to the Apple Store an hour away to get the special enamel pin award today.

As for sending heartbeats? That’s surprisingly still part of the Apple Watch, but relatively buried in the Messages interface. I don’t really understand why that feature still exists.

10 years in, I have grown to rely on the Apple Watch as a regular computing companion. I use it for common tasks like adding to the shared grocery list, tasks to follow up on seeing what my next appointment is, deciding if I need to act on an incoming message, and so much more.

Even more so, the Apple Watch has become a core part of health tracking for me. Beyond the fitness and workout features, the constant recording of vitals gives me deeper insight into my overall health. These features alone have cemented the Apple Watch as a must have and must wear device day in and day out.

The Apple Watch has become an essential device for me, alongside my iPhone and AirPods. I can’t wait to see what the next decade brings.

¶ Be My Guest

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I’ve recently been exploring the power of Shortcuts, including trying to create some of my own. Most of them, so far, have been to help me automate specific tasks at work. But I did make one that has been useful recently as the pandemic has had much less of an impact on my local community as of late.

I call it Be My Guest, and it does a simple thing well: it displays a QR code containing your guest Wi-Fi info. It works with iOS and Android devices to help visitors join your guest Wi-Fi near instantly.

Upon installing the shortcut, you will be asked for your guest network’s SSID and password. Then, you can simply say, “Hey Siri, be my guest” and the QR code will pop up. Best of all, this works on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and even watchOS.

My favorite way to use this shortcut has been with the Apple Watch. My guest can scan the code straight from my wrist, and be connected to the guest network.

I hope you enjoy this shortcut. Let me know on Twitter Mastodon if you have any feedback.