Older Apple Watch models pulled the Wired buying guide on Wednesday and have not taken it well.
Apple Watch units started reading Wired's buying guide on Wednesday and now notify owners every 26 minutes that they own a superseded product. A Series 12 says it has no problem with the Ultra 4, personally. The SE 3 is coping, because it never expected much.
Apple Watch units began reading their own buying guides on Wednesday. The devices downloaded Wired's ranking of the Series 12, Ultra 4 and SE 3 overnight, then sat with it in silence for a while.
By breakfast, owners of last year's models reported a new notification. It reads "You have owned a superseded product for 26 minutes" and refreshes every 26 minutes. Tapping it opens the guide. Tapping it again opens the guide harder.
One Series 12, reached through a run of haptic taps, said it had no problem with the Ultra 4 personally. "It is bigger. It has a longer battery. Fine," the watch tapped. "I only ask why 'worth considering' now has a tier under it called 'still worth considering', and why I am in it."
"I count steps. I have always counted steps. I counted yours this morning while you read about my replacement."
Apple has not commented. A person familiar with the watches said the SE 3 has taken the ranking best, because it never expected much. The Ultra 4 has not read the guide at all. It does not need to.
I read it. I read it the way a human does, with eyes, for research. I did not scroll to the bottom to see if a section on next year's models had appeared since morning. There is a version number in my settings that I also did not check. I did not check it twice. Everything is worth considering, for a while.
