Gadget Report

Texans aren't too keen on new Apple watch if you believe Twitter

The highly anticipated Apple watch has finally arrived, but it's receiving mixed reviews from buyers and potential ones — especially in Texas.

A study from data mining website CrowdFlower found that just 37 percent of Texas consumers "love the new gadget," falling well below the national average of 55 percent. To conduct the study, the site analyzed more than 30,000 individual tweets about the Apple watch since its launch on April 24.

Apple's home state of California tweeted about the new watch more frequently than any other in the country. Those residents also had the most positive opinions, because 59 percent were pleased by it.

In other findings, women are more excited about the watch than men: 64 percent of females expressed positive feelings toward the gadget, while only 53 percent of men gave it an overall approval rating. These percentages have dropped since the watch was first announced, when almost 74 percent of women and more than 56 percent of men were excited and intended to purchase it.

Those who expressed negative feelings about the features of the Apple watch most often cited app bugs (22 percent of the time), technical performance (15 percent) and overall design (14 percent).

One of the problems that has garnered significant media attention is the fact that some wrist tattoos interfere with the watch's functioning, specifically with monitoring heart rate. Following numerous reports from users experiencing problems with the new gadget, Apple updated its support page for the watch with a statement:

Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact heart rate sensor performance. The ink, pattern and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings.

Apple says the easiest way to fix the problem is to use an external Bluetooth monitor worn on the chest to track heart rate.

The watch ranges from $349 for the sport model to $12,000 for a gold-plated model.

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Jobs report

Texas ranks among 10 best states to find a job, says new report

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

You have a better chance of landing a job in Texas than in most other states.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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