Apple Announces the Apple Watch; Available Next Year
by Joshua Ho on September 9, 2014 2:06 PM EST
Apple has thrown their hat into the wearable ring with the Apple watch, which tries to bring a better user experience to the watch without trying to adapt iOS to the watch with multi-touch gestures that we're familiar with on the iPhone.
There's a single crystal sapphire display, a digital dial crown that acts as a home button and a scroll system. There's also a strong emphasis on haptic feedback which allows for linking of watches to share notifications by sending taps in any possible pattern. This is done by using a force sensitive touchscreen, which is a method of navigating along with the scrolling dial. This allows for subtle communication that doesn't rely on obvious sound or gestures. It's also possible to send taps based upon pulse/heart beat.
There are IR lights and sapphire lenses on the back of the watch for heart rate and serves as a magnetic alignment wireless charging system. The accuracy of the watch is no more than 50 milliseconds off at any time.
In order to support this watch, Apple has also designed a custom SoC called S1, likely for battery life and sensor integration and reduction of board area.
There are six different straps that are easily exchanged. The sport band has multiple colors and is some kind of rubber. There's a leather sports strap which has multiple magnets to ensure that the fit works correctly. There's also a traditional leather strap and a stainless steel link bracelet. There's also a stainless steel mesh band that is infinitely adjustable. There are also two versions of each watch edition, one larger and one smaller.
The Apple Watch also has NFC and will work with Apple Pay.
There are actually three variants though, which include the standard Apple Watch, Watch Sport, and the Watch Edition which has 18 karat gold for the casing. The sport edition has a anodized aluminum casing.
Furthermore the watch will also come in two different case sizes to account for different wrist sizes (essentially his & her watch sizes). These sizes are 38mm and 42mm tall respectively.
The Apple Watch must be paired with an iPhone to work properly. It starts at $349 USD and will go on sale early 2015.
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piroroadkill - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
Yup. G Watch R is a fine looking piece of kit.sigmatau - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
The G Watch R would be nice except for the hideous bezel. It seems like the manufactures find some way to make their watches suck. Either a terribly ugly square design, or a beautiful round design with terrible silicon and battery life, or a round design with a redundant ugly bezel.piroroadkill - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
They did it to hide the display driver, as far as I understand it, so they didn't have the flattened part like the Moto 360.piroroadkill - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
Yeah, ZenWatch, G Watch R, 360, they all genuinely look much more classy. How did Apple get the design so... generic?Friendly0Fire - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
You're not alone. I'd not seen the G Watch R before, and it looks good, but the ZenWatch is outright classy I think. Apple's looks like a toy in comparison, and reminds me of the half-baked watches Samsung put out in quick succession in an attempt to preemptively cash-in before Apple came around.I think Samsung will be relieved to see that they don't have much to fear.
fteoath64 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Everybody is expecting to be wowed by this product but instead got a "meh!". This was the issue where Apple constantly delayed their "expected" launches and now moving it to next year which is extremely risky. They had no choice really. They were so late and now we see the design being so bland and bulky and possibly had battery life issues. It took them 3 years to develop this and it is almost unbelievable if see this result. They tried to cram in so many features, hopefully many can be turned-off by the user rather than have them running. The Tethering is a concern as well. Not all people will turn on BlueTooth all the time. Some prefers only when they think, they wanted some important things like using a headset or accessing a wireless accessory. People who uses the Nano for fitness are unlikely to carry their phone during a run or jog session so the iWatch should be able to work UN-tethered either. Unknown if it is possible.While Apple wants to think that the Crown knob is innovative in navigation, it actually will NOT be because it confuses the user in needing (thus wanting to touch the screen : muscle memory). Using sensor strips on the side would have been better and dispense with buttons altogether. Jobs would have said NO to the crown button. It is just a silly idea, as though it is the best alternative but not the case in practical longer term use.
Now for thickness of the watch. It is going to be such strong negative that Apple would have to HALF it in a hurry. The competition probably will start a new generation of Wear watches that will put them further ahead and provide far more model choices than just one!.
The one size fits all is not going to work for the watch industry. I am sure their "consultants" constantly say that to them. Listen!.
If Apple only solely keep phone compatibility to the iPhone, then it will be marginalized in the longer haul. Got do WP, Blackberry and Android compatibility and be open. At least, it will have a chance to compete.
notuptome2004 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Apple has never delayed a product and i am Sorry if you expected the Apple watch to be shown off then launched this month but Apple showed it off early to say look this is what we are working on. see up until the Apple watch was shown off it was nothing m,ore then a rumor a RUMOR samething goes for the Apple TV set as it was supposed to based on RUMOR been shown off by now and launched but guess what NO Product exist Apple does not have a TV set in the worksbarleyguy - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
Yeah, definitely fugly.tuxRoller - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
Yup. The circular face just looks great. If only the battery life was better and the watch a bit smaller.Jumangi - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Except the SoC is an outdated piece of junk that gives it crappy battery life. Another device with questionable value that I have to keep track of its battery and plug in on a daily basis? Fail.Smartwatches are the tech world trying to create a device that the vast majority of people will have no interest in even if it has an Apple logo on it.