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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jameskatt - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
The Apple Watch is far more beautiful than any of the competition. The level of craftsmanship, detail and thought brought into it is amazing. It is interesting to see how a professional does the job compared to amateurs like Samsung and Motorola. The Apple Watch is art and technology.mathiasdk - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Finally an American who can write a genuinely sarcastic comment, that doesn't apear to be one at first sight, well done! :)fteoath64 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Apple loves to give people crap like "craftsmanship", these things are manufactured in China!. There is no craftsmanship involved. It just get stamped by an industrial machine and pressed together with glue. Same as their other products. In fact copious amount of glue just to ensure no rattle.Expensive Swiss watches however, had craftsmanship since the crystals are placed or glued by hand and some tiny peices meticulously assembled by a craftsman with a huge magnifying glass. Then tuned for timing accuracy. Electronics are just stamped from chips to pcb, to batteries to casing. Unless some Chinese below-minimum-wage guy gets to spit shine the sapphire glass, then he/she introduced some contaminants to the package. Included with all the dusts in the assembly room itself.
flyingpants1 - Thursday, September 18, 2014 - link
Wow, that's not the point.Sushisamurai - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Price wise, it's fairly decent, as getting a sapphire watch is around $400-500 for a decent one... so @$350 for a sapphire watch is not bad. Battery life can only tell how well designed it is. I like the concept, seems novel with the communication methods from watch to watch. I just hope it's not an iPad 1 to iPad 2 kind of thing.fteoath64 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Why would it not be an IPad1 to iPad2 kind of thing ?. The innards including the LCD display are electronic parts that evolves including the battery for that matter. Future versions will no doubt be slimmer and maybe different shapes for adult male, adult female, teenagers etc.Function wise it will not vary. I would not hold out for this but if Apple were smart, they could put 8GB or 16GB Flash in there. It sure as heck would have to beat the Wear 4GB of NAND Flash. Remember Apple buys the most amount of flash in the world so it is lowest prices per GB for them. Just that they charge huge premium from 16GB to 64GB to 128GB in their phones just because they have no SDcard slot for expansion!.
1ndian - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
I think they introduced this to temporarily satisfy investors. It's half cooked; they know it, we know it!jabber - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Its a lot of money to pay for a watch that will be obsolete in 6-12 months.Thats the point none of the tame tech press want to talk about. Crazy pills time!
LemmingOverlord - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Is it just me or is Apple's latest-and-greatest identical to all the chinese knock-offs we see around? That sharp design "edge" that Apple had over the competition seems to have flown the coop.I've seen far more *yawn* interesting stuff designed out of Taiwan and China than this...
FunBunny2 - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Well, there are only 3 axes in real space. Kind of limits Ive.