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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coburn_c - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
The regular old LCD gives it the terrible battery life as well. Sony at least used transflective so it doesn't always have a backlight on.. the G watch R and the Samsung are decent devices.. stupid products but decent hardware.FrenchMac - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Except that those whose see it in person find that it looks better on the wrist that on a stand and that the moto 360 look worst on the wirst than on the photos (the moto 360 is really big for most wrist)cappiels - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
I actually quite like the way the Apple Watch looks. The attention to detail on the wrist bands is incredible. Gorgeous stuff. I just wish the technology was there to keep the Apple watch a bit smaller and have a longer battery life (and have a 3g radio, and this and this and this).. BUT.. as we've learned, we can't have it all, at least not, right away. The Apple Watch reminds me of the first iPod and the first iPhone, but better than both of those. This is the first of the first generation Apple devices I will buy, because, I finally can stop looking at my iPhone a 100 times a day, and can go running with my phone in my pouch and can screen calls, control my iPhone, respond to texts, all from my wrist.. now, that's fancy.NEDM64 - Monday, September 15, 2014 - link
I also like, specially the space/planets theme, that's where time came form.I think there was more thought into this, than the competition that looks that have just found a "cool" looking normal watch and put a computer on it.
ol1bit - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
I have zero speed issues with my Moto 360 so far, but of course I'm not playing games with it or watching videos, why would I?JRX16 - Sunday, September 28, 2014 - link
How is it ugly? Not all watches are round, and a square screen makes so much more sense for a smart watchMartinT - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
+1This could as well be a Samsung.
NEDM64 - Monday, September 15, 2014 - link
A Samsung... Watch... With so many options, and made of metal? With magnetically attached bracelets and charger????Too much...
saliti - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
IMHO Asus ZenWatch looks better than this too.saliti - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
And LG G watch R too.