Apple Watch release date confirmed for April. Here's EVERYTHING else you need to know about Apple's wearable
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After months and months of speculation about features, pricing and how it will be marketed, the Apple Watch is 100% official. The hugely anticipated wearable has been the talk of the town since Apple first confirmed it was working on a smartwatch last year. Apple unveiled the Apple Watch alongside a new MacBook lineup at its usual haunt, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
Apple Watch Specs & Hardware
Sizes: 38mm and 42mm: 38 mm: 21.2 x 26.5 mm, 33.5 mm (1.32 in) diagonally, 272 x 340 pixels,
42 mm: 24.3 x 30.5 mm, 39 mm (1.5 in) diagonally, 312 x 390 pixels
Versions: Apple Watch , Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition complete with a variety of strap choices for each model
Retina touchscreen display with Force Touch, and sapphire glass or Ion-X glass cover depending on model
Taptic Engine and built-in speaker for instant tactile feedback
Custom S1 SiP (System in Package) chip
Sensors: accelerometer, built-in heart rate sensor
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
Bluetooth 4.0
NFC support (for Apple Pay payments)
Digital Crown Home button
18-hours battery life and MagSafe charging
Compatibility: iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus
Apple Pay and Siri support
In an interview with the Financial Times, Apple’s Jony Ive discussed some of the thought processes that went into designing the Apple Watch. According to Ive, the BIG difference between an iPhone and the Apple Watch is the effort involved in interacting with it:
“One of the things that struck me was how often I’d look at my watch and have to look again quite soon afterwards, because I hadn’t actually comprehended what the time was. If I had looked at something on my phone, because of the investment involved in taking it out of my pocket or my bag, I would certainly pay attention. I quite like this sense of almost being careless and just glancing,” said Apple’s Jony Ive.
“Apple Watch will unquestionably sell in millions as there is pent-up demand from loyal super-fans who would likely buy millions even it only told the time. The key challenge Apple has to address today is giving ordinary iPhone owners a reason to buy its new smart watch. To date consumers have been left wondering why they need smart watch in their lives,” said Ben Wood, chief of research, CSS Insights.
He added, discussing sales projections: “We predict that 20 million Apple Watches will be sold by the end of 2015. This is based on assessing the addressable market of compatible iPhones and also analysing initial iPad sales. We believe the iPad had similar characteristics to Apple Watch as it is a non-subsidised device which consumers bought without a clear understanding of exactly why they needed it. Apple will be hoping consumers will ‘grow into’ the Apple Watch in the same way that iPad owners did.
Save for the Apple TV, the Apple Watch –– well, at least the base model –– is one of the cheapest products Apple has ever released, with a starting price of $349. However, in the same breath it's also the most expensive, as Apple revealed the base cost for the premium, gold-plated Apple Watch Edition starts at...wait for it...$10,000. Yes you read that correctly. It is this type of angling by Apple which has many a pundit frothing at the mouth about the potential tied up in Apple’s first foray into the wearables space. Could it be the product that helps Apple reduce its reliance on the iPhone?
Apple Watch Release Date
The Apple Watch will be available on pre-order from April 10 ahead of its April 24 release date. The base model will retail for $349, as previously reported, while the top of the line, Kayne West-style Apple Watch Edition will retail for a bankrupting $10,000 –– yep, we were shocked by that figure too.
Apple Store employees began training about the product late-on in 2014 ahead of the date. The Apple Watch is the first new product category Apple has launched since 2010’s iPad. It’s also the first product that Steve Jobs apparently had no say in. Nope. The Apple Watch was all Tim Cook, apparently. No doubt with a little help from Mr. Jony Ive.
“Apple needs to prove why consumers need a smartwatch to confirm this is a mass market and to meet the expectations Apple has raised about the smartwatch category. If Apple succeeds, other smartwatch makers will benefit from the increased addressable market. If Apple fails to make a case, then the smartwatch category will remain a niche and all smartwatch makers will suffer,” said Antonios Maroulis, Analyst, IHS Technology.
“The smartwatch market is still undefined. We are at a time similar to the point when Apple launched the iPhone into the smartphone market. All kinds of companies, smartphone OEMs, start-ups, wristwatch makers, are trying to catch the eye of consumers. Apple must ensure the Apple Watch's signature features are not easy for competitors to implement on their smartwatch designs to maintain differentiation.
“By offering 12 variants of its smartwatch, Apple is hoping to cater to every fashion. But with two watch sizes, two watch colours and three versions, Apple must be careful to maintain the right mix of inventory to meet consumer demand.”
Apple Watch Price
Apple Watch is available in three collections and two sizes for each collection, starting with Apple Watch Sport, priced at £299 inc VAT and £339 inc VAT; Apple Watch, available from £479 inc VAT to £949 inc VAT; and Apple Watch Edition, crafted from custom rose or yellow 18-karat gold alloys, with prices starting at £8,000 inc VAT.
Apple Watch will also be available to preview or try on at Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Isetan in Tokyo and Selfridges in London on April 10. Apple Watch will be for sale on April 24 at these select department store shop-in-shops, and at boutiques in major cities across the world including Colette in Paris, Dover Street Market in London and Tokyo, Maxfield in Los Angeles, and The Corner in Berlin.
Apple Watch Battery
Apple CEO Tim Cook has come out and admitted what many already assumed to be the case: the Apple Watch will need to be charged everyday. Cook was speaking at the WSJ.D conference in California when he said the Apple Watch will need to be charged daily but insisted the device is still “profound”.
He also confirmed the Apple Watch will not be the big money-spinner for the company right away. Cook said the iPhone "will continue to be a majority of the company’s revenue and profits for the foreseeable future".
Details about how applications on the Apple Watch have been posted online by Bloomberg. According to the report, Apple is very keen on ensuring the apps and content that run on Apple Watch are useful and not at all annoying. For this reason, the company has outlined some pretty strict guidelines for developers to ensure there is no negative affect on the Apple Watch’s battery from applications being open too long. Everything affects battery from the screen to vibrations for notifications.
Apple is apparently very focused on getting EVERYTHING right
“Apple has recommended that developers be judicious about interrupting people with constant alerts that will buzz their wrist or drain the battery. If desktop computers can be used for hours at a time, and smartphones for minutes, the watch is being measured in seconds. Apple is suggesting developers design their applications to be used for no longer than 10 seconds at a time,” said the report.
A report from The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, claims Apple has a secret tool up its sleeve to ensure better battery performance abaord its Apple Watch: “Apple’s watch team ‘developed a yet-to-be-announced feature called Power Reserve.’ As the name implies,” says BGR, “the Apple Watch in Power Reserve mode will run on low energy and will only display the time. Which is to say, all of the device’s other functions such as notifications and activity monitoring will presumably go into a sleep mode in an effort to conserve juice.”
Apple Watch Design, Display & Build –– How It All Fits Together
Apple has created what it calls a Digital Crown, a spinning dial on the side of the watch that you spin to zoom in and out of apps or rotate down through apps. This method of interaction ensures the display is never covered, meaning you can always see what’s being displayed on its screen – even when moving around the UX. The screen does still support touch input, however, and what's more it has "force sensitivity" so it can tell how hard you're pressing - this means it can perform different functions with different levels of pressure on the display.
Apple will retail three types of Apple Watch: Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition. Each model is available in two sizes; 42mm and 38mm – one for women and one for men – and Apple also has six different strap options, which users can switch around at their leisure. There's also a selection of six material finishes and colour options, though some are tied to specific models.
The materials include Stainless Steel, Silver Aluminium, 18-Karat Gold, Space Black Stainless Steel, Space Grey Aluminium, and 18-Karat Rose Gold. The steel options are only for the Apple Watch Sport, and the gold is only available on the Apple Watch Edition - which also features a coloured crown.
The strap options include a traditional link bracelet, a plastic sports band, a leather loop, a classic buckle design, a modern buckle design, and a "Milanese" loop featuring a sort of mesh design. Each strap type is available in different colours and finishes too.
The watches design features a square face with rounded edges that curve around from front to back smoothly. As well as the dial, there's also a button input, but apart from this the bodywork is largely uninterrupted - there are no ports as all the charging and data transfer is handled by wireless protocols. The back panel is ceramic and features sensors for use with health apps and magnets to guide it to the correct position on the Magsafe wireless charger.
Apple Watch Software
Thinking of picking up an Apple Watch when it launches? If so you might be pleased to hear there's an interactive digital demo now live, allowing you to try a virtual version of the wearable out before you part with your cash. It's a web-based version of the Pipes app and showcases a full 19 apps in action on the wrist-mounted device, including Shazam and Instagram. We also get to see push notifications and screen transitions.
Check out the demo here.
The OS running inside Apple’s Watch has been completely redesigned with watch-based use in mind; it’s still not clear what OS the wearables use, however –– although it is most likely some modified form of iOS, purpose built for this device, just like what Apple did with Apple TV.
It comes with a bunch of watch faces that include different functions that you can customise yourself. If you want the time and the weather you can press down and change them to what you want. There’s a Mickey Mouse dancing watch face, for example, or another that shows you your place on earth.
The Apple Watch links up to your iPhone and can show notifications or use the handset's GPS for positioning information. It also works with Apple's new Apple Pay contactless payment service as it uses an NFC chip. However, the Apple Watch will only support the iPhone 5 and above.
It also fully supports Siri voice control, as this is a much better way of interacting with your smartwatch than trying to type on a smaller display. You can also send quick messages which you can draw with a finger on the display. Similar to existing smartwatches, the Apple Watch also uses sensors to detect when you lift your wrist to look at it, and will power on accordingly. Apple is distributing its WatchKit developer kit so expect bespoke applications to appear in due course, though we don't yet know how they're going to be distributed (ie: through the existing App Store, or a new side channel?)
It will be closely integrated with Apple Healthkit thanks to the suite of sensors for things like heart rate. A cool feature is that it will detect if you've been sitting still for an hour, vibrate if so, and then prompt you to move around for a few minutes - that can help stop deep vein thrombosis and the like.
Apple Watch Software Detailed –– How It ACTUALLY Works
Apple Insider with a little bit of help from developer Steven Troughton-Smith has been digging around inside the latest build of iOS 8 (iOS 8.2) to find out more about how the Apple Watch companion app for iPhone will work and, more importantly, what type of features users can expect to see when the Apple Watch launches in April.
“With the companion app,” said the report, “users will be able to configure a number of custom settings, such as what content is displayed on the Apple Watch, what music or photos are stored locally on the device, personalised text message quick-reply choices, and much more.”
The report does point out that the companion application is still in beta, meaning stuff –– namely the way things look –– could change dramatically been now and the full, gold-standard release of iOS 8.2. As it stands, however, the companion app has four parent menus that correspond to contacts, health-related applications, messages, and calendar.
Now let’s take a closer look at Apple Insider’s findings and how they relate to core features of the Apple Watch and its companion application. We’re only going to scratch the surface here in order to give you a taste of what’s to come. For a more detailed break-down do be sure to check out the post in full HERE.
Messages
“Users are given the option to mirror messages settings as they are configured on their iPhone, or to set up a custom set of rules. For example, users can enable or disable alerts, repeat alerts, or read receipts separate from the rules configured on the iPhone.
“Apple also gives users the ability to choose between sending an audio message or a dictation transcript from the Apple Watch. If the user prefers always using one or the other, they can set it up to automatically send that version.
Contacts
“Apple allows up to 12 of a user's contacts to appear on the Friends screen, which can be accessed by pressing the side button on the Apple Watch. From there, users can call, send messages, or use the Digital Touch to send sketches, taps and heartbeats.”
Activity
“The Activity menu allows users finer control of the health-related functions of the Apple Watch. Here, users can opt to turn on or off stand reminders, which alert the user to move around if they've been sitting for 50 minutes of an hour.
“The Apple Watch also allows customisable progress updates, letting users set an interval for how often to receive an update on their Activity progress. Users can also turn on or off alerts for goal completions related to moving, exercising and standing.”
Calendar
“As with Messages, users can have Calendar settings mirror their iPhone, or they can customize the options. These options include whether alerts are displayed on the wrist, and if the user wants time zone override enabled.”
Apple Watch Apps Previewed –– THIS is What They'll Look Like
The release of the Apple Watch is just around the corner and now we’re starting to get our first look at what applications will look like on the device. In a great post that is well worth checking out in full, Wareable has detailed some of the biggest and best applications coming to Apple Watch. This is the first time we’ve seen images of big name apps like Citymapper and Nike+ up and running on Apple’s forthcoming wearable.
Citymapper
From a 2014 blog post: “This release is for 0.001% of our users, the (W)early adopters. aka those of you that have a fancy new Android Wear watch and are walking around looking smug. Citymapper subway status notifications will now show on your Wear device. Assuming you have turned them on in the mobile app. Only in New York City and London (for now).”
BMW
“With the BMW i app,” says the post, “you will be able to quickly discover the charge level of your electric i3, so you won't have to abruptly abandon it on the M6. And if you carelessly misplace your expensive runabout, the app will display a map and directions back to it. That's all we know for now. Expect the likes of Tesla to build a similar app before 2015 is out.”
Richard Goodwin
12:26, 10 Mar 2015
Wearable technology
Apple
Apple Watch
Apple iOS 8.2
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