Officially unrelieved at Apple's fall media even in Cupertina, Calif, alongside the Iphone 6 and Iphone 6 plus, the Apple Watch (not IWatch) may well be one of the most anticipated products of the recent years. It will be available in "early 2015" starting at $349 in the US, with prices elsewhere yet to be announced (a rough conversation would be AU$380). This is Apple's first all-new product category in years, since the original iPad in 2010. And, it's yet another entry into the smartwatch world, a landscape that's suddenly exploded. Here's what I know about it so far.
The Apple Watch is a music player like an iPod, a fitness tracker with heart-rate measurements, a communications device that will send and receive messages, calls and audio recordings, and a handheld portal to other apps, too. It also makes payments via Apple Pay. It can also control your Apple TV and act as a remote for connects smart home devices. The Apple Watch seems intent to be a synthesis of many smartwatches, trying to knit together all of these features into a coherent whole. In some ways, the Apple Watch 's notifications, voice activated controls, and swipe to glance features feel like elements of Google's Android Wear Watches. And the focus on apps and build-in features like voice calling seem like what Samsung's Tizen OS-based Gear have tried to aim for in the past.
But if you want the basic breakdown in case you haven't used a smartwatch before: it keeps you connected to your phone, acts like a mini iPod, works as a tracker for fitness and could even replace your wallet. And it could do a lot more, too. Apple was showing how the device could not just make mobile payments, but also act as a digital key to open a smart door at your house. Apps will also allow you to access other home-automation features, such as smart thermostats, using your Iphone's wireless connection as a conduit.
The Apple Watch has a heavy investment in fitness, too: four sapphire lenses on the back promise to deliver more accurate heart-rate measurements than other optical heart-rate monitors on smartwatches such as those on Samsung's Gear 2 or the Motorola Moto 360, thanks to a combination of infrared and LED technology. And Apple's customized fitness apps seem intelligently designed: one tracks calories, moderate activity, and time spent standing, while another is a dedicated workout app meant for a range of activities including cycling. The Apple Watch works with other fitness apps: it's Nike Plus-supported, and there are bound to be more apps by the time it launches, and hey, it also tells the time; Apple actually claims high-precision accuracy within 50 milliseconds, and a variety of high-design customizable watch faces will do everything from show lunar cycles and weather to give quick-glance messages and calendar appointments.
Which phone do you need?
An iPhone 5, 5C, 5C, 6, or a 6 Plus. Sadly, earlier iPhone's are excluded. So are other phone platforms like Android. This is an iPhone-owner's product, much like Samsung's Gear watches only run on certain Samsung phones, or Android Wear watches require Android phones.
How does it work?
Like most smartwatches, the Apple Watch is designed to be an adjunct to your iPhone. It's meant to stay paired and connected while you wear it for most features, but it also does some things while disconnected too. The Apple Watch has a small, bright color touch display plus a scroll-wheel digital crown and button on the side for extra features. You can touch and swipe to interact, or speak to its microphone.The watch runs on a brand-new S1 processor, is equipped with a gyro and accelerometer, and can piggyback off the Wi-Fi and GPS on your phone. You press down on the crown to get to the home screen. The watch will take dictation, and offers very precise synchronized time to plus or minus 50 milliseconds. It also has a haptic processor that offers a subtle vibrational feedback for notifications, alarms and other messages.Like the iPhone 6, the Apple Watch has NFC. This will enable those Apple Pay payments, and help it act as a door-opening key at hotels.
How does it charge?
Via a clever combination of magnets and inductive charging: the charger just snaps on the back.
How many styles does it come in?
A lot, but they're all based on the same curved-edge rectangular-screen design. There are three different construction styles, two different sizes, and six different watch bands, leading to a surprising number of combinations. The first variant, Apple Watch, has a stainless steel case, ceramic back, and a sapphire crystal. The Apple Watch Sport has an aluminum body, composite back, and Ion-X glass screen. The Apple Watch Edition has a ceramic back and sapphire crystal, but also adds 18-karat gold to its body.
There are larger and smaller sizes, called "42mm" and "38mm," which amount to men's and women's sizes or, adult and kid. The bands span a variety of designs: a Milanese loop of metal mesh with magnets, a leather band that auto-attaches, a segmented metal band, a classic leather watch band, and a more plasticized sport band in bright colors. They span the gamut, and you can bet there will be tons more from other manufacturers. They detach easily, too, for band swapping.
How is it different from other smartwatches?
Apple's watch is the first mainstream wearable to support mobile payments: Apple Pay will be enabled, meaning you can swipe to pay at stores, and possibly pay for things online, too.
The heart-rate tracking technology works optically, much like recent heart-rate wrist monitors. The four-sapphire-lens array underneath the Apple Watch seems a lot more robust, at least in external design, than other heart-tracking watches, and could be more accurate. We don't know how it performs yet.
Also, Apple's watch aims to have an edge on other smartwatches in terms of apps. Android Wear already has a fair amount of app support, but apps are a secondary part of Google's watches. The Apple Watch puts its apps in the spotlight on the main display, and via a Watch Kit API plus an extended time frame before the watch is available next year, Apple is counting on courting developers to make the watch do lots of things by the time it goes on sale. That, alone, is a big difference from the soft-launch style of Android Wear, Samsung's Gear watches, and even watches like the Pebble.
Apple also added a different type of input: a little Digital Crown on the side is a clever idea, merging a home button and scroll wheel in one. It aims to help make pinch-to-zoom and scroll functions easier to pull off, while IR and photo sensors give it extra sensitivity. That, and a button below that brings up favorite friends and contacts, offer a set of buttons that don't require the screen at all. You still can swipe and tap too. If you would like to learn more you can check out the
Apple Web Store.
