After announcing the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus today, Apple also revealed the highly anticipated Apple Watch, which wirelessly connects to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5 series. The Apple Watch features many iPhone functions — including voice calling, texting, email, Siri, and Apple HealthKit — among others.
Although Apple is not the first to unveil a smart watch, the company’s iPhone market share will likely ensure that the Apple Watch becomes the one you’ll most often see on people’s wrists. Recent Android smart watches from Samsung, LG, and Motorola among others — have so far met with mixed reviews — but will no doubt be on more Android lover’s wrists in the future.
Here’s a rundown of the specs:
– Sizes: 38mm and 42mm (1.5 inches and 1.65 inches)
– Retina display with Force Touch and sapphire glass
– Taptic Engine and built-in speaker for tactile feedback
– Custom Apple S1 processor
– Sensors: accelerometer, built-in heart rate sensor
– GPS
– Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
– Bluetooth 4.0
– Digital Crown Home button
– MagSafe wireless charging
– Apple Pay and Siri support
– Compatibility: any iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6 and 6 Plus running iOS 8
The Apple Watch’s Digital Crown Home button enables quick access Siri, so you can ask directions or check for messages, for example. The watch’s Retina display features Apple’s Force Touch technology, which can sense the difference between a tap and a press for accessing controls within apps. Apple says its new Taptic Engine and a built-in speaker enable “a new vocabulary of alerts and notifications you can both hear and feel.”
Apple hasn’t yet revealed the watch’s on-board memory and battery life, which leads us to believe that those are some kinks that are still being worked out.
Interface features and apps
One neat feature on the Apple Watch is “Handoff,” which lets you start a message on the watch and continue where you left off on your iPhone. The Glances feature lets you swipe up from the watch face to quickly see information you care about, such as your current location, stocks, or your next meeting. Pressing the side button brings up Friends, a view of your favorite contacts. And the Digital Touch feature allows you to send things like a sketch, a brief audio message (“Beam me up, Scotty”), or even your heartbeat (to your doctor).
Apple Watch also includes a new Activity app that aims to motivate you to be more active throughout the day, and a new Workout app for workout sessions. To provide a picture of your daily activity, the Apple Watch uses a built-in heart rate sensor, GPS, and your iPhone’s accelerometer.
The Activity app measures three separate aspects of movement: calories burned, brisk activity and how often you stand up during the day. The Workout app provides goal-setting and pacing during popular session-based workouts, such as running and cycling. The companion iPhone Fitness app collects your activity data so you can see your activity history in detail. Apple Watch uses this history to suggest personal goals and fitness milestones and keep you motivated.
Personalizing your Apple Watch
The Apple Watch will come in your choice of three distinct collections: Apple Watch (polished or space black stainless steel), Apple Watch Sport (space gray or silver anodized aluminum) and Apple Watch Edition (18-karat rose or yellow gold).
Whether any of those are your style or not, you can’t argue that Apple so far has the smartwatch competition beat with a wider range of wristbands. Available straps include the Sport Band in black, blue, green, pink and white; the Classic Buckle in black and midnight blue; the Leather Loop in bright blue, light brown and stone; the Modern Buckle in midnight blue, brown, soft pink, rose gray and bright red; the Milanese Loop in stainless steel; and the Link Bracelet in brushed stainless steel and polished space black. CNET has posted some of the best photos of the different wristband styles.
There are 11 faces to choose from, including a traditional analog face, a dynamic Timelapse face, a Solar face with modern sundial, and Astronomy face with real-time, 3D images of the sun, moon, and planets. You can personalize your Apple Watch with information that interests you, such as upcoming events, moon phases, or your fitness activity levels.
Availability and pricing
Apple plans to launch the Apple Watch starting in early 2015, though no month was specified. At that time, Apple will also release a “WatchKit” developer kit for application developers.
At $349 US, the price is on the high side compared to other smartwatches, but then, “Apple” and “inexpensive” have never been synonymous.
Apple Watch vs. the competition
How does the Apple watch stand up to the latest smartwatch competitors? CNET compares the Apple Watch to the new Samsung Gear S, new Motorola Moto 360, and revamped Pebble Steel in a nice spec-by-spec comparison.
And Ars Technica pits the Apple Watch against Android Wear watches (like the Gear S, Moto 360, and new LG G Watch R) in a great screen-by-screen comparison. “Basically, Google has built a voice command and notification platform, while Apple is building a mini smartphone,” says Ars Technica. “The Apple Watch OS has an app-centric layout that will…[start] allowing third parties to come up with use cases for its watch. Google, on the other hand, judging by the recent interview it gave to CNET, feels it is its own responsibility to come up with smartwatch use cases, which other apps can then plug into.”
Apple Watch hands-on previews roundup
We’ve rounded up the best hands-on previews and impressions of the Apple Watch below:
“Apple went out of its way to give dozens of design options in a handful of colors, as befitting a piece of jewelry that you’ll wear daily, including easily adjustable straps—a huge sticking point with the first generation of Samsung Galaxy gear products.”
“As you’d expect, the build quality of each model was impeccable, with a smooth-scrolling crown control and a satisfyingly solid “snick” happening when pressing it or the button situated alongside. Whether gold, steel or aluminum, it’s clear that every Watch has been designed and crafted with care.”
“It does look and feel wonderful, leaps better than any other smartwatch I’ve tried… In plain old time-telling watch mode, it looked and felt more like a real watchface than any smartwatch I’ve worn but the Moto X, although in the Apple Watch’s case you don’t have such a thick body. For those curious about the righty/lefty dichotomy, you can set it up either way at the start.”
“This is no plastic Swatch. Apple’s choice of metals for the casing, and the size of the watch, all contribute to it feeling premium and solid. The tech integrates beautifully, too, such as the way the cover glass sinuously blends into the body.”
“It feels very solid and surprisingly light. The sapphire screen curves down to run flush with the rest of the pebble-shaped body, and the screen itself was crisp and viewable — though it did seem to be a little more reflective than I expected. …Overall, I think the looks are better than most of the smartwatch competition out there, but unfortunately that’s not very high praise. To my eyes, the Moto 360 makes a bolder statement.”
“The bands are a surprisingly exciting part of the equation. They feature a design that is intended to make it easy to swap in and out, though I didn’t see this demonstrated in person. One of the models I played with had a flexible, leather band with built-in magnets. It felt a lot like toying with the iPad’s Smart Cover, except much more supple. It was very comfortable, as was a metal version.”
Yahoo Tech (David Pogue)
“The Apple Watch is water resistant. Sweating, wearing it in the rain, washing your hands, or cooking with it are fine. Take it off before you swim or get in the shower, though. What you also couldn’t tell in the keynote…was how this watch feels and sounds. It issues little vibrations of various intensities (it can control both the intensity and the rapidity of the vibration), which will have different meanings. For example, one vibration means ‘turn left’ when you’re using GPS, and another means ‘turn right.’ The watch is light and comfortable, and its sounds are clear and full of personality.”
