After Apple announced the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Pay, they unveiled their smart watch project: the Apple Watch. Technically, they actually announced three families, the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Sport, and the Apple Watch Edition, with a combined total of 34 different models. They will launch early next year with a base price of $349. About half of the 34 models are a few millimeters smaller, 38mm vs 42mm, although both are unisex.
Apple Watch
The main feature is its "Digital Crown". It is basically a mouse wheel which can be clicked as a Home button. This wheel can be adjusted to zoom in, adjust meters, and so forth (like a mouse wheel). Below the "Crown" is a Contacts button which, well, brings up your contacts. It has a touchscreen with force sensors, to differentiate between touch and press. The screen also provides haptic feedback for tactile sensations, which actually interests me (in terms of what developers learning what it can do if it is accessible).
Apple Watch Sport
Each model charges with a magnetic attachment on the back, although battery life is not described. I would be surprised if it was anything less than a full, woken day, but it is possible that it will not stay awake as long as you are. We just do not know at this point. This is probably the best reason to wait for a review before purchasing, if you have any level of interest. That could easily be a deal breaker.
Apple Watch Edition
The watches are all basically the same from a technological standpoint. Every model, besides the Apple Watch Sport, has a Sapphire-protected screen (the Sport uses "Ion-X glass" which we currently know nothing about). The bands are replaceable via a button latch on the back, allowing the strap to slide off of the face. The "Watch Edition" (that name…) is created from 18-karat gold. Specifically, "Each has a watch case crafted from 18-karat gold that our metallurgists have developed to be up to twice as hard as standard gold". Yes Apple, because gold is a soft metal… but I digress.
The Apple Watch will arrive in early 2015 and will start at $349. It is currently not certified by the FCC, although I am sure that the major tech blogs will announce when that happens. It requires iPhone 5 (or later).
Don’t recall any posts on the
Don’t recall any posts on the numerous other smart watches that were announced over the last month or so, most of which are less expensive and available well before the crApple ones. No problem with that if only you did not feel compelled to post about the crApple one.
If there were posts on some or all of the others, I am very sorry for the above.
Nah, it’s fair criticism.
Nah, it's fair criticism. While we did not completely ignore smart watches, we rarely covered them. Honestly, while we intentionally covered Apple's keynote alongside IDF, the only reason why I covered this smart watch in particular is because just about everything else was being written by Sebastian, Jeremy, and Allyn. It was either cover Apple's watch, a Toshiba Chromebook from last week, or CentaurTech's second website countdown.
Thanks for the comment!
Ok Droid.
Ok Droid.
This thing is surprisingly
This thing is surprisingly unattractive, much like other first-gen watches.
I gotta say it does look
I gotta say it does look nice. Wonder how waterproof it is.
About this much
About this much (trollololol).
I’d love to say “Too little,
I’d love to say “Too little, too late”, but knowing Apple’s huge fanbase, it will probably be a successful product.
From the design and the included features it seems that Apple is not at the top of the time.
Also: There are no words about the hardware from Apple… a company which usually loves to use hardware as a reason to buy (creating such marketing terms as “retina display”)… this is suspicious!
Looks great! But uhhhh… I
Looks great! But uhhhh… I am the only one who actually LIKES not having something on their wrist??
Same here. To get me to wear
Same here. To get me to wear a watch again it would need to have some epic function that I cant get done better in any other way than carrying a hunk of metal on my wrist that gets in the way and breaks alot.
But like Google Glass it has something going for it in my book. I does makes it somewhat easier to spot and avoid getting stuck in conversation with the weirdos that use them. You know the people that will trap you in a corner for 15 minutes just to have a oneway conversation with you about how fantastic [insert brand name here] is.