In many ways, the more interesting announcement of Apple’s ‘Spring Forward’ event this morning is the all-new MacBook, but the Apple Watch shouldn’t be ignored too. We have already covered many of the features it will have, but today, we were able to get a bit more information from the keynote.
Just like how Steve Jobs teased that the original iPhone “is an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator”, the Apple watch has three tent poles too: time, communications, and fitness.
The physical dial lets you jog through huge lists; pressing the crown down will initiate Siri for voice searches and to voice-command actions like setting reminders and dictating messages. A button underneath it gives you quick access to your favorite contacts.
As a smartwatch, you can be sure the time never goes out of sync as it’ll update the time via the internet, through the paired iPhone. Just like any other smartwatch, there will be custom watch faces you could swap too. Some of the watch faces also allow you to display additional information such as weather, world time, date, and even the next calendar event.
As a communicator, this is where things get a bit more interesting. ‘Glances’ lets you swipe from the bottom of the screen to see quick information like calendar appointments, view current heart rate, et cetera. Notifications can be viewed via a swipe-down, but the “Taptic” engine will even give discreet vibration on your wrist when you receive notifications. Since it has a built-in speaker and microphone, not only can you use it for dictation and voice messaging, you can even answer phone calls with it (when paired with an iPhone, of course).
Third party apps include Alarm.com, Instagram, Shazam, Twitter, Uber, and WeChat, plus other apps that offers sports scores, stocks, hotel reservations, boarding passes, anything a developer can think off. And yes, Apple Pay works too.
As a fitness tracker, it could give you your fitness metrics at a glance, letting you review your progress at the end of the week, where you could also set goals for the next week. Without a GPS, I’m sure the Watch can even get accurate GPS tracking through the iPhone.
Unfortunately though, as rumored previously, the Apple Watch will only have an 18-hour battery life. Now, Apple has always been modest about its battery claims, so we can be sure it’ll last right around that mark, perhaps a bit more. However, 18 hours is still not good enough when you compare to some Android Wear that could go for two days, or the Pebble that lasts seven days or more without batting an eye. Apple Watch does have a fancy MagSafe inductive charger that charges the Watch from 0% to 80% in 1.5 hour and to 100% in 2.5 hours.
Here’s the breakdown of the test Apple has done to achieve the 18-hour mark:
“Testing conducted by Apple in March 2015 using preproduction Apple Watch and software paired with an iPhone using preproduction software. All-day battery life is based on 18 hours with the following use: 90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app use, and a 30-minute workout with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth, over the course of 18 hours. Battery life varies by use, configuration, and many other factors; actual results will vary.”
Surprisingly, it isn’t the Apple Watch that’s the lowest-end, but instead it the “Zirconia bead-blasted”, aluminum Sports edition that has the lowest price; but even so, the 38mm band model starts at US$349, while the stainless steel Watch starts at US$549. The 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition is even more expensive, at a whopping US$10,000, but even that’s just the starting price.
Apple Watch Sports
38mm: US$349
42mm: US$399
Apple Watch
38mm: US$549–US$1,049
42mm: US$599–US$1,099
Apple Watch Edition
Starts at US$10,000
Apple Watch pre-orders starts on April 10th, and will begin shipping April 24th, but only in these markets: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For more Apple Watch, visit http://www.apple.com/my/watch/.
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