Reading several reviews in the internet about the recent announcement of Apple and their Watch unveil several interesting
comments. One of the most favorite is from MACWORD who wrote back in Sep 2014 “We've
collected everything we know about the Apple Watch, including the comments of
our colleague who got to try the Apple Watch out, and we can reveal that we
really do think it will transform the smartwatch industry.”
Well let us see.
First look review of the Apple Watch
As expected, Apple unveiled a smartwatch on 9 September
2014. The biggest surprise was, perhaps, its name: Apple Watch (with an Apple
logo in front of the word watch, similar to the Apple TV), rather than iWatch
as had been expected.
The best news was that Apple’s not just launched a smartwatch,
it’s launched a whole raft of smartwatches. By combining the three different
Apple Watch categories, the two different face sizes, and the accompaniment of
straps, there is the potential for 34 different Apple Watches, so there is a
style to suit anybody. And crucially, since Apple is offering two watch face
sizes, the Apple Watch will be as comfortable on a female wrist as it is a
man’s wrist.
I personal do not wear a clock, so I'll also not use a little SmartWatch
Who is the target
audience to buy and wear this SmartWatch is my essential question? Will it be
big community of Apple fans? Will maybe the classic swiss Swatch fan migrate to
buy an Apple Watch? There are many devices which support fitness enthusiasts
for measuring pulse, GPRS coordinates and many more, will they final be
replaced by the Apple Watch?
First look on one of the 3 design of the Apple Watch
I am personal not sure
how to judge it, but I make a wild guess. By entering the market which is
expected by February or March 2015 Apple will need to come up with a surprise
to keep also the stock holders satisfied. R&D and manufacturing goals of
the device are rated high and will impact the balance sheet. My wild guess is
the announcement with partners who bundle the devices as accessory to succeed. Enough
predictions, let us look a little behind some facts.
What does it do?
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
connected smart home devices.
The Apple Watch
seems intent to be a synthesis of many other 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
built-in features like voice calling seem like what the Samsung's Tizen
OS-based Gear watches 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 fitness tracker, 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 lock on a front
door at home. 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.
More Tech … Apple Watch Specs
To start off with, there will be two different sizes of the
Apple Watch to choose from. The smaller option for dainty wrists is 38mm tall,
while the larger option is 42mm. That’s something that we haven’t seen from any
of the Android or Android Wear alternatives so far.
Each Apple Watch is kitted out with a Retina display.
Although Apple has claimed this is an “extremely energy efficient” option,
precise Apple Watch battery life figures remain shrouded in mystery.
Fortunately we do have some idea on staying power, as Tim
Cook revealed the device would require charging every day. The CEO said:
"We think that people are going to use it so much you will wind up
charging it daily."
In terms of resolution, the developer kit revealed the
smaller Apple Watch will tout a 1.5-inch 272 x 340 display, while the larger
variant will boast a 1.65-inch 312 x 390 display.
The Apple Watch display can sense force via a new feature
call Force Touch. This will allow the device to distinguish between a tap and a
press for more contextually specific controls.
Reacting to that, there’s also the Taptic Engine. This is a
linear actuator within the Apple Watch that offers haptic feedback for your
wrist, tapping you with notifications or on specific sides of your wrist for
Apple Maps navigation.
The Watch also features a custom built heart rate sensor
that uses infrared, visible-light LEDS and photodiodes to detect your pulse and
heart rate. Combining this with data from the accelerometer and the GPS and
Wi-Fi found in your iPhone, the Apple Watch can track your physical movement.
Under the hood you’ll find the Apple S1 processor, which
Apple states is “an entire computer architecture on a single chip.” There’s no
specific specs for the S1 yet, but it is protected from the elements, wear and
impact by resin.
Rumors suggest Apple has placed a fairly sizeable order of
30-40 million S1 chip units, indicating the firm has high hopes for its
wrist-hugging tech. With the Apple Watch release date tipped for Q1 2015,
production is all but certain to have already started.
Apple Watch Features
Immediately you’ll notice that the Apple Watch has a custom
version of iOS, with all your apps presented in small circles with the Watch
app always at the center. The entire UI is customizable, so you can choose how
the apps are presented on the home screen and how they appear in full screen on
your wrist.
Although the Apple Watch features a touch screen, you’ll be
using the Digital Crown built into the Watch’s winder as the primary input
method.
The Digital Crown is a unique take on the traditional watch
winder and functions in a similar way. Turning the Digital Crown lets you
scroll through results, zoom in and out on Apple Maps and other features too.
Pushing it in takes you back to the Home Screen and gives you access to Siri,
which is also built into the Apple Watch.
There are a range of watch faces to choose from and each one
can be further customized with different colors of functions. These faces
include options for stopwatches, weather updates, stock quotes and other
glanceable information. Apple claims the opportunities for personalization are
“virtually endless”.
In terms of fitness, there’s the accelerometer built-in, but
you’ll need to use the GPS and Wi-Fi from your phone to calculate how far
you’ve travelled. To help that, Apple has introduced two new fitness apps to
keep you motivated and track your progress.
The Activity app has a simple graphic to display your daily
activity with a different colored ring for each of the following: Move,
Exercise and Stand. Move tracks the amount of calories you’ve burnt, Exercise
shows the minute count of brisk activity undertaken, while the Stand ring
tracks how long you’ve spent off your feet – encouraging you to get up off your
bottom every now and then.
The Workout app is more intense. When you’re undertaking a
dedicated cardio workout it’ll offer real time stats on the exercise time,
distance travelled, calories burnt and the pace you’re keeping – whether that’s
running, walking or cycling. All these stats are stored in the Activity app
too.
To keep you motivated the Workout app sets you personalized
daily goals, alerts you with reminders and gives you achievements for your
perseverance.
As with the new features coming in iOS 8 and OS X Mavericks,
the Apple Watch will let you start reading or doing something on your wrist and
then pick it up later on the iPhone.
Apple Watch Apps
Apps has been revamped for the Apple Watch. Messages, for
example, lets you quick reply to texts and iMessages with automatically created
answers taken from the content of the messages themselves. If you don’t fancy
one of those answers you can reply with one of the new emojis instead. These
can be customized too, as you can adjust the eyes and mouth of the faces for
example, to make sure you’re portrayed the exact emotion you’re currently
feeling.
Digital Touch means you could also reply with a little
hand-drawn message instead. Sketch is used to draw something quickly, and your
friend can see you drawing from their end.
There’s a new Walkie-Talkie app that lets you use the built-in
speaker and microphone to trade sound bites, while Tap lets you send Morse Code
style taps that will pulsate on your friend’s Apple Watch. Pressing two fingers
on the screen records and sends your heartbeat to your friend, if you’re into
that kind of thing.
Pressing the button beneath the Digital Crown brings up all
your Friends that you’ve recently interacted with. You can send them any of the
above with a tap from there.
Beside game developers like EA already announced to develop
games you can find the classics calender, maps or my favorite passbook. We will
need to see if we have another area of iTunes apps to maintain which are not
compatible with all iOS devices.
What is coming next
Well is this the question we have when we think about Apple.
Read also 11 Things you need to know about the Apple Watch
http://www.stuff.tv/apple/10-things-you-need-know-about-iwatch/news
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