Apple just unveiled its much rumored wearable product live on stage during its press event this morning giving us a first look at its entrance into the smartwatch market. The device is officially called Apple Watch, pairs with iPhone, and sports an all-new user interface that is quite a departure from anything we’ve seen on other iOS devices.
It’s driven Apple from the beginning. This compulsion to take incredibly powerful technology, and make it accessible, relevant, and ultimately, personal.”– Jony Ive
Perhaps the biggest surprise on the Apple Watch is that Apple is using a traditional watch dial on the side of the device as an input mechanism for navigating the device. That “Digital Crown” allows you to scroll, zoom, and navigate through the device without obscuring the display like a touchscreen smartwatch. The crown also acts as the device’s Home button. While Apple is focusing on using the Digital Crown dial for navigation, the device is capable of detecting touch input on the display and includes haptic feedback capabilities with a “Taptic Engine” feature. In addition, Apple Watch detects when users lift their wrists to activate the display. Here’s a look at the Apple Watch home screen:
The screen is a Retina display that Apple notes is “laminated to a single crystal of sapphire, the hardest transparent material after diamond.” Other specs in Apple Watch include a gyroscope and accelerometer, while GPS functionality comes from a wirelessly-connected iPhone. Apple also said it’s including infrared and visible-light LEDs, along with photosensors that will detect pulse rate and other data. Apple didn’t go over specifics for battery life but did note it’s using an inductive wireless charging solution pictured in the gallery below.
Apple showed off a few of Apple Watch’s stock apps during the event including things you’d expect, like music control for a connected iOS device or Mac, notifications (with haptic feedback), and the ability to swap out watch faces. Haptic feedback plays into interesting new messaging features that let users tap and draw to communicate. For instance, the feature lets users capture and send their heartbeat to one another.
It also showed off integration with iOS devices and Mac to curate content that appears on the device, for example, favoriting photos on other devices make them available to view on Apple Watch. Apple also demoed navigation on the device with walking directions that use haptic feedback to notify users for turn-by-turn directions:
As expected, fitness is also a big part of the Apple Watch software with dedicated Fitness and Workout apps that include features for tracking fitness metrics and sharing that data with the Health app in iOS 8. The device also works with the company’s new Apple Pay payment solution.
Apple is making the device open to third-party developers as well (many of which have already created experiences) through an SDK for developers. Apple noted a few apps today including BMW, Pinterest, Facebook, MLB, Honeywell, Nike, and others that are already developing apps for Apple Watch.
Apple Watch will arrive in three models– Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport, and Apple Watch Edition– with various sizing options and unique features for each. For instance, the Apple Watch Sport models feature a plastic band and aluminum body, while the Apple Watch Edition features high-end materials like 18k gold. The standard Apple Watch features stainless steel with plastic, leather, or steel bands. Apple Watch works with iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5.
Apple Watch will start at $350. Full details on pricing and availability are here.
Apple Unveils Apple Watch—Apple’s Most Personal Device Ever
CUPERTINO, California—September 9, 2014—Apple® today unveiled Apple Watch™—its most personal device ever—featuring revolutionary new technologies and a pioneering user interface with a beautiful design that honors the rich tradition of precision watchmaking. Apple Watch introduces a specially designed and engineered Digital Crown that provides an innovative way to scroll, zoom and navigate. The Digital Crown is Apple’s most revolutionary navigation tool since the iPod® Click Wheel and iPhone® Multi-Touch™. Apple Watch will enable you to communicate in new ways right from your wrist by sending and receiving messages, answering calls to your iPhone, and with Digital Touch, sending something as personal as your own heartbeat. Apple Watch also introduces comprehensive health and fitness apps that can help people lead healthier lives. Apple Watch is available in three distinct collections—Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition.
“Apple introduced the world to several category-defining products, the Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “And once again Apple is poised to captivate the world with a revolutionary product that can enrich people’s lives. It’s the most personal product we’ve ever made.”
“With Apple Watch, we’ve developed multiple technologies and an entirely new user interface specifically for a device that’s designed to be worn. It blurs the boundary between physical object and user interface,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of Design. “We’ve created an entire range of products that enable unparalleled personalization.”
Apple Watch introduces a revolutionary design and iOS-based user interface created specifically for a smaller device. Apple Watch features the Digital Crown, an innovative way to scroll, zoom and navigate fluidly, without obstructing the display. The Digital Crown also serves as the Home button and a convenient way to access Siri®. The Retina® display on Apple Watch features Force Touch, a technology that senses the difference between a tap and a press, providing a new way to quickly and easily access controls within apps. Apple Watch introduces the Taptic Engine and a built-in speaker that together discreetly enable an entirely new vocabulary of alerts and notifications you can both hear and feel. Apple custom-designed its own S1 SiP (System in Package) to miniaturize an entire computer architecture onto a single chip. Apple Watch also features Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 4.0 to pair seamlessly with your iPhone.
Apple Watch comes in three distinct collections—Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition—available in two different sizes, 38 mm and 42 mm. The beautifully designed and durable enclosures are crafted from custom alloys of polished or space black stainless steel, space gray or silver anodized aluminum and 18-karat rose or yellow gold. Apple also created an entire range of watch straps: the high-performance elastomer Sport Band; the Milanese Loop in a flexible magnetic stainless steel mesh; the Leather Loop in soft, quilted leather that conceals magnets for quick fastening and adjustment; the leather Modern Buckle, which closes with a solid metal clasp; the leather Classic Buckle; and the stainless steel Link Bracelet. Apple Watch comes with a unique charging system that combines Apple’s MagSafe® technology with inductive charging for a quick connection that snaps into place.
Apple Watch is an extremely accurate timepiece that’s also customizable for personal expression. Apple Watch comes with 11 watch faces ranging from traditional analog faces to new faces like the dynamic Timelapse face; the Astronomy face with its interactive, real-time 3D model of the earth, sun, moon and planets; and the Solar face, a contemporary sundial. Apple Watch can be personalized in appearance and capability with additional information such as upcoming events, moonphases or your activity level, enabling millions of possible configurations.
Taking advantage of its location on your wrist, Apple Watch provides timely information that can be viewed at a glance. Smart Replies and dictation let you respond quickly to messages, and with Handoff, you can start a message on your Apple Watch and continue where you left off on your iPhone. Swipe up from the watch face for Glances that quickly show you 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 people, so you can contact them quickly and easily. Digital Touch allows you to send a sketch, a gentle tap, an audio message through Walkie Talkie or even your own heartbeat. Apple Watch lets you interact quickly and conveniently with the world around you, so you can pay for coffee using Apple Pay™,* board a plane with a Passbook® boarding pass, control your Apple TV® or get directions.
Apple Watch includes a groundbreaking Activity app designed to help motivate you to be more active throughout the day, and an all-new Workout app designed to provide the metrics you need during dedicated workout sessions. Apple Watch uses the accelerometer, a built-in heart rate sensor, GPS and Wi-Fi from your iPhone to provide a comprehensive picture of your daily activity. 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 Fitness app on iPhone collects your activity data so you can see your activity history in greater detail. Apple Watch uses this history to suggest personal, realistic goals, reward fitness milestones and keep you motivated.
Apple introduces WatchKit, providing new tools and APIs for developers to create unique experiences designed for the wrist. With Apple Watch, developers can create WatchKit apps with actionable notifications and Glances that provide timely information. Starting later next year, developers will be able to create fully native apps for Apple Watch.
Pricing & Availability
Apple Watch will be available in three collections. Apple Watch, with a polished or space black stainless steel case and a choice of straps; Apple Watch Sport, with a space gray or silver anodized aluminum case and Sport Band; and Apple Watch Edition, with an 18-karat rose or yellow gold case and a choice of straps exclusive to this collection. Apple Watch 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. Apple Watch will be available in early 2015 starting at $349 (US). Apple Watch is compatible with iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus running the latest version of iOS 8.
* Apple Pay is only available in the US.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
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Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Apple Watch, iPod, iPhone, Multi-Touch, Siri, Retina, MagSafe, Apple Pay, Passbook and Apple TV are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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Gawd, that’s ugly. If that thing was on my wrist I’d cut off my arm.
Go kill yourself bitch
Hahaha. Get him!!
You’re out of your mind. This is absolutely stunning.
I’m glad I don’t go on to 9to5google.com to complain about something I don’t use. You need to stay off this site.
I’m a huge Apple Fanboy. I was counting down the minutes to this livestream three months ago. Even I think the thing is hideous
I agree with the notion that it didn’t meet my visual expectations. I can’t get past the convex bulge on the underside. I can’t imagine how that would be comfortable.
There is no convex bulge on the underside.
Yeah, there is.
http://imgur.com/GPDUv3E
(Since my comment with a clickable image link is awaiting moderation, here is a mangled link to parse yourself)
imgur(dot)com(slash)GPDUv3E
most wrists are flat and the watch won’t stay flat to your wrist to feel the pulse hence the convex shape… just hoping the haptic vibration is strong enough to wake the dead.. Im deaf and can’t hear alarm clocks and i have a habit of missing alarms and missing dr appointments getting late to work etc
Herb your such a troller…. Cant stay away from this site can you. Its the only way you can see what innovation is!
If I see innovation I will let you know.
Blind faith in Apple products stifles innovation.
There is a convex bulge. What are you talking about?
Yaaay herbie perbie is here. What do you know about design you shamesung prick?
I was in college in the mid-80s using typewriters when I discovered the Mac Plus. All the haters said it was expensive ugly and a toy and people who bought it were drinking Kool-Aid. They said the same thing about MacOS, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Yet, these were huge successes and copied by lesser companies. Troll, troll your boat. BTW the ugliest thing I have seen is the Galaxy Gear, you can pick one up at a steep discount if you like.
The huge range of choices is a good move. A watch is a personal item and what might be good for me would be lousy for someone else. I am intrigued by the sport watch.
You can’t really say because something is a success it is automatically a good product. The most popular things usually are crap mass marketed things (this was the argument Apple people used against windows when macs weren’t popular, and use now because android is more popular). You can’t have it both ways in your argument.
This thing is not good. The iphone 6 looks much, much nicer, especially the plus.
lol i was wondering when you’d show up bozo
Agreed. I am shocked how ugly this thing is. They normally nail design, this is a total miss. That wheel / button on the side is awful. Maybe next model will be better but this round goes to Moto360.
Why is there always a gold, “high end”, luxury “edition” now? Apple under Tim Cook is getting so messy and unbearably tacky.
Please do not talk about innovation when you look at the ugliest fucking thing to ever come out of Cupertino
Herb knows what’s up, the rest of you “stunning” boys can go jump off a cliff
$350 is way to much
Impressed. Clean design. Clean crisp design sophistication is what the wearables have been missing so far.
I missed the demo. But will the watch work off of a wi-fi hot spot phone that’s not an iPhone?
The regular model requires an iPhone. The fitness and gold look like they might be able to be iPhone free. At least from the wording of Tim.
Great thanks, taoprophet420
Nope, it’s been confirmed all 3 models require an iPhone 5 or 6
Ugly aside. It’s pointless, if you need to use it WITH an iPhone, why are you gonna spend all that time fiddling about trying to get to a text or find a map on it, it actually does less than an iphone. I was looking forward to the health sensors, but they weren’t revolutionary either, it measures your pulse, well done you’re alive. also its meant to monitor your sleep (i assume just from the usual motion recognition like you get with sleepcycle), which then leads to the question, when do i charge it if i’m wearing it to monitor mysleep, whereas with an iphone i can monitor it and charge it up simultaneously. with the watch i would have to charge it after i had got up, which would involve taking it off and leaving it to charge for however long, which kinda ruins the idea of it being a wearable. other than for monitoring your fitness i don’t see a clear purpose for it, and that is flawed, is heart rate just the best indicator of fitness? And you can get an app that monitors your heart rate using the iphone camera in exactly the same way that the watch is doing it. and do i want to be ‘tapped’ on my wrist everytime someone tweets, emails, texts, calls, interacts with me on an app. probably not. and then to top it off that digital crown just seems shit and it’s fugly as hell. I was expecting something like those curved glass wrist bands that have been visualised before, that would have been a lot better i feel. i can’t imagine these selling well. and that was there big announcement. i can hear steve screaming! not impressed.
I am disappointed it is a fitness device and not a health device. Heart rate or pulse isn’t anything special at all. Where is breathing rate, oxygen levels, glucose levels or anything that makes it truly a health monitoring device. Maybe they are waiting for FDA approval to reveal what the sensors can do. I can’t imagine those for Infrared sensors can only monitor heart rate.
Design is just okay. I doubt Steve Jobs would have approved it (Moto 360 is better). Apple watch will definitely beat Android wear on its usability though (Apple integration with other iProducts)
So, realistically, what service does this “Casio” looking little gem provide, that the iPhone in my pocket does not. I don’t think it will replace the watch on my wrist anytime soon!
Memo fro Sony HQ: could Tim please ensure they remove the apple logo from their smartwatch when they return it after the presentation?
So if I went out for a run and wanted to track my run with runkeeper, I would still have to bring my phone along? That defeats the purpose for me, especially with the larger phone being more of a hindrance during running.
To people who say this watch is ugly: ugly by what standard? The unrealistic standard set by visual designers who draw instead of actually make products? Sure, a 360′ wrap around display would be cool. You know what would be cooler? A high resolution hologram with hand gesture control — come on, be realistic will you?
So was I swept off my feet by this watch? No. But do I think it looks good overall? Yes. It impressed me more than the first iPad. Given the success of the iPad, I’d bet good money on this watch being another big hit.
Wow, Apple blew it. The new watch looks like an iPod Nano on steroids. I am really disappointed. Just pre-ordered a Moto360 along with a Galaxy Note 4 on Amazon. At the same time I canceled the upgrade from iPhone 5S to iPhone6. That’s it, I’m out!
Lol, these posts are always so funny, like anyone actually believes any of it.
But hey! I just canceled my android phone order and signed on to get an iphone! So i guess no company really lost anything now! Lol
I’m glad I made your day. :-) It’s just the way it is. iPhone 6, Apple watch and iOS 8 are severe disappointments. Apple used to be a trendsetter. It’s over, I guess.
This is an old man’s watch!! We have seen this before in Back to the Future!!
But will it BLEND ?
Maybe calling these things “Smartwatches” is wrong – smart, yes they are, but most out now are thick, chunky, and not handsome in the way a Patek Phillippe can be. By the time you add in screen, battery, electronics, and charging coil they are all very much the same – thick/large. It will take a few generations to end up with something slim and handsome.
Do remember all these comments here and elsewhere are also doing Apple’s market survey into the level of acceptability of Watch 1 – why do you think Apple announced it so early ?; why, to gauge buyer reaction and so so arrive at how many to make, and to move on with design of watch 2.
I see Ives is busy ripping off ideas from Braun again – note the scroll wheel on their watch: http://www.braun-clocks.com/watch/BN0106S
First Google Glass bow Apple watch, we are going back in time on fashion. Soon we will have a computer in a girdle. Personally I am waiting for an IOS version of orthopedic shoes.