Apple iWatch: Release date
Early 2015 was what Apple originally stated but Tim Cook has since confirmed that the Apple Watch go on sale on 24 April, with pre-orders open from 10 April.
There's a heart rate monitor built in
Optical heart rate monitors are just the ticket for wearables that intend to be used for sports. Apple's stuck one into the back of its watch and it uses infrared and standard LEDs to measure your capillary blood flow and detect your pulse. That's the good news.
It doesn't actually have GPS
And that's the bad news. Apple says that Watch uses the Wi-Fi and GPS information from your phone. That's rather like the Magellan Echo. On the one hand, that saves on battery life and bulk. On the other, you're going to have to go running with your mobile on you if you want to get proper metrics. That's not the future.
Digital Touch is the new Facetime
One of the most novel features of Watch is the Digital Touch idea. It's a person to person way of communicating to other Apple wearable wearers. You can sketch images, use it like a voice walkie-talkie, send a simple tap to let people know you're thinking of them or even make them feel your actual heartbeat vibrating on their wrist.
It might sound a little strange but these things can take off. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.
Apple Activity App
Fitness tracking is obviously an enormous part of the Apple Watch proposition and the company has split the offering into two main areas. The first is the Activity App. It's about health, movement, wellness and your daily routine rather than sports features, and there are three main areas within that. Each of them is based around filling up a coloured ring graphic throughout the course of each 24 hours. Complete the circle and you've hit your target.
The Move ring show how many calories you've burned and it'll suggest a new goal based on your history. Exercise fills up when you do any kind of activity at about the level of a brisk walk or beyond. About 30 minutes of that each day will see you right. Finally, there's Stand. If you're getting slothful, Watch tells you to get up. If you can manage one minute's standing in 12 different hours of your day, then you win.
Apple Workout app
Running, cycling and walking are what the Workout App tracks with, sadly, no mention of swimming or anything else for the time being. It plugs the GPS information from your mobile into data from the on-board accelerometer and heart-rate sensors to give you all the time, distance and pacing metrics you'll need. It will recommend goals for the day, words of encouragement during your sessions and detailed stats on milestones and achievements.
All of that, plus the data from the Activity App, is then collated on your iPhone using the Health app. Everything in there can then be joined up with whatever your favourite fitness plan of choice is.
While all of this looks amazing graphically, we suspect that current sports watch users will need a lot more to make them want to convert.
Apple Pay with Apple Watch
Apple Pay is an NFC contactless payment system introduced with the iPhone 6. It leverages all those loyalty, credit and debit card numbers that Apple users have been keeping tucked away in the Passbook app to process cash transfer just by waving your device in front of a reader in one of hundreds of thousands of locations in the US.
Apple Pay is set to work just the same with Apple Watch. You'll need to double click the button on the side, wave your wrist and then you get a buzz to confirm that it's all gone through.
Charging conundrum
The battery life mystery was finally solved at the 9 March Apple Watch event - the fruity wearable will require a daily charge with Tim Cook revealing an "all day" battery life of around 18 hours.
The charging cable is a MagSafe one and, although we bemoan the lack of a regular Micro USB, Apple isn't unique in offering a properietry charging solution for a smartwatch.
It tells the time too, with great accuracy
Apple was quick to mention that its watch is actually a good timekeeper too; a point worth making. It checks in and synchronises with a universal time standard through your phone's GPS to stay accurate to within 50ms. You can tell people that when they're late to meet you. They'll have to listen.
You don't need a brand new iPhone to use Apple Watch
While you do need an iPhone to use Apple Watch, it doesn't have to be the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. In fact, it doesn't even have to be the generation before either. Anything from the iPhone 5 onwards will do the trick. So, that's the 5, 5c, 5s, 6 and 6 Plus. That could have been a lot worse. The advantage, of course, to Apple is that there's already over 200 million potential customers out there.
Apple iWatch: Price
As stated above, prices start from £299 / $349. That gets you the 38mm Apple Watch Sport; it's £40 / $50 more for the 42mm model.
The regular Apple Watch has prices starting from £479 / $549 for 38mm and $599 for 42mm, going right up to £949 / $1,000+ .
The Apple Watch Edition, with its luxury materials, costs from £8,000 / $10,000 and will be in limited availability at selected stores.
Early 2015 was what Apple originally stated but Tim Cook has since confirmed that the Apple Watch go on sale on 24 April, with pre-orders open from 10 April.
There's a heart rate monitor built in
Optical heart rate monitors are just the ticket for wearables that intend to be used for sports. Apple's stuck one into the back of its watch and it uses infrared and standard LEDs to measure your capillary blood flow and detect your pulse. That's the good news.
It doesn't actually have GPS
And that's the bad news. Apple says that Watch uses the Wi-Fi and GPS information from your phone. That's rather like the Magellan Echo. On the one hand, that saves on battery life and bulk. On the other, you're going to have to go running with your mobile on you if you want to get proper metrics. That's not the future.
Digital Touch is the new Facetime
One of the most novel features of Watch is the Digital Touch idea. It's a person to person way of communicating to other Apple wearable wearers. You can sketch images, use it like a voice walkie-talkie, send a simple tap to let people know you're thinking of them or even make them feel your actual heartbeat vibrating on their wrist.
It might sound a little strange but these things can take off. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.
Apple Activity App
Fitness tracking is obviously an enormous part of the Apple Watch proposition and the company has split the offering into two main areas. The first is the Activity App. It's about health, movement, wellness and your daily routine rather than sports features, and there are three main areas within that. Each of them is based around filling up a coloured ring graphic throughout the course of each 24 hours. Complete the circle and you've hit your target.
The Move ring show how many calories you've burned and it'll suggest a new goal based on your history. Exercise fills up when you do any kind of activity at about the level of a brisk walk or beyond. About 30 minutes of that each day will see you right. Finally, there's Stand. If you're getting slothful, Watch tells you to get up. If you can manage one minute's standing in 12 different hours of your day, then you win.
Apple Workout app
Running, cycling and walking are what the Workout App tracks with, sadly, no mention of swimming or anything else for the time being. It plugs the GPS information from your mobile into data from the on-board accelerometer and heart-rate sensors to give you all the time, distance and pacing metrics you'll need. It will recommend goals for the day, words of encouragement during your sessions and detailed stats on milestones and achievements.
All of that, plus the data from the Activity App, is then collated on your iPhone using the Health app. Everything in there can then be joined up with whatever your favourite fitness plan of choice is.
While all of this looks amazing graphically, we suspect that current sports watch users will need a lot more to make them want to convert.
Apple Pay with Apple Watch
Apple Pay is an NFC contactless payment system introduced with the iPhone 6. It leverages all those loyalty, credit and debit card numbers that Apple users have been keeping tucked away in the Passbook app to process cash transfer just by waving your device in front of a reader in one of hundreds of thousands of locations in the US.
Apple Pay is set to work just the same with Apple Watch. You'll need to double click the button on the side, wave your wrist and then you get a buzz to confirm that it's all gone through.
Charging conundrum
The battery life mystery was finally solved at the 9 March Apple Watch event - the fruity wearable will require a daily charge with Tim Cook revealing an "all day" battery life of around 18 hours.
The charging cable is a MagSafe one and, although we bemoan the lack of a regular Micro USB, Apple isn't unique in offering a properietry charging solution for a smartwatch.
It tells the time too, with great accuracy
Apple was quick to mention that its watch is actually a good timekeeper too; a point worth making. It checks in and synchronises with a universal time standard through your phone's GPS to stay accurate to within 50ms. You can tell people that when they're late to meet you. They'll have to listen.
You don't need a brand new iPhone to use Apple Watch
While you do need an iPhone to use Apple Watch, it doesn't have to be the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. In fact, it doesn't even have to be the generation before either. Anything from the iPhone 5 onwards will do the trick. So, that's the 5, 5c, 5s, 6 and 6 Plus. That could have been a lot worse. The advantage, of course, to Apple is that there's already over 200 million potential customers out there.
Apple iWatch: Price
As stated above, prices start from £299 / $349. That gets you the 38mm Apple Watch Sport; it's £40 / $50 more for the 42mm model.
The regular Apple Watch has prices starting from £479 / $549 for 38mm and $599 for 42mm, going right up to £949 / $1,000+ .
The Apple Watch Edition, with its luxury materials, costs from £8,000 / $10,000 and will be in limited availability at selected stores.