It's finally here. The shadow of an "iWatch" has already spawned an army of smartwatches but now Apple's first wearable is here in the flesh. It's beautiful, it's called the "Apple Watch," and you control it by using that little watch knob.
DesignConsidering that Apple's been making a ton of fashion-world hires, it's no surprise that the Apple Watch looks great. No circle screen here, but still we've got a beaut on our hands. It comes in the form of a rounded little rectangle doodad complete with a wide range of replaceable straps.
But maybe the best part of the design is the control screen. Instead of relying on multi-touch gestures designed for bigger screens, the Apple Watch leans on the use of the "digital crown," that knob you typically use to adjust the time. Clicking it goes to the homescreen and twisting it zooms. Think clickwheel 2.0. And the Apple Watch's interface is designed to fit it specifically. These straps are, according to Jony Ive, are often "supple" and run the gamut from leather to metal to more sporty options. There are six bands to start, and offer different types of sizing from tradition spoke-in-hole types, to things that are a bit more variable.
And if you're worried about the watch being too big, you're in luck. Not only are there smaller strap options for the Apple Watch, there's also a smaller version for ladies (and men with lady wrists).
There's also a Sport version (with a 60 percent stronger alloy case), and the Apple Watch Edition that comes in—let's face it—gross gold.
And that screen? Yeah it's sapphire and (nigh) unscratchable.
InterfaceThe Apple Watch's interface is completely designed around the use of the "digital crown" aka "spinny knob."
That's not to say there isn't still swiping. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen gives you something called a "Glance," a look at some information that's hand to have easy access to. Kinda like Google No
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And so you never have to type on your Apple Watch (you should never ever do), the Apple Watch comes with a menu of common responses you can pick to reply to a text message, or of course you can dictate through Siri; Siri is always just a digital crown-press away.
Or of course if none of that works for you, you can also reply with Apple's inexplicable and creepy Apple Watch-specific emoji because, uh, well I don't know why you would do that.
Specs
As expected, Apple's iWatch has a strong focus on fitness. The iWatch acts as both a heart-rate monitor and a pedometer, tying into the Health app in iOS 8 to keep all your stats in the same place. There's no word on battery life yet, but Tim Cook says you can wear the watch "all day" so here's to hoping.
The Apple Watch screen not only takes touch input, but also pressure input, the idea that you can use light taps and presses to differentiate between different types of input. The Apple Watch also has haptic feedback so it can dish out force-feedback instead of just taking it. The Apple Watch also supports something called "Digital Touch" where you can share these sort of taps with other Apple Watches (and the people wearing them) so instead of texting you can just send someone a tap. Take that, Yo.
The Apple Watch only works with iPhone (duh) but it's not just for the new ones; the Apple Watch is compatible with everything iPhone 5 and up.
AppsLike Android Wear, the Apple Watch does not require apps of its own (thank god). Instead, notifications from all your apps will just get shunted all the way over to your wrist automatically with no work required from any developer. Here's what that looks like, with a Facebook notification:
But for developers who want to go further, there's WatchKit, a tool that will help devs easily make their Apple Watch notifications more robust, so that Twitter notifications will show images, and the like. Here's a better-er notification from Pinterest, thanks to WatchKit.
Health and FitnessAnd of course there's the health angle. The Apple Watch uses an accelerometer to measure your movement, tracks your heart rate, and uses the GPS and Wi-Fi in your iPhone to track your movements on a grander scale.
The Activity app for iWatch pulls these features altogether into a single app that tries to encourage you into being more active. It measures how long you've been sitting, how long you've been standing, and how long you've been doing "brisk" energy, using a series of rings. Between the three of them, they give you a quick, glanceable look at what you've done today, and push you to beat daily calorie goals.
EXPAND.
Price and AvailabilityDon't expect an Apple Watch for Christmas; this sucker doesn't ship until Spring of 2015. And when it does, it'll cost you a cool $350. More expensive than standard smartwatch fare, but if it can live up to its potential (and last a full day on a charge), it doesn't seem like a bad deal.
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