Apple has announced the Apple Watch -- a wearable smartwatch with a physical wheel on one side.
The long-rumoured watch features support for health monitoring and fitness as well as apps such as mapping, email, music, photos, temperature, calendar, Siri and dictation, messaging, heart rate detection and more.
It also tells the time.
The "digital crown" is what Apple has called the rotary wheel on the edge, which is also a button for returning to the device's homescreen. Twisting it allows you to zoom in, for use with the supported maps app, for example; or to scroll a list, such as with messages.
The Apple Watch has a Retina Display that knows the difference "between a tap and a press" thanks to a sensor that detects pressure from a finger on the display.
At Apple's press event today, which Wired.co.uk attended, the company showed an interface of multiple coloured circles for the Apple Watch, launched by a tap. These can be arranged in any order according to the user.
To view information Apple has designed an interface called Glances. By swiping up from the bottom of the watch's display, a series of cards display information such as the next meeting in a calendar, a message, or what song is playing. Music tracks, for example, can be paused and skipped from these interactive screens.
It can be used as a viewfinder for the iPhone's camera, or to control the Apple TV, to name a couple of highlighted use cases.
Media such as music can be stored on the device, although the Apple Watch requires an iPhone be paired in order to function. It is not yet clear if any functions will be available to non-iPhone users.
An intriguing feature is the maps app, which in addition to offering directions also takes advantage of the haptic vibration system inside the device. In practice, this allows Apple's Maps app to not only plot a journey from your current location, but guide you using different types of vibrations on the wrist. One vibration might mean turn left, another means turn right. Apple claims this allows navigation without looking at the screen.
Apple announced a pair of fitness-specific apps for the device.
These apps monitor calories burned, distance and places travelled, workout intensity, plus will log the information it records into a calendar for tracking over several days, weeks or months. As the device learns a user's routines, it can suggest fitness goals or activities if goals have not been hit in a certain timeframe.
If a notification comes in, for example from a calendar invite, the watch vibrates. The screen only displays the notification if the user then lifts their wrist, and swiping up from the bottom of the screen brings up a set of context-specific actions. In the calendar example this might be to accept the invitation to an event.
Other features include customisable animated emoji characters for responding to messages, dictation for speech-to-text using Siri that allows wearers to ask questions such as "what movies are playing tonight", and the ability to send subtle communications to other Apple Watch wearers that include small finger-painted drawings or your own heartbeat. Apple believes this makes communication much more personal.
Inside is an Apple-designed S1 processor, along with a haptic sensor. Alongside these are an array of sensors that monitor heart rate among other things. It connects to an iPhone to take advantage of its GPS and Wi-Fi chips for life-logging utilities such as steps taken and places visited.
Supported third-party apps were shown today to include Facebook and Twitter. But Apple also announced WatchKit, which is a set of APIs and software to allow developers to build applications for Apple Watch. One demonstration showed the watch's ability to unlock hotel room doors by waving the device in front of a supported lock.
It's likely this will be very limited at first and the technology that enables this was not revealed. Other third-party apps include Nike, Honeywell for controlling home appliances, and sports providers delivering live scores of games.
There are several replaceable leather straps as well as a range of sports band for use during exercise, fastening using magnets or a metal clasp. There is also a classic buckle option or a stainless steel link bracelet. These latter options should appeal to fans of traditional watch design.
The Apple Watch will be supported on the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 5s, 5c and 5. It will cost $349 in the US and will launch in early-2015.
Apple's announcement mimics the strategy it played during the netbook craze of 2007. While companies such as Asus raced to push netbooks as a cheap companion to a desktop or laptop PC, Apple waited. A year or so later it released the MacBook Air, which became so successful it ultimately replaced the consumer MacBook line. It then released the iPad at a highly competitive price point. The result was a slow decline in netbook sales as companies tried to replicate Apple's success with tablet computers.
The same trend has been occurring over the last 12 months as manufacturers push the smartwatch category of wearable devices into consumers' collective consciousness. Between Android Wear as a software platform, and Motorola, Samsung, Sony and others' supporting hardware products, the smartwatch industry is doing its best to beat Apple's hand before it's shown its cards.
One research group has suggested shipments of smartwatches in 2014 could hit 8.9 million globally, rising to 214 million by 2018.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
