If you haven’t heard, the rumours were right, Apple have been busy working on their very own smartwatch – the Apple Watch – and last night it was unveiled to the world at a big Apple event which also saw the launch of two new smartphones, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.
Unfortunately, we (and you) are going to have to wait a bit longer to get one of Apple’s Watches on our wrist as they are currently in production and are likely to be available to buy early next year. There are three versions of the Apple Watch, known as ‘Collections’ – the Apple Watch made from stainless steel, Watch Sport (aluminium) and the 18ct gold Apple Watch Edition. As well as the 3 Collections to choose from, the Apple Watch will be available in 2 sizes in each design, one of which measuring 38mm high and the other 42mm. There are literally hundreds of ways to customise your Watch with different coloured metal, leather and synthetic straps and various displays you can choose for your touch screen watch face.
As you would expect from Apple, a lot has gone into their Watch design. It sports a top quality high-end rectangular watch face and boasts a tough sapphire glass curved screen. On the side of the Apple Watch are 2 buttons, one of which looks like a traditional round watch button and is called the digital crown and another button which is longer and flatter. As zooming in and out of a watch-sized screen could be frustrating, the digital crown is essentially the button you rotate to get a closer look of apps, images and maps. In addition it’s the Apple Watch’s home button. The button underneath the digital crown controls your contacts, calls and messages and can be used to send a unique nudge to any of your contacts who also have an Apple Watch by a tap or two of the screen.
The Apple Watch works alongside an iPhone to keep you in constant contact with your phone calls, texts, emails and social media updates. You just need to have an iPhone 5 or a later model somewhere nearby as it uses Bluetooth to connect both devices. You can also transfer incoming calls to your iPhone and reply to emails which need a more detailed response on your handset but the Apple Watch gives you a good overview of any messages coming in. Siri is also available on the Watch which means its quick and easy to dictate quick replies to maximise productivity.
Another great feature of the Apple Watch is its health and fitness monitoring capabilities. There are two very handy apps called the Activity App and Workout App which keep track of all of your daily movements so you can see how many steps you’ve taken, how many calories you’ve burned and how long you’ve spent standing up or sitting down. The Watch can also monitor your heart rate to see how hard you’re exercising and will set you goals to push you further each week. The Workout App is useful for recording the type of activity you’ve been doing and for challenging you to achieve targets.
Similar to the iPhone, the Apple Watch has many other built-in apps such as Apple Maps for navigating your way around, a Passbook for storing important documents and it features a stopwatch, alarms, a calendar and weather information amongst others. The Watch can also be used to control Apple TV, the music playback on your iPhone and it’s a great remote control for the iSight camera on your iPhone.
We’ll bring you more on the Apple Watch and details on how and when you can get your hands on one as soon as we know.
