Apple’s new Watch has been on the tech lover’s watch list for some time now. Would be called the iWatch? Would it make and take phone calls? Would it be similar to Android Wear or something much better? Is it water resistant or water proof? What would battery life be like and how much will it cost?
We have answers to most of those questions now following the Apple Watch unveiling – but not all.
We know that the Apple Watch is water resistant but can’t be worn in the shower. We know it needs recharging at night, as Tim Cook said so during the keynote, as well as suggesting it’s something you won’t be able to wait to put on in the morning, meaning the first-gen Apple Watch isn’t something you’ll use at night to track your sleep. This is good news for companies such as Fitbit whose fitness trackers can be worn 24×7 and have 5+ days of battery life, and can track sleep patterns, but obviously have none of the other super smart watch features of the Apple Watch, nor does the Fitbit display the time.
Inevitably, people are already looking to a future second generation Apple Watch and what it might contain, with the latest report from Reuters quoting those mysterious people “familiar with Apple’s plans” suggesting future versions will have “richer health features and additional sensors in later versions”, with the news agency declining to name the people concerned “because Apple’s plans for the watch are private” – although not private enough to leak a few tidbits of easily guessable info to the media.
Already the current Apple Watch, due to arrive in early 2015, has a raft of sensors to track movement, heart rate, elevation, standing time, level of activity and more.
The device has enough onboard storage to store music which can be heard via a Bluetooth headset or possibly from the device’s own speaker as well.
Reuters’ quoted IDC’s tech analyst Danielle Levitas saying: “I was expecting there to be some true healthcare applications that would take it a step further beyond wellness.”
However given Apple’s emphasis on the Apple Watch being a platform able to run apps, with screenshots of apps from Nike and others during the keynote, its clear that an explosion of Apple Watch apps is already underway and will only accelerate between now and the Watch’s release.
By the time the Apple Watch 2 launches, not only will there likely be thousands if not tens of thousands of apps and more, but it will likely sport well over 24 hours of battery life, which will allow users to track sleep patterns and wake its users up intelligently the way existing apps such as Sleep Cycle (for iOS and Android) already do. Until then, the first Apple Watch awaits, and unless something dramatically changes, the catalyst that truly kicks off the wearable generation is here – from early 2015.
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