Tuesday, September 9, 2014

The 'Geek Out With Your Tech Out' crew recently discussed the sudden impact of smartwatches that are hitting the market.  Yet everyone has been wondering if Apple will release one.  Today Apple has officially announced the Apple Watch.

The watch will be available early 2015 with a price tag of $349.  It REQUIRES an iPhone 5 or higher.  Not sure if this is a selling point for me.  However here is what is known about the Watch.

Hardware:
  • A Squarish stainless steel enclosure with a Machine Polished Sapphire screen that houses a flexible Retina Display with Touch Sensitivity and Haptic Feedback.
  • A custom-designed S1 chip that integrates many systems into one chipset.
  • A gyroscope and accelerometer.
  • 6 different Bands (Straps) and multiple color choices. There's leather, polymer, metal mesh and stainless steel strap options.  Some of these bands close with a symmetric clasp buckle.
  • There are four LED lenses.  It can detect your pulse rate.
  • The back houses a charging solution, which is similar to the MagSafe charger.
  • NFC
  • Three watch collections
    • The Apple Watch is made of stainless steel with 18 models to choose from.
    • The Apple Watch Sport comes with a aluminum casing with 10 models to choose from.
    • The Apple Watch Edition is made of 18k gold with 4 (or more) models to choose from.
Features:
  • Customizable Watch Faces.  
    • Touch the display and swipe through the different options. 
    • You can change the color and the functionality; there are green outlines for each section that show which particular section you're changing.
  • Glances
    • You can swipe up from the bottom and you can see info like meetings, weather, stocks, world time or music player.
  • Actionable Notifications with your choice of which Notifications appear
    • Calendar gives you the option to Accept or Decline a meeting for instance
    • Messages, the watch can generate potential replies
      • When someone asks you if you are going to "Chicago" or "Seattle," the reply options show "Chicago," "Seattle" or "Neither".
  • "Digital Crown" Home Button Hybrid
    • A dial that includes IR LEDs and diodes that transmit rotary moves into digital data internally.
    • It zooms in and out on the map; it scrolls through lists without blocking the screen; if you're in an app, when you press the digital crown, it takes you back to the home screen.
      • In Siri, you can press the digital crown and ask what movies are playing tonight, and she'll respond with a list of movies, which you can scroll with the crown or use the touchscreen and swipe through.
      • In the Photos App, use the crown to zoom in on photos or use your finger to pan around and tap.
  • "Digital Touch" button
    • When pressed it brings up a list of contacts. 
    • If you wanted you can tap or draw shapes, which gets sent to that contact.
  • 3rd Party App Support using the WatchKit developers kit.
That is all we have for now.  Tell us what you think and if you think it is worth the money and wait!


Until next time, "Geek Out With Your Tech Out", Ninjas!


via Apple

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Sponsors

V2 Cigs - electronic cigarettes - the thickest vapor!