The widely rumored and hotly anticipated Apple smart watch is finally confirmed, and it was Apple's famed "one more thing" announcement at its press event today. Apple's design expertise and innovation is defitely in evidence. But don't get in line at the Apple Store just yet. It won't be on sale until early next year. That's regrettable, since most of the company's competitors are already have smart watches on the market.
Apple didn't mention the screen size or battery life of the Apple Watch, somewhat surprisingly. But the company gave us a lot of other information about this smart watch.
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What it looks like
Check our full collection of smart watch reviews, as well as first looks at the LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live, and Moto 360. And don't skip our sneak peek at the new Samsung wearables, with video.
Fitness
The watch contains numerous sensors, including an accelerometer, heart-rate monitor, and gyroscope to track your activities. A Fitness app will track all your movement, and the Workout app lets you customize goals for specific activities, such as running or biking. They'll share the with the iOS 8 Health app on your iPhone.
Other features
For notifications of incoming e-mail, phone calls, and so on, you'll feel a buzz (Apple calls this the "Taptic,: as it feels like a tap on the wrist), then they show up on the watch when you lift your wrist.
A feature called QuickBoard analyzes the text in a message to suggest quick canned replies. You can also dictate replies, or use animated customized emojis.
The Apple Watch features inductive (wireless charging): A magnet on its back helps you to fit it precisely onto the charger.
With this smart watch, you'll be able to control music that's playing on other Apple devices, and Apple TV. It can serve as a iewfinder for your iPhone camera, too.
Apple emphasized, of all things, telling time on the Apple Watch. The company talked to horologists (experts on time-telling machines) to inform its design.
The Apple Watch will require an iPhone, not surprisingly. You can use an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus—but you can also use it with an iPhone 5, 5c, or 5s. The price will start at $349.
We look forward to testing the Apple Watch when it's available. We only wish that were sooner.
—Carol Mangis
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