The long awaited release of the smartwatch has finally arrived and it won’t be long before pre-ordering can start.
Finally, after having waited through the announcements about the progress of the company’s mobile wallet, the new MacBook, and even a rather exciting trailer for the next season of Game of Thrones (which will be available through Apple TV’s addition of HBO), the Apple Watch was released, both in terms of its details and its purchasing dates.
The “newest addition to the Apple family” was brought in with greater details than its first unveiling.
Last year, very little was revealed about the Apple Watch, when it was first officially confirmed that the company was, indeed, working on a smartwatch. Now, “the most personal Apple device ever” is on its way, in three different forms. There is the standard wearable technology device (in stainless steel of either space black or traditional), the Sports version (in anodized aluminum that comes in space gray or silver colors), or the highest end Edition version (in gold or rose 18-karat gold).
There were a broad range of features and possibilities discussed for the Apple Watch, which will be out next month.
CEO Tim Cook discussed the smartwatch, beginning with the changeable display that allows the face to be customized for a more personal aesthetic. It was also pointed out that the device was customizable not only in terms of its faces but also in the useful information that the wearer would like to have displayed (such as the next calendar event, or the weather).
A range of different forms of alerts were displayed, as well as several controls (for example, controlling music through the Now Playing Glance, which is available with a swipe). The smartwatch can also give the user the ability to receive and place calls, as it has a built-in speaker and mic.
A three-ring graphic provides the user with a fitness and health companion that can show an entire day’s activity breakdown, with suggestions issued every Monday with regards to how to better reach goals, based on the wearer’s activity level during the previous week. Christy Turlington Burns even made a cameo, discussing the half marathon she ran in Tanzania, wearing the Apple smartwatch. “In the short time I’ve been using it, I can already see how this is going to be an important part of my life,” she said.
Additional possibilities ranging from using the device as a boarding pass or hotel room key to social media or even calling a ride through Uber were all laid out during the keynote. The all day (up to 18 hour) battery shows a vast improvement over what had been available in the device when it was first unveiled.
Pre-orders will start on April 10, and the shipping of the Apple Watch will begin in 9 countries on April 24, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. That said, there will be “more countries to follow”.
