It’s not the iWatch: Top 5 things to know about the Apple Watch
Apple, Inc. officially launched its inaugural smartwatch, the Apple Watch, today alongside the iPhone 6, fulfilling years of expectations for wearable tech fans. Here are the top five things to know about the latest iDevice.
Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch
Top 5 things you need to know about the Apple Watch
1) It’s not a micro iPhone you wear on your wrist.
Apple Watch has its own unique interface that’s centered around pressing and twisting what Apple is calling the digital crown. Apple realized that many familiar gestures, such as pinch to zoom, aren’t effective on such a small screen.
You can rotate the digital crown to zoom in or out on apps like Maps and Photos. You can still swipe the touch screen, as well the new force touch gesture (a hard press on the pressure sensitive screen), but the digital crown is the primary interface controller.
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2) Apple Watch needs an iPhone to work.
Consumers who may be excited about Apple’s new wearable gadget will need to pair it with their iPhone 5 and up. If they don’t have one, it’s going to take a much larger investment to get up and running with the Apple Watch. Unfortunately, the smartwatch doesn’t play nicely with Android.
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3) Holiday raincheck
The Apple Watch won’t be much of a stocking stuffer this year. Apple’s square faced, $349 timepiece won’t be available until 2015.
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4) No two Apple Watches look the same.
Ok, they may not be that unique, but Apple says that with two different watch sizes, multiple finishes, and with the variety of watch bands and digital watch faces available, there are literally millions of possible watch configurations.
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5) It extends iPhone functionality to your wrist.
You can use Siri without pulling the iPhone out of your pocket. The same goes for Apple Pay, the iPhone maker’s new digital wallet. This could prove useful for Apple 5 users who don’t have the Near Field Communications (NFC) chip that comes standard in the new iPhone 6, for use with device-to-device communication to share files, photos and payments.
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Bonus
Third party apps are welcome. Get ready for miniature versions of all your favorite apps.
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