“OH, THERE’S
ONE MORE THING” ~
A timely
statement from Apple’s Tim Cook…
©
2014 BOB SKIDMORE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
BOB SKIDMORE
CORRESPONDENT
In
the 15th century the wristwatch evolved from a spring driven clock that
was invented by the German craftsman Peter Henlein. While improvements have
certainly been made, the concept of keeping time in some form or another hasn’t
really changed. In recent months we’ve seen various attempts to change that
with the introduction of the “Smartwatch”. On September 9th Apple’s Tim Cook
may have changed that when he said, “Oh, there’s one more thing”, taken from a
phrase that the late Steve Jobs always used, Tim introduced the APPLE WATCH, and
then proclaimed, “Apple’s most personal product, ever”. This announcement had
so much world-wide interest that it overloaded the Internet… Did you notice it’s
not part of the “i” family, a sign the “i” symbol may be on its way out?
What
makes the Apple Watch stand apart from all the other Smartwatches? First off, the
rectangular watch with rounded edges, looks like a fine timepiece that adapts
for right or left hand use automatically. It’s available in two sizes for men
or women and three different models. Then with the push of a button you can interchange
from a wide selection of wristband styles. The models include, The Watch, in either polished or space
black stainless steel, The Sport, anodized
aluminum in silver or space gray, and The
Watch Edition, a 18-karat gold design
developed to be twice as hard as standard gold. All models feature a polished
sapphire crystal protective covering over the display and use a traditional side
mounted watch crown to navigate the menus thus preventing obscuring the display.
The watch face can be selected from many available designs. Apple Watch truly
has the look of a fine watch and doesn’t give the appearance that you’re
wearing a bulky electronic gadget! It’s really not a computer on your wrist,
but rather a sophisticated link or remote control and display for your iPhone.
So,
what does the Apple Watch do that makes it so unique? Well, it truly integrates
with Apple’s iPhone models from the 5 series on up. This is something that was
not typically possible with other Smartwatches. When linked to your iPhone you
can make and receive calls, receive and text messages, read, mark and delete
emails, control music, use Siri, walkie-talkie communication, calendar
reminders, GPS turn-by-turn directions that tap on your wrist indicating the
turn, remote camera operation, make purchases with *Apple Pay, and fitness/vital sign tracking that can be sent to
others. Fitness and vital sign tracking could open the door for many life
saving technologies in the future. Now that’s a comprehensive list of useful features
with many more to come. I especially like knowing when a call is coming in
because the watch taps you on your wrist. It also shows caller ID and text
messages at a glance without having to pull out your phone. In noisy areas this
can be a big plus.
The
battery life is still a deep secret. The display only turns on when the watch
is moved to a ninety-degree position, a feature that exists on other smart watches
that conserves battery drain. Charging is accomplished by magnetic induction, a
form of wireless charging.
The
Apple Watch will be available some time in early 2015 with a starting price of
$349.00. The Gold Edition may be very
expensive, perhaps as high as $5000.00.
Earlier
I referenced *Apple Pay as a
feature. This is a service commonly known as mobile wallet. The concept is to
negate the need for credit cards by simply communicating between your iPhone
and a merchants’ special reader thus authorizing the payment of a sale’s
transaction between the merchant and your bank. Apple has already aligned
itself with several large merchants and service providers to make this form of
payment possible some time in 2015 or sooner. A quick note, Wal-Mart and Best
Buy have stated that they will not participate as they plan to use another form
of a mobile wallet. Some have said mobile wallets will eliminate the need for credit
cards as a form of payment and severely impact PayPal, but let’s not be too hasty
as many people still do not have iPhones or Smartphones and may never have them.
Also, even though Apple indicates that hacking will not be an issue, it seems
someone always finds a way to break the code, after all it is Cloud based
technology. Boy, true technology on the move and where’s Dick Tracy when we
need him?
Graphic credit: Apple
