iWatch 'due November'... Y'all know what time it is? Now you do The mythical Apple iWatch will, presumably, tell the time, but that doesn't mean the iThing maker will be punctual in unveiling it, claims an analyst. Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple watcher, has predicted the mass production of the smartwatch – whose existence has yet to be confirmed by Apple – will not begin until November. He claimed …
This is the most over-hyped non-existent product in history. Why someone would wear a watch that will surely (unless something exceptional emerges) need charging every few days is beyond me. Other smartwatches have bombed but this may be different, but only because the iSheep will obey and "go buy".
Expect queues in Oxford street, ecstatic young males looking like come weird church sect, high-fiving the blue-shirted iClergy.
Can't help with your second objection, but your first is rather stupid.
Its not a pacemaker, you can leave it on the surface. You don't go to 100 meters with your smartphone, do you?
There's nothing in particular stopping them from making it waterproof to 100 meters, since some watches are made to do so. If it used wireless charging it wouldn't necessarily have to have any openings on it. But even if that was the case I'll bet it would be only rated to a few feet, or maybe 10 meters, since that's deeper than 99% of people ever go. Those who dive to 100 meters or more are the definition of a "niche market".
Off topic, but when I was a kid my dad gave me a 25 jewel Swiss diver's watch he got as a perk for depositing $10K in a bank in the Bahamas. It was rated to 660 feet, I believe. I wore it in the pool, wore it in the shower, because I figured I didn't need to bother to take it off. Only problem was that when the chrome plating on the back wore off after a few years it was not stainless steel underneath, it rusted, and eventually water got inside from the back! Only watch I ever wore regularly - I have an iPhone, but the only thing I could see buying an iWatch for is fitness tracking. If I buy one I'll wear it during workouts only.
Some people like to wear a watch rather than having to use their phone for the time and modern watches often do more than just tell the time. The Sun is a great clock if you have nothing else but if we took your advice we would be going to sleep before 5pm in December (here in the UK) which is not really practical for most?
>The Sun is a great clock, if you have clues. When it's dark, SLEEP!
Alas, we have to work and cooperate with other people, which often requires being in the same place in the same time.
This came to a head with 'Railway Time', because having every town marking 12:00 Noon a few minutes before the next town to the West made railway timetables a bugger to comprehend.
Who actually wears a watch anymore?
Who actually buys cars anymore? I can walk to damn near anywhere I want to go. This has been true since roughly the dawn of time. Not that it makes much sense in the first place... humans have always had legs, USE THEM!
Using them to get my coat now ...
You seem to be making the assumption that smartwatches do nothing but tell the time.
For me the major benefit of a smartwatch is the ability to read and dismiss notifications without having to take my phone out of my pocket.
iWatch? No, I'm waiting for the Moto 360...
I do.
Surprisingly, for folks in the RealWorld(tm), accurately knowing the time is kind of helpful.
I could use the Sun, of course, but to tell the time with any accuracy I'd need a decent compass and a map in order to calculate my time zone and the offset from solar time. I'd also need the map to confirm my bearing as the compass is going to be inaccurate in a city.
All in all, a watch is preferable.
Well, until the railway timetables start having entries like "around sunrise" or "around about noon".....
"The Sun is a great clock, if you have clues. When it's dark, SLEEP"
it's not really a great clock, is it? a clock should be consistent.
the sun rose at 5am this morning. it will set at 21:12 tonight - although it's not actually "dark" until well past 10pm.
but in January, the sun doesn't rise until 8am and it sets at 16:19. Your so-called "Sun" clock either requires that we all are allowed to work felxible hours during the year, or that our bosses don't mind if we fall asleep at our desks on winter afternoons (at least, without having to hide it)
The sun is consistent. It was clocks that originally needed to either be set each day to the correct solar time, or made to account for seasonal differences (through clever clockwork).
Over time, it was decided the sun was wrong, and the clocks were correct.
In reality, there is no "right or wrong" with this, just a preferred reference frame. As we now have globalisation and other forms of communication and work (travel east and west as mentioned above ;) ), then our relative importance changed... to the clocks time. :)
"He writes that it's likely Apple's wearable computer will be enclosed in sapphire glass and have a long, thin screen which is quite different to the usual round watch-face."
@RISC OS
Think of it as more of a messaging and health monitoring device strapped to your wrist and less as a portable timepiece.
Quick check on watch wearing: tends to be males who habitually wear suits. Non-suit wearing males and most females no longer seem to feel the need to strap a small metal or plastic pod onto their arm. Suspect status messaging by suited males but I can't read the codes (see icon). Apple will market to the non-suited ones about use cases that don't involve time.
Teenagers? Almost none. One or two with digital watches.
@ keithpeter, "health monitoring device "
Agreed. Only a few days ago, the Clinical Director of the NHS was saying that 'telemedcine' will play a large part in the future of healthcare. Our population is growing older. If you compare the resources in transporting an elderly person to a clinic once a week to the resources in monitoring them in their own hoime, it is a no-brainer. Those human resources could be redeployed into making them feel more comfortable and less isolated in their own homes.
Hearing aids will become more common. Already the latest models can be controlled from a smartphone. If it suits you to adjust the volume several times an hour, then doing so by means of a wrist-mounted device is easier than hoiking a phone out of your pocket. You could also sit with our 'watch' closer to the person you are speaking to, allowing the mature technology of multi-mic noise isolation to improve clarity.
And be paid for guessing wrong about Apple. Clearly, the challenge is to create the perfect rumour storm, so here goes:
Apple's iWatch has been delayed by problems with its fingerprint reader. In tests, the reader, which is shaped like Kim Kardashian's buttocks, has been found to accidentally launch drone attacks on Al Qaeda.
Makes about as much sense as any other rumour. I'm available for tech conferences, TV interviews, etc
Whilst the 'throw in everything but the kitchen sink' concept of the Gear appeals to a part of me, I'd actually prefer a simpler, more focused device. Like a normal wristwatch. Or a normal wristwatch that uses a ring of RGB LEDs to denote notifications and directions to GPS waypoints. Much of what I'd like a watch to do is to control other devices -this shouldn't be an insurmountable challenge to the traditional watch shape, since my existing watch already has a rotating bezel (read: 'scroll-wheel').
I wouldnt be surprised if this rumor was started by Apple in the first place.
Get people talking about the product to bridge the time from now till launch.
Say something is going to be delayed.. and then launch on schedule.
SURPRISED fanbois will be throwing their iPhone5 in the nearest dumpster to buy one pronto.
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