A lot of people covering the iPhone 6, payment system and the - TopicsExpress



          

A lot of people covering the iPhone 6, payment system and the Apple Watch have ended up reported on what Apple has told them, what they saw on stage and what the largest tech company in the world published on its website. Theres a lot there, but there are still significant holes in our basic understanding about important features of that new wearable computer, from its battery life to storage capacity to screen resolution to how it actually feels to wear and be nudged by this intensely personal object over time, as Apple CEO Tim Cook called it, to how much the things cost. (Fair bet that the 18K gold Edition version wont be cheap.) Unlike most mere mortals assigned to cover Apples big news, who couldnt get hands-on to try to answer any of these questions, David Pogue was given special access to both the watch and to a briefing for Apple. (He still didnt get any hard news on many of the countst.) As one of the most influential consumer tech columnists on the planet, this is not a major surprise to me. Im keeping an eye out for a review from Walt Mossberg soon, the only tech journalist whose impression, review and opinion Id guess exceeds Mr. Pogues in the both eyes of consumers and Apple itself.) Heres what else Pogue can tell us about the watch that Apple didnt, at least directly: https://yahoo/tech/apple-watch-update-more-details-and-hands-on-97091024129.html Its not much, but: *Its water-resistant but not waterproof. Pogue: Sweating, wearing it in the rain, washing your hands, or cooking with it are fine. Take it off before you swim or get in the shower, though. (Otterbox is going to be faced with a great design challenge designing waterproof housing for athletes, extreme & otherwise.) *You’ll (probably) be able to load apps onto Apple watch from an iPhone, which is required to manage the wee wearable. Carrying over the folder metaphor from the original Mac OS & other iOS devices, users can rearrange and organize apps into clusters, which then display as clusters on the watch screen. Magnification and drilling down into nested menus and functions is a key pain point on a 1.5 or 1.7 inches screen. *Theres a “Ping My Phone” button on the watch: finally, another way to find the darn thing. (I hope theres a Ping my Watch function in iOS 8.) Pogues observations on the utility of the digital crown -- AKA watch dial -- to navigate is notable, at least to me: one of the key features of iOS devices is the home button, which Ive observed both toddlers and seniors find immensely useful. I Even populations that arent literate can and do use that design. Spinning and pressing a dial, along with swiping and tapping a screen, is the kind of intuitive, universal navigation that other smart watches havent quite succeeding in delivering. If Apple can pull if off, they might have an enduring hit.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 16:41:49 +0000

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