Apple Watch release date & UK price: released 24 April, priced from £299, Edition from £8,000 PART-2

Apple Watch specs: What processor is inside the Apple Watch?

The chip inside the Apple Watch is custom-designed, and is called the S1. This chip features many subsystems that have been encapsulated in resin for extra durability.

Apple Watch specs: What sensors does the Apple Watch have?

There are four, super-durable sapphire lenses on the back of the device, which houses a sensor that uses infrared and visible-light LEDs and photodiodes to detect your heart rate. This sensor is joined by an accelerometer, and uses the GPS and WiFi in your iPhone to measure physical movement, to help the device collect data about your daily activities.

You'll get a comprehensive picture of your daily activity from the Apple Watch, and you'll be able to establish and suggest goals.

According to reports, the Apple Watch was originally intended to have more advanced health features with additional sensors, but manufacturing issues and reliability problems meant that Apple was forced to leave sensors including blood pressure sensors out of the smartwatch.

TechCrunch has speculated that a mystery port on the Apple Watch could be the key to prolonging the life of the Apple Watch, by allowing it to connect with new devices and accessories in the future that help introduce additional features including new sensors, for example. After all, the top Apple Watch could cost up to $10,000 some reports say, so that's no small investment for a watch that could be obsolete in a year or two.

How does the Apple Watch notify or alert you?

The Apple Watch has a new feature called the Taptic Engine, which provides haptic feedback to users. It works with the Apple Watch's built-in speaker to enable a new set of alerts and notifications that you'll be able to both hear and feel.

When you get a message, the taptic engine taps your wrist.

When getting turn-by-turn notifications, for example, you'll feel a different alert that'll let you know whether you need to turn left or right without needing to actually look at the display.

Can you read email on the Apple Watch?

You can read full emails on the Apple Watch. You can also see notifications when you get emails from VIPs.

Can you make calls from the Apple Watch?

There is a built in speaker and mic to receive calls on your watch

How many Apple Watch Faces are there?

There are multiple faces available one of which is a digital face with all your appointments on it.

To change a watch face, force press on the screen and swipe across.

How do you access Apple Watch Glances & Apps?

Swipe up from the bottom to see weather, our music, your heart rate.

Tap on a glance to be taken to the app itself.

What apps and Glances are available for Apple Watch?

You can use Shazam on the Apple Watch to see what tracks are playing, and see the lyrics and other information (so you can sing along). 

What notifications will I see on the Watch?

Any Notification you get on your iPhone you can now get on your wrist.

How do I communicate using Digital touch?

Digital Touch is a whole new way to communicate. Make a sketch on your watch and it's animated on your friend's watch. You can even send your heart rate.

What Health & Fitness does the Apple Watch have?

According to Tim Cook having an Apple Watch is: "Like having a coach on your wrist".

It reminds you if you've been sitting too long.

There are various work out apps, so you can find out how many calories you are burning, etc.

How do I activate Siri on Apple Watch?

Press the Crown to get Siri to listen to you. You can also say Hey Siri.

How do I use Apple Pay on Apple Watch?

Just put the watch next to the scanner to use it to pay. You don't need to tap it, and you will get taptic feedback on your wrist so you know it's worked.

AppleWatch features: Software

At the Spring Forward event, Apple said it was: "Super excited to see what developers do with this great new platform."

Apple has created a brand new user interface for the Apple Watch. It comes with a range of watch faces, and is personalisable. There are currently 11 watch faces in total, including the dynamic Timelapse face, the Astronomy face and the Solar face. Additional customisable information for the Apple Watch's main display includes moonphases, upcoming events, activity level display and more.

The Apple Watch is designed to provide the user with information that can be viewed at a glance. That's why Apple has come up with Smart Replies that can be used in conjunction with dictation to allow you to respond to messages.

The Apple Watch also works with the new Handoff feature introduced with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, so you'll be able to pick up messages you've begun on your Apple Watch straight on your iPhone.

A second feature is Glances, which, as the name suggests, shows you information at a glance including location, stocks, appointments and more.

You'll be able to control your music through the Apple Watch, and it seems like you'll be able to store music on the device itself, too.

You'll be able to access your calendar, see the weather forecast, receive notifications, send an audio recording or convert an audio recording to text using dictation, ask Siri questions, take a look through your favourited photos, view Maps and get directions. Other apps include Twitter, CityMapper, home automation apps, sports apps, fitness apps and more.

Two new apps designed for the Apple Watch by Apple are Activity and Workout, which monitor your activity and let you set goals for specific types of workouts. Both of these apps use the accelerometer, heart rate sensor, GPS and WiFi to collect the relevant data, which will work with the Fitness app on your iPhone.

There's also a new app called Digital Touch, which will let users communicate with someone just by tapping. You can draw on the AppleWatch, change colours or send your heartbeat. Macworld.com'son Snell says it's "weird stuff," and it certainly seems a bit gimmicky!

We'll continue updating this article as Apple makes further announcements about the Apple Watch. You can read all of the Apple Watch rumours from before the announcement by going to page 2.

Apple Watch & the iPhone companion app: features

The iOS 8.2 beta reveals that there is an Apple Watch application being designed for the Apple Watch and now features of this companion app for the iPhone have appeared, hinting at many new features of the Apple Watch.  

The application will manage settings for the Apple Watch applications, and the way the iPhone and Apple Watch interact.

The application will manage settings for the Apple Watch applications, and the way the iPhone and Apple Watch interact.

9to5Mac has had a peek at the new Apple Watch companion app, and has published a number of screen shots to illustrate it.

The icon for the Apple Watch companion apps for iPhone was revealed in early February, by 9To5Mac's Mark Gurman on Twitter. It's pretty simple, with a black background and a white/grey circle that represents the side of the smartwatch.

Apple Watch release date & UK price: released 24 April, priced from £299, Edition from £8,000 PART-3

Apple Watch Home Screen layout

You will be able to change the layout of the Apple Watch home screen via a virtual view in the iPhone app.

Apple Watch clock functions

According to 9to5Mac, there is a new clock face feature called Monogram that will let you add an embedded stamp of 1-4 letters on your clock face. This is one way to personalise the clock face.

The iPhone app will allow you to set a red dot to appear at the top of the Apple Watch clock face whenever a notification is received.

You can also chose to track a stock and have the data appear on the watch face.

Apple Watch Messages  

Users of the iPhone companion app will be able to make various tweaks to the way the messages function works on the Apple Watch. For example, users will be able to switch between Dictation and Audio Replies as your preferred means of replying. Users will also be enable to disable Read Receipts, set up default text replies, and choose not to receive alerts from certain people.

Apple Watch Maps

Users of the Apple Watch iPhone app will be able to enable or disable the Taptic Engine for turn-by-turn directions, determining whether the watch ‘taps’ you on the wrist, or not.

Apple Watch Accessibility

There are a number of accessibility settings that can be managed on the iPhone app, these include a VoiceOver feature, the ability to zoom in on the screen, and settings to reduce motion, control audio, reduce transparency, enable bold text, and more.

Apple Watch Passcode

Users will be able to set up a four number passcode for the Apple Watch. This needs to be set up in order to use Apple Pay (soon to launch in the UK, reports indicate). Users will be able to unlock the Apple Watch by unlocking the connected iPhone, according to 9to5Mac, but this will only work if the Apple Watch is connected to the body and if the code is entered incorrectly up to 10 times then the watch will wipe all its data.

Apple Watch Activity, Motion, Fitness

Via the companion app on the iPhone users will be able to activate fitness features including a reminder if they have been sitting for too long, or a summary of how much activity the watch has logged in the past 4, 6 or 8 hours.

Apple Watch About Screen

On the iPhone app users will be able to see the storage capacity available on the Apple Watch, how many apps and tracks are stored on the watch, Bluetooth and WiFi information, and more. 9to5Mac claims that there doesn’t appear to be any information about photo storage, suggesting that the photos may not be stored on the device itself.  

Apple Watch & Apple's WatchKit: features

Apple has launched WatchKit for app developers, giving further insight into how Apple's first wearable, the Apple Watch, will work.

WatchKit is the framework that developers will use to create Apple Watch apps. It's available now to developers as part of the iOS 8.2 SDK beta, along with new design guidelines that demonstrate how Watch apps should behave.

In its release announcement, Apple names ESPN, Instagram and American Airlines as early partners. The developers guidelines also reveal new details on the hardware itself.

Apple left a lot of questions unanswered when it announced the Apple Watch in September, particularly on the topic of third-party apps. The new guidelines give a much better sense of what it will be like to use the Apple Watch once app developers get on board.

Third-party Apple Watch apps will have a few different modes at their disposal:

'Glances provide quick looks at things like sports scores, stocks and weather. They're non-interactive and must be confined to a single screen, so that users can swipe between Glances from different apps. However, tapping on a Glance can open a full watch app if it exists.

Notifications on the Apple Watch borrow heavily from interactive notifications in iOS 8, letting users take action on emails, social media mentions and other notifications without opening the app itself. Notifications will initially appear in a "short look" preview mode, and they'll go away if the user lowers his or her wrist. More details and interactive options will appear if the user taps on the notification or leaves his or her wrist up.

Full-blown apps allow for deeper interactions as needed. For example, users could open a to-do app to view and dismiss tasks, or open a music app to control playback.

In all cases, Apple emphasises the idea of quick, lightweight interactions. "A Watch app complements your iOS app; it does not replace it," the design guidelines say. "If you measure interactions with your iOS app minutes, you can expect interactions with your Watch app to be measured in seconds."

One other important note: At launch, all Watch apps will required a paired phone to operate. Apple says fully native Watch apps will be available later in the year.

According to Bloomberg, Apple expects that users of the Apple Watch will only spend 10 seconds at a time looking at their smartwatch, to get quick bursts of information rather than spending longer interacting with the device.

The design guidelines also reveal a screen resolution of 240x272 pixels for the 38mm Watch, and 390 x312 pixels for the 42mm watch. Apple says that apps should display the same content for both sizes.

Apple Watch: How many smartwatches will Apple sell?

Even before the Apple Watch launch event there was a lot of speculation about how many Apple Watches the company will sell. 

Analysts have made various estimations about how many watches Apple will sell. From claims that a high percentage of existing iPhone users will purchase a watch, to assertions that the Apple Watch may sell fewer than the iPad did because the iPad didn’t require an iPhone, while the Watch does.

Analyst’s Apple Watch sales estimates for 2015 have ranged from 10 million to 60 million. That 60 million figure is a little extreme – to put things in perspective in the first year it was on sale the iPad sold 14.8 million units. 

Respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has an excellent track record for Apple predictions, thinks Apple will ship 2.8 million Apple Watch units in the April to June quarter.

The Apple Watch could account for 36% of all Apple’s revenue growth in 2015, according to Evercore analyst Rob Cihra. He forecasts that Apple will ship 18.5 million Apple Watches before the end of the year, and another 22.9 million in 2016.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere has predicted that the launch of the Apple Watch will "mark the tipping point when wearables go from niche to mainstream." He referred to Transparency Market Research, which has predicted that the wearables market could see $20 billion in sales over the next few years.

Apple Watch release date & UK price: released 24 April, priced from £299, Edition from £8,000 PART-4

A forecast from CCS Insight suggests that, thanks to the Apple Watch, sales of wearables could grow from 29 million in 2014 to 172 million in 2018, with 2015 representing a spike in sales. The company expects Apple to sell 20 million smartwatches by the end of 2015.

CCS Insight has created an infographic to illustrate its wearables forecast, which you can view below.

Apple Watch: Who will buy the Apple Watch

Who will buy the Apple Watch is a big question. Aside from Apple fanatics, who would want to wear this high priced smartwatch?

According to app creation company Conjure, a survey of 2000 Brits has found that 1 in 10 of respondents said that they are interested in buying the Apple Watch. If that figure applies to the whole of the UK (it probably doesn't) then 8.3 million people in Britain alone might buy an Apple Watch.

Interestingly, though, 13% said that a fashionable design is the most important quality of a smartphone (that's a tick for the Apple Watch), while 12.5% said that battery life needs to last for at least a week on one charge (that's definitely NOT a tick for the Apple Watch).

A Quartz survey of US smartphone users has found that 2.2% of iPhone owners are “extremely likely” to buy an Apple Watch. Another 3.2% are “very likely” to buy Apple’s watch while 14.3% are they’re “somewhat likely”. That leaves 18.9% who are “not so likely”, and 61.4% who state that they are “not at all likely” to buy one.

Another survey by Morgan Stanley back in November, predicted 30 million Apple Watches will sell in 2015 based on their AlphaWise survey, which “indicates initial purchase intentions in the US are higher than they were for the iPhone and iPad pre-launch." Morgan Stanley predicts that at launch the Apple Watch will have a 10% penetration rate, compared to the iPhone, which had a 7% rate and the iPad, with 14%.

Yet another poll of 4,000 people in the UK, US, India and China by UBSsuggested that 10% of smartphone users are “very likely” to buy a smart watch. The Apple Watch was likely to be purchased by 25% of positive respondents. However, that survey suggests that the Samsung Gear is the most likely device to be purchased at 37%.  

According to the Quartz poll, the high cost (starting at $349/estimated at £300) was one reason for the lack of interest. Of those interested in buying an Apple Watch, 60.1% said they would not pay more than $200, while 25.7% said they would pay $200-$299, and 8.6% were happy to pay from $300-$399.

A two-party survey of 8,266 consumers done in May and October by Futuresource Consulting found that interest in smartwatches had soared in recent months, even as it has stalled for smart glasses. Much of the uptick in interest in smartwatches coincided with Apple's announcement in September that it would begin selling the Apple Watch in early 2015.

When Futuresource asked 4,000 consumers in the US, UK, France and Germany in May whether they intend to buy wearable tech, 4% expressed interest in a smartwatch. That number more than doubled to 9% in a follow up survey of 4,266 consumers in October.

As for iPhone owners asked in May about their wearable tech buying plans, 6% wanted a smartwatch. That number almost tripled to 17% in October – a month after the Apple Watch announcement.

Futuresource has predicted 51 million wearable devices of all types will be sold in 2014, with 74 million sold in 2015. Even though that number is rising, it still remains a small portion of the 1 billion-plus smartphones that will be sold in 2014.

One way to estimate how many watches Apple might sell is to look at how many people wear watches. The Quartz poll asked how many in the polled group wore a watch, and whether it was a permium product. It found that half of those surveyed wear a watch, but of those, only 17.2% wear a luxury brand. Premium watch brands were worn by 44.1%.

Another group of people who might be interested in the Apple Watch are those who already wear an activity tracker. According to a separate Morgan Stanley survey, 6% of those polled currently own a wearable device, including fitness trackers.

Those interested in getting the most out of their connected home appliances may also be interested in the Apple Watch. One trend that the Apple Watch is likely to be at the forefront of is the Internet of Things, and IDC predicts that this new market will be worth $7 trillion by 2020. The research agency (that is a sister company to Macworld publisher IDG) states that the worldwide IoT install base will see a compound annual growth rate of 17.5 percent between 2013 and 2020.

Another area likely to boost the popularity of the Apple Watch is health care. In a Morgan Stanley’s survey, 62% of those polled said they had already made significant changes to their lifestyles due to their wearable devices.

Apple Watch: What competition will the Apple Watch have?

Reports that emerged on 3 March suggest that Google could be developing an Android Wear app for iOS, which would make popular smartwatches from big names including LG, Samsung and Motorola compatible with iPads and iPhones, which could put a huge strain on sales of the Apple Watch.

It's rumoured that Google will announced the plans in May during its annual developer conference.

Android Wear smartwatches tend to be much cheaper than the Apple Watch, so will appeal to those interested in wearable tech but unable to spend the large amount of cash required to get the Apple Watch.

What does Woz think about smartwatches?

Even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has said that he would welcome an iWatch. However, he seems to keep changing his tune. In 2014 he was dismissing it as a “luxury fitness band,” perhaps because, as he admits in a BBC interview, “I’ve had bad experience with smartwatches so far.”

Now he is being a lot more enthusiastic. In an interview with the BBC Woz states: “Apple makes products more fun than anyone else. If you look at the display it’s almost like a little piece of art … It’s going to be so special. Everyone’s going to notice it, just like you do nowadays when you walk around — ‘You’ve got an iPhone, you’ve got an iPhone, you’ve got an iPhone.’ A lot of people, especially in hip areas, they’re going to be saying, ‘You’ve got the right watch, you’ve got the same watch as me.'”

Woz also talks about the market for the Apple Watch. “I look around a lot of times nowadays and when you’re in groups of older people, they still wear a lot of watches - usually like jewellery. Younger people wear no watch, they got rid of it, because it’s in the way.”

“That’s the question about a smartwatch: is it going to be a new class of jewellery that came back? Obviously, the wrist is free (for new devices), but it has to have a good enough use,” he asks.

Woz also suggests that although niche, measuring blood sugar levels for diabetics could be big, because it’s a “niche market that’s huge already”.

He goes on to say that Apple has “made so many good products that everyone who owns Apple products will buy [the Apple Watch] and that means millions of people will buy this watch from the start. That helps get a critical mass going.”

In the following paragraphs we summarise what Wozniak had said about the Apple Watch, and smart watches in general, in 2014...

Woz believes that wearables will be “a hard sell” for Apple. "Apple works very hard to produce exceptionally great products and doesn't quickly release things like a wearable. So if one is introduced I expect it to have a chance to set the direction and make the product category finally viable," Woz told Cnet.

He goes on to suggest that these wearable devices may be relegated to the same category as Bluetooth headsets: “fun to wear and show off for a day”.

Woz is hoping for a larger screen on the rumoured iWatch. He told Cnet that 1.5in screens aren’t big enough for him. He also hinted that the speaker had better be good if the iWatch is to serve as a speakerphone.

However, Woz is confident that Apple will be able to transform the wearable device market as they did the smartphone market with the launch of the iPhone in 2007.

This isn't the first time Wozniak has spoken about wearables and smartwatches. Back in July 2014, Woz said that he doesn't like the smartwatches he's tested so far. In fact, he hated the Samsung Galaxy Gear so much he sold it soon after he got it. "That was the only technology I bought to experiment with that I threw out after half a day, sold it on eBay because it was so worthless and did so little that was convenient. You had to hold it up to your ear and stuff," he toldXconomy.

Apple Watch rumours: What Apple CEO Tim Cook has said

When Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the Apple Watch back in September 2014 he said: "Apple introduced the world to several category-defining products, the Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. And once again Apple is poised to captivate the world with a revolutionary product that can enrich people's lives. It's the most personal product we've ever made."Apple design guru Jony Ive explained that the Apple Watch includes multiple new technologies and an entirely new user interface designed "specifically for a device that's designed to be worn."

"It blurs the boundary between physical object and user interface," Ive said. "We've created an entire range of products that enable unparalleled personalisation."

Find out more about this personalisation, which is achievable through both hardware and software options, as well as the reasons why Apple believes the Apple Watch will be a category-defining product by reading on.

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about the Apple Watch during a talk a the Goldman Sachs conference on 10 February. To begin, he reminded us of Apple's success in the MP3 player industry despite the fact that the iPod was by no means the first. "They weren't used very much. They were fundamentally too hard to use, and the user interface was really bad. You almost needed a PhD to use these. They're not memorable. They didn't really move the dial," he said of the iPod's rivals. 

Cook then added that the tablet market had been the same: "There were lots of tablets shipping when the iPad came out. But there was nothing earth-shattering."

Of course, Cook thinks that the smartwatch category is the same, but that the Apple Watch can change it in the way that the iPod and the iPad did with their respective industries. "There are several things that are called smart watches that are shipping, but I'm not sure you could name any. Maybe you could. I'm not sure the audience could name very many. But certainly there's been none that have changed the way people live their lives."

"And so what we want to do at Apple, that's our objective: We want to change the way you live your life," Cook continued. " And just like the iPad has changed the way you work, and hopefully the way you live, and the iPhone has done that, we see Apple Watch doing that."

"I've been using one, and I'm actually wearing one now – but I wear it all the time actually," he added. "And I think one of the biggest surprised people are going to have when they start using it is the breath of what it will do."

Cook then spoke a bit about the design, and the various different colours, band types and sizes available, as mentioned elsewhere in this article. He suggested that we'll be using Siri more often with our Apple Watches, and getting notifications on our wrists.

The most obvious use for the Apple Watch is fitness tracking, though, and Cook says he uses it in the gym to track his activity level. "If I sit for too long, it will actually tap me on the wrist to remind me to get up and move. Because a lot of doctors believe that sitting is the new cancer, right? And arguably activity is good for all of us. And so if you haven't moved within the hour, ten minutes before the hour it'll tap you."

Cook concluded: "It took a little while to get used to, but it's actually very good. And so, there's just an enormous number of things that it will do, and I think you're going to find something that you're going to think, "Wow, I can't live without this anymore!" And you're gonna be deciding you may not want to give up that real estate for that particular watch anymore."

Apple Watch release date & UK price: released 24 April, priced from £299, Edition from £8,000 PART-5

Jony Ive and Apple Watch

In a New Yorker profile Jonathan Ive states that it is obvious that wearables should take the form of a gadget worn on the wrist, instead of on the face.

He said the face is “the wrong place” and that the wrist is “the obvious and right place” for a wearable computer. “We always thought that glasses were not a smart move, from a point of view that people would not really want to wear them,” Cook explained in the interview. His reasoning, glasses are intrusive, Apple believes technology should be pushed to the background.

However, the New Yorker profile of Ive suggests that the Apple Watch could be Ive's last project. According to the report Ive was so burned out by his workload last year that he caught pneumonia. Another reason for the speculation is that other designers are being profiled alongside Ive as involved in the project, such as Marc Newson, who is a known contributor to the project.

Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs’ widow also suggested that Apple may be considering “a slightly different structure that’s a little more sustainable and sustaining” for Ive, suggesting that there can be a toll on such work.

Jony Ive also spoke about the Apple Watch during a Financial Times interview published on 8 March, revealing that Apple war required to invent a stronger kind of gold for the Apple Watch Edition. According to Ive, Apple created a process that brings gold molecules closer together to make it harder than ordinary gold. The consequence of this is thatloads more gold could be required. No wonder it might cost $10,000.