Tim Cook and co. zoomed through Tuesday's iPhone announcements with unprecedented speed, with nary a mention of sales figures and mobile OS adoption rates. After all, they were understandably all too eager to get to the main event of the evening -- the Apple Watch.
Apple is championing its new Watch as a significant new chapter in its history. But for all we now know about the device, there's still a whole lot of product information that Apple simply didn't have time to address.
Now that a few media outlets have been able to get some hands-on time with the device, with some even being granted private showings, a number of noteworthy details about the Apple Watch have emerged over the last 48 hours or so.
Water resistance and app loading
David Pogue, for instance, was able to spend some quality alone time with the Watch and relayed quite a few interesting tidbits. For instance, Pogue tells us that the Watch is water resistant as opposed to waterproof. Which is to say, a little rain might not hurt, but definitely don't take this puppy swimming.
Pogue also explains that apps will be loaded onto the Watch via the iPhone. Further, user's will be able to customize the arrangement of the small circular icons on the homescreen.
Pogue also mentions what we can look forward to from a packaging perspective.
The fanciest model, the gold Apple Phone Edition, comes in a gorgeous jewelry box - which doubles as a charger. The back of the box has a Lightning connector, and the inside of the box has the watch's magnetic round charger pad, standing vertically. So as you retire each night, you can just lay your gold watch in its case and let it charge.
Battery Life
One of the bigger mysteries surrounding Apple's new Watch is battery life. This was extremely conspicuous given that Apple typically loves talking about how great the battery life on its products are.
Shedding a bit more light on the matter, John Paczkowski of Re/Code relays that current battery life on the Apple Watch likely hovers at about 24 hours, a figure Apple is hoping to increase by the time the product launches in 2015.
Sources tell me that Apple isn't yet happy with the watch's battery life, which isn't going to break any industry standards. "It's about a day right now," said one, adding that Apple is working on various modifications ahead of the device's 2015 launch to improve it.
And keeping expectations low, Apple spokeswoman Nat Kerris issued the following statement to Re/Code:
We anticipate that people will charge nightly, which is why we designed an innovative charging solution that combines our MagSafe technology and inductive charging.
Wi-Fi
There have been some conflicting reports out there regarding the Apple Watch and Wi-Fi. Rest assured, Apple's new wearable supports Wi-Fi 802.11b/g -- info that comes straight from an Apple press release.
How Apple's Watch is designed to work with Apple Pay
One of the more interesting use-cases for the Apple Watch is its ability to authorize mobile payments. On this topic, Cult of Mac was able to glean some interesting details from an Apple staffer on the security mechanisms the device has in place.
Thanks to sensors on the Apple Watch's back, the device can tell when it's being worn and when it has been taken off. When you first put the watch on, you must enter a code. When the watch is removed from your wrist, the watch locks itself and can't be used for payments unless the code is entered again.
All in all, there are still some major questions about the Apple Watch that remain unanswered. Hopefully, though, Apple's new wearable will become a whole lot less mysterious in the coming months.
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