Brace Yourself, The Apple Watch Is Coming

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It looks like Apple is going to join the wearable tech market with their new Apple Watch.

As usual, Apple is looking for a way to segregate themselves from the mainstream by introducing a smooth, highly usable interface on its watch. With unique control mechanisms, the device embraces apps and features beyond notifications, yet in a way that makes sense for a small-screened device. The Apple Watch is also useful for mobile payments, complete with NFC and Apple’s new ‘Secure Element’ for storing embedded payment information.

That means the Apple Watch can enable Apple Pay on any device it works with, including iPhone 5 and later. However, with this pre-release version, you were only able to check out basic features, including a demo reel and functioning devices operated by Apple employees to show more advanced functionality.

Numerous features will require more time to assess. The notifications and quick replies seem very interesting and worthwhile, still the new paired communication mode (which allows one user to connect directly to another for real-time sharing of hand-drawn messages, customized animated smileys, heartbeats and more) initially strikes as a bit of an odd concept since Apple’s messaging is all about the novelty of the feature.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the company’s first wearable gadget, the Apple Watch, during its event on Tuesday.

The “Taptic” feedback that accompanies the messaging is quite delightful. It really does feel like another person is lightly tapping your wrist. It’s still impossible not to notice, but less harsh. It also felt like the 38mm Apple Watch variant produced a better Taptic notification experience than the 42mm version, if only slightly.

Apple Watch’s leather bands are well-made and comfortable. The sport band definitely feels like it should offer comfort during active use. As for the buttons, they also seem to have been paid very close attention, and the smooth rotating action on the digital crown should make it an interface control element people enjoy using.

However, it’s still a mystery on how much time people will actually spend navigating on watch interfaces or using it more as a passive monitoring and notification device. However, Apple has provided genuine innovation for how users might think about exploring wearable gadgets that others to date haven’t seemed to have put much thought into.