Apple finally took the covers off its new futuristic wearable wristwatch at an event in San Francisco, something which has been in the news since the last September. It also made announcements that made the event all the more special. It unveiled the new MacBook, a new ResearchKit and cheaper Apple TV.
Apple Watch
The showstopper of the event was definitely the Apple Watch. Apple calls this the most personal Apple device ever. Apple Watch’s base model is priced at $349 and varies with the luxury you can afford. The Watch comes with three editions: Sport Edition which is priced at $349 – $499, Apple Watch at $549-$1099 depending on the model you choose. Lastly, Apple Watch Edition which will cost you a bomb starting at around $10,000 and goes upward. This features the yellow or rose gold models with sapphire faces. It has features like the Retina display, heart rate sensor and constantly sending notifications from a Bluetooth-connected iPhone. Pebble, Samsung, Sony, Garmin and LG are just some of the companies with a head start. Pebble is using a low e-paper display to give better battery life to its devices, whereas Apple Watch uses power-consuming Amoled display. Apple is promising that the Watch will have 18 hour battery life, charging it by snapping a magnetic charger to the back of the watch. The company also said that it will substitute for a hotel room key, a boarding pass and even be Apple Pay friendly, so that you check out of a store with a single tap on your wrist.
MacBook
Another potential game changer for the Cupertino based company is the 12-inch, two pound MacBook which is redesigned from ground up. Only 13.1mm thin, the new MacBook has only one port – USB Type-C for all the services (file transfers, video output, and charging) and a headphone jack. The tiny Core M processor allows the laptop to carry fanless operations and a battery life up to 10 hours.
The new MacBook will start at $1,299 for a configuration with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. They’ll be available in silver, space grey, and gold, and will start shipping April 10.
ResearchKit
Another important announcement from yesterday’s event was Apple’s foray in the health sector with ResearchKit.
ResearchKit is Apple’s open source set of tools that researchers can use to build apps aimed at diseases. Available next month, users can sign up for studies, take tests, describe symptoms – and begin sending their data to researchers.
ResearchKit will work with five apps as of date, including downloads that will attempt to do everything from tracking the effects of Parkinson’s disease, to aiding breast cancer patients. Any data collection will be strictly opt-in, and Apple itself won’t see any of your vitals along the way. While the idea of handing that much health data over to anyone can be off-putting, the potential benefits of research scientists having access to such a large sample size—and a constant flow of readings—are enormous.
Apple TV and HBO Now
Apple TV got cheaper with a price cut of $30. It is now priced at $69. The hardware didn’t get a spec upgrade but got an exclusive launch partner in HBO Now, the standalone streaming service that will cost you $15 per month. Apple TV subscribers will get a three month head start before anyone get’s their hands on HBO Now.
