The usually informed 9to5Mac is reporting the first breezes of what may come in the next round of Apple Watches. The major feature enhancements, the site says, would be a small camera suitable for FaceTime conferencing, as well as enhanced WiFi capability that would require less tethering to an iPhone.
Interestingly, the site says, battery life has not been an issue with initial buyers, who report ending their days with 30 to 40 percent battery life left and who don’t mind recharging every night. (This tallies with our experience.) So Apple seems to be willing to loosen the reins a bit on functionality that might hit the battery and make up the difference in software improvements.
Also, the site says, Apple is looking into other more expensive case materials that could fill price points between the current $500 stainless steel case and the $10,000 gold case.
When might we see all this? The site speculates that it won’t be until next year; this fall will bring software updates, as revealed at Apple’s recent developers’ conference.
“Interestingly, the site says, battery life has not been an issue with initial buyers, who report ending their days with 30 to 40 percent battery life left and who don’t mind recharging every night. (This tallies with our experience.)”
Doesn’t tally with mine at all. I’ve had several experiences of getting the 10% warning with far more than 10% of the day to go.
Try having the fitness tracker on all day (which needs to be done explicitly because the Apple Watch won’t, on its own, count steps, etc. (presumably because of the hit to battery life). But even without that, it’s possible to get down to 10% before 8pm.
The Apple Watch will count steps automatically. More advanced tracking, which turns on the heart monitor steadily, absolutely hits the battery. But Apple has declared a split between “activity” (walking-around-town stuff) and “workout” (more intensive, shorter-burn, and goal-oriented). The only day I ran the battery seriously down was the day the watch arrived, when I didn’t charge it fully and hit the radio hard with initial overly enthusiastic app and data sync.