Apple’s big developers’ conference is coming up soon, and one of the company’s top execs is spilling details about what goodies will be available for watch hackers.
Jeff Williams, senior vice president of operations, told a conference this week that there’s an SDK coming for the Apple Watch, and that developers will be able to get their hands directly on the watch’s sensors. Currently, data from the sensors needs to be transmitted first to the companion iPhone, which carries significant communications overhead and time lag. Added to the fact that first-wave developers had only emulators to code to before launch, and it’s no surprise that software for the Watch has left something to be desired.
Williams also suggested that there may be more sensors to come on later versions of the Watch, but he went into no more detail. There has been speculation that the Watch originally carried more sensors than its current array, but that Apple pulled them (or possibly just disabled them) after conversations with regulators. One might reasonably expect that those conversations did not end with the product’s announcement or shipping.