Outside.com has a pretty good longish interview with Jay Blahnik, the Nike exec that Apple lured away to help build the Apple Watch's fitness apps. The interviewer is a skeptic -- an exercise enthusiast who likes the Watch but is underwhelmed with its fitness components. This makes for a good and challenging interview, as Blahnik explains Apple's short-term and long-term goals … [Read more...]
Salesforce & Dev Partners Make Early Bets on the Apple Watch
There are skeptics aplenty about the Apple Watch, but Salesforce is certainly a believer. The enterprise cloud services giant was part of the Apple Watch launch and is promoting Salesforce Wear as a tool for developers to create apps for the device that also sync with the Salesforce Cloud. The company hosted a media event this week in San Francisco to talk about 20 new … [Read more...]
Blame Apple? U.S. Watch Sales Drop 11 Pct, Most in 7 Years
The market research company NPD says watch sales in the United States in June dropped 11 percent from the year before, to $375 million. Fred Levin, head of NPD's luxury practice, told Bloomberg that watches that cost between $50 and $1000 suffered across-the-board declines, with a 24 percent decline in the $100 to $199 range. Although Levin said that Apple "is going to gain … [Read more...]
Outlook Comes to the Apple Watch
It's not you'll be doing most of your work on it (unless you're really obsessed), but Microsoft has brought a new version of Outlook to the Apple Watch. We haven't tried it out yet, but this new version apparently works more or less like any e-mail notification on the watch, with the addition of quick replies and the ability to dictate responses. As good as the watch's voice … [Read more...]
Camera, Less Tethering, Reportedly to Come in Apple Watch 2
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 … [Read more...]
Apple Publishes Watch SDK (Updated)
As it hinted about a week ago, Apple today announced a software development kit that will give programmers vastly expanded access to components and sensors on the Apple Watch. Developers will be able to build widgets for existing watch faces (although not, apparently, entirely new watch faces). They'll also be able to access the digital crown to peer back through the history … [Read more...]
Apple to Give Developers Direct Access to Watch Sensors
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. … [Read more...]
CNET Says Apple Watch Step Counter Is Super Accurate, If…
The Apple Watch is a beautiful piece of kit with ground-breaking functionality and UI, but lost in all the shouting is a simple question: how is it as a fitness tracker, which is the core function of most smart watches? The answer is: pretty good, if you take some care. CNET took that care and documented it. Out of the box, reporter Dan Graziano found, step counter … [Read more...]
New Canalys Figures Show Fitbit Leading Wearables Market — For Now
Canalys, which has a better-than-most handle on the size and shape of the consumer wearables market, is out with its 1Q15 numbers, and they show Fitbit maintaining its lead in a growing market. Overall, the research company said the wearable band market grew 150 percent year over year, with more than 7 million units shipped in the first quarter. The company did not publicly … [Read more...]
“Not Quite Necessary”: Ars Technica on the Apple Watch
How could you not love a review that starts out talking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? Ars Technica remains one of the few must-read tech sites, and they've done one of their patented deeper-than-deep reviews of the Apple Watch. If you want to know about speeds and feeds and components, there are better things to read. But Andrew Cunningham takes every single operational … [Read more...]