Apple Watch unveiled; releasing early next year for $349

Along side larger iPhones, Apple announced the Watch which will launch early next year starting at $349 in the US.   The Apple Watch is the first ever smartwatch from Apple and the first new product from the company since 2010’s iPad. Apple will be releasing three variants of the Watch in two different sizes. A big caveat for the Apple Watch is its iPhone-only nature, which immediately rules out any other smartphone users, but those who do choose to go with the Watch will have to learn a new UI paradigm, one that’s different from the iPhone. This could prove to be the biggest strength and weakness for the Apple Watch, but for the moment let’s look at how it works.   The Watch features a touch screen for swipe actions and taps, but also has a Digital Crown for zooming in and out, scrolling, selecting and it also acts as a home key. Then there’s a quick action button for getting to your frequently used contacts, and you can send a quick doodle or a recording of your heartbeat. We can see the health applications around this feature.   Apple says it completely redesigned the UI for the watch instead of shrinking down iOS and it shows in the Watch’s unique hive-like UI and the so-called neighborhoods for apps, along with swipe up for glanceable notifications from a locked state. That closely mirrors Android Wear’s Google Now notifications, but much of the Apple Watch UI is unique among wearables, at least on first glance.   The three variants of the Apple Watch feature different materials like stainless steel, aluminium, and 18-carat gold. Siri, Apple Maps, iMessages support are all built in as are new fitness apps, Activity and Workout.  Since Apple had planned to unveil the Watch, the event saw a smattering of fashion industry and health care executives, but the bigger focus was on payments as the wearable will support Apple Pay when it launches next year. Apple’s NFC-based payments will make it easier for shoppers to finish transactions at points of sales and is billed as a credit card killer with tie-ups with American Express, Master Card and Visa.