“According to Chinese site C Technology, Apple is planning to release its long-rumored iWatch alongside the next iPhone in October 2014, with the company having tested two iWatch prototypes,” Richard Padilla reports for MacRumors.
“The report also states that Apple has not decided on the final screen size of the device, with the prototype units being powered by a 100 mAh battery,” Padilla reports. “The iWatch is also said to include wireless charging capabilities which will allow the device to charge from up to a meter away.”
“A 100 mAh battery in the iWatch would roughly match the 105 mAh battery seen in the sixth-generation iPod nano that was designed in part to be able to be used as a watch,” Padilla reports. “iWatch reports have surfaced throughout the past few months, with Apple rumored to be releasing both 1.7 and 1.3-inch display sizes of the watch for men and women.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If so, it’ll be the world’s first smartwatch versus the stupidwatches from others we’ve seen so far.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Lynn Weiler” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
About those 800,000 Samsung Galaxy Gear stupidwatches: Shipments, not sales; 1/3rd of units actually sold have been returned – November 19, 2013
Samsung says Galaxy Gear stupidwatch sold 800,000 units in 2 months – November 19, 2013
Samsung’s new ad for Galaxy Gear stupidwatch slavishly copies Apple’s original 2007 iPhone ad (with video) – October 7, 2013
Jim Cramer: ‘The curtain has closed’ on Samsung’s stupidwatch – October 3, 2013
David Pogue reviews Samsung’s Galaxy Gear stupidwatch: A human-interface train wreck – October 3, 2013
The Verge reviews Samsung’s Galaxy Gear stupidwatch: Orwellian, unintuitive, oversized, and overpriced – October 2, 2013
Jean-Louis Gassée: I hope Tim Cook had fun goading Samsung to make their Galaxy stupidwatch – September 9, 2013
Stupidwatch: Why Samsung’s Galaxy Gear is a flop – September 5, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Gear watch looks rushed, misses the mark – September 4, 2013
The Galaxy Gear stupidwatch: Without Apple to copy, Samsung is clueless – September 4, 2013
Samsung announces ‘Galaxy Gear’ watch accessory for Galaxy Android devices – September 4, 2013
October 2014? That’s an eternity!
It’s never going to happen folks. It’s not a watch at all. Please someone tell me how’s that whole watch thing working for Samsung? Now look at the source, it’s a Chinese site for christ sake.
At least it gives Apple another 10 month for all these other dumb-ass companies to spend money chasing a fictitious product. I’m tired of hearing the same stupid rumor idea over and over. Can’t these people think of anything original.
Augh!
Someone tell me how the whole tablet thing was working for Dell, HP, Asus, etc before the iPad came out? Just because someone else can’t do it right, doesn’t mean that Apple won’t get it right.
Every so-called smart watch is digital stupidity. Even Apple cannot improve upon this flawed concept.
I hope they don’t tout it as being super thin, thinner than an average regular watch but with a battery that only lasts a day or so. With a watch especially I’d rather have it the same thickness and last that much longer. Making things ever smaller is all well and good, but sometimes I think I’d rather trade that off for even longer battery life.
My iPhone gets me through the day, but it’d never survive me forgetting to charge it over night.
Talking about thickness: wireless charging leads to the need of use of plastic instead of metal (which is not radiotransparent to receive energy), and it increases weight and thickness.
A watch with rechargeable batteries has to last at least 1 week. That’s the minimum – people need to be able to put it on without thinking the whole work week. They’ll be fine charging it on the weekend.
If it includes sensors for heartbeat, blood pressure etc, I can see myself buying it as a fitness band, otherwise I am not too keen on this until the tech is there to make it a standalone product that needs no pairing to another device to make it usable.
Apple has hired a number of medical sensor specialists. Expect the iWatch to be able to monitor blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen level, blood sugar, all of which can be sensed with skin contact. No doubt it will tie to you iPhone to be able to call 911 if you vitals show you to be in dire straits.
If it does BLOOD SUGAR, at that point I don’t care what it costs – I will have to buy it. Diabetic testing supplies cost me upwards of $500 per year.
I wonder if I can get my medical insurance to cover it as a medical device?
Just because Samsung chose to pair its stupid watch with a limited number of its phones doesn’t mean Apple will require pairing. Now it may be that pairing with an iPhone expands the watch’s capabilities, but I fully expect the watch will have a certain number of capabilities on its own, beyond just telling time.
Alarm and lighted numerals. that’s two. Done!
/s 😉
Yeah, sure.
By then it will be too late. The smartwatch market will be far too saturated for Apple to achieve any meaningful traction. The Samsung Galaxy Gear and upcoming Google Nexus watch, followed by numerous other Android entrants, will have the market all sewn up with Apple crowded out of the party. This never would’ve happened if Steve Jobs were still in charge of the company and further demonstrates that Apple has lost its innovative edge without him.
This has to be a joke. Even Samsung fans agree that the Galaxy Gear is terrible. Android entrants will be garbage until they have an Apple product to clone. This has been proven repeatedly.
Ridiculous. Apple didn’t release the first mp3 player, yet it owns the music player market. Apple didn’t release the first smartphone, but it owns the smartphone market (Android’s sales are larger, but mostly due to Android being the OS on millions of essentially feature phones). Apple didn’t invent the tablet market, but it owns it with the iPad. Apple didn’t invent the music download/management software, but it owns the market with iTunes.
You don’t have to be first or second to rule a market.
Analyst:
You might want to put the / sarc tag in you next post.
I thought using the name “Analyst” was enough. Jeez, you guys are a sensitive bunch.
You were definitely obvious enough with your straight sarcasm but there are a lot of Apple defenders who believed you were a troll because you had something negative to say.
The analysts are already saying that Apple is too late to the smartwatch game and doesn’t stand a chance of overtaking Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. Even if the “iWatch” isn’t outstanding but reasonably priced, with Apple’s retail distribution it will move quickly to the top of the sales charts without question.
Yeah, analysts aren’t saying that at all.
You’re right! The exact same thing happened with MP3 players – the iPod never gained any traction.
“…the sixth-generation iPod nano that was designed in part to be able to be used as a watch…”
It was? I don’t know about that one…
i agree, Freek. The 6G iPod nano could be utilized as a watch using a third party bracket and band, but this is the first assertion that I have seen that it was *designed* for that purpose.
watch out.
2014,2015,2016,2017……….
“sources say”, “person with knowledge…”. Who are these people, this invisible group and where do they hang out? Sure would love to meet these monikers of bullshit. Freedom of speech has tilted to freedom to legally lie.
Ah well, at least my bullshit filter is fully functional.
Has anyone done the math on how much power it’s going to take to make the the thing visible in broad daylight (I don’t know the conversion from watts to nits/lux), or are you going to have to keep pushing a button to turn the display on? Then add in the power for a bluetooth/wi-fi radio of some kind (there won’t be any wires will there?), and the power for some kind of GPS-like thingy of some sort, and the power to watch a video (maybe?)…it’s going to be about two inches thick or you’ll have to recharge it all the time. I guess if it lasts ten hours it’ll be OK?
When the patent was published for the fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S, it was noticed that there was a mention of wireless charging being built into the sensor. It was assumed by most that this would be a means to wirelessly charge the phone at some point in the future, but on the day it was published, I wrote that it was more likely to allow the 5S to wirelessly charge something else that used a minuscule amount of power ( like an iWatch ).
If the iWatch could be recharged from an iPhone 5S at a range of about 1 metre, then a tiny battery wouldn’t be a problem as it could be recharged automatically whenever it’s near your iPhone.
This certainly sounds like a typically elegant Apple solution. Put the pieces ( iPhone 5S wireless charging ) in place ahead of time and then bring out the device to exploit it and complement it.
Suicide plot to blow up stuff at Wichita breaking. Ass baby millennials whining about NSA spying can go back to sucking mamas tit now.
?
Love my Peeble. I’m going on a week without a charge. Awesome integration with my 4S. More and more people are asking me “Is that a Pebble?” – including folks wearing Samsung bricks on their wrist. The Pebble is a good product.
Let me think…
…nope. Household is all Apple. Not give’n up my hard earned Rolex – just not do’n it. There is a limit to my quest for tech in my life.
Iwatch will come before the year 3000.