There was just one more thing Apple CEO Tim Cook wanted to show off after covering details of the new iPhone 6 features: the long-rumored Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch, with an entry price of $349, comes in two sizes and three editions: Watch, Watch Sport and Watch Edition. During Apple's Tuesday media event, CEO Tim Cook praised the the ingenuity stuffed into the Watch, which he says is more than a pint-sized iPhone.
"What we didn't do was take the iPhone and shrink the user interface and strap it on your wrist," says Cook. "The display is too small, it'd be a terrible customer experience. For example, it you take pinch to zoom. It just doesn't work."
With a flexible face laminated to a single sheet of sapphire and four lenses made from the same crystal on its back, the Apple Watch is, through and through, a technological marvel.
Sure to be the watch's defining feature, the digital crown is the primary tool of interaction with the Watch. The watch crown, the dial traditionally used to rotate the watch's hand, allows Apple Watch users to scroll through their populations of native and side-loaded apps -- and pushing the crown end brings up the home screen.
The Apple Watch uses infrared and visible light sensors to detect the wearer's pulse. The watch's flexible face gauges both touch and pressure, offering a new dimension for app design and allowing wearers to stay connected to each other in some intriguing ways.
Watch wearers can draw messages across the Apple Watch's face and send them to others. They can also share their heartbeat, digitally, with other wearers.
The key aspect is that you must own an iPhone to make the Watch serve its purposes.
As rumored, the Watch is built on a system-on-a-chip design and relies on the iPhone for GPS. The Watch will also leverage near-field communication to allow users to make mobile payments, using the newly announced Apple Pay system, a big feature tied to the new iPhones that were also announced.
"Because you wear it, we invented new, intimate ways to connect and communicate directly from your wrist -- and it works seamlessly with iPhone," says Cook "It's also a comprehensive health and fitness device. Apple Watch took very deep thinking, and out of this came some truly remarkable innovations."
The Watch will be available early 2015, according to Cook. Apple will offer a gallery of digital watch faces that can be further customized and it will also offer a wide selection of watch bands.
