I’ve pored through everything we know about Apple Watch to assemble this short introductory guide.
What is Apple Watch?
Three years in development and shipping (we think) in April, the 38mm (272-x-340 resolution) or 42mm (312-x-390 resolution) Apple Watch will be available in Stainless Steel, Space Black Stainless Steel, Silver Aluminum, Space Gray Aluminum, 18-karat gold, and 18-karat rose gold.
The watch will be sold in Apple Watch, Sport and Edition “collections” with six different straps.
Apple Watch depends on your iPhone to put all kinds of information, apps and services on your wrist. It will carry a small amount of storage for apps and images, but most content will “live” on your companion iPhone.
Alongside a speaker and microphone, Apple Watch features a built in processor, Bluetooth, sensors and an NFC chip to support Apple Pay.
How does it work?
The large winding button on the smartwatch is called the Digital Crown, which is used to cycle through available apps, zoom or access a selected app or the Home screen.
When you use the watch, the Taptic Engine will create slightly different physical sensations to help you recognize the actions you take -- you'll feel a different sensation when you tap the screen to that which you feel when you twist the Digital Crown, for example.
Standard controls include:
- Vertical swipe to scroll through screens
- Horizontal swipe to display the previous or next page
- Left edge swipe to navigate back to parent page
- Tap for selection or interaction.
- Zoom in and out of objects (such as an image, message or Map) on the display using the Digital Crown.
Other UI features follow:
Short and Long Looks
There is a difference between Short and Long Looks.
Short Looks are content that appears on the display when events (such as an incoming notification) take place.
Hold your watch up to take a closer look (or tap the display while in Short Look mode) and the Long Look screen appears. This includes more detail and will include up to four action buttons (defined by app developers) and a Dismiss button.
Force touch
The Apple Watch accelerometer detects when you raise your watch to take a look, and the display discerns the difference between a touch and a press.
A forceful touch invokes the contextual menu associated with the currently app, so you can navigate to other app elements.
These menus offer up to four actions on each page, nesting functions until you find the one you seek.
