Apple Watch RIPPED APART, its GUTS EXPOSED to hungry Vultures Apple's Watch innards have been bared, and they're not so dissimilar from those one might expect of a teeny tiny iPhone. The wristjobs were apparently in high demand and chief Tim Cook found Cupertino's stock quickly exhausted by pre-orders. Funny that. On Friday, however, Apple Watches began to be delivered across the whole …
And already old news. Smart watch? Bah! I got my Smart Ring ages ago!
Doesn't look to be unreasonably put together. When buying a watch one generally doesn't expect it to be upgradeable and just because somebody's shoved a small computer system and large screen into the form factor of a (large) watch doesn't make it a candidate for instant upgrading.
Like anything vaguely phone or computer like, this device will likely be obsolete within 3-5 years and the battery (in combination with a good quality charging circuit) should last that long. Replacing the battery after that time ought to be possible given this tear down but many users will just upgrade / replace the device instead because that's what they are used to doing with mobile devices.
Generally a watch that only performs the function of a watch doesn't need replacing until you whack it into a door frame and the second hand falls off. Battery death isn't even a problem, since A) they last for ever and B) you can open the back yourself and stick a new one in for a few quid.
I like techno bits and bobs as much as the next commentard, but I see no reason for smart watches at all.
>I see no reason for smart watches at all.
At half the thickness, ten times the battery life, half the cost and enough processing power for good speech recognition I could see some reasons.
But this is just a dumbed down overweight iPod nano with the music removed.
No, you're not alone. I have been wondering just where the appeal is in this watch, and I'm stumped. I'm not enamoured by the design, it offers no functionality that appeals to be over the watches I already have and I prefer a watch that works longer than 24h.
Actually, even a watch with nixie tubes has a better battery life than the Apple watch :)
I'm more heading the the opposite direction with tech, cutting down on electronic interruptions - mornings are now email/msg/phone free, only people who *really* need me know how to get hold of me during that time.
Personally, the only interesting thing in the whole watch is the "Taptic Engine". As it is a linear actuator it just makes me wonder if it can work in reverse* for the kind of person who wants this watch just to "belong"...
Might be being naive here, but Kinetic watches have been around for years now. While it take probably more current to drive a display, could one of those smart Apple tekkies take the kinetic technology and upgrade it so that it will charge the watch simply by movement of the wrist? I agree, having a watch that needs charging every day makes no sense.
Interesting assumption. I would bet that the more expensive Apple Watches will cost Rolex some sales. How many, nobody knows, but remember that BlackBerry wasn't openly worried about the iPhone either. (Internally, they said "they put a whole f***ing computer into a phone or something like that).
And this is only hard to repair / hard to upgrade if you think about a $349 watch. If you paid $10,000 for an Apple Edition Watch, which is what Rolex would worry about, an upgrade for 5 percent of the watch price is very, very easy.
My personal favourite has always been Quinting. I recall stopping mid stride after walking past a shop in the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, because my brain had only then registered that was something weird with the watch I just glanced at - there was seemingly nothing driving the arms in this totally see-through watch.
It doesn't come out well in some pictures, but you can look through them - there is no mechanism visible as it's all in the edge.
Ah, but it doesn't seem to be about solving a problem. It's more likely doing something for the sake of doing it, just because they can. Design awards and press buzz as a bonus.
I rather like the stubbornness of not giving up on an idea just because it happens to be difficult or even pointless. It reminds me of the Useless machines. They truly do nothing useful, but it's fun nevertheless.
Yes, the fun factor. It may be a bit underestimated at times - small skunkworks projects may unexpectedly bring about a major breakthrough, and a motherlode of other goodies to go with it. But sometimes it turns out to be nothing but a twattery. Apparently it has to be a delicate mix of playfulness, skill, determination, luck, and deity-knows-what-else. Pegasus really doesn't give advance warnings about his next visit.
Most Rolex customers won't want a Patek. You need to know a little bit about watches to have heard of Patek Philippe, but very few people buying a new Rolex are doing so to initiate discussions about the art of watchmaking with their social circle.
Like the Rolex, Apple is pitching Watch as a status symbol - the only purpose of owning one is to show you're rich enough to own one (or that you're an iOS developer who's been railroaded into buying one by Apple's policies on app development for the thing). This month's British Vogue featured an insert catalogue for the thing, beside the ads for the £5,000 handbags, £10,000 dresses and £150,000 diamond rings.
One thing about showing off, though: the Apple Watch uses the same innards for every variant, with no difference in function or quality between the cheapest and dearest -only the casework is the differentiator. However, I'm sure someone has already started a small workshop electroplating the cheaper steel models (or the design-knockoff models) with enough gold to pass as the expensive ones.
they had some goon on radio 5 this morning trying to compare the expensive gold apple phones to high end watches, he totally missed the point. High end watches cost a packet as there handcrafted and take along time to make, not just some random bit of circuit board in a gold case. If you get a high end watches it'll last forever and go up in value, not be out of date and worth sod all beyond the scrap gold value in about 3yrs
True, Rolex are the go-to watch for people wanting a status symbol. However, they are very well made. Here's a look inside Rolex's manufacturing facilities, from a popular watch blog:
http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/inside-rolex
For juxtaposition, here's an Industrial Designer looking at the processes used in the Apple Watch. You don't need to be a Apple fan to find it interesting, a passing interest in manufacturing will suffice:
http://www.core77.com/posts/34524/Industrial-Designer-Explains-Production-Methods-Shown-in-Apple-Watch-Manufacturing-Videos
Due to Apple's volume of production (and their confidence in their projections) they can use processes that others probably wouldn't.
You certainly won't upgrade a watch that requires a degree in swiss watchmaking just to dissassemble... Repair duff screens, and change the battery after a year when it's fsck'ed defo, but that's as far as I would be willing to go and waste my time (but I'm quite happy with my Seiko and Hamilton automatic watches that do their job, need no recharging, and are globally maintenance and upgrade free...)
So who's taking bets on how long it will be before some fame seeking hipster straps one of these to something other than a wrist and appears in a sex tape which also displays the "pulse" for added effect?
Because we all know it WILL happen. Proof in case is that there is already a porn novel (I shit you not).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Invaded-iWatch-Erotic-Digital-Desires-ebook/dp/B00V2WXYO4
Which leads me to the question m'lud. How did the accused know about the existence of this literature? Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case...
Found looking for something else. Hint: be very careful doing a Google search containing 'my little pony' or 'powerpuff girls' or even 'barbie'. Some combinations of search terms can have unexpected results. You have been warned. I wish someone had warned me. (memory of Big Macintosh and one of the other male ponies having a gay old time firmly suppressed.)
In a few short years, these watches will be completely inoperative. A bit further down the road, the battery will start to corrode and completely dissolve the innards. Meanwhile, the 100+ year old gold pocket watches left to me by my grandfather will still be running and keeping accurate time.
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My $75 Invicta I bought at Sam's Club 4 years ago is still on the same battery. My $350 Suunto runs about 2 years on 2) CR2032 Li batteries, an old Casio I've had for 15 years still works and runs 2 years on 1) CR2032.
All cheap watches with exception to the Suunto and they all have better battery life than Apple's toy watch and are still working fine. No reason to "upgrade" them, they are just watches but they have easily replaceable batteries.
The only thing that would attract me to something like their so called "watch" is a fully functioning cell phone the size of a watch, prefferably one with PTT and Bluetooth capability.
Been waiting for that since the days of the "Dick Tracy" watch but won't hold my breath.
It's pretty shocking that it's something like a £100 "upgrade" to get an identical watch, but with a steel strap. And I believe their straps are non-standard, in order to make sure they get their full pound of flesh.
Suddenly their £30 USB cables are starting to look quite reasonably priced...
"Clearly the leading influence for the Apple Watch, from back when digital was a new buzzword.
http://www.led-forever.com/html/hp-01_led_calculator_watch.html"
Back when I was a kid I was given a Casio LCD calculator watch for Christmas. Having a calculator always (in a manner) at hand proved quite handy when a quick calculation was needed, especially when pen and paper weren't readily available. Lasted about ten years before it broke beyond repair.
If this were true and blood O2 could be measured, it could have serious implications for health monitoring.
For example, cyanosis can come on very suddenly, e.g. exposure to CO is both immediate and accumulative.
I have no opinion on the watch itself, but I thought this an interesting observation.
P.
Pulse oximetry can't distingish between oxyhaemoglobin and carboxyhaemoglobin; you need to do arterial blood gases. OTOH, you do make a reasonable point that there are many conditions where monitoring of pulse oximetry can be helpful - you can get cheap ($30) pulse oximeters online these days. Lots of GPs have them now.
You know I'd almost forgotten the watch became properly available today, because it's such an uninteresting thing.
Presumably though this weekend the pubs will be full of drunken twats stabbing at the wrists of friends instead of just stabbing each other. Well, if the battery lasted long enough that it was still working by the evening...
Given how easy it was to strip out the innards, who is saying the top end watches cannot be upgraded, or traded in to Apple? The case is gold, this can be very efficiently recycled or exchanged.
The nice thing with products like this is we don't have to buy them.
I have a very nice, titanium watch which is solar powered. It will never need a battery, or charging for that matter. I don't need an Apple watch, and as such will not be buying one.
Yet the S*m*ung Gear2 has this available via app (pricey but works)
I think it is sold as a novelty though, not intended for accuracy but will tell you for example what sleep state someone is in by combining SpO2, pulse rate and evoked response with some more work.
<cough> vibrate motor + accelerometer to see if they move when blipped</cough>
The FDA really is a pain, Apple could have marketed this well and increased sales by about 10% by selling it to people with sleep apnoea/etc for long term minimally invasive monitoring.
Seriously, it is no more a watch than an iPhone is a mobile phone. Sure, an iPhone can make calls, and an Apple Watch can tell the time, but neither are their respective primary functions. Nor does the device dissected cost £10,000, it costs £300.
The peanut gallery's constant desire to compare it to a Rolex is simply stupid. The device that iFixIt dissected costs less than a great many people spend on a watch that does only tell the time. And its purpose isn't to tell the time. Just imagine that Apple had decided not to release the silly gold version, and had called it something other than a watch. The vast majority of the pointless comments would have been stillborn. Perhaps then commentators might have focussed on what it is actually good for, and not what it isn't.
This is another place where tech industries should listen to. So many great ideas here and people know a thing or two what great product should be - It's pretty amazing. I think most people here are successful folks. Yeah, the tech industries should listen to you guys.
Interesting idea, shame Apple haven't got a "budget" version for a mere £199.
Also I wonder how they got around the battery shipping issue? Is there an exemption for small batteries if contained in equipment maybe?
I still say Apple should have included Li-Fi as an updating method, much faster and good for Gbps between devices, and also a microSD slot *inside* the watch so that when the battery gets changed the memory can be increased for a small charge.
When explaining the "crown" it would appear someone conflates analog and digital with computers.
Specifically "......which reads the spinning of the angular position of a shaft into analog or digital code that computers can understand."
All real world devices (mice, rotary encoders, voltages) are analog and are converted by many schemes into digital information which is all a computer (microprocessor) can accept.
Further there are no analog codes.
As for the iWatch after reading this series of reports iWaiting.
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