Apple Watch gets some amazing new features when it comes to health, fitness, and communication.
What's going on. I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech.
Well, I'm back from the big Apple event up in Coopertino where we got to go hands on with the new iPhones and the new Apple Watches. And let me tell you, the iPhone's getting all the attention, but the Apple Watch is making some pretty amazing leaps. With what this thing can do and with the evolution that it continues to see, this is seriously the best health and fitness tracker there is by far. It's also an amazing companion to the iPhone. I love the way it handles notifications.
It's just so nice.
And I love my Fitbit Versa as well. I think that's a nice second. And I love the fact that.
It can do sleep.
But the way the Apple Watch works with apps and notifications, and one thing I really like about it is that when I raise my wrist to look at the screen, it always lights up onlike my Fitbit Versa, which sometimes does not, and that is kind of crazy. The one thing I don't like about the Apple Watch there's no support for Spotify to me. And twenty eight I don't understand why that's still happening, but I sort of understand Apple music.
Yeah, I get it all right.
So let's talk about what's new in the Apple Watch series for now. The big headline is that the devices are now two millimeters bigger, so they come in a forty and forty four millimeters size versus the old thirty eight and forty two millimeters from before.
But here's the thing.
When I put this thing on my wrist, the screen is noticeably bigger. Yes, for sure, you can definitely tell the screen is bigger, but the devices themselves are not noticeably bigger or bulkier. So the screen, the way they made it bigger is it has a lot more real estate because they pushed the screen all the way out
to the edges. So if you look at your Apple Watch now, and this is no secret, there's kind of like a big bezel between where the screen actually ends and where the edge of the device is, But since it's all black, you kind of don't really notice it unless it's fully lit up. But this screen now is thirty percent bigger, and you can definitely tell. They have these new watch faces that have like a ton of information on them.
Kind of overload.
It actually surprises me a little bit because Apple is all about simplicity.
Other new improvements, the microphone is better.
They've moved it as far away from the speaker as possible, so calls are less echoey and clearer.
I never really had a problem with that.
I mean, I guess maybe they weren't as loud as I wanted, But the microphone has been improved. The speaker is also louder, so that's a good thing if you thought that you couldn't really hear people. They made the back black ceramic and sapphire crystal now, so the back of the Apple Watch is now much upgraded with those new materials. Now here's one thing I'm not sure that I like. Radio waves can now pass through the front
and the back of the device. It used to be only the screen that the cellular connection would be able to pass through.
So I was actually always.
Concerned about the Apple Watch because of the whole cellular thing on my wrist all day, and I didn't really know that the waves didn't pass through the back of the watch.
Well, now that they do.
I'm not a fan of that because guess what, now you have this radiation producing device sitting on your wrist all day and the radiation can go through the front and the back.
So I'm not a fan.
I mean, obviously we're not really sure about all the long term effects of it stuff. But when you have something sitting on your arm all day long, basically the entire day, that's you know, radiating waves, it's kind of weird. As opposed to your phone, which, of course you know your phone is doing the same thing, but it comes and goes. You're not keeping it in your pocket the entire day, unlike a watch, which is literally sitting there like as close as possible to your arm.
All right, I digress.
The digital crown is now haptic, so when you scroll through things on the screen, you can feel a little response through the digital crown.
And one thing to know that I think.
Some people will like the old bands that you have from your old Apple watches will work with the new Apple watches. So that's nice if you have a collection or a band that you like, or you spend a bunch of money on so they still snap in. When it comes to watch faces, there are several new ones, the ones with all the new complications I told you about, plus they have these fun like you know, only Apple would have the vapor, the liquid, metal, the fire, and the water watch faces and these all.
React, which is really neat the breathe.
App that's now available as a watch face as well. So the Breathe app you would get a notification from, and of course I would always dismiss it and you say, I'm gonna do it later, and I never did. So I think Apple knew that they probably noticed a lot of people dismissing that notification to breathe and then never breathing. So now it's available as a watchface. So every time you look at your watch, you're reminded to relax and
take a breath for a moment like this. Ah all right, So now for the really interesting stuff that Apple has added in when it comes to health. So there's three important features when it comes to your heart. So the first one is notification if your heart rate appears too low. I do believe that that's been in previous versions of the Apple Watch.
But here's the two new ones.
It can detect irregular rhythms, So a regular heart rhythm which could suggest atrial fibrillation.
Say that five times fast.
So in Watch OS five Apple Watch will kind of just analyze your heart rhythm in the background, and it will send you a notification if it notices an irregular heart rhythm if it's detected, and it can also alert you if the heart rate exceeds or falls below a specific threshold.
Now just think about that for a second.
This device that you have sitting on your wrist all day long is analyzing your heart in the background.
I mean, that is just unbelievable.
The other thing you can do now is take an ECG, so you can take an electro cardiogram right from your wrist. There's a new ECG app which takes advantage of these new electrodes built into the digital crown, so you actually hold your finger on the digital crown for thirty seconds and it will take that ECG. There's also the new electrical heart rate sensor in the back crystal.
So that also helps with this as well.
That is amazing as well, and this has been given clearance from the FDA. Apple calls it a de novo classification, so whatever that means. But that's big because now this is really a device that is a health device. American Heart Association was up on stage at the Apple event to talk about it, and this is big This is big time for a lot of people in the US that may have heart problems or may not even know they have a heart problem, and all these features can work together to keep people healthy.
The other major feature that it has is fall detection.
So I know, well, everyone's referencing I've fallen and I can't get up.
Yeah, that's basically what this is.
So if you fallow, the Apple Watch will notice, and it will send you a notification. And I don't know what the notification says, but basically it's something to the effect of.
Are you okay.
If you don't respond to that notification in sixty seconds, well then it activates the SOS feature, which dials nine one one and also sends a text with your location to the emergency contacts that you set up in the health app. Again, this is game changing. This is such an important feature on the Apple Watch. Uses the device's accelerometer and gyroscope to identify when a hard fall occurs. So this is not just for any fall. People are saying, well,
what if I just slip or whatever. No, No, Apple is smarter to say, you know, we're not going to just send help or call nine one one if you just happen to have a little fall or tripped and there's.
No big deal.
But in real emergency cases, this thing could save lives. But in reality, we have to see how this is going to work in everyday life, because everyone's thinking about the elderly. But there can be more implications like a car. I mean, this is something that can be expanded in the future. So any sort of abnormality that the Apple Watch experiences while it's on your wrist, the algorithms can definitely figure out what is going on and also maybe decide if you need help.
So we'll have to see what happens with that one. But I think that's a really cool feature all right.
Now, when it comes to battery life, no real improvements there. Apple was clear to say that battery life has not changed, hasn't gotten worse with all these new features.
They still rate it at about eighteen hours.
And I find with my Apple Watch that the battery life really depends on how much you do that day. So if you're using a lot of GPS or you know, a lot of exercising, your battery life will definitely be less.
But if you don't do as much.
Yeah, I can go a lot longer, but I think at the end of the day, we're still at the point where you have to charge your Apple Watch every single night, and that is probably why Apple didn't mention anything about sleep tracking.
I think that the company.
Wants to do this, but they are just not there yet because they need a battery that lasts a couple of days before they can say, hey, let's keep this thing on all night, not having it charge all night while you're sleeping.
So one band I like that.
They showed off a band that you put on your watch, not a rock band, is called the Nike Sport Loop.
This now has.
Reflective yarn kind of woven into it for nighttime visibility, and it's really cool. I'll put a link to a picture of it that I took so you can see how it works in the show notes. But basically, when light hits this band on the Apple Watch, it lights.
Up and it's really cool.
It's very reflective and I love that because if you're running at night, you need everything you can to help car see you.
So that's really cool.
And watch OS five right around the corner that's launching on September seventeenth, which is.
Monday, September seventeenth.
That's going to bring that walky talkie feature, which is kind of like Next Tell back in the day, where you can tap and talk to someone through their Apple Watch. And I read a thing about it on the Verge who got a demo of it, and they were not too.
Hot on it.
But I think that maybe Apple has kind of evolved this thing a little bit.
More by the time the launch comes.
So I can't wait to try that one out because I think that could be really useful in a lot of circumstances where instead of sending a quick text to someone or calling them, you can just you know, if you're at the grocery store and you got to say, hey, do you want to you know, non fat or two percent milk, and that could be something that you go walkie talkie instead of having to wait for a response
on the text and all that kind of stuff. So the watches are available Friday, September twenty first, and with all these new features comes a new higher price tag. The Series four Apple Watch now starts at three hundred and ninety nine dollars, and if you want the Series four with cellular, you're looking at four hundred and ninety nine dollars, so five hundred dollars for the cellular version, which you know, of course you have to pay ten dollars a month extra for that as well on your
cellular plan. Series three now takes a price drop to two seventy nine, so that's kind of nice if you still if you don't really need all the new features on the Series four, you can grab the Series three for two hundred and seventy nine dollars. Still a really good watch, especially with that built in GPS, and it's very fast.
I think even after a year.
I know the old Apple watches have kind of slowed down, but I think the Series three is still just fast enough. All Right, there you have it. A quick look at the Apple Watch. Than suries for Thanks so much for listening. If you want links to some of my TV coverage from up there at the Apple event, you can go to my website or check the show notes.
It's richon tech dot tv. I'm Rich Dmiro. Thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you real soon.