We’ve been waiting for months to hear how long the Apple Watch’s battery will last, and luckily the Cupertino-based company has appeased us during its “Spring Forward” media event on Monday. Apple says the Apple Watch will have an 18-hour battery life, or what Apple calls “all day battery life”.
“During a typical day you can expect 18 hours. This works for most people I think,” Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, told attendees at the event.
The magnetic charger will click to the back of the Watch to charge at the end of the day, Cook told attendees.
We’ve always known that Apple Watch will have Siri integration, but some new developments were revealed at Today’s Apple Watch event. While on stage, Kevin Lynch demonstrated Hey Siri functionality, which allows you to invoke Siri by simply raising your wrist and using only your voice.
As you’re likely aware of, the iPhone features Hey Siri functionality as well, but on the iPhone, you must have you device plugged in to do so. Having Hey Siri available on your wrist makes it much easier to interact with Siri hands-free, and will usher in a a much more convenient way of communicating with the Siri voice assistant software.
Hey Siri on the iPhone is a big battery drainer, because it means that the device is actively listening for the “Hey Siri” command. On the Apple Watch, the device won’t listen unless you raise your wrist. This means that there will be a lot less battery drain while using Hey Siri on the Apple Watch.
Apple has announced the Apple Watch Edition will be available in select retail stores, priced from $10,000.
Pre-orders begin April 10.
Note:
On stage at Apple’s media event on Monday, Tim Cook announced that iOS 8.2 will launch to the public today. The software update, which has been in beta for several weeks now, will bring about the Apple Watch companion app that will allow your iPhone to talk to the upcoming wearable.
We saw a preview of the app back in January, when it was unearthed from a developer beta. It will allow users to customize a wide range of things on their Apple Watch including the Clock app with personalized monograms and alerts for notifications, people in your Contacts list, and more.
Additionally, the Companion app will offer up details on the device itself. Users will be able to view the storage capacity of their Apple Watch, the number of songs, photos and apps onboard, and other info like serial number and connection status. We’ll let you know as soon as iOS 8.2 hits today.
Elie Chahine 