Apple Watch hack brings web browsing to your wrist…plus latest news, release date, price and features

The Apple Watch can do a lot of neat tricks but the one thing it can’t do is offer internet browsing. Until now.

One developer has done the inevitable and tinkered with the Apple Watch OS to enable it to run a web browser. In a video that appeared on 9 to 5 Mac it shows well-known jailbreaker, Comex, prodding around a Google homepage on the smartwatch.

With 38mm and 42mm display sizes there’s good reason why the Apple Watch doesn’t come with a Safari app and this video manages to reinforce that. The webpage doesn’t fit to screen size and shows the user having to scroll a lot to see anything on the postage stamp sized viewing area. So don’t get too excited just yet.

However, despite its rather rudimentary delivery this will excite all the jailbreakers out there as it shows the Apple Watch can run external code giving developers a whole basket of opportunities.

Comex has not released any further details of the hack but an official SDK is on its way later this year so expect lots of new features to be heading to the wrist when that arrives.

Apple Watch: everything you need to know

If you want to know everything about Apple Watch, including UK release date, pre-ordering, delivery times, apps, price and other features, you’ve come to the right place. Scroll down to read our full round-up.

Jump to:

• Apple Watch Release Date
• How to buy Apple Watch
• Apple Watch Design
• Apple Watch Features
• Apple Watch Price
• Apple Watch Apps
• Apple Watch Accessories
• Apple Watch: how to remove a scratch
• Apple Watch: won’t work with tattoos

Apple Watch Release Date: When can I buy Apple Watch?

Apple started taking pre-orders of Apple Watch on 10 April, and sold nearly 1 million units on the first day in the US alone. The first shipments of the device are set to arrive with their new owners on Friday 24 April and it’s still available to pre-order online now. However, current delivery times in the region of two months.

Nevertheless, this may still be a better idea than heading down to the store on launch day, not least because it’s unclear when launch day actually is.

9to5mac noticed the “Available 4.24.15” message had been removed from the Watch section of the US Apple website on 15 April. The same message was removed from the UK site a day later.

Before

After

The same day, French website iGen also published what it claimed was an internal memo from the company’s head of retail to staff, which stated: “Many of you have been getting questions asking if we will have the watch available in stores on April 24 for walk-in purchases. As we announced last week, due to high global interest combined with our initial supply, we are only taking orders online right now.”

“I’ll have more updates as we get closer to in-store availability, but we expect this to continue through the month of May,” she said, adding that Store employees shoud “continue to help [customers] place their order online”.

Apple Watch Release Date: Where can I buy Apple Watch?

If you want to buy an Apple Watch, your best bet is to buy online. While you can currently make an appointment to try on the Apple Watch if you want to see how it looks on your wrist, Apple Stores won’t be stocking the device until at least June.

However, it seems that even buying online doesn’t guarantee you’ll receive your device any time soon. According to Slice Intelligence, a company that measures “digital commerce activity”, only 22% of the 1.7 million Apple Watches pre-ordered in the US alone arrived with customers on the first weekend. Of the remaining 78%, just under 550,000 are expected to be with their new owners between 27 April and 11 June. However, a whopping 38% have no idea when their Apple Watch will arrive.

Where can I buy Apple Watch Edition?

The high-end, high-price, limited edition Apple Watch Edition, which you can read more about on the next page, is available to buy only from Selfridges in London, Galeries Lafayette in France, or Isetan in Tokyo. Given the starting price for this particular model is £8,000, it’s unlikely they will sell out quite so rapidly.

It’s also, according to 9to5mac, a much harder device to return. On taking the Apple Watch Edition back to an Apple Store to return it, a member of the floor staff will visually inspect it to ensure it’s in good condition and hasn’t had any alterations such as engraving. It will then be passed to a specially trained Genius Bar member, who will use special tools including a microscope and gold weight scale “to ensure that no gold has been removed … to be sold on secondary markets”. Once the device has been approved for return, the Store manager is then called to carry out the refund.

Apple Watch Design and Features

Apple Watch Design

The Apple Watch comes in three varieties, the entry-level Apple Watch Sport, mid-range Apple Watch and high-end Apple Watch Edition.

The overall design of the smartwatches is the same. Each Apple Watch has a rectangular face with rounded-off corners housed in a case that’s visible from the front and sides. There are two buttons to control the watch – a “digital crown”, which looks much like the crown on a normal watch, and is used to scroll through apps, and a lozenge-shaped one beneath that. All are also available in two screen sizes, 38mm or 42mm.

Beyond that, each version comes with various levels of customisation, from different band colours, designs and materials, to different screen sizes, to different casing colours and materials.

Apple Watch Sport

Apple Watch Sport is the entry level Apple Watch and, as you would expect, it’s less customisable. There are only five strap colours currently available on the online Apple Store – black, white, pink, green and blue, all made from fluoroelastomer. However, four new colours – pale pink, dark blue, yellow and red – made an appearance at an event in Milan, although there’s no indication if these were special editions or will eventually be widely available.

Picking my #applewatch #Now #socool #thankyou #appleteam such a great evening

A photo posted by Umberta Gnutti Beretta (@188e76) on Apr 17, 2015 at 3:38pm PDT

The Apple Watch Sport’s casing is only available in silver aluminium, with the exception of the black band, which comes only with a space grey casing.

 

Another apparent difference is the charger that comes with the Apple Watch Sport. According to 9to5mac, unlike the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition, or what’s seen in the promotional videos and pictures, Apple Watch Sport doesn’t have a fancy metal charger. Instead, it comes with a fully white plastic charger, which was seen ever so briefly in the company’s “Better Starts Here” environmental corporate social responsibility video, although its presence wasn’t explained.

While the charger functions exactly the same as the metal one, using inductive Qi technology, it also emphasises the fact that if you went for the Apple Watch Sport, you took the cheap option.

Apple Watch

The mid-range Apple Watch has the greatest level of customisation. There are ten different designs available, which is mainly thanks to a wider range of strap options. There are two fluoroelastomer Sport straps available in either black or white, one Classic Buckle, which is available only in black, a woven metal Milanese Loop, available in silver only.

There are also eight leather straps available, three Leather Loops in black, blue, stone or light brown, which are only available for the 42mm screen version, and four Modern Buckle in brown, pink, blue and black, which are available only for the 38mm version

Finally, there are two stainless steel Link Bracelets, available in silver or black, with the black version having a black case only.

Apple Watch Edition

When you check out the specs on the Apple Watch Edition, you start to see why it costs so much more than the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Sport.

The defining feature of the edition is its casing, which is available exclusively in 18-carat yellow or rose gold.

All in all there are six designs available, a white Sport band with rose gold casing, black Sport band with yellow casing, two leather Classic Buckle with yellow casing in blue or black for the 42mm version only, a pink Modern Buckle with rose gold casing for the 32mm version only, and a red Modern buckle with yellow casing, also for the 32mm version only.

To boost its high-end credentials, Apple has been handing out all gold Apple Watch Editions to the likes of Haut Couturier Karl Lagerfeld and singer Beyonce, as well as enlisting super model Christy Turlington to promote both the Edition and Sport ranges in a series of videos.

1st apple watch specially made for KarL !! Amazing !!! Thanks #apple !!!!!! @karllagerfeld

A photo posted by Sebastien Jondeau (@bentoub) on Apr 15, 2015 at 9:55am PDT

Apple Watch Features

Apple Watch includes a whole host of new technology that’s not been seen before, but which is already starting to make it into some of Apple’s other products.

The first of these it the Apple Watch’s Force Touch function, which allows the device to determine the difference between a tap and a press.This is used in app to access “contextually specific” controls. In iTunes, for example, a tap will pause or play a song, while a press will bring up icons to select shuffle or repeat.

As mentioned above, one of the stand-out unique features of the Apple Watch is its Digital Crown. It can be used much like the wheel on older iPods and the iPod Classic to let you cycle through apps and options, rather than tunes, on your Apple Watch.

Apple hasn’t reused any of its existing chips for the Apple Watch, instead developing the new S1 “system-on-a-chip” specifically for it. The Californian technology giant claims this has the entire architecture of a computer on a single chip.

On the rear of the watch, Apple has designed a sensor that uses infrared and visible-light LEDs and photodiodes to detect your heart rate. To accompany it, Apple has designed software to track your every movement, including steps, stairs climbed (using an accelerometer), time spent sitting or standing, running and cycling, and it will update you with live analytics so you’re aware of how close you are to your daily goals.

The Apple Watch has a comprehensive notification centre, too, and one that far outperforms Android Wear currently. It even rivals – if not betters – that of the Tizen OS on the Samsung Gear S. One feature we were particularly impressed with was the Apple Watch’s ability to offers you quick reply options based on questions in your incoming message.

A final feature of note is the combination of GPS signal, Apple Maps and the onboard “Taptic Engine”. Apple demonstrated these features working together to provide you with turn-by-turn navigation using vibration alerts to let you know whether you need to turn left or right.

Apple Watch communication

There are obvious limitations when it comes to sending messages via a smartwatch screen given the small surface area on offer. To combat this Apple has designed four new ways for you to interact with fellow Apple Watch owners in a very minimalist way.

The most simple idea is one similar to the concept behind the Yo app: all it does is send a contact a notification to let them know you’re thinking of them. Apple goes one step further than Yo by allowing you to customise your tap patterns.

There is also a two-way Walkie-Talkie feature and a Sketch function that lets you draw pictures and share them with friends. The final messaging feature allows you to use the watch’s sensors to send your heart beat to a contact, the receiving Apple Watch will then see a heart beating in time with yours on their display.

Apple Watch battery

Apple claims the Apple Watch has an “all-day battery”, which supposedly translates to around 18 hours before it needs recharging through it’s magnetic induction charger.

However, looking at how Apple details the Apple Watch battery on its information page an “all-day battery” actually translates to “90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app use, and a 30-minute workout with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth, over the course of 18 hours.”

Translated into other uses, the Apple Watch can give you three hours of talk time, six and a half hours of audio playback, or six and a half hours of workout time.

If you just use it as a watch and nothing else, the battery will last for 48 hours allowing for 5 time checks every hour. In Power Reserve mode, which turns on automatically when the Apple Watch battery gets low, your Apple Watch will last for 72 hours.

While battery life will certainly fluctuate depending on what you’re using the Apple Watch for, it does charge rather quickly, making life a lot easier if you need to boost it part way through your day. In just one and a half hours the battery can be up to 80% charged, and in two and a half hours it’ll be back to 100%.

Apple has also confirmed to TechCrunch that the Apple Watch battery is replaceable and should last up to three years before it needs replacing. However, we don’t know if this is something that can be done at select jewellers, or if it needs to be sent off to Apple to be done. We also have no price on how much a battery replacement will cost.

Is Apple Watch waterproof?

Like most smartwatches, Apple Watch isn’t waterproof. While it’s IPX7 certified, meaning it can be immersed in water up to 1m for up to 30 minutes, we wouldn’t recommend you go swimming, surfing or diving with it, and should probably take it off to do any washing up as well. However it is splashproof, so you can safely shower while wearing it, as Tim Cook apparently does.

Apple Watch Price

With the pricing for the Apple Watch, Apple’s clearly trying to capture as wide a consumer base as possible, while still maintaining its slightly exclusive air.

The Apple Watch Sport isn’t exactly cheap, starting at £300 for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport in any colour or £340 for the 42mm version, but it is the cheapest of the bunch by nearly £200.

There’s a greater range of pricing with the Apple Watch, which correlates both with the screen size and strap type. The cheapest is £480 for the 38mm with white Sport band, while the most expensive is £950 for the 42mm space black steel link bracelet.

The price of the Apple Watch Edition is nothing short of astronomical. The starting price is £8,000 for a 38mm in rose gold with white Sport band. The most expensive is, perhaps surprisingly, another rose gold 38mm version but with the rose grey Modern Buckle, which costs an eye-watering £13,500.

All prices listed here include VAT.

Apple Watch apps

Apple has been feeding out information about the kind of apps that will be available on Apple Watch from day on in a very slow and steady manner.

So far we know Shazam, OneDrive, PowerPoint, Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Evernote, Expedia and Citymapper apps will be available, as well as Apple’s own iTunes, Mail, Siri, Health and Apple Pay apps.

It also receives all notifications your iPhone does, although you can tailor those in the Watch app.

At Apple’s Spring Forward event on 8 March, we also saw Uber running on Apple Watch, although this hasn’t been confirmed officially. Additionally, W Hotels, a chain of luxury hotels, will be using Apple Watch’s NFC technology to allow wearers to open their hotel room door without the need for a keycard.

We also expect more apps to be announced at WWDC 2015 in June, including home automation using HomeKit. A list of automation services already compatible with HomeKit can be found here, courtesy of Techradar.

There is one category of apps you definitely won’t be seeing on Apple Watch though: fart apps.

According to The Independent, one developer had his app, “Fart.Watch”, received the following explanation when his app was rejected: “We noticed that your Apple Watch app is primarily a fart app. We do not accept fart apps on Apple Watch.”

See also: The best Apple Watch Apps

Apple Pay with Apple Watch

Apple Pay is a key feature of Apple Watch. The service, which allows users to store credit card details within the Apple Pay app, first featured on the iPhone 6, which was revealed at the same time as Apple Watch in September last year.

It makes use of the NFC capability in Apple Watch and the new iPhone to allow contactless payment. There’s a bit of a “so what?” attitude here in Europe over Apple Pay, given we’ve had contactless card payment for many years now, but it’s very innovative in the US, where Chip and PIN is yet to make inroads. It’s no surprise, then, that the company has been pushing Apple Pay there first, rather than abroad. It will be interesting to see if the eventual launch of Apple Watch changes this strategy.

Apple Watch accessories

There’s a wealth of accessories already available for Apple Watch, and we fully expect there will be more. In the meantime, here’s some information on what you can kit your smartwatch out with so far.

Nomad stand for Apple Watch

Nomad has created a rather lovely looking stand for your Apple Watch, with a hole in the back trhough which you can connect the device to its charger. It’s a nice way to stach your phone while it’s charging – if you’ve got a spare $60 (plus tax and shipping) to spend.

Boostcase BLOC Power Bank

BLOC is another charging solution for the Apple Watch. Unlike the Nomad, BLOC is a long, rectangular piece of object that is itself a charger. The product contains a 2000mAh polymer battery that, Bootcase claims, can provide 4 full recharges for the Apple Watch before it needs recharging itself.

Like the Apple Watch, it’s also customisable, coming in marble, steel, yellow or rosegold, space grey or silver aluminium, or wood. Naturally, for the extra functions and different materials you pay a premium: BLOC currently costs between $60 and $100 (plus tax and shipping), depending on the material you choose.

Spigen Slim Armor

If you’re worried about your Apple Watch getting damaged by knocks and bumps, Spigen has come up with the answer. The Slim Armor case is a soft polyurethane case with a metalic finish that protects the Apple Watch’s casing, including its buttons. It’s relatively cheap as well, for an Apple accessory, costing just $20, and is available in silver, champagne gold of white. We have bad news if you have slim wrists, though, as Slim Armor is only available for the 42mm version of Apple Watch.

Casetify

If you’re not satisfied by the range of straps available from Apple for Apple Watch, Casetify is here to help. It has hundreds of colourful bands available to buy “off the peg”, but if you’re feeling a bit more arty, you can also design your own strap. Regardless of whether you do for a DIY design or buy a pre-made one, a Casetify strap will set you back $60 plus tax, but the company offers free worldwide shipping.

Apple Watch: How to remove a scratch

With every new Apple launch comes new scandal and hullabaloo. This time the Apple Watch is in the firing line after consumers have reported complaints that the stainless steel version of the smartwatch suffers easily from scratches.

A bit clearer here. pic.twitter.com/U3boQY5iqp

— Michael Kukielka (@DetroitBORG) April 25, 2015

Twitter users posted pictures of the cosmetic damage to their (not so) shiny, new devices which clearly showed multiple scuffs and marks along the metal edge of the watch. With the stainless steel model starting at £479 this is a less than welcome sight but as 9to5 Mac reports the 316L steel is far softer than the matte finish aluminium used for the Apple Watch Sport, which is the cheaper model.

If you’re still deciding which model to drop your cash on we’d recommend thinking about the hardier Apple Watch Sport first, espcially if you’re precious over your gear.

But if you’re set on stainless steel, its vulnerability to the odd scratch can be easily and cheaply fixed. 9to5 Mac suggests that should you invest in a micro abrasive metal polisher and a soft cloth (both of which are inexpensive) the next scuff that appears you’ll be able to buff it away. Clearly it’s not ideal the Apple Watch marks so easily but at least there’s a fix that doesn’t require booking-in with a Genius.

Apple Watch: won’t work with tattoos

Apple Watch, Apple’s first smartwatch, has finally gone on sale online and already it’s hit a snag. Sorry, Hipsters you might think your tattooed wrists are cool but they will break your Apple Watch as Apple confirms the heart rate function of the techy timepiece will not work on some tattooed wrists.

Users on Reddit initially reported the error with darker-coloured inks being the biggest cuprit behind the issue.  Now Apple has publicly acknowledged the problem by posting the following on its support page:

“Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact heart rate sensor performance. The ink, pattern, and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings”

The Apple Watch uses light-sensitive photdiodes and fires LEDs at the skin hundreds of times per secons to detect the amount of blood flowing through your wrist. Natural dark skin pigmentation doesn’t seem to affect it but the dark ink of a tattoo does manage to obscure the LEDs. The same problem is present on other smartwatches and fitness wearables that use the same system technology.

This means bad news for the likes of Beckam and those who followed in his fashionable footsteps by inking their arms in a sleeve of tattoos. See, your mum was right all along.