The newly-introduced Apple Watch, the Cupertino firm’s long-expected foray into smartwatches, is actually water-resistant, not waterproof, technology columnist David Pogue has found out.
According to his hands-on article for Yahoo Tech, even though you can wear the device on the rain, when washing hands or cooking, you’ll need to take it off before hitting the shower.
“Sweating, wearing it in the rain, washing your hands, or cooking with it are fine,” reads his write-up. “Take it off before you swim or get in the shower, though”.
What’s the difference between water resistance and water-proofing?
In a nutshell, water-resistant objects use a protective layer which doesn’t permit water to soak through immediately, but after a while it will start to soak through.
Water-proofing uses various techniques to make an object virtually impervious to water, ensuring that no water will ever get in.
Three cool Apple Watch tidbits we learned about today:
- It requires daily charging: but worry not: unhappy about its 24-hour battery, Apple is “working on various modifications” ahead of an early-2015 launch in order to improve the device’s energy efficiency.
- Suited for both right and left-handed use: users can invert the device so left-handed people can wear it on their right arm
- Mic and phone calling: a built-in microphone allows you to place phone calls from your wrist. The device uses your iPhone to place a phone call and acts basically as a Bluetooth headset.
Can’t get used to the ‘Apple Watch’ name?
Don’t worry, you’re not the only one: even Apple CEO Tim Cook at one point during the two-hour long press conference mentioned an ‘iWatch’.
As pointed out by The Verge, Cook’s made the same mistake during his ABC News interview when mentioning that Apple’s developers are writing applications for the “iPhone and iPad and Mac and now, of course, as of today, the iWatch”.
For a quick overview of everything we know thus far about the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch and Apple Pay, I wholeheartedly recommend reading Cody’s excellent summation article.