Tim Cook: Apple Watch will replace car keys, battery will last whole day and other tidbits

Tim Cook visits Covent Garden Apple store

While making an unannounced visit to Apple’s flagship retail store in London’s Covent Garden, CEO Tim Cook dropped a few more hints about the upcoming wrist-worn device, expected to mark Apple’s foray into wearables come this April.

As The Telegraph reported, Apple’s chief executive said the Watch will replace your car keys, reward exercise, filter messages and more.

According to Cook, the Watch is designed to be able to “replace car keys and the clumsy, large fobs that are now used by many vehicles.”

Matching up Apple’s previous battery claims (“users will have to charge it overnight”), Cook said the Watch’s battery life will last the whole day and it won’t take as long to charge as an iPhone.

Of message filtering, he reiterated the device will make it much easier to prioritize, spot and react to urgent messages, such as a family emergency.

And of course, mobile payments from your wrist will be possible for Watch wearers as long as they own any iPhone from an iPhone 5 onward.

Speaking of its other uses, he likened the device to the iPhone.

“This will be just like the iPhone: people wanted it and bought for a particular reason, perhaps for browsing, but then found out that they loved it for all sorts of other reasons,” Cook told the paper.

First and foremost, people are going to want to buy the Apple Watch because it’s a fashion statement, Cook said and praised Apple’s design chief Jony Ive.

“He did such a great job with the design,” he said. “It’s beautiful.”

According to a wide-ranging Jony Ive profile in the New Yorker, the Apple Watch is apparently Ive’s pet project.

As for its health and fitness features, we know from before that the Watch will gently tap users on their wrist to remind them to move after sitting for too long.

Now Cook cast more light on the device’s special rewards system designed to reward exercise. Folks will get credits if they exercise enough and will be encouraged to increase their metabolic targets if they meet their exercise targets consistently.

“Consumers will clearly have an incentive to wear the watch for as much of the day as possible, and even in the shower.” This is the second time we’re hearing that users will be permitted to wear the Watch while taking a shower.

Because “We’ve never sold anything as a company that people could try on before”, the Watch sales process may require “tweaking the experience in the store”, Cook told his staff at the Covent Garden store, “one of my favorite stores in the world.”

Cook, a fitness nut who gets up at 3:45 every morning to get a head start on East Coasters, charges his Watch overnight and wears it all day long because “I want to make sure I measure all my activity.”

#TimCook just sayin’… #Apple

A photo posted by Model And Music Producer (@xavier_cookson_edwards) on

Apple is expected to discuss Watch features in greater detail at its highly-anticipated “Spring Forward” media event on March 9.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is on a world tour.

Having met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this week, he visited Israel, Belgium and now London.

Business Insider has put together a nice collection of tweets and images documenting Cook’s world tour. The video below shows Cook chatting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

Apple has research and development facilities and offices in Israel and lately has been looking to grow its in-house chip design capabilities with new hires in the country.

“We’ve hired our first individual in Israel in 2011 and we now have over 700 people working in Israel directly for us,” said Cook in Wednesday’s meeting with president Rivlin.

Source: The Telegraph