Apple Watch Detailed: Apps, Complex Data Via iPhone

We know a bit about the Apple Watch, but not nearly as much as we'd like to. A new hands-on post sheds additional details on Apple's first true wearable, detailing just how we'll be able to get new apps for the wrist-worn device.

The Apple Watch has a unique interface, where a variety of icons are manifested as small circles strewn across the face. You can zoom in and out to find the app you like, but how do they get there? Like most smart wearables, your phone will do the heavy lifting. A dedicated app on your iPhone will get you all the Apple Watch apps you need.

Though it doesn't quite give some the "set the phone down and forget it exists" experience they want form a wearable, it does offer up a better reason to get apps. Trying to find new apps via the Apple Watch would get tiresome, and any kind of storefront interface on a wearable is a bad choice.

About those limited specs and battery life questions: your phone is still helping out. The iPhone in your pocket will handle the computational dead-lifting, and send the results to your watch. In that respect, the Apple Watch is a lot like other wearables. It offers up a method for feeding you information, but doesn't parse that info itself.

Apple hasn't made much fuss over how the Apple Watch will work. At their massive event earlier this month, they announced it, and showed how it worked for users, but were oddly mum on the gritty details. Now that we know how we'll get apps, it seems the Apple Watch won't really be cannibalizing iPhone sales as some had predicted.

Source: A Blog to Watch