Apple Watch Launch Highlights

By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 8 September 2015 17:23 IST

Everything you need to know about the latest Apple product in the market.

2015-03-10T00:44:00+0530

We've got details about the new MacBook's specs, India pricing and availability in the story.

2015-03-10T00:43:00+0530

That's all folks! The event is over now. Stay tuned for full coverage right here on NDTV Gadgets. Thanks for reading.

2015-03-10T00:06:00+0530

It appears as if Cook is winding up the event. He's giving a brief recap of today's announcements.

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Apple is showing a video now. This is an Apple Watch ad.

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Apple Watch will be available starting April 24 in a handful of countries (not India). Cook says that other countries will get it as soon as possible.

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The Apple Watch Edition - the one with 18k gold - costs $10,000!

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Apple Watch steel starts $549 to $1,049 for the 38mm variant and $599 to $1,099 for the 42mm one

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Apple's previous video featured Jony Ive talking about aluminium used in the Apple Watch. Now he's talking about stainless steel. This launch has had a lot of videos.

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Apple Watch Sport starts $349 for 38mm and $399 for the 42mm model.

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Now there's yet another video, this time for the Apple Watch and how it's been made. This is a Jony Ive video for the design fanatics.

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Tim Cook says the watch will have all-day battery life, roughly 18 hours.

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iOS 8.2 is available for download today.

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In iOS 8.2, there will be an app called Apple Watch. It lets you download apps for the Apple Watch from the iPhone or iPad.

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The Apple Watch lets you reply to messages with quick reply options such as OK or via dictation. There appears to be no software keyboard, which is a good thing.

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You can use the Apple Watch as a room key in certain hotels.

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You can use Apple Watch at airports to help with check-in. It shows your flight details and seat number.

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WeChat, Instagram and ESPN are some of the apps available for Apple Watch.

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They're showing how you can quickly use the Apple Watch to make payments.

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The Quick Glances feature on Apple Watch is like Today widgets on the iPhone, but you're going to end up using Quick Glances far more than the iPhone widgets.

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You can activate Siri by pressing and holding the digital crown on the side.

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Apple is going to show a few Apple Watch apps.

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You can receive any iPhone notification on your Apple Watch.

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Burns is going to be writing a weekly blog on apple.com about how she's preparing for the London marathon.

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Meanwhile Tim Cook has invited Christy Turlington Burns on stage to talk about how she used the Apple Watch while running a half-marathon.

2015-03-09T23:35:00+0530

The new MacBooks will be available in India on April 10.

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We've just received word from Apple India about the new MacBook's India prices. It's Rs. 99,900 for the 256GB variant and Rs. 1,19,900 for the 512GB model.

2015-03-09T23:34:00+0530

Moving on to useful features - fitness. Apple Watch reminds you if you've been sitting too long. It will also send you a report of how you did the previous week and remind you if you haven't been moving enough. It's like having a coach on your wrist, Cook says.

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There's a new technology called Digital Touch that connects one Apple Watch to another. This is the tech that lets you send your heartbeat to a friend.

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You can receive calls on your watch using the built-in speaker and microphone. You can also read texts and email.

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Apple Watch has a feature called Glances. When you swipe up from the bottom of the watch, it shows you information such as your calendar, heart rate, etc.

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He's talking about the various watch faces. You can add mini details to watch faces, such as the date, meeting reminders, stopwatch, etc.

2015-03-09T23:27:00+0530

Tim Cook returns to talk about the product we've been waiting for - Apple Watch.

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The MacBook Air is getting new Intel 5th generation processors. The MacBook Pro with Retina display gets the Force Touch trackpad and new processors. Both these ship today in the US.

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Double the storage for $1599. Starts shipping in several countries from April 10.

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Intel HD5300 graphics, 8GB memory, 256GB SSD for $1299

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Video ends without Jony Ive making an appearance. Schiller returns with Hastag MacBookLust

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This video is really hard to describe. It's a classic Jony Ive video with his voice in the background. But his face hasn't appeared in it yet.

2015-03-09T23:21:00+0530

Jony Ive, Apple's Senior VP Design, is now in a video - his famous video with a white background.

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Schiller says this is the most environment friendly MacBook. And the world's most energy efficient notebook

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It comes in three colours. Silver, space grey and a stunning gold.

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There's just one port on this MacBook. This one port supports power, display port, HDMI, VGA through a USB-C port. This is a reversible cable, like Apple's Lightning cable.

2015-03-09T23:15:00+0530

The rest of the space is filled with Apple's new asymmetric batteries. Terraced, contoured battery cells that fit the contours of the MacBook's enclosure. Schiller says Apple can get 35 percent more battery capacity using this. Up to 9 hours on wireless Web and up to 10 hours on iTunes movie playback.

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Intel Core M processor clocked at 1.3GHz. This processor consumes just 5 watts of power.

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There is no fan in this MacBook. This is the first fanless MacBook.

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The deeper you press fast forward, the faster the movie goes in QuickTime.

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They've also upgraded the trackpad. It's called the Force Touch trackpad. It has four sensors and a Taptic Engine that doesn't click like traditional trackpads. The sensors are pressure sensitive. There's a new gesture called force click. This is integrated into OS X that performs actions such as automatically adding calendar entries, etc.

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This is the thinnest and most energy efficient display on a Mac, he says.

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The new MacBook has a 12-inch screen. It has a Retina display with a resolution of 2304x1440 pixels.

2015-03-09T23:07:00+0530

Schiller says the keyboard has been reinvented. The old keyboards had a scissor mechanism, which makes the keys wobbly if you press them from the sides. The new butterfly mechanism is thinner, more stable and better than the one on the previous version, Schiller says.

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The thickness is 13.1 mm, compared with 17.3 mm on the old MacBook Air.

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The new MacBook is 24 percent thinner than the MacBook Air.

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The new MacBook weighs just 2 pounds - just 900 grams!

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Apple Senior VP Marketing Phil Schiller takes the stage to talk about the MacBook

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Tim Cook is holding the new MacBook - it is gold. He says, Can you even see it? I can't even feel it.

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Looks like a gold MacBook! This is the first time we've seen a MacBook in this colour.

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Another video, now about the new MacBook.

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We challenged ourselves to reinvent the notebook, and we did it: Cook

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The notebook industry shrank 2 percent while MacBook sales rose 21 percent.

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For every year in the last decade the Mac has outgrown the industry: Cook.

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Tim Cook is back. We now move to Mac.

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Five ResearchKit apps will be available today. Williams signs off with that statement.

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ResearchKit is open source! This fits the bill for a medical research oriented platform.

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Another video. Doctors are talking about the problems they face when trying to conduct medical research. And how the iPhone and ResearchKit could be a good solution.

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You decide which apps you participate in, and Apple will not see your data.

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There are some serious privacy questions here - whether your health data should be recorded by third-party researchers. Williams is talking about this now. There is nothing more sensitive than your medical data, he says.

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Similarly, there are apps for asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.

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He's talking about an app called mPower that is geared towards Parkinson's research.

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ResearchKit helps researchers easily build apps for research.

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To try to solve this problem, Apple is announcing ResearchKit.

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Williams is talking about how difficult it is to track patient data.

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Apple's Senior VP (Operations) Jeff Williams is on stage now to talk about how Apple's Health app helps medical research.

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There are over 900 apps that help you track your health and fitness: Cook

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40 new car models will ship with CarPlay by the end of this year: Cook

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Across the US, 700,000 locations use Apple Pay. Including Coca Cola vending machines, of which there will be 100,000 by the end of this year: Cook.

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Cook says the customer satisfaction for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is 99 percent. These numbers are just unheard of, Cook says.

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iPhone's year-on-year growth was 49 percent and Cook says it's the top-selling smartphone in the world.

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Cook has now moved to the iPhone. Over 700 million iPhones sold, he says.

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Good news! Apple TV gets a price cut. It's now down to $69 from the old price of $99.

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Apple TV is the category leader, Cook says. 25 million units sold.

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The trailer ends. Tim Cook is back on stage now.

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An exclusive trailer of Game of Thrones Season 5 is being shown.

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The subscription fee is $14.99 per month.

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HBO is launching a new streaming service called HBO Now. Apple is HBO's exclusive partner for HBO Now. It will only work with Apple devices. All you need is a broadband connection and an Apple device, Plepler says.

2015-03-09T22:39:00+0530

HBO CEO Richard Plepler takes the stage. We love Apple, he says.

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Cook is talking about HBO and how its shows have become a part of our culture. He names shows such as Sopranos, Silicon Valley and Game of Thrones.

2015-03-09T22:37:00+0530

He's now talking about Apple TV.

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Cook says Apple has 453 stores in 16 countries. Over 120 million customers visited Apple stores last quarter: Cook.

2015-03-09T22:35:00+0530

What you just saw on that video was the opening of our latest store in West Lake China

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The video ends and Apple CEO Tim Cook arrives on stage.

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The video is showing a host of excited people buying Apple products in China.

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And it begins! Apple's showing a video featuring an Apple Store in China.

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The event is being held at the Yerba Buena Center for Arts in San Francisco, California, USA. The hall's packed and the crowd is waiting for the event to begin.

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We'll bring you the latest updates from tonight's Apple event right here. Stay tuned.

2015-03-09T22:27:00+0530

Apple's 'Spring Forward' event is scheduled to begin in around five minutes. The company is expected to unveil the Apple Watch and the rumour mill claims that we may see a new MacBook as well.

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Apple is set to officially launch the Apple Watch, months after it announced its first wearable device. Apple has shared some information about the Watch, but Cupertino has been largely silent about how the Watch will be sold.

The company isn't talking about plans for marketing the Apple Watch in advance of its much-touted "Spring Forward" event on Monday, but it clearly intends to keep a tight grip on initial sales and distribution, leaving many retailers guessing about when - or if - they'll be able to sell it.

Sources with direct knowledge of the matter said that Best Buy Co Inc, one of the largest sellers of Apple products, may not get the watch at launch time, though the company wouldn't comment on the situation.

Other large retailers, including Macy's, Saks 5th Avenue, Bloomingdales and Barney's said they had no immediate plans to carry the watch. Target and Nordstrom,along with all the major phone carriers, declined to comment on their plans, though a source with knowledge of the situation said Nordstrom has engaged in discussions with Apple.

"Apple is being cautious. There are too many unknowns around how this product will perform," said Van Baker, research vice-president, technology research firm Gartner Inc.

That might mean restricting initial sales to company stores, where Apple has complete control over the experience and staff can be specially trained to sell the watch, Baker said.

In the absence of hard information about what the tweaks might look like, speculation has been intense. The Washington Post last week suggested that Apple might add carpeting and mirrors and change store lighting to enhance the watch-buying experience.

Media outlets and Websites have also posited that the watch will be offered at special pop-up stores installed at luxury retailers such as Selfridges in London and Colette in Paris.

Apple hosted a private event at Colette last September, at which guests were able to try on the watch, but a spokesman for Colette declined to comment on whether the store would carry it.

Until now, wearable gadgets have not been big sellers for technology companies. Rival products such as Samsung's Gear watches have sold poorly.

Apple hopes to change that, but it is still a big if whether the watch will appeal to buyers seeking a fashion accessory, especially if it needs to be upgraded every few years like Apple's phones, tablets and computers.

"It could do wonders for the watch market if it means people might wear watches again, but realistically, there are a lot of doubts," said Eric Wilson, fashion news director of InStyle.

"Fashion customers are more skeptical than anyone, so Apple has picked a tough crowd."

Written with inputs from Reuters

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