Eddy Cue talks Apple Watch, theft and Apple Pay

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Eddy Cue spotted sporting an Apple Watch at a basketball game! Photo: CNET
Eddy Cue spotted sporting an Apple Watch at a basketball game! Photo: CNET

Here’s a weird setting for an Apple Watch interview: CNET caught up with Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of Internet software and services, at a Golden State Warriors basketball game Friday. And Cue actually walked CNET through how Apple Pay will work on your Apple Watch, as well as how it will prevent thieves from stealing your watch and draining your bank account with it.

According to Cue, Apple Watch customers will have to type in a PIN or use Touch ID to unlock the Watch and make payments the first time, and presumably after each reboot, like on an iPhone or iPad. But here’s where it gets clever: The Apple Watch will lock itself if it detects it has been removed since the last time you entered your Touch ID or PIN.

Here’s what Cue told CNET, who was spotted at the game wearing his stainless steel Apple Watch with a black strap.

“You can [type a password] if you want to, but you won’t normally have to,” Cue said. “Right now the watch is unlocked, and I could do all of it without having to type any code. If I [took it off and] handed it to you, now you’d have to type in a security code or unlock it from your phone…

“You don’t have to authenticate on the phone,” said Cue, who was wearing the stainless steel Apple Watch with black strap — the company’s midrange smartwatch model. “Your watch has to be unlocked, and your phone can unlock your watch. If I took my watch off and gave it to you, it would know and no longer work. If I wanted to pay right now, I could pay with the watch and not have to take the phone out of my pocket.”

In September, Cult of Mac was the first to report that the Apple Watch would feature a sensor on the back that could detect when the watch was taken off, and lock itself. As noted by our fearless leader — or, er, fearless Leander — this sensor is “is how Apple will prevent thieves from ripping it off your wrist and using it to clear your bank account.”

Pretty slick. I wonder if, down the line, the Apple Watch’s antitheft detection will get even slicker. Imagine if future Apple Watches could lock down biometrically, simply by detecting that it wasn’t really you wearing the device, even if someone typed in the right passcode. That would be enough to stop even the most hardened thieves dead in their tracks.

Source: CNET

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