Now that the Apple Watch is officially available for pre-orders, Apple has opened up its new Concierge service, allowing you to schedule appointments with Apple Specialists for official Watch fittings.
Provided you can find an available slot, that is!
The Apple Watch is now available for pre-orders, and with it Apple has revealed a few more details about the cost of its AppleCare+ service for the wearables — ranging from $49 for the cheapest option all the way up to $1,500.
Find out what you need to know below.
Did you get to your computer too late to get one of the earliest shipping Apple Watches? No problem: Confirmed preorders are already showing up on eBay.
At a premium, of course.
Shipping dates on the Apple Watch may have already slipped back as far as August in some cases, but there’s one surefire way to get your hands on Apple’s hotly-anticipated wearable: be a big name celebrity.
As users around the world counted down the seconds until they could preorder an Apple Watch, both Katy Perry and Drake posted pictures to their Instagram accounts, showing themselves posing with their brand new Edition devices.
Is it too late for me to start a career in pop music?
You can finally pre-order the Apple Watch of your dreams, but if you want one ASAP skip the Space Gray or fancier models.
Shipping times for the Apple Watch have already slipped into May for the Apple Watch Sport, while some of the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition models won’t ship until June or even August.
Apple Watch pre-orders just went online, but if you’d like to go try-on Jony Ive’s amazing timepiece before you buy it, you can now schedule a one-on-one appointment to go through the different models.
Apple Stores have been outfitted with new viewing tables and demo stations for the pre-order launch. Reservations only last 15 minutes, (unless you’re buying the Apple Watch Edition), but that should be enough time to find the right case and band combo to match your style. Some readers overseas have sent us pictures of their Apple Watch try-on sessions.
Take a look at the store makeover:
To make the most personal device ever, Apple is using sapphire glass for the Apple Watch to make its display more durable. None of the reviews we read yesterday complained about scratches on their Apple Watch, but iPhoneFixed managed to get its hands on a 38mm Apple Watch display and put it through a barrage of tests.
Apple Watch’s glass stood strong during tests with keys, sandpaper, and even a hammer. Then the crazy nerds busted out a power drill to and throttled it on the glass. The results might shock you.
Check out the glass after the test below:
We’re eagerly counting down the last few hours until we can preorder the Apple Watch, but I think I may have found a new love for my wrist: The Apple II Watch.
The brilliant folks over at Instructables unveiled a retro Apple Watch styled after the Apple II computer. If Apple made a smartwatch back in 1985, this would be it. The amazing device actually works and you can make one yourself.
Check out its incredible features:
Tim Cook has only said that the Apple Watch Edition will be available in “select stores” later this month. You won’t be able to just walk into any location and try on the ultra-expensive gold model.
Now we know exactly which Apple retail stores around the world will sell the Edition when it goes on sale April 24th.
Apple is clearly expecting the Apple Watch to be a big hit, because it’s already limiting orders to just its online store.
In an effort to help meet expected demand, Apple has announced that you won’t be able to go into your local store and walk out with a Watch for the foreseeable future.
While you’re at work today, Tim Cook is enjoying croissants and chocolat chaud at a chic French eatery. Probably.
That’s because the Apple CEO is reportedly in Paris: most likely for the Apple Watch’s official public unveiling tomorrow at one of the city’s fanciest department stores, Galeries Lafayette Haussmann.
There are plenty of Apple Watch reviews out in the wild now, but we have yet to see a solid unboxing of the hottest new wearable in tech.
French newspaper Metronews did the honor, and here’s what opening an Apple Watch for the first time is like:
The first wave of Apple Watch reviews landed this morning with the consensus that Apple has created the best smartwatch ever. Now whether you actually need a smartwatch is still being heavily debated, but the early Apple Watch reviews have highlighted some pretty compelling cases.
Reviews from tech news sites have praised Apple Watch for its innovative UI and incredible design. After slogging through the first reviews though, the most interesting insights I found about Apple Watch came from non-tech sites. What will it be like for normal, non-tech nerds to use Apple’s timepiece?
Here’s everything new I learned about Apple Watch from reading all the reviews:
The Apple Watch isn’t available for preorder until this Friday, and it’s already looking like certain models won’t ship by April 24.
The first reactions to the Apple Watch are hot off the presses and, to be honest, they’re pretty much what I was expecting.
There are some nice revelations (battery life isn’t as bad as we feared), some areas to improve on (activating the screen carries a lag, although Apple promises it can fix it though software updates), praise for how easy it is to manage notifications, and a general sense of reviewers trying desperately to figure out what the hell a smartwatch should try and do.
And concluding that — despite being unclear about quite what that is — Apple has done it pretty well.
Check out the highlights of the early hands-on impressions from Re/Code, the Wall Street Journal, David Pogue, and the other people lucky enough to get an early review unit:
Instagram quietly enabled an option today that makes it super-easy to keep track of your favorite accounts.
You can now set up push notifications for whenever a specific account posts a new photo. The timing of the new feature makes perfect sense with the impending release of the Apple Watch.
Just three days before Apple’s smartwatch will be on display in stores around the world, new pictures have revealed what Apple Watch packaging will look like.
Images of the Apple Watch box, which doubles as a charging stand, were posted on Instagram today. With the first review units already out in the wild, we’re learning new details about the Apple Watch nearly every day, like how Apple Watch bands will be packaged.
Here’s a glimpse of the Apple Watch band boxes:
From pop-up kiosks in up-scale luxury department stores to focusing more on the fashion press than the tech pages, it’s been fascinating to watch the unorthodox way in which Apple is choosing to spread the word about its upcoming Apple Watch: attempting to make it into this summer’s must-have item.
During Monday’s episode of The Voice, the next step of this roll-out was revealed, as Pharrell Williams — acting as a judge on the show — was spotted wearing the device, without a supervising Apple engineer or PR bod in sight.
Hey, as fashion items go, it makes a change from giant hats, at least!
When the Apple Watch goes on sale April 24, one place it will be conspicuous in its absence is Switzerland: the spiritual home of the wristwatch, which Jony Ive famously (allegedly) said was “f**ked” due to the awesomeness of Apple’s upcoming wearable.
One possible reason? A trademark claim made by a company called Leonard Timepieces for a watch and watch parts carrying the image of an apple and the English word “APPLE.” First filed in 1985 — not too long after Apple originally launched the Mac — the 30-year trademark expires on December 5, 2015.
The Apple Watch may be good at telling you how healthy you are, tracking your steps, propelling you to move, and reminding you of upcoming appoints, but conventional wisdom says it’s rubbish for reading. The 38mm and 42mm screens are just too tiny to read anything more than a sentence or two long on, and certainly not any longreads.
So on paper (no pun intended), Instapaper for Apple Watch is a terrible idea. Amazingly, though, it looks like the Instapaper team at Betaworks has made it work.
This week on The CultCast: With Apple Watch apps now hitting the store, we discuss some of the most popular ones. And if you want an Apple Watch you absolutely need to preorder — we’ll tell you why and how. Plus: Periscope! Learn all about it and why it’s way better than Meerkat. All that and so. Much. More…
Our thanks to lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.
Full show notes ahead!
With Apple Watch about to become a reality, recent reports have questioned the benefits of fitness trackers, highlighting their inaccuracy and even claiming they make you fat.
So can wearables like Apple Watch really help you get fit? From my experience, what’s in your heart is more important than what’s on your wrist — but gadgets still have a role to play.
Apple Watch preorders don’t go on sale until April 10th at 12:01 AM, but you can get a virtual walkthrough of how to use one right now.
Apple has posted new guided tours online detailing specific features of the Watch in detail.
New details for the Apple Watch are beginning to surface ahead of its release this month, including the precise time you’ll be able to start preordering Apple’s first wearable.
Horological Machine No. 6 looks like something you’d see strapped to the wrist of an interstellar raider. Maybe that’s why Swiss watchmaker MB&F dubbed its lunatic $230,000 watch the “Space Pirate.”
The watch, which its maker says “has been designed to operate in the hostile environment of … the space on your wrist,” is one of just two timepieces to be awarded Red Dot design awards in the competition’s current round.
The other winner of the Red Dot Award for Product Design? Apple Watch, which seems like a modest piece of jewelry next to the MN6’s alien design. Just wait till you see the spinning turbines that make the Space Pirate watch tick.