Apple Watch Series 7
Apple today announced Apple Watch Series 7, featuring a reengineered Always-On Retina display with significantly more screen area and thinner borders, making it the largest and most advanced display ever. The narrower borders allow the display to maximize screen area, while minimally changing the dimensions of the watch itself. The design of Apple Watch Series 7 is refined with softer, more rounded corners, and the display has a unique refractive edge that makes full-screen watch faces and apps appear to seamlessly connect with the curvature of the case. Apple Watch Series 7 also features a user interface optimized for the larger display, offering greater readability and ease of use, plus two unique watch faces — Contour and Modular Duo — designed specifically for the new device. With the improvements to the display, users benefit from the same all-day 18-hour battery life, now complemented by 33 percent faster charging.
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Apple Watch Series 7 will start at $399 (US), Apple Watch SE starts at $279 (US), and Apple Watch Series 3 starts at $199 (US).
Yep, they’re still selling the Series 3 from 2017.
Previously:
Update (2021-09-16): John Gruber:
Quinn “Snazzy Labs” Nelson flagged Apple for an unfair comparison, regarding just how much more text the larger Series 7 displays can show at a time. The font was the same size, but the line spacing was quite a bit tighter in the Series 7 screenshot. I would also argue that Apple chose text that line-wrapped inefficiently on the Series 6 display, but the difference in line heights is clearly unfair. Apple doesn’t usually play games like that in comparisons. Yellow card issued.
The Series 3 is today’s version of the iPad 2, the 16 GB iPhone, or
the 5 GB iCloud free storage tier: The Thing That Wouldn’t Die. But like the iPad 2, it’s a perfectly good device if your needs stay the same as when you bought it.
11 Comments RSS · Twitter
So the new Watch has a full on-screen keyboard. Wasn't there some Watch keyboard developer that Apple recently pulled from the App Store? Was it really so blatant?
@Ben Did you see this?
OMG. I thought that sounded familiar, but I didn't realize it was also the same guy that has been going after Apple for scam apps, not refunding customers victimized by scams, fake reviews, etc..... As a long time Apple customer it's really sad to see how they treat developers and customers now. And realizing this type of vindictive behavior (in so many ways) must be tacitly accepted by all of the high-level people who have been at Apple for a really long time and should know better (Schiller, Federighi, Cue, etc...). I guess they're all intoxicated by the money train now.
Blatent Sherlocking, again.
Wow... "Copy that"
The cool and edgy kid all of a sudden got all the power, and keeps the sarcasm dialed to eleven.
I can see the vindictiveness angle, but money? Don't they end up with _less_ money by not allowing the app on their store?
(Unless you're arguing that they want to use this feature as a reason to upgrade to the Series 7. I don't really think they made that pitch. They're saying "the screen is bigger, so something like a full keyboard is more practical now", not "this new watch is great because it comes with a keyboard".)
I really think this is more of a left-hand-right-hand problem and incompetence rather than malice.
> I really think this is more of a left-hand-right-hand problem and incompetence rather than malice.
If they did it to some random obscure developer, I might agree with you. But the timing of recently rejecting an app which had apparently been available for 4+ years, won an App Store award, AND is from the guy who is very publicly calling out Apple on their scam app BS? That can’t be a misunderstanding, and I’m 100% sure that the VPs at Apple are all acutely aware of the situation. They should have offered to buy his app and hire him, not reject him and Sherlock his app.
@Ben G The rejection was in 2019. It was allowed into the App Store in 2020 and is still there today. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flicktype-watch-keyboard/id1359485719
The calling out came later, after or around the same time he filed a lawsuit in March 2021 about copycat apps/fake reviews that Apple is allegedly doing nothing about.
You can't really trust Reed Albergotti to write an unbiased story about Apple but this was from when Kosta Eleftheriou filed his lawsuit. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/18/apple-flicktype-lawsuit-fraud/
I don’t think Apple should be prevented from making a watch keyboard because FlickType exists. And they did try to buy it from the developer (no idea whether they made a good offer). The problem is that, after he declined to sell it, Apple removed the app from the store. That’s when he sued (because of the fake reviews). At some point Apple put the app back in the store, but Apple started rejecting the app again, continued blocking bug fixes for crazy reasons, and stopped responding to communications. So he had to discontinue the app a few weeks ago. There’s no way the VPs don’t know about this.
"Unless you're arguing that they want to use this feature as a reason to upgrade to the Series 7. I don't really think they made that pitch."
I mean, why would Apple show the feature if they didn't think people would like it, and that it would be a reason for them to buy this product? Isn't that how all of this works?
This is, disappointingly and inexplicably, a worse line-up than last year's. Cycling fall detection is nice, but the Series 7 is a very minor upgrade.
The 3 is now very old (and still $199!); so old, in fact, that there were problems getting it to install software updates. (I think those only affected the non-cellular model, because it has less storage; I also believe watchOS 8 fixes this problem by introducing a different installation mechanism?)
I was hoping the weird 3/SE/6 setup of last year was temporary, and that we'd see a $199 SE this year; instead, they seem to be doubling down on it.