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Apple Watch Series 7 Supports 60.5GHz Wireless Data Transfer, But Likely for Apple's Internal Use Only

easy4lif said:
I have a theory that the flat watch series 7 all the rumor sites hyped up was ready to go until that production snag issue popped up. The issue must have been large enough that Apple decided to go with "plan B" which is the watch they announced at the streaming event. Since its a "plan B" watch, production is trying to catch up. I don't expect this watch to go on sale till one week before Apples MacBook Pro event in Mid November.
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It’s possible, but I still don’t buy this theory. Don’t be surprised when the Series 8 and 9 look identical to the Series 7 (because that was the plan the whole time, just like with Series 4, 5, and 6).
 
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xmach said:
Yes, I was thinking this too.
Is there any way to determine whether this is WiGig, either the older 802.11ad or its still-in-development 802.11ay successor?
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No way to know. They could make their own protocol or use the existing Wigig protocols, but we won’t know until someone sniffs it out or leaks everything about it.
 
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jaytv111 said:
For reference, 802.11ad wireless offers 10 Gbps data over 60 GHz wireless, 802.11ay is up to 40 Gbps over the same frequency. Those are called Wigig and offer short range but high speed data and it could replace wired connections if reliable enough.
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Yeah that's what I was thinking too. It might be that it is used to do the initial factory setup and OS transfer?
 
tobybrut said:
The transmission speed has been rumored for a couple of years now for Apple’s AR goggles/glasses because WiFi and Bluetooth are too slow for the amount of date needed. While this is totally expected for the iPhone, which will probably be needed to tether to the glasses, the revelation that the protocol is included in the Apple Watch tells us two things. The glasses may be coming sooner than later (next year probably before September) and that the watch can be used to control the glasses. Note that the glasses may not have multiple methods of communication to hold costs down, so they may have needed to add to the watch to avoid giving the glasses Bluetooth or some other low-speed alternative.
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I think you don’t really know how wigig works.
It works for very small distance, almost like nfc, it’s perfect to bypass connector cables.
so Apple will use it with magsafe
 
I’d be surprised if it uses even anywhere near the 480Mb of usb2, the update process has always been incredibly slow on the watches
 
nt5672 said:
Likely for use by Apple and the NSA/FBI/CIA.
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60 GHz will have a short range and be blocked by almost anything. So that would be a very bad fir for purpose.

nt5672 said:
There is a reason that there has been no reported conflicts between Apple's privacy implementations and the US Government. For those that need it spelled out, there is NO conflict, Apple is in perfect compliance.
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You read too many spy novels :)
 
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I smell Apple updating their MagSafe charger yet again in iPhone 15, enabling charge pad communication between iPhone and computer, where the cable can still be connected to a computer. If this is the case, getting rid of port is ok for me, though travel charging would be challenging because, you know, magnet.

40Gbps short range wireless transfer could compete with thunderbolt, which means… portless iPad and Mac coming in 2026 or 2027?
 
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Probably to bypass the wifi and transfer media content to the watch.

They better allow us to use more than the 8gb allocated to media use on apple watches dammit
 
Howard2k said:
Yeah that's what I was thinking too. It might be that it is used to do the initial factory setup and OS transfer?
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It would require 802.11ad or ay certification if it was available. So it certainly isn't one.

The data rate quoted in the previous post were done with MIMO scenario. Which is highly unlikely on Apple Watch.

Apple has a tendency to test out new technology and manufacturing techniques on Apple Watch before it is rolled out on iPhone. For a future port-ness devices, you will need something to completely replace wire. So this seems to be a step in that direction.
 
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ksec said:
It would require 802.11ad or ay certification if it was available. So it certainly isn't one.

The data rate quoted in the previous post were done with MIMO scenario. Which is highly unlikely on Apple Watch.

Apple has a tendency to test out new technology and manufacturing techniques on Apple Watch before it is rolled out on iPhone. For a future port-ness devices, you will need something to completely replace wire. So this seems to be a step in that direction.
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why would it need certification? Is that a controlled frequency?
 
kalafalas said:
So this is how they are going to add data transfer to MagSafe and ditch the lightning port altogether. Personally I’d rather they just add a stupid C port to the phone already
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What does this have to do with magsafe? And what data transfer on an Apple Watch uses the lightning port?
 
Howard2k said:
why would it need certification? Is that a controlled frequency?
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You need WiFi certification if you are using their tech and advertise as one. But since they dont advertise it WiGig ( and may never intend to do so ) they wont need any certification.
 
jaytv111 said:
For reference, 802.11ad wireless offers 10 Gbps data over 60 GHz wireless
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well, this is more likely an implementation of the early pre 802.11ad wireless USB solutions. which would make perfect sense.

v-band requires line of sight and it gets attenuated pretty easily by literally thin air.
driving it on such speeds (practical implementations of 802.11ad deliver roughly 2gbps throughput on a 2.0ghz wide channel) require quite some juice, perfect radio conditions, pretty sophisticated patch antenna arrays, and generate considerable amount of heat.

most probably they use narrower channels and less complex MAC & PHY.
 
If my mac only delivers UsB-C speeds then I am perfectly fine with a USB C port on my iPhone.

apple again wants a proprietary interface on its devices!
I hope the EU stops that.
 
ksec said:
You need WiFi certification if you are using their tech and advertise as one. But since they dont advertise it WiGig ( and may never intend to do so ) they wont need any certification.
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yeah that’s what I’m thinking. Like how the watch (6) uses an implementation of Qi for charging but doesn’t comply with the standard fully, and so is not marketed as or compatible with Qi devices.

there’s more noise (sorry) in the 60Ghz space.
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