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Gurman: Apple Planning Major 'Apple Watch X' Redesign to Introduce New Band System and More

constantsnags! said:
If you're in fog with a dead phone, 20 feet from a cliff edge and don't have a functional compass, you've got to move for GPS to give you a bearing. Move in the wrong direction and you're going off that cliff. Trusting GPS for a bearing ain't it. We don't even use it when we can see land.
Click to expand...
Apples development team has already come out and said they have made amazing strides in navigation using magnet-less location based systems.
The PS5 VR right now, on the market using a magnet-less system for location bearing.
The google pixel watch uses a magnet-less compass.
www.racedayquads.com

iFlight BLITZ Mini M10 GPS & Compass V2Default Title

The newly upgraded BLITZ Mini M10 GPS V2 has arrived, offering faster and more stable satellite search with the 10th generation chipset. This advancement in technology provides users with a more reliable and efficient GPS experience. This GPS also has a compass built-in. Check out our other GPS...
www.racedayquads.com www.racedayquads.com

Look at this magnetless compass that’s used to track drones down with 3 feet of its exact location.
Already better than what we have on our apple products. All without a magnet.
 
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magicschoolbus said:
Would be nice; I have not seen much innovation in the watch since S6. Excited to see what Apple comes up with.
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www.racedayquads
Sells a gyro based compass that doesn’t to get its bearing. And directly syncs to gps data allowing drones to have one of the most accurate location based trackings on earth.

If they can make this. Apple can
 
flur said:
Isn't that reason because they did "s" models some years? They haven't done that with the watch. This year's watch will be Series 9, and next year's watch will be Series 10 or X (which is just 10 in roman numerals), assuming they stick with launching the watch annually in the fall.
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As far as I know, this was kind of a marketing trick to show people that the iP8 (released parallel to the X) is outdated und get more people to buy the X.
I think MS jumped ship to avoid "Windows NEIN (nine in german language)" - but I'n not so sure about it.
 
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flur said:
Isn't that reason because they did "s" models some years? They haven't done that with the watch. This year's watch will be Series 9, and next year's watch will be Series 10 or X (which is just 10 in roman numerals), assuming they stick with launching the watch annually in the fall.
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I never liked the whole X pronounced as 10 thing, I didn't with OS X (I always said OS ex), the iPhone X, and in particular the iPhone XS which is mixing roman numerals with letters, urgh!

It's a marketing mess having your product known as two separate things depending on how "in the know" you are. Hope they don't do it with the Watch.
 
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constantsnags! said:
The complexity of the existing band locking mechanism is ridiculous - new machines had to be built to allow it to be made. What you've shown here is more a dock than an attachment system, with a huge number of potential points of failure. I don't see that happening.
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If it's already so complex, the replacement might also be fairly complex. Something with a smaller physical attachment, and magnets to help align when attaching, seems plausible to me. I don't think it will look like the DJI dock, but where others had described this kind of mechanism before I needed the picture to help me understand it.

I think this is especially plausible given all the work Apple has done with magnets. Since debuting the Apple Watch, which itself came with what seemed like a fancy new magnetic charging mechanism (2-3 years before wireless charging in iPhone) Apple has debuted magnetic products including Apple Pencil 2, MagSafe (phone and MacBook version 3), iPad Magic Keyboard case, and more.
 
Rainshadow said:
It is. I’ll agree. Except to the non-techy person, they want simple. Charging daily is not simple. Hence why it keeps folks away. Folks weigh what it does to what they have to do (cost/maintenance). Apple Watch does more but it costs (maintaining battery daily) more.

I’ve got an ultra. It’s great. So I agree with you. But the average person probably does not see it as apples and oranges.

I will disagree a bit that garmin watches are for sports. I know multiple people with them. None of them… NONE of them use it for sports or metrics. They use it as a smart watch for notifications and simple steps type fitness. That’s it. I ask them why and they brag about how seldom they charge it.

While it’s marketed that way, I don’t believe that’s reality.
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Absolutely not true. Check the Garmin forums and see how many people on there run ultra marathons and cycle 100 miles rides.
 
Indianwin2001 said:
Absolutely not true. Check the Garmin forums and see how many people on there run ultra marathons and cycle 100 miles rides.
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Garmin forums. Not necessarily their whole market. This is true. If your sample is taken from a garmin forum, then yes, they will be tied to the metrics. If you walked up to random people wearing them on the street, there would be a far higher proportion just wearing it for the battery or minor smart watch abilities.

Claim I’m wrong. Fine. But my real world experience with people wearing them shows that’s definitely a segment of their market
 
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spcopsmac21 said:
Apples development team has already come out and said they have made amazing strides in navigation using magnet-less location based systems.
The PS5 VR right now, on the market using a magnet-less system for location bearing.
The google pixel watch uses a magnet-less compass.
www.racedayquads.com

iFlight BLITZ Mini M10 GPS & Compass V2Default Title

The newly upgraded BLITZ Mini M10 GPS V2 has arrived, offering faster and more stable satellite search with the 10th generation chipset. This advancement in technology provides users with a more reliable and efficient GPS experience. This GPS also has a compass built-in. Check out our other GPS...
www.racedayquads.com www.racedayquads.com

Look at this magnetless compass that’s used to track drones down with 3 feet of its exact location.
Already better than what we have on our apple products. All without a magnet.
Click to expand...
Yup, and all of which rely on movement to establish direction.
 
spcopsmac21 said:
www.racedayquads
Sells a gyro based compass that doesn’t to get its bearing. And directly syncs to gps data allowing drones to have one of the most accurate location based trackings on earth.

If they can make this. Apple can
Click to expand...
Gyros work on precession, which relies on movement from a plane to record a change in inclination and/or direction. Stand stock still and it won't do anything. They also rely on power (as do all direction finding methods in phones and watches). Bottom line: you cannot indicate magnetic north (which moves every year by different amounts depending on where you are) without using something that detects a magnetic field.
 
The current design of the strap mechanism is phenomenal. Traditional watch makers can only wish they had something so sleek and effortless to detach their straps. I think part of the reason it hasn't changed in so many years is because Apple knocked it out of the park on day one. If they feel they can improve it, even at the expense of obsoleting older straps, they should absolutely do it. They don't owe us to keep the same mechanism just so we can keep using our straps. It's going on 9 years now! They've more than earned the right to change things up. When was the last time we were able to use our old iPhone cases when a new iPhone was released? I think that happened once between the 6 and 6s.
 
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klky said:
The current design of the strap mechanism is phenomenal. Traditional watch makers can only wish they had something so sleek and effortless to detach their straps. I think part of the reason it hasn't changed in so many years is because Apple knocked it out of the park on day one. If they feel they can improve it, even at the expense of obsoleting older straps, they should absolutely do it. They don't owe us to keep the same mechanism just so we can keep using our straps. It's going on 9 years now! They've more than earned the right to change things up. When was the last time we were able to use our old iPhone cases when a new iPhone was released? I think that happened once between the 6 and 6s.
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They have never owed us anything in terms of design of the AW, but changing the band mechanism is a bad business decision. Watch straps aren’t like phone cases, or other tech accessories. They last generations, and changing that design compromises that. As much as the AW is just a piece of tech, Apple sells it as something as close to a traditional time piece you can get in a smart watch. I think they are smarter than to upset almost every AW owner. People have thousands of dollars in straps. It’s way different than your typical tech accessories.
 
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spcopsmac21 said:
Apples development team has already come out and said they have made amazing strides in navigation using magnet-less location based systems.
The PS5 VR right now, on the market using a magnet-less system for location bearing.
The google pixel watch uses a magnet-less compass.
www.racedayquads.com

iFlight BLITZ Mini M10 GPS & Compass V2Default Title

The newly upgraded BLITZ Mini M10 GPS V2 has arrived, offering faster and more stable satellite search with the 10th generation chipset. This advancement in technology provides users with a more reliable and efficient GPS experience. This GPS also has a compass built-in. Check out our other GPS...
www.racedayquads.com www.racedayquads.com

Look at this magnetless compass that’s used to track drones down with 3 feet of its exact location.
Already better than what we have on our apple products. All without a magnet.
Click to expand...
You're labouring entirely the wrong point. Fixing a location doesn't require a magnet. It's done with an algorithm that spares you doing spherical trigonometry and doppler calculations. Determining the direction you are MOVING in does require one if it's to be stated relative to magnetic north. I can take bearings from 3 points of land, add a few radar ranges to those same points or others, and overlay a GPS fix. I could even add an astro fix using a sextant and know that I'm somewhere within a fix taken that way (it's rarely an exact science for most people). None of it tells me which direction I'm travelling in (unless I repeat the same procedure a few minutes later, which will also then tell me what the tide and/or wind are doing). They will, however, tell me exactly where I am at that moment. That doesn't stop me running aground. It only tells me I'm currently NOT aground.
 
canyonblue737 said:
A bunch of people are misunderstanding what is meant by magnetic bands...

It does NOT mean the power of the magnet is what holds the band to the watch. As people have noted even powerful magnets would occasionally disconnect. What this is undoubtably referring to is a combination magnetic / physical system that have become all the rage in action cameras (other than GoPro) the last few years.

The way it works is strong magnets are placed in the band end and the watch. This "aligns" the two when you bring it close. Then the watch will have two small "dimples" on the edge and latches embedded in the watch band will latch to the dimples and provide a solid lock to the watch. Pressing a button on the back of the watch will release the latches. To see how this works in action cams I've attached a video of how it works on the DJI Action 2 / 3 / 4 (and the new Insta360 GO3 also uses this system), but I could see this being very, very secure and much faster to link than our current bands today. It also reduces the need for the case to be as large so you could make the watch smaller and thinner, or keep it the same size and stuff more battery etc. inside.

Check this out:

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Interesting! Thanks. I fully misunderstood this then. I don’t believe there is any way for a purely magnetic connection to be the only way to go unless VERY strong magnets were used.

I still somewhat doubt this because I’m not sure how strong this connection is but it’s pretty cool looking and seems relatively secure in the video. I’ve fallen off my bike at around 22 mph and slammed onto my shoulder and tore my rotator cuff which took 7 months to heal. My watch detected a fall and offered to call emergency services. Would this magnetic connection withstand such an impact? (The Strava speed map of this ride was hilarious: green… green… green… RED!)

This video opened my eyes a bit. Thanks.
 
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4odomi said:
How will the compass work with the magnets?
Click to expand...

that's a reasonable question but the watch already generates magnetic fields with the battery, electrical current, and the wireless charging ring. if the field is a known quantity the software can adjust out the error which is what is being done today. perhaps if apple "knows" how strong the magnet in their bands is and what field it produces the error can be processed out. I don't know what that would mean for 3rd party knockoff options however where the variances/tolerances would be different.
 
Silly John Fatty said:
The only thing I need it updates. As long as I get those, it's fine. If needed I can change the battery. I probably would have to, slowly. It's 3 years old now and it has 85% capacity. But I feel like it's being emptied VERY fast, especially if I do workouts. In that case it will be empty the same day I've recharged it. If I don't do workout or voice memos then it can last a few days (my trick is that I linked bluetooth and wifi to flight mode, so I can turn both on/off with flight mode, and basically I'm in flight mode all the time and I just get out of flight mode once a day or sometimes even every couple days to sync the watch. I think it saves some battery. I also don't use any of the phone, messaging, music features.
Click to expand...

to me is sounds like another thing that could entice you to upgrade is improved battery life, I'm not talking about a fresh battery but simply much more battery life. I felt the same about using my Apple Watches for years (babying it during the day, not using features like phone, music etc. to make sure I had enough for my workout etc.) until I got my Ultra. while I charge my ultra every single day the hugely improved battery life essentially means I can use it with abandon for workouts, GPS, lengthy multi-hour hikes, music streaming, cellular, etc. and never run out or have to worry. I'm not saying buying an expensive and huge ultra is an option but perhaps if super low energy draw CPUs (likely coming this year in the series 9) are paired with bigger batteries (because the new band design opens up space?) that results in smaller "series" size watches having ultra like battery life and at the "normal" Apple Watch price? that would be a worthwhile upgrade for many...
 
mjs916 said:
Would this magnetic connection withstand such an impact? (The Strava speed map of this ride was hilarious: green… green… green… RED!)
Click to expand...
some nobody on youtube pitched the idea that the bands would be MagSafe 3.

MagSafe.

You know, that cable designed to fall off when snagged?

Yeah...
 
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