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Endorphine88

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 12, 2018
263
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Philadelphia, PA
What do we think? Being able to use FaceTime directly from my watch (while that won't be a flattering angle at all) will be quite the feature. Do you think it's ever coming?
 
Personally, given the power required to drive that at any decent resolution, and the size of the size of the camera that's on the phones, I don't think it'll be a priority.

That's just my opinion though and I could well be totally wrong.
 
The best would be some sort of attention awareness system that works better than raise to wake feature. But an actual camera? No.
 
My guess - series 5 or 6, most likely 6
Series 2 - Water resistance
Series 3 - LTE
Series 4 - Health and redesign
Series 5 - Camera

Or

Series 2 - Water Resistance
Series 3 - LTE
Series 4 - Health
Series 5 - Resdeisgn
Series 6 - Camera
 
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Battery life on cellular is terrible on the Series 3 right now. Even with battery technology improvement by S5 to S6, a five minute FaceTime video call on the WATCH via cellular or WiFi would require a recharge every half hour. The camera angle on the wrist would be unflattering at best (“Hi mom! Look at all the boogers in my nose!”). Holding your wrist up to your face would be tiring after only a few minutes.

While a real Dick Tracy watch would be cool at first, it would quickly become a gimmick and not a good user experience in real world applications.

I believe the future of WATCH is going to be health and safety, which I’m really looking forward to.
 
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Hell no. It’s already been proven to be a stupid idea. Name another currently popular smartwatch that has a camera. Moto360? Samsung S3? Garmin Fenix? TAG Heuer Connected? Fitbit Blaze? NONE of these have cameras. The early Samsung ones with cameras are dead and gone.

Privacy issues are one thing (who wants to see the creepy snowboard stalker commercial again?). Technical limitations are there, too (don’t you want a smaller bezel around the screen?). Plus, go ahead and hold up your arm for ten minutes like you’re doing a video chat on your wrist.

No. Stupid. People have been asking for five goddamned years and the market has decided: “Nope.”

— I know it’s been three and a half years since the AW was announced, but people have been asking the same question for as long as rumors n’ speculation has talked about an Apple smartwatch.
 
Where exactly do people think there should be a camera on a watch?

If there was a camera, it would have to:
(1) be relatively out of the way of the screen (i.e., can't have a notch that would eat up 20% of the screen on a watch)
(2) keep the watch-face screen centered (i.e., you can't just make one of the bezels thicker, the bezels have to be symmetrical and thin as they are now)
(3) be able to easily point at the wearer's face regardless of whether watch is on left or right hand, and whether buttons are on left or right side (i.e., most likely Apple would have to use a really high-res ultra-wide-angle camera, that would auto-zoom and auto-proportion onto the wearer's face, to account for wrist angles and movement)

Not that these issues are impossible, but I think with current tech they are presently not do-able.

In terms of FaceTime improvements, it would be really nice if Apple instead focused on multi-person conferencing.
 
What do we think? Being able to use FaceTime directly from my watch (while that won't be a flattering angle at all) will be quite the feature. Do you think it's ever coming?

I don’t see apple venturing with a camera on the Apple Watch. I personally think a display of that size to FaceTime would not be appropriate. I think the Apple Watch will focus on health related aspects for the future coupled LTE improvements. The Apple Watch does so many things already as it is, I just don’t see Apple adding the necessary hardware and camera for something that likely would be a very niche category.
 
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Completely disagree. There is, IMO, no chance there will never be a camera on the Apple Watch. I agree with the posts above...series 5 or 6 will see it.
See ALL following posts. None of these guys agree that the watch will have a camera anytime soon. Technically speaking, having a camera would be too awkward to design a watch. Practically speaking, there is no need to transform a watch into an even smaller full function computer. No one wants to play PUBG using a watch even if they can.

The best would be a system that is similar to iPhone X attention-aware camera to supplement raise to wake feature, and that’s about it.
 
If it ever happened, it would be many years down the road. I don't think technology is at that point with the watch.

Oh, the technology is there already. It was there at last two versions back in Android Wear and running on chips that were far less capable than Apple’s first smartwatch.

Remember these?
0024c8e8f8491825252c88b28d1cccd7.jpg


I’m sure you do.

Do you also remember wondering why the girl in this ad didn’t get creeped out?

And I’m not yet getting into how much it would suck doing video chat on a postage stamp screen.
 
See ALL following posts. None of these guys agree that the watch will have a camera anytime soon. Technically speaking, having a camera would be too awkward to design a watch. Practically speaking, there is no need to transform a watch into an even smaller full function computer. No one wants to play PUBG using a watch even if they can.

The best would be a system that is similar to iPhone X attention-aware camera to supplement raise to wake feature, and that’s about it.

And your point being? Am I not allowed to voice a different opinion because the status quo doesn’t agree with me?

And ultimately, no one outside of Apple knows their roadmap and we can all only guess.
 
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And your point being? Am I not allowed to voice a different opinion because the status quo doesn’t agree with me?

And ultimately, no one outside of Apple knows their roadmap and we can all only guess.
My idea is not to add a camera to the watch, but to add additional sensors to improve raise to wake feature.

And sure, what I want to point out is the status quo of “will Apple Watch add a camera in the future or not”, not to deny your freedom to express your opinion. I am sorry for my wording. But based on what you agree with, I don’t think that is how camera will be added to future generation of watch.

Of course, no one but Apple elites know whether they want a camera on a watch or not.
 
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Generally, Apple doesn't implement a feature just because technology exists. And the power consumption needed to do the FaceTime call isn't small either. You have the screen, camera, and communication module all being fully active. Think of making a call on the watch with screen fully lit up and have a camera draining additional power. Unless the battery gets a big boost or a way to sufficiently minimize power consumption for this function is found, it's not likely to appear as a feature any time soon.

Which is sad because I think it would be quite a nice thing to have.
 
Please... no camera! Just give me better batter life in the same or smaller package.

Not Sure what type a Battery life you’re achieving, but it’s clearly much improved for Series 3 with a more efficient processor. If the Apple Watch did have a camera, it would need a stronger battery to support features like FaceTime calls. But I really don’t believe thats Apple’s focus with Apple Watch. Now that the Apple Watch is well-rounded with an arena features, health aspects are the future concentration of the watch.
 
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Hopefully never, I don’t believe Apple are I the buisness of giving features just because it’s possible either.
 
Completely disagree. There is, IMO, no chance there will never be a camera on the Apple Watch. I agree with the posts above...series 5 or 6 will see it.
There will be a camera of course. And a projector eventually.

The barrier is battery storage and power consumption rates. That's what will determine when those things arrive. It could be farther away even than series 5 or 6. But it's no doubt part of the roadmap.
 
Some reactions are hysterical to me. Just because you don't want something doesn't mean it shouldn't be offered. I know implementing a camera in the watch would not be easy or as practical as what the iPhone/iPad can accomplish. However, we are now looking at the first fully functional flexible displays for example. There are tons of innovations in battery capacity and structure. Technology improves at a very rapid rate. Just because you can't see something being implemented now doesn't mean you should just dismiss it. We were primitive baboons once that pushed rocks around all day - now we are talking about colonizing Mars. Do you follow the timeline?
 
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In related news Apple recently added investment in InVisage a company making camera sensors that are one tenth the thinness of the ones currently used in smartphones.

Gee wonder what that could be useful for.....;-)
 
My guess - series 5 or 6, most likely 6
Series 2 - Water resistance
Series 3 - LTE
Series 4 - Health and redesign
Series 5 - Camera

Or

Series 2 - Water Resistance
Series 3 - LTE
Series 4 - Health
Series 5 - Resdeisgn
Series 6 - Camera

I hope that redesign you mention at number 4 (Series 4 would be this year) allows us to use the current bands, a lot of people (myself included) have a band collection.
 
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