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Tim Cook on Apple Watch: 'You're Going to Wind Up Charging It Daily'

asleep said:
Amazing to me they'd bring a daily charger to market.

Tethered to the iPhone, tethered to an outlet. Competitor commercials forthcoming.
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You can use it without the phone, it's a small computer after all. It plays music over bluetooth, run apps, collect data without the phone being present.

You can't use the communication functions without the phone (or another apple device, I'm pretty sure it will integrate with non phone devices too).
 
Keirasplace said:
There is only a few ways to make the watch last longer :
- Make it do less.... PRetty sure that this is a non starter, people already complain that this doesn't do enough
- Use components that take less energy. Battery tech is not improving soon, they're already using the most efficient screen, so that leaves the SOC. IF they're already using 20nm now, they're already using the best SOC around. If not (which I doubt, since having the most energy efficent SOC is even more important in a watch than a phone), you could get 25% more efficient in the next iteration.

So, no I don't think they're holding anything back. That makes no sense at all.
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Let's not forget before this thing was announced and the rumors were pointing to a FuelBand style fitness band there were plenty here whining about how nobody wants a fitness tracker, look at all the fat people in the US obviously nobody cares about health and fitness blah blah blah. I guess if Apple designed a me-too fitness tracker or a Pebble clone they could have achieved battery life that lasted days. But I think Apple sees the watch as another platform not just an iOS accessory. I won't be surprised if over time it becomes independent from the iPhone.
 
As active as the watch will be, it's no surprise that it will need daily charging. In fact, depending on the lifestyle, theres a very good chance it will need to be charge in under 24hrs of use.

So the watch is going to use bluetooth to keep up the health apps/monitoring (extremely draining) as well as other "active" apps.

There may have to be some sort of program that will cut off inactive apps within minutes to preserve it...sort of the concept of the fetch feature in mail.
 
asleep said:
Amazing to me they'd bring a daily charger to market.

Tethered to the iPhone, tethered to an outlet. Competitor commercials forthcoming.
Click to expand...

Yeah because those Samsung commercials really stinted iPhone 6 sales...
 
mdlooker said:
As active as the watch will be, it's no surprise that it will need daily charging. In fact, depending on the lifestyle, theres a very good chance it will need to be charge in under 24hrs of use.

So the watch is going to use bluetooth to keep up the health apps/monitoring (extremely draining) as well as other "active" apps.

There may have to be some sort of program that will cut off inactive apps within minutes to preserve it...sort of the concept of the fetch feature in mail.
Click to expand...

Blue tooth LE is not very draining (compared to the regular one) and there is probably a background procesor in the SOC that handles data collection and exchange with the phone without dealing with the main processor. The only time the app would need to be on if it is doing some processing on the data or you want to see the data.

----------
hybrid_x said:
So it'll be pretty much useless for sleep tracking, since most people will need to charge it every night.
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Unless you charge it before going to bed :). It is a very small battery, so in theory it could be charged rather quickly : Under 30 minutes?
 
Bathplug said:
Forget buying the first gen model.
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How will the second gen be much better without an massive improvement in battery tech. At most, they'd get a slight improvement in the blue tooth chips and maybe 30% if going to 14nm. That's giving a few hours more, not a full day more anyway.
 
I'll be an interesting object. Will it sell? Of course! The thing'll sell like crazy, because it's another way to differentiate you from the unwashed masses.

Charge every day? Not a big deal if you can get a charging station for your desk. Phone batteries used to last for a week. Now everyone's like "OMG the battery lasts all day."

What it needs is a failsafe mode where there's enough power to drive the display and a clock app. That way when there's no juice left to do anything exciting it reverts to a watch instead of just being a wrist limpet.
 
Markiie said:
12-14 hours TOPS.
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A watch that only lasts 12-14 hours.

That's pathetic.

They should have de-emphasized the watch and called it :apple: Wrist or :apple: Bracelet or :apple: Band. Marketing that would've been less of a headache.
 
Yr Blues said:
A watch that only lasts 12-14 hours.

That's pathetic.

They should have de-emphasized the watch and called it :apple: Wrist or :apple: Bracelet. Marketing that would've been less of a headache.
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Not too different from a phone that dies in 12-14 hours really.

Although everyone is disappointed, apple isn't a battery technology company and this is the limitation of current battery technology and power requirements of color screen smart devices.
 
I had been waiting for the apple watch to be announced for a while. I thought a smart watch might be a cool piece of tech to add to my list of gadgets. However, I just was not impressed with what was announced. And at that time I said that unless you could get a week out of it, it would be too much of a hassell. I have to charge my fitbit flex about every 4-5 to days and even that is annoying to have to do. It seems like we should be able to do something about charging the device through motion or solar, but I am no engineer. So I will let everyone else test out the thing for a couple of gens.
 
SHNXX said:
Not too different from a phone that dies in 12-14 hours really.

Although everyone is disappointed, apple isn't a battery technology company and this is the limitation of current battery technology and power requirements of color screen smart devices.
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no one expects a smartphone to run for 24+ hours

but people do expect a watch to last as long as you're awake for the day, so that's around 17 hours.

apple could've favored longer battery life on the iphone and ipad with thicker enclosures to house bigger batteries
 
Myndmelt said:
I had been waiting for the apple watch to be announced for a while. I thought a smart watch might be a cool piece of tech to add to my list of gadgets. However, I just was not impressed with what was announced. And at that time I said that unless you could get a week out of it, it would be too much of a hassell. I have to charge my fitbit flex about every 4-5 to days and even that is annoying to have to do. It seems like we should be able to do something about charging the device through motion or solar, but I am no engineer. So I will let everyone else test out the thing for a couple of gens.
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Motion would take months to charge one full day of usage (someone did calculations on this forum).

Solar is barely enough for a casio gshock type of a device with single color LCD displaying something like 50 pixels.
 
Yr Blues said:
no one expects a smartphone to run for 24+ hours

but people do expect a watch to last as long as you're awake for the day, so that's around 17 hours.

apple could've favored longer battery life on the iphone and ipad with thicker enclosures to house bigger batteries
Click to expand...

Nobody lasts 17h in constant use, so what is your point (no phones, no tablets). The 6 and 6+ are at the top for battery range when compared to other phones doing similar tasks.

In light use, a phone can easily last a day, and sometimes even two. If you use it only as a phone, with a light amount of calling (no smart functions), a new iphone will many days. So, if it did what feature phones did, it would last 3-4 days.

The use you make of it is what differentiate how long the battery lasts, not just the size of the battery. Apple and all others tries to make a device that will fit say 90% of people's use. The 10% that need full power for 17h, well they can charge their phone or carry a battery pack.

I can kill my phone in 4h if I play the most intense, graphically complex FPS on the phone. So, should I bitch because I can't have it do that 17h? That would make no sense.
 
Keirasplace said:
Nobody lasts 17h in constant use, so what is your point (no phones, no tablets). The 6 and 6+ are at the top for battery range when compared to other phones doing similar tasks.

In light use, a phone can easily last a day, and sometimes even two. If you use it only as a phone, with a light amount of calling (no smart functions), a new iphone will many days. So, if it did what feature phones did, it would last 3-4 days.

The use you make of it is what differentiate how long the battery lasts, not just the size of the battery. Apple and all others tries to make a device that will fit say 90% of people's use. The 10% that need full power for 17h, well they can charge their phone or carry a battery pack.

I can kill my phone in 4h if I play the most intense, graphically complex FPS on the phone. So, should I bitch because I can't have it do that 17h? That would make no sense.
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it should have a standby time of 48 hours and a actual time of 16-17 hours

so maybe tim cook can tout the standby time when announced
 
I would like to buy one, but like something new I am going avoid this like a plague given the 1 day charge. Hopefully the 2nd gen will fix the battery short life issue.
 
If all you want is a watch that tells you the time (which 99% of the watches purchased [and used] do quite ably), then why buy an Apple when a Rolex or a Swatch or even a Timex will give you the exact same information, each with a battery that will last longer than a year.....
 
One day soon there will be an entire course syllabus in Business school taught regarding the blind epic fail of this device.
 
I think charging it daily won’t be the issue. The larger problem is that the watch is not dependable if it dies during the day. For me that means: excellent standby battery life is a must. That’s precisely the reason for me why I’m not yet excited about these smartwatches. If I have to be mindful of the battery life, i.e. have to very carefully consider what I use my watch for, it’s value becomes even less obvious to me. So instead of enhancing my life, it may become another thing to keep track of. Why bother then and not just stick with a smartphone?
 
Keirasplace said:
Phones also lasted a week before the Iphone came in and we know how that turned out.
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Phones also used to be nothing more than a microphone, a speaker and a rudimentary display.

Now phones are amazing little pocket computers, entertainment devices and much more!
 
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