5 iWatch Features We Want to See

5 iWatch Features We Want to See is a post by Craig Lloyd from Gotta Be Mobile.

The iWatch has been talked about for well over a couple years now, and there’s no stopping the rumor mill at this point. Sources say we’ll see Apple’s mysterious iWatch smartwatch appear at some point later this year. While we’re not really sure when we’ll see it launch, there’s one thing that we are sure about, and that’s anticipation.

Many smartwatch enthusiasts are anticipating the release of the iWatch, and many are probably guessing what kind of features it will have — almost like a guessing game that they’re playing with themselves and the rest of the internet. Of course, we can look at Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch for an idea of what we might expect, roughly, but the Gear was such a huge disappointment, that many folks immediately turned away and resumed speculating about Apple’s version.

While we know absolutely nothing about the iWatch at this point, we do know what kind of features we would want to see in Apple’s own smartwatch that we can most likely expect when it finally launches. Here are just a few of the things that we’re looking forward to.

Curved Display

Curved displays might be just a gimmick for the most part, but we can see them actually serving a purpose in a smartwatch. The curved display would contour better with the obvious shape of the wrist, so that the screen wouldn’t sit flat on the top of the wrist, but rather form around it in a way.

However, it wouldn’t be curved so much as to hinder the user experience. A lot of renders that we’ve seen of the iWatch include curved displays, and while most (if not all) of those renders will be way off from what we’ll actually see, we’d be surprised if Apple didn’t use some kind of curved display on the iWatch.

Very sketchy rumors point to LG as the supplier for these iWatch displays, which would make sense if that ends up being true, considering that LG is already bringing curved screens to the mainstream market in the form of the G Flex.

Siri

We’re guessing since touch input will be fairly limited on such a small screen, Siri and voice commands will be a big feature with the iWatch. It’ll still have a touchscreen, obviously, but it most likely won’t be very big compared to the iPhone, so users will be a bit limited as far as what they can do on the iWatch when it comes to touch input and gestures.

This is why we think Siri will be a huge part of the iWatch, allowing folks to issue voice commands to the iWatch without having to pull out their iPhones. You’d be able to bring up certain apps, get directions to a certain destination and maybe even dictate Tweets and Facebook status updates. We wouldn’t be surprised if the possibilities were endless.

Killer Battery Life

This one’s kind of a given, considering that battery life is one of the most crucial features of a device. The Samsung Galaxy Gear only lasts a full day, so Apple will need to make something that can go for much longer than that — preferably a week or so before needing a recharge. However, the battery is limited to the size of the device, so if Apple makes the iWatch a smaller device overall, that leaves less room for the physical battery.

There’s also the possibility of solar power, but we think that’s slightly unrealistic at this point still. Solar power would be a huge boon on the battery life of the iWatch, but we’d be surprised if Apple implemented the technology.

Fitness Tracking

One thing that wrist wearables have been known for is fitness and health tracking. We saw this at CES this year, and while it is getting a little old to see so many companies dabble in this market, it’s something that Apple will still take advantage of with the iWatch, nonetheless.

We’re not sure exactly what kind of fitness tracking features we might see, but we wouldn’t surprised to naturally see Nike+ integration. Nike has been a loyal partner with Apple for years when it comes to fitness tracking on iOS devices, and we expect that relationship to continue on with the iWatch, but we also expect other fitness apps to take advantage of the iWatch’s fitness-tracking abilities as well.

Notifications

This one’s a no-brainer, but we figure we’d mention it just to cover our bases. Most likely one of the main features of the iWatch (as with most other smartwatches currently on the market) will be notifications and how the iWatch can handle those notifications with different ways that users can manage them.

It’d be awesome to reply to an iMessage by just using voice commands without even pulling out your iPhone. Granted, that’s one of the main features of many smartwatches now, but it would be nice to see seamless and native iOS support between an iPhone and a smartwatch, and the iWatch will finally provide that.

5 iWatch Features We Want to See is a post by Craig Lloyd from Gotta Be Mobile.