Apple Watch Countdown: 50% off for Employees, 1,000 apps Submitted, Pharrell shows off Apple Watch

The Apple Watch goes on pre-order this Friday, April 10. An internal message reveals some new details ahead of the launch.

The Apple Watch will be available for pre-order starting Friday at 12:01am PDT. Apple has distributed the Apple Watch to press and celebrities. We will soon see the Apple Watch reviews by the usual pundits. Over the weekend Pharrell wore an Apple Watch at The Voice Show. He also released a video on his Instagram showing off the Apple Watch. It appears he got a gold model with a white sports band.

Woah.

A video posted by Pharrell Williams (@pharrell) on /5/6, 2015 at 8:16pm PDT

Apple employees will be among the first to order an Apple Watch as Tim Cook announced in an internal email that the can benefit from an 50% discount. How many Apple employees will take that offer and right away put up the Apple Watch on eBay to make a nice profit? The 50% discount is available on Apple Watch and Apple Watch Sport models. 9to5Mac reports that the discount for the Apple Watch Edition is just $550. 

The internal email also revealed that over a 1,000 Apple Watch apps have been submitted within four days of accepting apps.

Apple seems to be set for a successful launch of the Apple Watch. The only concern we have is battery life. If the Apple Watch will be used differently than expected by Apple by most users and they drain their watch within hours of use, there will be a major backlash. On top of that, Apple would likely not able to fix the problem.

The Apple Watch starts at $349 for the small case (38mm) Sport Edition. The Apple Watch Pre-order starts on April 10 in 9 countries (Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US) and the Apple Watch ships on April 24.

Apple Watch introduces a new design and iOS-based user interface created specifically for a smaller device. Apple Watch features the Digital Crown, a new way to scroll, zoom and navigate fluidly, without obstructing the display. The Digital Crown also serves as the Home button and a quick way to access Siri. The Retina display on Apple Watch features Force Touch, a technology that senses the difference between a tap and a press, providing a new way to access controls within Apple Watch apps.

The Apple Watch introduces the Taptic Engine and a built-in speaker that together discreetly enable an entirely new vocabulary of alerts and notifications you can both hear and feel. Apple custom-designed its own S1 SiP (System in Package) to miniaturize an entire computer architecture onto a single chip. Apple Watch also features Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 4.0 to pair seamlessly with your iPhone. Besides the smart watch features the Apple Watch keeps time to within 50 milliseconds of UTC, the universal time standard when synching regularly with the iPhone.

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