Sports-focused Apple Watch rumored to feature larger screen, longer battery life, and...

midian182

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Forward-looking: If you're an Apple fan who likes their wearables to be sport-orientated, you'll be happy to hear that Cupertino is reportedly working on a version of its Apple Watch designed for "extreme sports athletes."

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman writes that the rugged version of the Apple Watch will feature a "nearly 2-inch display" (diagonally), about 7% more screen area than the largest current Apple Watch. It will also come with a bigger battery for longer life and a larger resolution than its predecessor— 410 x 502, compared to 484 x 396—which will allow it to show more fitness metrics on the screen.

The standard Apple Watch 8 is expected to keep the same 1.9-inch screen size as the Apple Watch 7. The updated Apple Watch SE will also retain the current screen size, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

This is the second time Gurman has written about a rugged Apple Watch. The previous occasion was in March last year when he said it would have a rubberized exterior attached to the metal chassis. He now says the wearable will be made of a "strong metal material rather than aluminum" and have a "more shatter-resistant screen."

All the new watches are expected to be powered by the S8 chip that's said to offer similar performance as the current S7 and previous-gen S6, which would mark the first time Apple watches have performed similarly across three generations. They're also expected to have an updated low-power mode and a fitness feature that lets users monitor their body temperature.

Not surprisingly, the rugged Apple Watch is expected to cost more than today's stainless steel model, which is $699 for the 41mm version and $749 for the 45mm option.

Masthead: Kanut Photo

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Perhaps because there's no tech yet that could reliably measure it without a blood sample? I wouldn't hold it against Apple.
I agree it's tough but it was widely reported that it would be released in the previous version of the watch. Apple never denied it except this feature simply didn't appear when the watch was released. I think they were going to use short wave length infra red to detect glucose levels but I'll admit I have no idea how they'd do this.

I'll admit I'm not into smart watches and actively dislike the apple design (it just looks like a toy to me) but I might consider getting the watch if it had this feature. It doesn't even have to be wildly accurate for it to be useful, 10% accuracy would still be a huge step forwards.
 
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