By Bernardo De la Cruz
Wearable devices have been around for quite some time now, I’ve talked about the Fitbit at some point in this column and if you read it, you know how I feel. Earlier this week Apple announced the launch of their new Apple Watch Series 2. The reason why the first one was a success was mainly due to the fact that Apple seems to do it better than other manufacturers and it has huge brand recognition. But the reason why many didn’t like it was due to sluggish performance and the fact that since it was the first of its kind, there wasn’t much that can be done with it that a much cheaper and better performance wearable could do. The fact that they sold it as a fashionable device didn’t help either.
I’d like to think that they may have got it right this time. Instead of focusing the watch as a luxury wearable that happened to have some health tracking functions, it’s now all about the latter.
So what finally makes this into a fitness and health device that rivals companies like Fitbit? Well for starters it finally has a GPS tracker in it, meaning that you no longer need your phone for the watch to track your speed and location any more. They claim that the band can monitor your vitals better than the first, how exactly I’m not entirely sure since even the heart rate sensor isn’t 100% accurate while measuring from the wrist.
The thing that got my attention the most however was the fact that it’s finally water proof! Yes you can actually wear your watch while you swim. Apple also mentioned that they developed a method for the watch to track calories burned so you can finally better monitor your swimming workouts. I for one am excited about this addition since no other company, as far as I know, has developed a device that can track activity under water.
There are several versions of this watch available for pre-order September 9, ignore the ones that cost more than $1000 and take a look at the Nike+ version, which starts at $369, which is the most affordable. What separates this watch from the others in the series 2 line is its focus on fitness related apps developed with Nike, which the other watches in the Series 2 do not have.
I’ll be pre-ordering the Series 2, not the Nike+ one though, and will give my full experience as a first time buyer and continue on the next issue!
Bernardo De la Cruz, es graduado en Computación y Tecnología en Pace University y es asesor de Westchester Hispano.
Sala de Redacción/Westchester Hispano
Publicado el 10 de Septiembre, 2016