What can the Apple watch can do?
- Watches able to unlock compatible hotel room doors;
Can be used to make touchless payments and receive phone calls; - Can check the name of a song via the app Shazam;
- Can opening an internet-connected garage door remotely;
- It takes two-and-a-half hours to charge from 0% to 100% the larger model has longer battery life;
- Its Power Reserve facility means that the Watch should continue to show the time for “up to 72 hours” after other functions are turned off;
Social networks Facebook and Instagram and the car pick-up service Uber are among those confirmed to have developed software for the device.
SAFETY experts are calling for an immediate ban on drivers using smart watches following the launch of the Apple watch.
Car safety firm SmartWitness, which manufactures in-car CCTV and safety cameras, fears that driver distraction will be significantly increased by drivers using the new internet connected watches.
Recent research has shown that using a smart watch while driving makes response times nearly three times longer – even worse than using a hand-held mobile phone.
Despite this fact the Department for Transport currently have no ban in place to for the new wearable technology. Use of mobile phones while driving was banned in 2003 but there is currently no such legislation in place for smart watches like the Apple watch.
Research by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in Wokingham, Berks, showed that a driver reading a message on an iWatch would take 2.52 seconds to react to an emergency manoeuvre, whereas a driver talking to another passenger would react in 0.9 seconds. Reading on an iWatch was found to be even more distracting than using a handheld mobile which causes a 1.85 second delay in reaction times.
SmartWitness head of International sales Mark Berry said: “Apple’s launch of the Apple Watch this week is going to bring wearable smart watches into the mainstream and the effect on increased driver distraction could be disastrous.
