Apple has today revealed its Apple Watch Series 8, which will be the first wearable from the iPhone makers to come with a temperature sensor, as well as a new lower power mode and a life-saving car crash detection system. During today’s big ‘Far Out’ event at the Apple Park campus Tim Cook and co lifted the lid on the Apple Watch Series 8 for the first time. The Apple Watch Series 8 will come with all the features Apple fans know and love such as fall detection, cycle tracking and mindfulness.
But the Apple Watch Series 8 will also come with three huge new features – the first of which is a new temperature sensor which will help women track when they are ovulating.
Two sensors are fitted to the Apple Watch Series 8 – one on the back of the watch near the skin and another under the display, which will help eliminate outside bias.
These sensors be able to help calculate retrospective ovulation estimates, which helps with family planning and period predictions.
The second big feature for the Apple Watch Series 8 is called Crash Detection – and this new tech will automatically detect when an Apple Watch user is in a car crash and immediately contact emergency services and your emergency contacts in such a situation.
The Apple Watch Series 8 can detect when someone is in a car crash thanks to an advanced sensor-fusion algorithm, coupled with a more powerful gyroscope and accelerometer on the Apple Watch.
If a car crash is detected the Apple Watch Series 8 will check in with a user and if they don’t respond within 10 seconds it will contact emergency services.
While the other big upgrade to the Apple Watch line is the new low power mode, which will offer a whopping 36 hours of battery life on a full charge.
That’s double the current 18 hours worth of charge that is currently available.
This new mode temporarily disables or limits select sensors and features, including the Always-On Retina display, workout autostart, heart health notifications, and more.
In the US the price of the Apple Watch Series 8 will begin from $399 for the GPS version and $499 for the GPS and Cellular model.
While in the UK the Apple Watch Series 8 GPS is priced from £419, with the GPS + Cellular model available from £529.
The Apple Watch Series 8 has a release date of September 16 with pre-orders available now.
Besides the Apple Watch Series 8, today’s Apple event also revealed an update to the Apple Watch SE as well as a brand new wearable called the Apple Watch Ultra.
This premium Apple Watch, which comes with a thicker titanium case, up to 60 hours of battery life and dual-frequency GPS, will launch on September 23 and is priced from £849.
The Apple Watch SE – which is powered by the same chip as the Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra – is available from £259.
The Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Series 8 are all powered by watchOS 9 which adds features such as international roaming, a new AFib History feature, a completely redesigned Compass app and tweaks to the Workout, Sleep Tracking and Medications.
