Allister Heath:

Cook expects an explosion of new apps for the Apple Watch . One of the Apple Watch’s great missions will be to harness new technology to help improve users’ health. The Apple Watch will of course be able to monitor heart rates, Cook says; but it will be far more sophisticated than that. It is bad for people’s health to sit too much; so the watch will gently tap people’s wrist every hour to remind them to stand up and go for a walk if they haven’t had enough exercise.
 
 Even more intriguingly, the Watch will operate a special rewards system: users will get credits if they exercise enough. They will also be encouraged to increase their metabolic targets if they meet their exercise targets consistently. Consumers will clearly have an incentive to wear the watch for as much of the day as possible, and even in the shower.
 
 There will be lots of other potentially revolutionary uses. The watch is designed to be able to replace car keys and the clumsy, large fobs that are now used by many vehicles, Cook told The Telegraph. This could be a major development and will reinforce the view that Apple is circling the automotive market.
 
 Another major application will be for paying: the Watch will be able to serve as a very usable credit card, courtesy of Apple Pay. The system will be ultra-safe, Cook says, certainly more so than the plastic cards currently in use in the US. It will also respect users’ privacy: Apple won’t know what consumers are buying, where they are purchasing their goods and how much they are paying for them.
 
 Connectivity and the future of tech