Apple watch and new iphone

Just woke up to the announcement of the apple watch…

A bit vague on a few details, e.g. proximity of iphone to watch to make it workable, but it looks like a cool product.

Maybe a bit of Marc Newson influence already? They’ve definitely changed their look away from the Dieter Rams inspired rectilinear forms of the iphone 4 and 5.

A question that came up over breakfast was, how sustainable is sapphire glass? As far as I can gather on the net, they use aluminium oxide to make the stuff.

Firstly, I gotta say, I truly don’t see myself wearing a screen on my wrist in the foreseeable future. That being said, I really like some of the decisions they’ve made here. I’m a sucker for the pillowy metal bezel. Also I feel like the typography is a subtle step away from their previous text treatments, in a refreshing way.

In short, I don’t care about this thing, but I think it’s decently well done.

The app screen makes me visibly sick. Oddly placed clusters of circles are very upsetting to people. I’m really surprised they went that route.

The app screen makes me visibly sick. Oddly placed clusters of circles are very upsetting to people.

Ha!

I’m going to drop more science and psychology on this forum (you can thank me for the first use of ‘skeumorphism’ on Core, yes that’s right, search it) - in the form of the strong aversion called trypophobia.

I don’t personally get this reaction to the UI. It seems like something artful that would become intuitive after use.

Since NURB is a cyclist I know he’ll appreciate this example - the Catlike helmet:

[barfs into my wastebasket]

seriously.
it’s finally here. - well sort of…

I don’t mind the cluster so much - (or the catlike helmets for that matter)
NURBS - I’m guessing you don’t have a marshmallow sofa at home.

Holy cow. I’ve definitely got trypophobia. That flower just about made me throw up.

On another topic here: why hasn’t the forum completely blown up about the Apple Watch and new iPhone? 5 years ago there would have been 150 comments on this thread, and now the most people can talk about are phobias about circles.

Has Apple lost it’s design luster? Are people just not that interested in discussing the latest i-offerings?

Correct.

I would call it meh too.

Im going to buy the new iPhone 6, but the design and feature set isn’t anything groundbreaking anymore. Better Camera, Faster Processor, New Form. Next one will be the 6S with faster chip and better optics. Again, expected.

At this point I just want my phone to work (take good photos) and thats about it. The market is so saturated that allure of mobile phones I think is diminishing.

What I really want is go-pro optics in a camera phone.

The ID to me is awesome. Love that they are finally returning to friendly soft futuristic forms. I definitely agree on the trypophobia point though. I think this is like the Mac Pro or most apple products for that matter. You need it in person to really appreciate it.

I think people who don’t understand Apple’s success look at the iPad and expect them to reinvent the wheel every few years. The iPad was decades in the making. Everyone knew tablets were the future and were working towards that long-term goal, but Apple was the first one to make an awesome one at the right time. That doesn’t happen every day, even for Apple.

As Google, Microsoft, and others get their act together, Apple’s patient approach will appear more and more ‘late’ to people who expect more ‘firsts’ a la the iPad from them.

Yes Slippyfish! You’ve just uncovered a life-long mystery of mine. My first childhood memory of it was from this ‘holey’ 80s children’s tv character called Gilbert the Alien, so I thought it might have stemmed from that, and just had it down as a weird aversion thing that I had.

Ps. Those helmets are ugly! :wink:

I can’t wait to actually play with the ‘digital crown’ and see the interface react. There’s a characteristically Apple smooth, fluid feeling that empowers the user and makes them think they are competent and in-control… the micro-interaction of smoothly easing in and out of a motion.

My wife is ordering the 6 plus tomorrow. In gold. She’s not an Apple apostle or even very tech-savvy but it makes sense for her life in many ways. And I’m going to be a little bit jealous when the new Phone arrives.

Even as a self-proclaimed Apple agnostic, I have to say I was slightly disappointed when it was announced. It has some moderately interesting features (analog interface dial, multi pressure touchscreen) but it feels like they couldn’t come up with a solid use case for the smart watch and decided to throw everything including the kitchen sink into it.

I was half hoping they would come up with a watch that had two specific useful digital functions, as opposed to doing everything including sending random people your heartbeat.

PS: why would you spend 1/3 of the presentation talking about how “you don’t block the screen with your finger” when you spend the next 2/3 doing exactly that??

PPS: “A smartwatch, but smarter.” seems like easy tagline gold.

OK, so I took the 2 hours to watch the whole keynote. Here’s my takeaway, specifically with regards to the Apple Watch. iPhone 6, 6 Plus, not too much to comment on. It’s a larger more round iPhone. I wouldn’t expect much change in iPhone…if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Apple typically introduces industry leading and convention breaking products to big fanfare, but also a lot of misunderstanding. Original iPod was “too big, cost too much, was the same as others already on the market, etc.”.

Apple brings out new product/product categories often at the time when they know it will be only for early adopters, and often without a complete feature set and use case scenario. Apple if anything is great at building a user base and then supplying the ecosystem to support it that then tips it to mainstream use and function.

iPod came out with the only way to get music on it was by burning CDs in iTunes (very slowly). It wasn’t even on PC until later. iTunes store later filled the void and made the iPod make sense.

Original iPhone came out with no ability to add 3rd party apps. That wasn’t until later.

First AppleTV had to be connected to a computer and had no ability to purchase or rent directly from iTunes. It later could directly connect to the iTunes store and had 3rd party content like Netflix.

What links all these products is Apple finding a way to get more control and share of the $ in the consumers purchasing and connection with media. Nobody buys CDs anymore, or rents DVDs.

I see Apple Watch (and the only new feature on iPhone) with Apple Pay the secret killer app that will make Apple rich and open a new future where they are involved in all transactions, not just renting movies and buying music. The watch is just an enabler of this.

That said, I personally am not interested. And I’m the usual early adopter. Bought the very first iMac, iPod when it came out, the first iPhone, the first iPad… Maybe I’m just old, but I still see a choice of watch as very personal, and point of self-expression and that “function” trumps a few limited ways to interact with a watch that a digital watch provides. I don’t think it will be that great for real fitness tracking (and I wouldn’t want to wear a rubber watch daily, and the stainless band wouldn’t be so great to run with). I have no problems checking messages on my phone. I don’t need to see it instantly on my watch (i’m not a doctor where seconds are life or death). I don’t have anyone I want to share my heartbeat or draw pictures of stick figures with. And the home screen circles are ugly. Not vomit inducing, just childish.

For me, I could almost get behind the watch if it did less. An awesome digital watch (I really like the graphics for the faces), with the NFC payment + a higher build quality that made it more unique and expensive. Maybe some additional sort of smart feature that was GPS based to control my NEST or lighting or door locks.

R

As an addendum. If they also came out with some killer wireless earbuds, or a new version of their original bluetooth earpiece that could get music from the phone/watch + make calls, plus get Siri directions when walking, Smart contextual alerts when out and about, I could see it be awesome. I’m not going to talk into my watch, and if I have a cable connecting earphones to my phone, I might as well pull out the phone to control. Watch + wireless earphones + phone would be awesome.

R

My opinion after reading blogs, articles, apple’s own marketing etc is that this is definitely not a watch but rather a new product without much need in the marketplace. It has a lot of people who want it, but how many really need it?

Sure, there are those who this might be the best thing since sliced bread, as hipstomp has noted in his article, but for people like me, who don’t need to answer their phone every time it rings and are not “so busy” that they can’t take the extra 1 second to pull out their phone; this seems like a me too piece of hardware which will be outdated as fast as iphones are.

I’d much rather a dieter rams designed Braun watch or a nice ikepod or something else which doesn’t need charged every night and put the money towards a good sketchpad tablet like the surface pro 3 or something.

Yes. Exactly what I thought, too. Do you really need to answer your calls? Do you really need to answer texts? Send heartbeats? Send creepy 3D emoticons? Yes, the actual clock function of it, is quite nice. But so is this:


I’m sure some developer is going to come up with an amazing use for it. I’m just disappointed that it almost feels like an also-ran. There’s already a pile of smartwatches on the market. What makes this one so different, and what can you do with it you can’t already do with your phone (besides wear it on your wrist).

Without a doubt, this is the biggest news of the whole keynote. In one fell swoop, they eliminated the need for money in the form of paper, coin, plastic, paypal, etc. It’s possible we could be looking back at this in 10 years (and not the watch) as being the beginning of the future of commerce. What’s a bit terrifying, is that an electronics manufacturer is the one holding all the cards here (pun intented) instead of a financial institution. But, maybe that’s a good thing.

That feature alone, provided some level of mass adoption happens relatively soon, would be the primary reason for having an iPhone6. Home Depot got hacked again? I don’t care. I paid with my phone, and the account and password have already changed.

Yes.

I use my iphone all the time for listening to music at work, talking hands free while driving/riding.

Wireless earbuds would be amazing.

Totes want this…

So black metal. \m/

When I go out now to public places I am going to hold my normal watch up to my face and say “Siri, what’s the time?”. It’s the new white earbuds.

In regards to Apple Pay I have been told that other phones have already done this for a fair while now, but I think it is Apple’s pulling power that will now make it commonplace. They might not have invented it but they will capitalise far greater on it than anyone else.