Intel chip?
What sort of Intel Chip?
I'm expecting Mac to switch away from Intel. Maybe Intel does useful chips apart from CPUs.
What's better than smartphone that is not strapped to your wrist? A smartphone that IS strapped to your wrist. In what is a strange rumour even by the standards of supply chain rumours - Chinese manufacturing news site iPhone.TGBUS says that Apple is planning to release a watch in 2013, and the story has been widely circulated …
Hmmm...
I'm not an Apple user, but they interest me because they have control over both their OSs and hardware and so are in a position to unilaterally bring devices to market and better integrate them to each other.
For this reason, I'm sometimes surprised that there hasn't been tighter integration of iPads and Macs- using the iPad as a control surface for a Mac, for example (though iOS devices have had MIDI support from the get-go), or as a place to keep your Photoshop tool palettes. I would have assumed that Apple would have an easier job of doing things like than rivals who use somebody else's OS.
The 'watch like' iPod Nano seemed notable because it didn't integrate with the iPhone. Call alerts would be an obvious application, as would audio playback controls when an iPhone is in a dock on the other side of the room.
Another observation: on one tech site about an e-ink watch, I was surprised by the number of comments about "Who wears a watch these days?", but anecdotally, it appeared that more Europeans wear watches than our US cousins. Not only that, but Sony- who do have a phone-connected watch on the market, are Japanese. Why is that relevant? Because some Japanese cities are notorious for having over-crowded public transport systems, overcrowded to the point where reaching into ones pocket for a phone to check a call can be inconvenient (there are some hard figures on the net that support this reputation crowded subways).
Obviously, a watch is not in a good position for either making phone calls or for plugging earphones into. It is, however, in a good position for operating other devices. Rotating the scroll wheel bezel of my watch to make a note of when my my parking ticket expires is so much quicker, easier and less fiddly than setting a reminder on my phone.
The issue with an Apple watch would be aesthetic- watches come in all shapes, sizes and colours, and making a 'one watch to suit everybody' would be tricky- the exception being the £5 Casio F91W 'terrorist' watch, but it is tiny. At least the common watch materials of stainless steel, glass and sapphire wouldn't break from Apple's current choice of materials.
Another issue is power consumption, and charging. Charging every couple days is not ideal. Wireless charging would partially mitigate this issue, but Apple haven't embraced it yet- though they are certainly giving it thought. One of their patents describes a method of selecting the priority in which desktop peripherals receive power wirelessly, but obviously for the watch to be charged this way the wearer would have to sit at their desk for an hour every other day. That said, if the watch is limited in functionality (e-ink call/text alert, call/call end control), the battery could be eeked out for some time. There is also the possibility that if the watch were simple enough, the phone itself could supply the power required for a display state-change, through resonance.
Can anyone here comment on how much power watches like the Seiko Kinetic can generate? My uninformed guess would be 'not enough'.
Watch controls could be completely mechanical- imagine a bezel mechanism that when rotated produced ultrasonic clicks that could be heard by a phone.
>>Wouldn't it be self winding - it could generate power from a simple pendulum like rythmic movement of the fanboi's wrist
I dunno, it's typically frustrated teenagers who provide the biggest power supply and Apple is not the OS of choice for nerdy friendless teens.
Plus, put Linux on a watch and the watch itseklf would be a source of arousal for said teens. And Reg readers... if the latter isn't a subset of the former.
"They should concentrate on putting a retina screen in the mini ipad"
I dunno, watching your movies the minecraft way has a certain kind of retro appeal - all those mario style blocky pixels and gaudy colors certainly do it for the die hard fanbois. Perfection is, after all, anything with an apple logo on it.
When I was a kiddy of mid - teen years....
I used to go "Oh it's a Harley Davidson!" - which is worse than admitting that you masturbate over the virgin Mary...
But anyway, many years later, I happened into a rather big "Harley Davidson store" and this is when my admiration for the big motor sickles, turned to contempt.
Harley Bandannas.
Harley Leathers.
Harley Boots.
Harley Zippo Lighters.
Harley Shot Glasses.
Harley Fridge Magnets.
Harley Cuff Links.
Harley Runners, with the Harley Davidson logo embedded as tread, on the soles, akin to Harvey Firestone, making the first non smooth tyres for the Automobile.
And I thought, aside from the "Great Australian Gouge" on imported shit boxes, really the Harley is just a piece of mechanised shit that is designed to get one from A to B and hopefully back again.
Nothing more... and all the righteous bro biker bullshit is just marketing an image, like boys and toys and girls and dollies....
It's just a fucking vehicle. It's 2 cylinders sliced off the end of a V8 engine, stuck in a motorcycle frame and it gets sold at 3 x the price of an average car.... like less the other 20 odd cylinders, pistons, 3 gear boxes, 12 doors, 12 seats, 15 wheels, etc., It's like, Corporation USA and it's profitably "selling an image" = "Oh duh."
It was at that point that I lost ALL respect for the Harley Davidson as a corporation, and their products.
Now the people who run Apple are going the same way, apparently.
What next?
Apple Hats.
Apple leather hand bags.
Apple LED keyring torches.
Apple Wine Glasses.
Apple Fridge Magnets.
Apple Cuff Links.
And of course, what jerks life would be complete without a set of Apple running shoes, with the Apple logo embedded in the shoes tread pattern.
Back to the shit box corner store generic parts computer, selling at 1/5th the price of an Apple PC.
Yep.
Their days of innovating are done. They will now leverage their existing IP into crap like this until the brand is as degraded (degrading?) as Harley, Triumph, Ferrari, Porsche, Burberry and all the rest.
But hey. It's a business, the shareholders will be happy and ultimately, so what?
Original technology companies are like buses, there'll be another one along in a while, though it may not come from the direction you expected.
Shame, really, still it was good while it lasted.
Are you sure about that?
This is where screen tech is being divorced from the computing and network comms. components. Now one of the most often encountered small annoyances is having to grab your phone from your pocket whilst on the move (with the risk of dropping it or getting it knocked out your hand when in busy locals), just to check who has sent that message and what it says. It will provide a very practical, "here and now" step towards the kind of instant access, always available information Google glasses will be offering. It will probably be possible to set it to buzz when a new message comes in or when some information relevant to the current locale is displayed. It will be an adjunct to your phone or (interestingly) to an iPad mini.
Google glasses are in concept very exciting, but in practical reality the technology isn't ready yet. They are still too unwieldy to be worn by the average Joe and people aren't likely to be buying them in the next 1 - 2 years. On the other hand, a watch, though far less "tech of the future" is a very practical way to ensure a subset of the similar kinds of information can be easily accessed when on the move and can be made relatively cheaply. Additionally, it may be possible to go for an iPad mini + watch + bluetooth headset combination. This could also be a "secret weapon" against the carriers - a way to telephony enable a 3G iPad mini (a "secret weapon" because iPads are currently being purchased outside of a telecoms plan and if they start being used for telephony they user will opt for sim free plans - from which the carriers earn far less per user and which represent far better value for the user). The carriers won't like it because it will mean the bundling of phone purchase and monthly payment plan, which the carriers are currently using to line their pockets, will be eroded.
Agreed. My partner had (has, actually, though of no use now as doesn't have a Sony phone any more) one of the original Sony MBW-100 and misses the "see who's calling" or "see who's messaged me" or "see battery level" type functions which are great to be able to take a quick look at your watch to see without needing to take the phone out for, which is more useful than you might think when it's built in to something you wear every day anyway.
Assuming they do it right (that is - battery that lasts 10-14 days with normal use - you don't want to have to charge your phone every two days, no 3G, crisp display, configurable) and keep it relatively affordable (people who have an iPhone are arguably willing to spend a bit more obviously) then I think it'll be a hit.
We're rapidly entering a phase where the mobile OS providers try to lock us in even harder (eg: the very nice Nokia MD-50W speaker which while bluetooth works best with Nokia phones, and I'm guessing the google glasses won't work with WinPho8 or iOS) beyond just the apps not being cross-compatible, and this seems like a workable and sensible device for Apple to be releasing, and should have a bigger market appeal than the google glasses too.
@SuccessCase
Thank you for some interesting ideas. Obviously the main issue with Google Glasses is power consumption for the display and the CPU. I wear glasses, and it easy to imagine some far simpler ways of using them to display information to me. Even just three pixels mounted at the top of the lenses would be enough to, for example, act as navigational aid or digital compass, and my Android phone currently uses a single pixel (well, the composite LED) to denote and differentiate between texts, emails, missed calls, charging status and low battery warnings. I am assuming the simpler the device, the lower the power consumption (the current issue with Google Glass, and with 'smart watches'). KISS.
In the mean time, you might want to look at the snowboarding goggles that integrate an HUD, GPS etc... a more obscure brand has been doing them for a couple of years, but now Oakly have picked up the idea (though they were, AFAIK, the first to integrate an MP3 player into some sunglasses... why, I don't know)
I have commented before with the idea of a watch (or even a ring) with a Subscriber Identification Module in it... it could be made so that any device you pick up becomes 'yours' for the period that you are holding it (of course, this would have a impact on the business model of selling everybody a phone, so it is probably unrealistic). This wouldn't require the watch or ring to have its own power supply. The line of thought that got me there was an extension of "simple dumbphone with 3G>WiFi, used with tablet when required" as being a good solution for those who find small screens fiddly.
In the wake of recent tragic news, I have come across some Youtube vids of US gun owners who have had RFID chips implanted in their hands so they can open locked gun boxes quickly, without risk of children playing with them.
I'm still waiting for those glasses that turn opaque at the first sign of a threatening situation, so that I don't see anything that might worry me. Anyway, happy new year everyone, and hope you're not feeling like someone has wrapped a slice of lemon around a gold sledgehammer and bashed your brain with it. ; D
(need icon for Obligatory Douglas (Noel) Adams Reference... if it was DNA it could do double duty in biotech article comments)
for those of us that aren't specky twzts and are fortunate enough to have good eye sight, and also don't live in a country where sun glasses are required year round, it would seem a bit of an imposition to have to wear something that marks you out as a genetic failure just to access a few non essential functions that are also available on the phone in your pocket.
i have a forearm-band for my iPhone (for while on inlines). This requires that the app supports landscape mode, and you'll be surprised how many apple apps don't support it (phone, settings - these are those that bother me most). One of the rules in the winpho programming guidelines was to always support both orientations.
so they would have to enable this first in their own apps. or maybe the watch will be portrait only mode.
I'm pretty sure that the iPhone doesn't have mechanical shutters, they take up a large amount of space. Pretty much all camera phones, and a lot of compacts, uses electronic shutters. The only phone I know of that has mechanical shutters was the old Nokia N93. The Shutter noise is generated by the phone, in some countries, (Japan ?), it's a requirement by law to have such a sound.