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Former Apple Human Interface Developer Speculates on Future 'iWatch'
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Apple already patented it and is going to sue you for mentioning it.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Apple-Smart-Shoe-Patents-Sensor,20688.html
Tons of people were begging Apple to come up with a phone and a tablet years before they were announced.
It's pretty unbelievable how narrow minded many of the people are on this forum....
I had zero desire for a smartphone before the iPhone was announced. I loved my little small flip phone and it did everything I could ever want in a phone. The second I saw an iPhone I new I NEEDED one immediately. I see this same possibility with the iWatch.
Sure, you say most people don't wear watches? That may be true (although I think there are a lot more watch wearers than you realize), but that's simply because most watches only serve one function... to tell time, and we all get that on our phones.
But the possibilities are endless with an iWatch, assuming it's implemented correctly (and with proper security). Wirelessly charged as you sleep each night. Warns you when you walk away from your phone. Can ask "where's my phone?" and it makes your phone start beeping. NFC payments. Notifcations. Siri communication (seems especially useful with reminders). Fitness apps/health monitoring. Apps that record precise sleep monitoring to wake you up at the right time. and so much more!
But no just because YOU don't wear a watch anymore, there is no reason you (or anyone else) would ever want to wear one again...
I love your ideas. Siri is still in its nascent stages but it's not difficult to understand where it's going and a watch is a perfect fit.
Asking your watch for information in Siri like style would present the answer, not a list of sites that might have that answer. To display that answer, a screen that fits on your wrist is sufficient. Apps specifically built for that screen size: a map showing your immediate surroundings and directions or a Passbook card with QR code (and NFC activated) or the cover of your currently playing album with overlaying playback controls or a notifications or incoming calls.... Any of these can be designed to need no more than a couple of inches of screen real estate.
The fact that you have this watch on your wrist makes it infinitely less likely to get lost and geo fenced with an iPhone, even more remotely possible. There are many more biometric authentication methods that have not been explored and a watch that is strapped to your skin is the perfect case scenario. The watch only works when on its owners wrist. Remove it, it won't work. Remove the phone from the proximity of the watch, it too won't work.
It used to be that MacRumors was a small community populated with Apple-minded people who understood Apple's DNA and owned Macs because they subscribed to that mindset. If people wanted super customizable devices with buttons for everything, they wouldn't own a Mac. They'd be happily off in the PC world. Since the surge of Apple's popularity, its users have become the mainstream person who can't think beyond what they see in front of their noses and who would never had asked for an iPhone before it was introduced.
Like Steve Jobs said: If Henry Ford had asked people what they wanted, they'd have asked for a faster horse.
First, it's great you haven't wore one for 7 years.
It was not my intent to suggest that anyone should wear a watch, or not wear a watch.
I was only commenting on the fact there are still a few of us luddites who still wear a watch.
I hesitate to mention to those who consider unpressed khakis as "dressing up" that there is some style to wearing a watch, granting that it marks you as hopelessly old fashioned and out of it. And wearing a suit and tie in the appropriate circumstances...well...
Not dissing you for wearing a watch either my friend. "Back in the day" my wristwatch was the most functional and important device I owned. (or a close 2nd to my $1200 HP calculator)
But I still have some leisure suits in the closet. When they come back I'm all set!
First, it's great you haven't wore one for 7 years.
It was not my intent to suggest that anyone should wear a watch, or not wear a watch.
I was only commenting on the fact there are still a few of us luddites who still wear a watch.
I hesitate to mention to those who consider unpressed
khakis as "dressing up" that there is some style to wearing a watch, granting that it marks you as hopelessly old fashioned and out of it. And wearing a suit and tie in the appropriate circumstances...well...
Plenty of people in NYC wear watches, young, old, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic etc .. Can't speak for the stixs.
Granularity describes the level of detail of a specific place or thing.
An analogy might be the difference in image detail between a 1980's video game like Super Mario Brothers, and one from now like Battlefield 3. Big difference!
He is imagining the possibility of millions of people willing to wear an iWatch to help provide additional data point detail to create a more accurate map of the world. Sounds nice, but isn't likely to happen without $donations$ and $volunteers$.
We are already mostly traceable, contactable, and accountable and will likely become more so. Those with the means to travel usually have electronic devices, and those with less money tend to stay put.
You don't know much about multifactor authentication, do you?
Amazing at the number of pubescent replies, from people who have no where to go, and no place to be, that they don't need a watch to know that their sorry asses are late.
I'd guess most of the people with negative responses to this thread are the same people calling for Apple to "innovate" by making a larger phone screen and adding RAM......
The "smartwatch industry" seems eerily familiar to the smartphone industry pre-2007. There are some devices out there, but none that gain any traction - at least enough to cause a boom.
The iWatch could be Apple's next big innovation and all the possibilities (like the one's mentioned in the article and others mentioned by posters) are literally endless!
Even better: fingerprint recognition on iPhone / iPad home buttons and Mac trackpads.
No need for an iWatch to unlock your devices without a passcode.
And there won't be any security issues with eavesdroppers reading your iWatch's RFID tag from nearby.
You might not even need to worry about bad actors cutting off your thumb and using that to unlock your devices.
Newer biometrics systems detect the density of the digit as well as its fingerprint. Bloodless severed fingers won't work.
I am 26 and despite being constantly physically attached to my iPhone, I would never leave the house without one of my watches.
Every man should wear a nice watch. IMO.
Every man should wear a nice watch. IMO.
Yeah, so a thief just has to steal your watch and he's got full access to your iPhone AND your Mac? Let's see; that defeats the entire point of using a password. Brilliant!
How about a fingerprint sensor on the iPhone/Mac instead (still flawed, really since fingerprints are pretty easy to pick up off touched objects with some powder and tape, but probably still better than a watch). My wrist despises watches so I'd need a pocket watch and that'd be even worse for theft.
This a problem for YOU. For watch wearers - not so much.
This may come as a shock to you, but not everything Apple builds is just for you.
Oh, darn...and I was so looking forward to that cutting off the finger thing. This takes all the fun out of being a sadistic scumbag thief.
Now let's hope that the cutting-off-your-finger bad guys either know a bit about biometrics or, at least, have read this post.
And so you're on the Internet posting this because...the sun isn't setting and you're bored?
Even though all this is pure speculation, I can see a good point in having an iWatch. I personally have currently no use for a NFC chip, but I could see an iWatch making people use it. In railway stations, underground stations etc. it would be easier and safer to use a chip in a watch than flashing your expensive phone. It could be a bridge to the phone in your pocket when it would be inconvenient to get it out.It would also, hopefully, stop people staring at their phone screen all the time. As for watches being old fashioned, I can only say that a manager who has enough time to check the time on his phone is not very efficient and is not doing a good job. (yes, the last bit is tongue in cheek...)
Oh I didn't mean they weren't useful. I meant that the choice between which watch you wear is primarily based on fashion issues and not features. I wear a watch as well. It is a nice one and it is partly functional and also very clearly a piece of socially acceptable conservative male jewelry that I hope conveys some taste (I get compliments on it) and I know conveys a certain amount of economic status (it isn't a Rolex or anything like that, but it also clearly isn't a $100 or less watch).
Can you imagine all of your friends who have an iPhone also having the same watch on and in full display? I just think for fashion reasons that is never going to happen.
An iWatch is about 10 years too late! I don't know anyone who wears watches anymore because of the fact that they have cell phones!
I think you look at it backward.
Everyone would wear a watch if it would also be a phone
The watch could actually be the future phone form factor.
Are you actually really impressed by what watch a person is wearing, or are you trying to be funny?
3 Apple Care years for $ 149.95
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I think you look at it backward.
Everyone would wear a watch if it would also be a phone
The watch could actually be the future phone form factor.
Stretched so we can look at it only using one eye and NFC and we tell Siri
whom to call, plus we can learn the altitudes of where we are......the possibilities are endless.
Those who crave bigger screens can hang iPad minis around their necks like Flavor Flav'
and WillIam will coem up with a rapper version in gold with diamonds.
All set!
An iWatch is about 10 years too late! I don't know anyone who wears watches anymore because of the fact that they have cell phones!
Really? Tell that to the high-end Swiss and German watch market who is doing better than ever...!