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iOS Interface Depicted on a Hypothetical 2.5-Inch iWatch Screen
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Fail
Personally I think if all Apple tries to simply shrink the iOS experience on their iWatch, it will fail. I doubt they will offer anything near what we have already seen on iPhone or iPad, or the iPod Nano.
People seem to think that a Smart Watch is just a small tablet, this is flawed in so many ways. The same kinds of interfaces that thrive on larger screens cannot be the default interface on a small screen, especially if it is not square or rectangular.
Google has the right approach with Android Wear, the watch is aware of the context of what you are doing and so shows the most relevant information for that context. A few sweeps up or down or side to side exposes more information, but most importantly Android Wear is not just a grid of icons to other apps you have to manually launch but something that is always relevant to what you are doing. If Apple were smart, you will never have to launch an app on your watch.
Also make a Smart watch screen too big, and its just going to look cheap and juvenile. Watches are about design, otherwise we would all wear Casio calculator watches. Throwing something 1/4 the size of a phone on your wrist will also make the genre fail.
Hopefully Apple is not as naive as this fanboi designer, but then again...
Personally I think if all Apple tries to simply shrink the iOS experience on their iWatch, it will fail. I doubt they will offer anything near what we have already seen on iPhone or iPad, or the iPod Nano.
People seem to think that a Smart Watch is just a small tablet, this is flawed in so many ways. The same kinds of interfaces that thrive on larger screens cannot be the default interface on a small screen, especially if it is not square or rectangular.
Google has the right approach with Android Wear, the watch is aware of the context of what you are doing and so shows the most relevant information for that context. A few sweeps up or down or side to side exposes more information, but most importantly Android Wear is not just a grid of icons to other apps you have to manually launch but something that is always relevant to what you are doing. If Apple were smart, you will never have to launch an app on your watch.
Also make a Smart watch screen too big, and its just going to look cheap and juvenile. Watches are about design, otherwise we would all wear Casio calculator watches. Throwing something 1/4 the size of a phone on your wrist will also make the genre fail.
Hopefully Apple is not as naive as this fanboi designer, but then again...
My issue with this "mock up" is more basic. I believe we have the ability to imagine what a 2.5" iOS interface would look like and imagine it better than this silly picture.
I understand the size part, 2.5" is pretty large for a wrist and the Galaxy Gear is only 1.5."
I just don't think tape and inkjet print outs was the way to go about informing people.
Maybe it's just the old journalist in me.
Really???
I almost never log in (literally forgot my password and had to do a reset just so I could comment)... but for this special moment I had to...
This is absolutely terrible. The editor says it is just in reply to the first 2.5 inch claim that was made an hour ago. Sometimes, its better to wait for a decent mockup than to try to be first at reporting something.
I almost never log in (literally forgot my password and had to do a reset just so I could comment)... but for this special moment I had to...
This is absolutely terrible. The editor says it is just in reply to the first 2.5 inch claim that was made an hour ago. Sometimes, its better to wait for a decent mockup than to try to be first at reporting something.
Its getting comments and thus readership, which is what they want. No one should comment!
Lol thank you I really needed the laugh. Its nice to see mac rumors can sometimes put comedy on the front page! 
That's funny. I'm thinking somewhere deep down in Apple's secret design labs, Tim and Jony are also laughing uncontrollably, at our feeble attempts to second-guess them .hahahahahahahahahahahahaha at least I hope so, cause the various mock-ups I've seen so far, don't inspire me a whole lot ..
Going purely by past experience, we'll probably be blown away, and sooner rather than later, wonder how we got by for so long without the 'iWatch'.
Now if only there was some master showman to introduce it to us at launch. ..
That can't be it. I'm calling fake. The icons are the old ones.
You never know. We keep hearing about flexible displays, flexible batteries...
Never thought about it being disposable! When it gets all sweaty and icky you just throw it away.
(That picture is going to go viral!
You never know. We keep hearing about flexible displays, flexible batteries...
Never thought about it being disposable! When it gets all sweaty and icky you just throw it away.
(That picture is going to go viral!
I guess that it was too hard to read that it's "depicted on a Hypothetical" part of the message. It looks like very few readers have any imagination on how this might look once Ive's touched it.
Personally, I don't care how shinny it is, if it takes a wrist pulse and displays it, I'll buy it. There's nothing I hate more than a chest strap while jogging or working out. So far, nothing on the market other than a chest strap has worked for me.
If the iWatch has a flat, square display I'm going to kill myself. The morons who design these "mock-ups" are completely stuck in the past, too considerate of what previous manufacturers have released and dubbed "smartwatches" to actually realise the potential behind this device for Apple.
To replicate what we already have on the iPhone is going to make this device a complete flop. Apple know that. I know that. 99% of everyone on MacRumors knows that.
As Apple have already alluded to, the iWatch should be more inclined to a health/fitness tracker (think Misfit Shine, Fitbit Flex) than an actual watch. But that's not to say that it won't tell the time, provide notifications or be worn on the wrist.
Circular, natural, fluid, invisible. These words will be in mind when Apple are tackling a wearable device. Apple have never been about taking what they already have and pushing it into a new market. The iWatch will be designed from the ground up, for a very unique and specific purpose: To connect you. Not to be a phone on your wrist.
To replicate what we already have on the iPhone is going to make this device a complete flop. Apple know that. I know that. 99% of everyone on MacRumors knows that.
As Apple have already alluded to, the iWatch should be more inclined to a health/fitness tracker (think Misfit Shine, Fitbit Flex) than an actual watch. But that's not to say that it won't tell the time, provide notifications or be worn on the wrist.
Circular, natural, fluid, invisible. These words will be in mind when Apple are tackling a wearable device. Apple have never been about taking what they already have and pushing it into a new market. The iWatch will be designed from the ground up, for a very unique and specific purpose: To connect you. Not to be a phone on your wrist.
The point of at least some of the reaction I think is less to the cardboard and cellophane tape mockup, but to MR not being very discriminating about the types of concepts that we are apparently supposed to take seriously. A good many of the glossier and more expertly rendered concepts are equally implausible.
