[Here are my initial impressions of the Apple Watch rollout. Hint: They buried the lede.]
And, that's all folks!
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April 24 is the release day. Apple is setting up special table in their stores to help the decision-making process.
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Select retail stores will sell a $10,000 model.
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18 hours or battery is not going be well received. That's best-case and aspirational. You can't wear it to sleep.
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Cheapest Apple Watch is $349, as expected. For $400, you get a wider model (42mm vs 38mm)
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And that is the last word on battery life, which is not a good sign.
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Finally: 18 hours of battery live in a "typical" day.
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First real emphasis yet that this a stand-alone device. "Apple Watch has been designed to work with the iPhone." I'll say. In other words, lots of this functionality would seem cool if it wasn't tethered to an iPhone, but is less compelling as an iPhone annex.
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So, Über notifications are right on point. As are flight notifications. These are non-immersive conveniences, unlike scrolling through your Instagram feed.
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No mention of battery life yet. But why you don't generally want to answer your phone with your watch — a speaker phone — is pretty clear, as the audience is treated to news that Phil's dog is ready to get picked up.
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Apple Pay does not seem to require Touch ID or any authentication. Good idea?
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Kevin Lynch just activated my iPhone as he activated his Apple Watch ...
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Now the brief interaction bit, which will tell us how they intend to address battery life: as the reality of smart watch use, or as a necessary condition.
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Apple Pay (We knew that). Photos and music, ditto. Siri integration. Finally, notifications, almost as an afterthought — "So you can keep up with your favorite sports team." Some of this pitch makes it sound as though Apple is inventing the space, which is hard to hear since there are so many precursors from other companies.
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Not really sure what the Christy Turlington Burns sideshow is all about. This is perhaps the most obscure endorsement ever at an Apple Event. As a colleague sitting near me says, unless I plan on running a marathon, I don't get it. She's showing off her "chic" Apple Watch. Crickets in the auditorium. "Apple Watch is going to help me get there."
Full-time health feedback, including whether you are sitting too long. And it will send you a weekly report, which doesn't seem to be the sort of urgent thing that I would be just fine getting in an email ...
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You can draw on your watch and send it to another Apple Watch. You can send your heartbeat. These are not compelling use cases, though Cook presents them as new communications paradigms. The audience isn't going nuts.
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Making and taking calls: "I have been wanting to do this since I was 5 years old." Almost zero applause. Full emails, and messaging from the Watch. Audience seems unimpressed.
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Faces themselves are very customizable, which is very un-Apple like. But does follow the lead of Pebble.
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"Apple Watch is the most advanced timepiece ever created" — Tim Cook. OK ... Cook shows off various possible faces and data displays. Nothing new here yet. Maybe the animated Mickey Mouse. Or not.
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1:54 pm ET: Finally, the Apple Watch.
USB-C — One Plug to rule them all: Power, USB data transfer, DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA. This means that you won't have to search for the right port — and Apple doesn't have to "waste" space accommodating them.
But ... it looks like there is only one of these. Which means that you can't power up and connect a display or a USB peripheral simultaneously? Anyone out there know different? It does have Tunderbolt 2
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Terraced batteries — different sizes that fill new available space. 35% more capacity "all-day battery life." Which raises the question if the new MacBook will have better batter life than the Apple Watch.
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First MacBook with no fan (Shiller called it "fanless," which is bad marketing)
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Four trackpad sensors enable something called "force click" — a new nav option that works in context within apps.
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New MacBook is thinner than the latest MacBook Air (17.3 mm at the thickest). Retina display, natch. LED under each key.
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"Can you even see it? I can hardly feel it" Cook says, holding up a new wafer-thin Macbook. Weight: two pounds. "This is the lightest Mac we have ever made," Phil Shiller says. Thicket point is 13.1 mm — 24% thinner. Edge-to-edge keyboard.
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Mac news: "We challenged ourselves to reinvent the notebook." Cue the video...
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ResearchKit is open source. Releasing next months, and first 5 apps are available now. What else — if anything — has Apple ever made open source?
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ResearchKit — an extension of HealthKit — is going deep into some basic diagnostics and crowdsourcing. Apple has partnered with more than a dozen teaching hospitals. Operations SVP Jeff Williams emphasizes the privacy protections.
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"iPhone is never more than an arm's length away." — Cook #HintHint
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Every major car brand has committed to delivering CarPlay.
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2,500 banks supporting Apple Pay. 700k establishments now accept Apple Pay, triple from launch
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Cook claims mantle for top-selling smart phone in the world (edging out Samsung). Claims 99% customer service approval
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700 millionth iPhone sold "recently" — Cook
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25 million Apple TVs sold. And now the price drops today to $70, from $100.
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Over to HBO CEO Richard Plepler. Apple is HBO's exclusive partner at launch of HBO Now, the stand-alone HBO streaming service. "All you need is a broadband and an Apple device." Service begins in April, and if you sign up for April, you get a month free. Now, an exclusive Game of Thrones trailer!
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Tim is starting with Apple TV. "We love HBO," Cook says, setting up the over-the-top announcement.
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"We now have 21 stories in China and have a very aggressive plan to have 40 (soon)" — Cook
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Here's Tim — Tucked, in a light blue-collared shirt and in a casual jacket! #MindExplosion
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1:02 PM: Event is up and running with an extended ad for it's retail presence in China.
Apple is expected to unveil its Watch at one of the company's tried-and-true live events today. The invitation's tag line — "Spring Forward" — is the not-so-subtle clue as to the main event, which is the second big party for Apple Watch.
First time out was hardly a big secret either, but my view last September when Apple made Watch official was that a Goliath was getting into an unproven space, and that only a Goliath could prove or disprove that smart watches had legs.
It's only been six months, but a lot has changed. Apple's nemesis for the hearts and minds of wearables, Google, pulled the plug on Glass. The only smart watch maker who has sales north of one million units, Pebble, is plugging away with a new model that will hit the streets just as Apple Watch tries to storm the beaches.
Felix Salmon's very practical observation that the first generation Watch might suck for a fundamental reason — battery anxiety — may not be addressed as much as it is finessed. Will Apple look like it is capturing or imposing a reality that we'll be fine using Watch in 10-second bursts? There is already delightful spin on this from Apple design chief Jony Ive, who says, in effect, that battery life is over-rated.
Speculation about Apple Watch has caused lots of arguments, but pretty soon we'll have facts, over which there is no point arguing. Sometime after 1 pm ET today the squabbles will be about whether the best possible vision for a smart watch Apple can conceive of is enough to make enough people care.
Let the games begin!
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