#202 - Apple’s iPhone 6 and Watch Announcements

Motto: Apple iWatch Air S C Plus

Apple's iPhone 6/iWatch announcement happened yesterday. Here's a 10 point overview: 1. There are two new iPhones, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 plus. 2. The iPhone 6 is 4.7", the 6 plus is 5.5". 3. Apple is FINALLY trying to replace the wallet with "Apple Pay". 4. Apple Pay uses NFC, something the iPhone has been lacking for years. 5. Apple announced the Apple Watch... it's not the "iWatch". 6. Apple Watch uses a rounded square form factor, with a squared screen. 7. The watch uses several input interfaces - a button, a dial/button, and a dual-mode touch screen. 8. The watch will also come in two sizes. 9. The watch will have tons of straps to choose from - a surprising amount of focus was spent on the straps. 10. The watch will sell for $349 (or more) and won't be available until 2015. Here are my thoughts, I'll keep this short: The iPhone 6 I think 4.7" is really a sweet spot in terms of screen size. I bet this is the better selling model. This is probably the most enticed I've ever felt by an iPhone. The iPhone 6 Plus It's amazing to me that Apple is putting out of Phablet. This phoen is being positioned as the "superior" model. It's got one or two small improvements over the smaller version and it sells for $100 more at all levels. The Apple Watch This thing is... well... it's interesting. A device that small requires its own interface - on all levels. Apple took that challenge and really went in a different direction than anyone expected. It's got a touch screen. Sweet. It's got a touch screen that can also differentiate between a touch and a press. Oh, okay. Like the Blackberry Torch? That's cool I guess. It's got a wheel on it like a standard watch. Oh, that makes sense. It's also got this ***other button that has a special, single purpose. The touch screen plus any ONE of those secondary interfaces I would have believed... but all three? That's interesting. The ***software User Interface is also interesting, but I'll get into that more later (Top 5). Apple Pay The iPhone has integrated near-field communication FINALLY. If this push doesn't make NFC-based Mobile Phone payments more mainstream, then nothing will. I absolutely cannot wait for the day when I can leave my wallet at home. I won't be using Apple Pay, but I'll be using the infrastructure and experience that Apple Pay will help usher in. Thank you, Apple. Better late than never. The new screen sizes and resolutions will make life more difficult for developers, but it's a necessary problem. That's the price they pay for a not-very-forward-thinking model. I'm glad to see they finally decided to go to a standard 1080p resolution (on the 5.5 inch one). That's my summary. My shorter summary on everything Apple announced is this: Overall I was not overwhelmed, nor was I underwhelmed... I was just "whelmed". I just realized that basically all of Apple's product lineup comes in two sizes now. There's a smaller and larger version of the Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Macbook, and iMac. Huh. My Moto 360 came in the mail today. I'd write more about it, but it's lateish and I wrote the vast majority of this post yesterday.

Top 5: Surprisingly Fundamental Questions about the Apple Watch that have Yet to be Answered 5. When you raise your wrist and the watch screen turns on, does it show the clock face, the App Grid, or something else? 4. Can the button (not the dial) on the side of the watch be used for anything other than calling up your contacts list? If they made a dedicated hardware button to perform a single software function... that's a very surprising design decision. 3. How much of an Apple user's interaction with his devices is supposed to be done with the watch? I mean, what are they aiming for? 2. How exactly are those apps arranged on that grid? I heard them say you can customize it, but how? Also, it's like a strange star pattern... what's up with that? 1. How long is the battery ***actually going to last?

Quote:
“Why can't they just make that, but an Apple version!?”
- My coworker, who was the first person other than me to see my new Moto 360 and was let down by the announcement of the Apple Watch -