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Apple Event Livestream is kind of a disaster
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[Steve Connor] “Moto X looks very nice but it’s too big!”
No such thing as “too big” :-p
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Are you saying Ive and Co. got this wrong? Just asking, because I don’t really know.”
I don’t know if they got it wrong or right because it just came out. I’m just saying from a design standpoint I was expecting something more. The iPod has a distinctive design. The iPhone had a distinctive design but now it’s more common place as pretty much every smartphone went the slab, no keyboard route. I don’t feel like the iWatch has a distinct Apple ‘stamp’ on it. It looks like those after market watches where people attached an iPod Mini to a wrist band. Just going by pictures I think the Moto 360 looks better although it’s huge.
With pretty much every other Apple product I’ve always had a ‘huh, I wouldn’t of thought of doing it that way’ feeling to some degree but w/the iWatch I was more like ‘that’s it?’.
Oh, and the charger just makes me groan. Another speciality cable I need to keep track of and probably buy multiple of? Awesome. At least we’d gotten the point where MiniUSB, Lightning/30pin cables were ubiquitous enough that you could pick one up at the gas station or on set be like “Hey, anyone got a charger I could borrow?” and yo’d be set. Now I’m going to have to remember to never forget the special cable I need to charge my watch on most likely daily basis. Ugh.
Like I said before, maybe putting a touchscreen computer into a wristwatch sized form factor doesn’t leave much room for external industrial design creativity. Or maybe Apple felt like they were missing the boat so they didn’t spend as much time going through design iterations as they usually do.
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[Andrew Kimery] “Or maybe Apple felt like they were missing the boat so they didn’t spend as much time going through design iterations as they usually do.”
I think this thing will be mostly about function. A timepiece is more of a fashion piece. This isn’t a timepiece, at least it doesn’t seem to be, and I’m sure Ive and Co thought of that.
I hear you about the charger. I thought there’d be a lighting port at least, but the insides appear to be sealed.
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Nowhere have I seen an answer: is the watch waterproof, and to how deep?
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[Mark Suszko] “Nowhere have I seen an answer: is the watch waterproof, and to how deep?”
It hasn’t received FCC approval yet (disclaimer at the bottom of the Apple pages). Maybe the final specs aren’t complete yet. It won’t be sold until 2015 anyway.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Jeremy Garchow] “I think this thing will be mostly about function. A timepiece is more of a fashion piece. This isn’t a timepiece, at least it doesn’t seem to be, and I’m sure Ive and Co thought of that.”
Apple takes traditionally function over form items like computers and consumer electronics and adds distinctive, if minimalistic design cues them, yet takes an item that typically has design cues and rolls out something incredibly vanilla. I think that’s where my ‘meh’ comes from. Again, this is all just from images so the fit and finish (which is typically another thing Apple does very well) of the iWatch could be much better than that of other smart watches. Really though it just looks like an iPod Nano watch with rounded edges to me.
I thought I read an interview with Ive where he talked about the future of design being in the software because almost all of the interaction with the product is happening in the virtual realm of the GUI. Maybe that’s one reason Ive was given control over iOS UI design too because they knew that the flag ship products (iPhone, iPad, Watch) were all going to be very limited from an industrial design standpoint?
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[Mark Suszko] “Nowhere have I seen an answer: is the watch waterproof, and to how deep?”
I would imagine that it is at least water resistant. Apple’s videos show the “Sport” watch being used in a variety of sweat inducing situations. Curiously, they choose running, biking, but they do not complete the triathlon of swimming.
Also, they made a big deal in the video that the electronics are sealed.
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See, it’s 30M.
Oh, wait. 😉
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Andrew Kimery] “Apple takes traditionally function over form items like computers and consumer electronics and adds distinctive, if minimalistic design cues them, yet takes an item that typically has design cues and rolls out something incredibly vanilla. I think that’s where my ‘meh’ comes from. Again, this is all just from images so the fit and finish (which is typically another thing Apple does very well) of the iWatch could be much better than that of other smart watches. Really though it just looks like an iPod Nano watch with rounded edges to me.”
Just curious, but did you watch any of the videos that surrounded it today, or watch the demo from the product dude?
There’s a whole lot going on in the screen, from the press vs tap, the system on a chip, this seems to be a walking prototype, and an R&D experiment of newer technology for Apple. It’s not an industrial design winner, but this will certainly influence the design of something else. Also, as you say, it may look different in person.
There’s also a slight rebrand happening. It’s not the iWatch, it’s the Watch (Apple watch). It’s not iPay, it’s Apple Pay. Does this mean the iMac becomes the….AppleMac (Mac). 🙂
At $350 it’s Apple’s most expensive toy without a huge benefit to a giant swath of users.
Jeremy
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