Apple's 3 story mystery building

[John Connor]

The mystery behind Apple’s new product launch announcement on September 9 is deepening with the building of a secretive structure at the site of the planned announcement next month. Security guards on Thursday were shooing people away from the three-story tall structure, which is wrapped completed in white.
Forklifts hauling huge wooden boxes and semi trucks were seen going in and out of the structure being built next to the Flint Center on the campus of De Anza College in Cupertino, just a few miles from Apple’s headquarters.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...-nature-of-apple-product-launch-announcement/


It's a damn seman factory! LMAO!

 

[Eug]

http://seman.sourceforge.net

 

[KeithP]

Probably a structure with the sole purpose of getting people to talk about it to hype up the event.

-KeithP

 

[Rakehellion]

It houses Steve Jobs's ego.

 

[Ichinisan]

Maybe they're giving an iTime to everyone in attendance?

 

[Rakehellion]

Smart watches are pointless. Not only do they have less functionality than the smartphone that I already have in my pocket, they also have the problem of parasitic availability. (like Google Glass)

Unless its just an iPod Nano that you can run apps on. In other words, the best thing about Apple's watch would be if you can remove the strap and make it stop being a watch.

 

[Rakehellion]

Then again, I don't even wear a dumb watch, so I may not be the target audience.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Then again, I don't even wear a dumb watch, so I may not be the target audience.

I don't wear a watch either and I suppose that's going to be Apples biggest hurdle. Convincing those who would otherwise not wear a watch to wear an iWatch. Just as when the iPhone was introduced to a market already saturated with phones I'm sure Apple is hoping to make the same splash with this.

 

[Greenman]

Why does anyone even care?

 

[Ichinisan]

Just watched that video. The Asian-looking college girl they talked to was really irritating. What's "really crazy" (repeated over and over) about Apple starting in Silicon Valley? That's "crazy?"

Also, the news reporter: "The company's vegg [sic] imitation [sic] only adds to the mystery."

 

[Ichinisan]

I don't wear a watch either and I suppose that's going to be Apples biggest hurdle. Convincing those who would otherwise not wear a watch to wear an iWatch. Just as when the iPhone was introduced to a market already saturated with phones I'm sure Apple is hoping to make the same splash with this.

With a wearable, Bluetooth headsets will suddenly make a lot more sense to people. If your watch shows who is calling and allows you to reject a call, you don't even have to remove the phone from your pocket / purse. You could also control music playback or see what song is playing without removing the phone from your pocket/purse.

 

[Ichinisan]

Smart watches are pointless. Not only do they have less functionality than the smartphone that I already have in my pocket, they also have the problem of parasitic availability. (like Google Glass)

Unless its just an iPod Nano that you can run apps on. In other words, the best thing about Apple's watch would be if you can remove the strap and make it stop being a watch.

With most smartwatches I've seen, the manufacturers make them exactly as you describe...and that's the problem. It should merely be an auxiliary display with a few buttons on it.

Instead, the Galaxy Gear was a big fat thing with a big fat battery, smartphone processor, smartphone storage, smartphone camera...UGH! That leads to terrible battery life and it spends most of the time with the display off, not even showing the time. Gestures to make it show the time fail repeatedly. In other words, it fails to even function properly as a watch.

The CPU should be a super simple low-power ASIC with absolutely minimal storage for its own firmware. It's basically just meant to display the time and basic information, received from the phone via Bluetooth. All I would want it to do is:

1. Show me who is calling
2. Allow me to reject a call
3. Show me what song is playing.
4. Allow me to control music (play, pause, next/previous, ff/rew, vol+/-)

One of the first smart watches is over 10 years old. It was by Sony/Fossil and looked like a stylish watch. It had a tiny OLED display hidden in the otherwise-normal analog watch face. Fails because it was designed to work only with Sony Ericsson phones instead of using standard Bluetooth protocols (phone book, AVRCP, etc).

I want a design that's still meant to look like a normal watch (I know we won't get that from Apple). Controls can be simplified to exactly the types of manipulation points we already have on normal watches. The glass/sapphire face should work as a button (physical click, so it works while wearing gloves). Tap to play/pause or answer/end. Hold it down to reject a call or activate voice assistant (which runs on your PHONE, but you can speak through your headset if you have one).
Like many digital watches, there should be 2 buttons on each side, but even that is not necessary. Music controls could be done by tapping the glass/sapphire display repeatedly (as it does for in-line headphone remotes):
Tap: Play/Pause, Answer/End
Hold: Reject call, activate voice assistant
Double-tap: Skip forward
Double-tap+Hold: Fast forward
Triple-tap: Skip backward
Triple-tap+Hold: Rewind

Instead of spinning infinitely, the dial/ring around the glass could twist a little bit each direction, allowing skip / seek music functions and such. Or it could spin infinitely and be used for list navigation and/or rapid volume control.

 

[CZroe]

Smart watches are pointless. Not only do they have less functionality than the smartphone that I already have in my pocket, they also have the problem of parasitic availability. (like Google Glass)

Unless its just an iPod Nano that you can run apps on. In other words, the best thing about Apple's watch would be if you can remove the strap and make it stop being a watch.

As a long-time user of a camparatively simple 2007 Sony Ericsson MBW-150 Bluetooth watch, I must say: on the contrary. I cannot overstate their utility. Silent alarms and notifications that you don't miss thanks to the vibration being directly on your skin, discrete call notification and rejection with no need to even touch your phone (CallerID), remote control of music including the ability to see the current track info, ability to control with gloved or wet hands (a God-send on the motorcycle), etc.

The most disappointing thing about the current "smart watches" is that they all try to be a phone on your wrist with no consideration for the basic utility (should be a watch... FIRST). They are TOO smart, even for devices with full-touch screens. They add complexity/fragmentation of resources ("which device is that song or pic stored on again?") and compromise on everything for the form factor, so they have cut-down storage, cut-down performance, cut-down battery capacity, etc. All they really need to do is act as a remote secondary wireless display for your smartphone to tap all the potential in your pocket. All they need to be is some basic hardware for streaming with a screen and battery. Of course, it would require a new architecture for phone hardware so that it can wake certain cores and use graphics and such while your phone appears to be asleep, but that is what they should have been working toward from the start, especially if they make a whole platform for it ("Android Wear").

 

[Kadarin]

Just watched that video. The Asian-looking college girl they talked to was really irritating. What's "really crazy" (repeated over and over) about Apple starting in Silicon Valley? That's "crazy?"

Also, the news reporter: "The company's vegg [sic] imitation [sic] only adds to the mystery."

The college girl was talking in "uptalk" as well. She probably doesn't realize that use of that dialect will impact her career in the future.

 

[IronWing]

It's the new iPad 15'.

 

[PliotronX]

My friend's dad is working on the structure. Pretty interesting, seems bird poop proof but the water stains after a few years are going to be an eyesore. I wonder why they are so crazy about the color white.

 

[Markbnj]

Then again, I don't even wear a dumb watch, so I may not be the target audience.

This.

 

[Rakehellion]

With a wearable, Bluetooth headsets will suddenly make a lot more sense to people. If your watch shows who is calling and allows you to reject a call, you don't even have to remove the phone from your pocket / purse. You could also control music playback or see what song is playing without removing the phone from your pocket/purse.

So it's slightly more convenient than having a smartphone. And you still need to have a smartphone to use it. Spend $199 so you don't have to drop your hand to your waist and reach in your pocket. I'm not sold.

 

[Ichinisan]

So it's slightly more convenient than having a smartphone. And you still need to have a smartphone to use it. Spend $199 so you don't have to drop your hand to your waist and reach in your pocket. I'm not sold.

Well if I'm already on the fence about getting a watch anyway, it would be the watch. Most times I pull my phone out (and risk dropping it), I'm doing it to check the time.

 

[dighn]

This.

on the contrary people who wear "dumb watches" are less likely to go for these. you don't wear a watch for functionality and that's all these smart watches have to offer.

 

[Puppies04]

One of the first smart watches is over 10 years old. It was by Sony/Fossil and looked like a stylish watch. It had a tiny OLED display hidden in the otherwise-normal analog watch face. Fails because it was designed to work only with Sony Ericsson phones instead of using standard Bluetooth protocols (phone book, AVRCP, etc).

I had one of those and the fail didn't exist for me because I was a loyal sony Ericsson customer at the time. Lets be honest nokias were rubbish compared to them and everyone else was trying to make clamshells cool (which they aren't).

 

[CZroe]

My friend's dad is working on the structure. Pretty interesting, seems bird poop proof but the water stains after a few years are going to be an eyesore. I wonder why they are so crazy about the color white.

If it were meant to be a permanent structure then they wouldn't have waited until two weeks before the show to build it.

So it's slightly more convenient than having a smartphone. And you still need to have a smartphone to use it. Spend $199 so you don't have to drop your hand to your waist and reach in your pocket. I'm not sold.

What if it were $50 and behaved more like how I described? Also, it's not $x-amount to avoid dropping your hand, it's $x-amount to avoid dropping and damaging your $800 PHONE for some stupid little nothing notification or time check.

 

[Rakehellion]

What if it were $50 and behaved more like how I described? Also, it's not $x-amount to avoid dropping your hand, it's $x-amount to avoid dropping and damaging your $800 PHONE for some stupid little nothing notification or time check.

I don't drop my phone. And I don't like to wear jewelry.

 

[Rakehellion]

If it were just an iPod Nano that you could run apps on, that would be nice. Remove the strap and it's a little Raspberry Pi. Have one in the car for keeping track of this, keep one in the desk for monitoring that.

 

[SKORPI0]

Looks like a trap for iSheeps. They'll buy it regardless of the usefulness.