Posts in Linked

Tim Cook on Health→

From Tim Cook’s call on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money, as transcribed by iMore:

Cramer: Let me ask you about where you think things are going — I know that the car, the home — do you think of them as connectivity/social mobile cloud connectivity? Do you feel as though these are the next frontiers, or is there a frontier that I’m missing, I’m not thinking big enough?

Cook: Well, I think that those are two big ones that you’ve talked about. I think that Health may be the biggest one of all, because for years, people have depended on strictly someone else to determine their health. And now these devices — in essence — empower people to manage and track their own health and fitness. And so I think that market is probably significantly underestimated.

I’m confident that Apple has huge plans for personal health over the next few years. They’re just getting started now.

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Thousands Sign Up for Apple’s ResearchKit→

ResearchKit is off to a good start:

Stanford University researchers were stunned when they awoke Tuesday to find that 11,000 people had signed up for a cardiovascular study using Apple Inc.’s ResearchKit, less than 24 hours after the iPhone tool was introduced.

“To get 10,000 people enrolled in a medical study normally, it would take a year and 50 medical centers around the country,” said Alan Yeung, medical director of Stanford Cardiovascular Health. “That’s the power of the phone.”

Bloomberg’s article has also initial numbers for the various apps announced by Apple last week. As I argued in my thoughts on the March 9th event, ResearchKit has the potential to bring change to millions of people.

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Benedict Evans on Apple Watch Edition→

Astute take by Benedict Evans on Apple Watch Edition:

Apple stores are huge rich-media billboards on every major shopping street in the developed world: I can’t think of any other company that has shops as big as that in such premium locations in as many places. Apple retail is a self-funding marketing operation. So too, perhaps, is the gold watch. Apple might only sell a few tens of thousands, but what impression does it create around the $1,000 watch, or the $350 watch? After all, the luxury goods market is full of companies whose most visible products are extremely expensive, but whose revenue really comes from makeup, perfume and accessories. You sell the $50k (or more) couture dress (which may be worn once), but you also sell a lot of lipsticks with the brand halo (and if you think Apple’s margins are high, have a look at the gross margins on perfume).

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Apple Watch Spreadsheet→

Rob Griffiths:

But I am fascinated by this new business Apple’s going into; the sheer number of products and prices is pretty amazing: By my count, Apple will be shipping 38 separate models of watches. There’s a gallery page at Apple’s site where you can page through all of the watches, and get the details on each specific model. You can also view the watches in the store, where you can find pricing info.

Rob put together a spreadsheet to compare case, weight, cost, and more for each Watch model. Useful.

(via Six Colors)

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Rene Ritchie on Using Apple Watch→

Smart observation by Rene Ritchie on using Apple Watch for the first time:

The digital crown and the button aren’t directly analogous to the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons on the iPhone. Force Touch has no analogue on the iPhone (at least not yet). Trying to use the Apple Watch like an iPhone works about as well as trying to use an iPhone like Mac. (Or trying to use the original iPhone like an old-school BlackBerry or Treo.)

Yes, you can go and seek out all the features if you really want to. Apple made it possible. But the watch really wants to bring those features to you.

Something that I’ve noticed is that a lot of people (myself included) tried to rationalize the UX of Apple Watch in the six months since the original announcement. And, for me, a wrong assumption was to believe that Glances were comparable to widgets on iOS 8 – always accessible from anywhere by swiping from the bottom. But Glances are meant to be used to peek at information from the watch face, and the entire structure of the Watch OS is different from iOS. I’m curious to see how quickly I’ll get used to Apple Watch, as brief demo sessions aren’t enough.

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iFixit Tears Down the new MacBook Pro with Force Touch→

Some fascinating findings in iFixit’s teardown of the new MacBook Pro with Force Touch:

Made of wire coils surrounding a ferromagnetic core, the electromagnet in the Force Touch Trackpad is used to create the vibrational feedback you feel.

And:

We’re guessing that the four separate coils here are used to vary the feedback given to the user. Turning different sets of the four coils on and off varies the strength and direction of the vibration, and how it feels to your finger.

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Apple’s HBO Now Deal Has Been in the Works for a Year→

In the spring of 2014 — months before HBO would announce its plans to sell the pay-TV channel as a standalone subscription service — HBO CEO Richard Plepler had already reached out, via an intermediary, to Apple media boss Eddy Cue: Would Apple want to sell HBO’s service on the Web?

Of course Apple would. So the basic agreement for HBO Now came together quickly, according to people familiar with the deal.

Peter Kafka at Re/code has more detail about the deal that made Apple the exclusive launch partner of HBO Now, the new service that will allow anyone in the US to get HBO’s full library of back catalog and currently airing shows without a cable subscription. Significantly, the deal gives Apple a three month exclusivity window. That’s long enough to mean that anyone wanting to watch the new seasons of Game of Thrones, VEEP or Silicon Valley (they all start April 12) will either need to have a cable subscription with HBO, or use HBO Now on the Apple TV, iPhone or iPad.

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Thoughts on Today’s Apple Keynote from David Sparks→

Watching the China store opening I was struck by the question of how a company instills so much devotion and emotion in customers over a new retail store opening. I think the answer is in delight.

Doesn’t HBO coming to Apple TV feel like the tiny hole in the dike that could pull the whole thing down?

I felt like the whole Apple TV bit was sort of a tease. Apple TV still needs an overhaul.

The avalanche of opinion pieces on Apple’s announcements from today is only just starting, but this one from David Sparks is an early favorite for me, with most of my thoughts aligning with his. Plus, if you’re getting a bit tired from all the Apple news today, you’ll be relieved to know that all his thoughts are written in a concise dot-point format (with the above points being his first three observations).

I’ll just add a few points myself:

  • Apple Pay was briefly mentioned, highlighting some significant progress in the United States. But still not a word on international availability, disappointing given contactless payment is already a huge thing in Australia and Europe.
  • Interesting that they didn’t adjust the MacBook naming conventions. The MacBook Air is now both thicker and heavier than the MacBook.
  • HBO Now is US-only, once again disappointing from an international perspective, but hardly surprising.
  • There was a lot of focus on China, which is unsurprising. Not only did they open the keynote with a video of a retail store opening in China (and then detail Apple Retail progress in China) but China will get the Apple Watch on day one. Makes a lot of sense given how important the country now is for Apple.
  • Not that it was expected at all, but we didn’t hear anything about music.
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‘Spring Forward’ Keynote Video Now Available for Streaming

Apple has now posted the video of its ‘Spring Forward’ keynote held earlier today in San Francisco. The video can be streamed here, and a higher quality version should be made available in a few hours through iTunes (on the Apple Keynotes podcast). To avoid streaming errors, Safari is recommended for the best viewing experience.

For more coverage, check out our ‘Spring Forward’ keynote news hub and follow @macstoriesnet on Twitter.