“When Apple wants to make a big splash, it returns to its history,” Brian X. Chen reports for The New York Times. “Thirty years ago at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts, a roomy auditorium in Cupertino, Calif., Steven P. Jobs introduced the original Macintosh. On Tuesday, Apple will come back to the center to unveil a set of long-anticipated products: two iPhones with larger screens, and a wearable computer that the media has nicknamed the iWatch.”
“The so-called smartwatch will be the first brand-new product unveiled under Apple’s new chief, Timothy D. Cook, who took the helm after Mr. Jobs died nearly three years ago. It is expected to come in two sizes and combine functions like health and fitness monitoring with mobile computing tasks like displaying maps, said people knowledgeable about the product. It will have a unique, flexible screen and, like the new phones, will support technology that allows people to pay for things wirelessly,” Chen reports. “‘I believe it’s going to be historic,’ said Tim Bajarin, a consumer technology analyst for Creative Strategies who attended the original Mac event in 1984.”
“Multiple employees for Apple and its partners who were briefed on the products shared some details on the condition that they not be identified. Some said the smartwatch was one of Apple’s most ambitious projects to date,” Chen reports. “It has a flexible display panel that is protected by a cover composed of sapphire, a type of tougher glass, they said. The device’s circuit board, which includes its sensors and chips, was described as tiny, about the size of a postage stamp. For replenishing the battery, the smartwatch will rely on a wireless charging method.”
“The bigger iPhones, which have been widely written about over the last year, will come in two sizes, one measuring 4.7 diagonal inches and the other 5.5 diagonal inches. The larger version will be the more expensive model,” Chen reports. “To deal with concerns that a bigger phone will make typing with one hand difficult (the current iPhone has a 4-inch screen), some changes to the design of the iPhones’ software interface will allow people to type or use apps with just one hand — there will be a one-handed mode that can be switched on and off, two employees said.”
Much, much more in the full article – recommended – here.
