“In a lab shut off from communication with the outside world and where visitors can’t bring in a pad of paper, let alone a phone, Apple Inc. has given some companies special early access to Apple Watch,” Adam Satariano and Tim Higgins report for Bloomberg.
“Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Facebook Inc., United Continental Holdings Inc. and others have spent weeks at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, working hands-on with the smartwatch to test and fine-tune applications that will debut alongside the device next month, according to people familiar with the process, who asked not to be identified because of non-disclosure agreements,” Satariano and Higgins report.
“Apple, which will share more details about the gadget at a March 9 event, uses extreme measures to keep the work secret. Internet access is blocked inside the rooms, and no outside materials can be brought in to the labs with the test watches, a person who attended said. The companies, sometimes sharing a room, must bring in source code for their apps on a computer hard drive that can’t leave Apple’s headquarters,” Satariano and Higgins report. “To prevent information from leaking out, Apple is storing the code and sending it to the companies closer to the watch’s introduction date, the person said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The stronger the initial third-party apps, the quicker Apple Watch changes the world. We expect that these apps are getting early access to additional code beyond the current WatchKit – like Apple’s own apps.