Apple CEO Tim Cook and a team of Apple executives will be holding their “Spring Forward” special media event today, March 9th, at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT. San Francisco: 10am / New York: 1pm / London: 5pm / Berlin: 6pm / Salzburg: 6pm / Moscow: 8pm / Beijing: 1am (March 10) / Tokyo: 2am (March 10th) / Sydney: 4am (March 10th).
The special event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California.
It is widely expected that Apple Watch details, including launch date and pricing, will be revealed along with the possibilities of an all-new 12-inch MacBook Air with Retina display, an Apple TV update with 4K capability, and even information about how Apple’s retail efforts will accomodatee Apple Watch sales.
Apple’s special event will be webcast live by Apple here. MacDailyNews will offer live notes during Tim Cook and company’s special media event presentation right here on this page. So, just bookmark this page, open both the webcast and this page, so you can watch and comment live, and we’ll see you here!
Apple’s ‘Spring Forward’ special event live notes:
• End of event.
• Cook thanks Apple team for years of very hard work.
• Cook recaps today’s announcements.
• Apple Watch: April 10th pre-order and preview at Apple Retail Stores. April 24th availability date.
• Apple Watch Edition: Limited qualities. From $10,000. Available in select retail stores.
• Apple Watch: $549-$1049/$599-$1099 for 38 mm/42 mm (prices depend on band)
• The stainless steel used to make the cases becomes up to 80% harder through a specialized cold-forging process.
• Apple Watch. Stainless steel. Exceptional quality stainless steel. Cold forged.
• Apple Watch Sport: $349/$399 for 38 mm/42 mm
• Apple believes this aluminum alloy sets a new standard both in the way it performs and the way it looks
• 60% stronger than standard aluminum alloys but it’s just as light. Exceptionally pure aluminum
• Apple Watch Sport. Silver or Space Gray. Anodized Aluminum. video being shown…
• Charging Apple Watch is a snap. Simply attach the magnetic charger to the back of the watch.
• Apple Watch offers all-day battery. 18 hours during a typical day.
• You use the iPhone to see, browse and downlaod Appel Watch apps. The Apple Watch app is in iOS 8.2. The app is how you set up Apple Watch and choose which notifications to receive. iOS 8.2 available today.
• Cook retakes stage…
• HomeKit and Apple Watch: Lynch opens his garage door remotely from his Apple Watch.
• Music playback demoed on Apple Watch.
• Apple Watch can be your hotel room key (with the proper app and participating hotels; The SPG app on Apple Watch lets you check into your hotel and unlock your room)
• Passbook works on Apple Watch, so you can board your plane with just your Apple Watch. Apple Watch will pull your boarding pass from Passbook when you’re near the airport.
• Lynch takes phone call on Apple Watch. Appel Watch communicates with iPhone over Wi-Fi, not just BlueTooth, so range is great
• You can buy lunch at places like Whole Foods using Apple Pay on Apple Watch. Just put your wrist close to the terminal. That’s it.
• On Apple Watch, receive activity reminders and progress updates throughout the day.
• Siri demoed on Apple Watch. Raise your wrist and say “Hey Siri” to do all kinds of things with Apple Watch. Open an app, get directions, make a phone call, and more.
• Kevin Lynch takes stage
• WatchKit SDK was released in November. Apple demos a few new WatchKit apps
• Christy Turlington Burns take stage. Christy will train for the Virgin Money London Marathon with Apple Watch. You can follow her progress for next run at Apple.com in weekly blog
• “In the short time I’ve been using it, I can already see how this is going to be an important part of my life.” – Christy Turlington Burns
• Video of Christy Turlington Burns using Apple Watch…
• Apple gave an Apple Watch to Christy Turlington Burns; first person in world to finish a half-marathon wearing an Apple Watch
• Each Monday, Apple Watch suggests a new daily Move goal based on your previous week’s activity.
• Apple Watch has a new workout app. The Workout app provides more detailed measurement during specific activities.
• It’s like having a coach on your wrist.
• Apple Watch encourages you to sit less. Move more. And get some exercise.
• Apple Watch is a comprehensive health and fitness companion. A simple three-ring graphic provides a snapshot of your all-day activity.
• Digital Touch lets you send a sketch, a tap, or even your heartbeat to other people wearing Apple Watch.
• Customize watch faces with useful information — like the weather or your next calendar event.
• Swipe up from the watch face for Glances, quick summaries of the information you use most.
• In the Now Playing Glance, you can control your music right from your wrist.
• When you receive a notification, the Taptic Engine alerts you with a gentle tap.
• Digital Touch lets you send a sketch, a tap, or even your heartbeat to other people wearing Apple Watch.
• See who’s calling without having to reach for your phone. Answer right on Apple Watch using the built-in speaker and mic — and make phone calls, too.
• Cook reviews Apple Watch features…
• Apple Watch is the most advanced timepiece ever created. A device that will revolutionize how you connect with others. And a comprehensive health and fitness companion.
• Apple Watch not just with you, it’s on you
• Cook takes stage: Apple Watch
• 13-inch MacBook Pro gets Force Touch trackpad, longer battery life
• MacBook Air upgraded to faster Intel processors
• Starts at just $1299.
• The first all-metal MacBook seta a new standard for portability
• “The new MacBook is the result of a collective obsession to simplify its essential components and create the most efficient design possible.” – Jony Ive
• New MacBook video featuring Jony Ive…
• MacBook is the world’s most energy efficient notebook
• MacBook comes in Silver, Space Gray, and Gold
• Adapters will connect to USB-C to support USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA
• USB-C. Industry standard. First on the new MacBook
• One port. For charging – and USB, DisplayPort, Power, HDMI, and VGA – all through one port
• 802.11 ac and BlueTooth 4.0 built-in.
• All day battery life in new MacBook.
• Terraced, contoured battery shapes. Fits into small, irregular areas
• Apple’s asymmetric battery system
• Intel Core M processor runs on 5 watts
• 67% logic board. 1/3rd the size of the previous smallest logic board
• New MacBook is the first fanless MacBook ever.
• Apple’s latest unibody architecture.
• The Force Touch trackpad can tell the difference between a light tap and a deep press.
• Macs now feature Force click gesture.
• MacBook trackpad: Force Touch trackpad (pressure sensitive). Taptic Engine also built-in.
• 0.88 mm thin display panel. Thinnest display ever in a Mac
• Display: 12-inch retina display, 2304×1440, over 3 million pixels
• Backlit with individual LEDs for each key
• Apple invented the butterfly mechanism for the keys in the keyboard. Very precise and accurate.
• All-metal enclosure. Full size keyboard defines the width of the MacBook
• Apple MacBook: 2 pounds. The lightest Mac ever made. 13.1 mm thin. Thinnest MacBook ever made. 24% thinner than 11-inch MacBook Air
• Phil Schiller takes stage
• Introducing the Apple MacBook.
• Apple reinvents the notebook.
• Cook: “You will see Macs everywhere now.”
• For every year of the last decade, the Mac has outgrown the industry
• Cook retakes stage. “I’d like to talk about the Mac.”
• “Apple saves the world. Google attempts to monetize it.” – MDN Ed.
• First five ResearchKit apps available today.
• ResearchKit is Open Source. To be released next month.
• ResearchKit attempts to change the scale of the data being collected for medical research
• ResearchKit video…
• Apple will not see your data. Privacy is paramount. You decide what to share with researchers. You see the data you’re sharing.
• Asthma, Breast Cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, among the first 5 apps.
• The University of Rochester and Sage Bionetworks created mPower, an app using ResearchKit to conduct Parkinson’s disease research.
• First 5 apps targeting medical research. Anyone with an iPhone can contribute data to medical researchers. Over the past year, talented researchers have used ResearchKit to build apps aimed at serious diseases.
• Introducing ResearchKit. A software framework designed to benefit medical research. To make it easier for researchers to collect more data.
• Apple saw an opportunity to help. Apple announces ResearchKit.
• Medical researchers today face many challenges: Limited participation, subjective data, infrequent data, one-way communication
• Medical Research. Jeff Williams takes stage
• Health: Apple wants to make the biggest difference we could make
• HomeKit: Many home automation companies rolling out HomeKit-enabled products this year
• CarPlay: Now every major car brand has committed to delivering CarPlay. More than 40 new models of cars shipping by the end of this year with CarPlay
• Apple Pay: Now in vending machines. 40,000 Coca-Cola vending machines take Apple Pay in U.S.
• iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus customer satisfaction: 99% (The remaining 1% are former Nokia and BlackBerry employees – MDN Ed.)
• iPhone rate of growth is double that of the smartphone industry
• Cook: Recently, we sold our 700 millionth iPhone
• Cook moves to iPhone…
• Cook: Apple TV – over 25 million units sold. Today we are making Apple TV from $99 to just $69.
• Game of Thrones trailer…
• HBO Now: All of HBO for $14.99/month.
• Plepler: “We love Apple.” We are thrilled to announce our standalone streaming product, HBO Now, EXCLUSIVE at launch for Apple devices.
• Apple TV: HBO. Cook: “We love HBO.” Today we have the CEO of HBO, Richard Plepler…
• 120 million visitors to retails stores last quarter alone
• Apple has 453 retail stores around the world.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook takes stage (in a dark zip-up jacket)
• Event opens with video of flagship Apple Retail Store Westlake grand opening in China…
Getting psyched backstage listening to I Lived by @OneRepublic.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 9, 2015
• WSJ reports, “People familiar with the matter say Apple Stores are being redesigned to include a space where customers, by appointment, can try on the smartwatch. Salespeople are being trained to understand what models best suit which customers, these people said.”
• Look at all of the people staring at the iPhones. This will be the last Apple event where that happens to such a degree.
• 9:55am PDT: The audience is assembling…
• Apple Store currently offline
• All eyes on Apple at Apple Watch launch event today
AppleTV with 4K and an App Channel ecosystem. THAT would be ideal. There’s lots of interesting content out there and I think you could start to see the democratization of that content.
Yes please!!!!!
I would rather have a new Apple TV box like the one we have.
This time put a HD in it and give us the App Store for TV.
I would like to see fast no lag gaming. 🙂
Who is Jeff Williams? Is he the ex-Adobe guy?
No, it’s Kevin Lynch. He should have finished my pointing skyward and offer Steve a “You’re right, Flash sucks.”
What’s the deal with those massive bezels on the new MacBook?
So I’ve got to plug it into the power adapter to use a USB flash drive? That seems counter intuitive.
Intel Core M? Maybe if the new MacBook wasn’t so anemic they could put an I series processor in it. Well, at least the MacBook Pro isn’t going anywhere.
Structural integrity? The thin display glass cannot support such a large thin pane, so you need some beefy metal frame.
Really, how did the engineers at Dell manage to shrink the bezels down on the new XPS 13? I would imagine Apple’s are just as competent. Wonder if this is more of a design style choice?
Are you a jealous dull engineer? You come off like it.
I am confused as to why Apple can’t seem to do something that an inferior PC maker can that’s all.
No new 15″? Very sad 🙁
Yes… buy does the watch tell time?
sure … for the price of medical equipment.
$10 for the edition watch. Wow.
No thanks.
If you don’t wan’t to pay for gold, get steal or aluminum. The watch does the same thing.
HAHA. Good one, MDN:
• Apple Watch Edition: Limited qualities. From $10,000. Available in select retail stores.
LAME presentation. Double-lame. 15 minutes of content in 90 minutes of bad infomercial. No new info about WATCH except prices and dates? What was the deal with that model? Why do I care that she’s running a marathon in London? Pretty bad. Sorry, but I was hoping for something new and compelling.
Stupid troll.
Honestly, do you cretins not have anything better to do?
Your feeding him. 😐
Well, there was some promo/marketing filler for sure. But we did learn new things about the Watch. I thought Kevin Lynch did a great demo! Research Kit is entirely new. The two videos about hardened al-u-min-i-um and steel were great! I liked all the time spent on the guts of the new MacBook.
The model stuff is, I’m afraid, something we get to look forward to in the future as well. Apple has crossed into the fashion world where all of that touchy feely, fit and finish, charity work, African aid, favorite fashion watchband stuff is going to be part of the standard. Hold your nose. Cover your eyes. This is outside of the zone of geek appreciation. It’s another niche of customers. We have to make an effort to be kind to them! <3 <3 💋💋🍭💄💅💇👠👙👑
Thank you kindly (from someone with a foot in both worlds, and weary of being regarded with suspicion by both. – Kind of like a centrist in American politics?) What’s emoji for lambskin boxing gloves?
It was a great presentation. I’ll order my black stainless Apple Watch on April 10.
I didn’t get my biggest wish: for the MDN iPhone App to load up the live feed topic or for the mobile web page to load up without 4 pages of auto-load ads…. oh well….
The new Air is impressive but the only other part of the presentation that seemed worthwhile was the medical research developer kit
There are lots of fearful new names on this thread today, are you all presently working for the Swiss watch industry? You better watch your collective backs!