iPhone Killer: The secret history of the Apple Watch
“Apple decided to make a watch and only then set out to discover what it might be good for (besides, you know, displaying the time),” David Pierce reports for Wired. “‘There was a sense that technology was going to move onto the body,’ says Alan Dye, who runs Apple’s human interface group. ‘We felt like the natural place, the place that had historical relevance and significance, was the wrist.'”
“Along the way, the Apple team landed upon the Watch’s raison d’être. It came down to this: Your phone is ruining your life. Like the rest of us, Ive, Lynch, Dye, and everyone at Apple are subject to the tyranny of the buzz—the constant checking, the long list of nagging notifications,” Pierce reports. “‘We’re so connected, kind of ever-presently, with technology now,’ Lynch says. ‘People are carrying their phones with them and looking at the screen so much.’ They’ve glared down their noses at those who bury themselves in their phones at the dinner table and then absentmindedly thrust hands into their own pockets at every ding or buzz. ‘People want that level of engagement,’ Lynch says. ‘But how do we provide it in a way that’s a little more human, a little more in the moment when you’re with somebody?'”
“Our phones have become invasive. But what if you could engineer a reverse state of being? What if you could make a device that you wouldn’t — couldn’t — use for hours at a time? What if you could create a device that could filter out all the bullshit and instead only serve you truly important information? You could change modern life,” Pierce reports. “And so after three-plus decades of building devices that grab and hold our attention — the longer the better — Apple has decided that the way forward is to fight back. Apple, in large part, created our problem. And it thinks it can fix it with a square slab of metal and a Milanese loop strap.”
Tons more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is an excellent article that’s full of good information and Apple, Apple Watch and more.
All phones are cumbersome to the same degree. They have to be pulled out, woken up, and poked at.
President George H.W. Bush glances at his watch during the 1992 presidential campaign debate at the University of Richmond, Va. on Oct. 15, 1992 (Photo: Associated Press)Apple created… a world of iPhone/iPhone knockoff addicts.
Apple will change the world again with Apple Watch, replacing iPhone zombies and iPhones on and under dining tables and everywhere else (you know, the stuff the older set complain about: “People nowadays, always looking at their gizmos, nobody can even have a conversation”) with quick glances of the wrist – like in the days of yore. In presidential debates, even.
As we wrote on January 30th: With iPhone, Apple changed the fabric of our everyday lives: All around the world today, you see people constantly pulling phones from pockets and staring at them. With Apple Watch, Apple will change behavior worldwide once again. A quick glance at your Watch and you’re off. No more smartphone zombies. Watch and see.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
