Apple’s secretive Exploratory Design Group (XDG) team working to bring noninvasive glucose monitoring to its Apple Watch, but that’s not all it’s exploring.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
The team originated several years ago and was long led by Bill Athas, one of the few people to have the title of engineering fellow at Apple, until he passed away unexpectedly at the end of last year. Athas was seen by the late co-founder Steve Jobs and current Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook as one of the brightest engineering minds at the company.
The XDG team sits within Apple’s Hardware Technologies group, led by Senior Vice President Johny Srouji, and works at a building known as Tantau 9 right outside of the Apple Park spaceship-shaped ring.
Beyond the glucose work, XDG is working on next-generation display technology, artificial intelligence and features for AR/VR headsets that help people with eye diseases. The team originally came together under Athas to work on low-power processor technologies and next-generation batteries for smartphones, efforts that continue…
[T]he XDG staff is given vast financial resources and headroom to explore countless ideas. The members have a different remit than the engineering teams churning out new iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches annually. Instead, they’re instructed to work on projects until they can determine whether or not an idea is feasible.
MacDailyNews Take: May XDG’s work lead to many breakthroughs as quickly as possible!
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