iWatch Concept Images Show Curved Screen, Thick Band, and Sensors

[7thson]

Like most of us, I am really curious what this will look like and what it will do. I keep waiting for a prototype to appear in a grainy photo or parts or something. To my knowledge there's been nothing but speculation, which has me thinking this project isn't going to launch in 2014. Which is fine. By all means, don't release something until it's ready, regardless of what the investors want.

 

[mainstreetmark]

Is this an advertisement for "DesignerEI"? Is MR obliged to post every concept people come up with?

 

[queshy]

I still don't get the concept of the smart watch. No matter how good it is, it won't replace the smartphone. So why carry two devices? What functionality would such a device have that an iphone does not ?

 

[Lepton]

I still don't get the concept of the smart watch. No matter how good it is, it won't replace the smartphone. So why carry two devices? What functionality would such a device have that an iphone does not ?

Well, you won't have to fish the phone out of your pocket every time you want to check the time, a caller ID, reminders and notifications, to screen and reject or text-reply to a call, or to ask the Internet how tall a giraffe is.

 

[MrXiro]

I'm still trying to understand how concept designs are considered news or rumors.

It's informing us of potentially what the watch might look like or have... why do you have to be THAT guy?

----------

I still don't get the concept of the smart watch. No matter how good it is, it won't replace the smartphone. So why carry two devices? What functionality would such a device have that an iphone does not ?

Why use headphones with your iPhone? It already has a tiny speaker on it... What functionality does it offer?

 

[IJ Reilly]

Is this an advertisement for "DesignerEI"? Is MR obliged to post every concept people come up with?

Now there's a good question. It would be handy if MR synthesized what is known (not much) and likely to be included in this product (quite a bit more) to distinguish between relevant discussion and bandwagon efforts from third parties like this to draw attention to themselves.

The only relevant comment (that I can recall) from anyone at Apple is Tim Cook saying that the company is interested in "wearable tech." Somewhere along the line this concept morphed into a "smart watch" and then to the name "iWatch" without any reason or logic that I can follow. So instead of looking at ideas that are grounded in any sort of reality (or give Apple any credit for having an imagination), we get an endless line of garbage concepts like this.

 

[Nunyabinez]

This story doesn't interest me, but I clicked on it anyway, then I posted to let you know that it doesn't interest me and to complain that there was something on MR that didn't interest me and yet I read it and posted about it.

Thank you.

/Sarcastic rant

 

[Doctor Q]

Another market opportunity: iOS-based ankle bracelets for people on home detention. You can check your stock portfolio while the court monitors you with the same device. It'll be the next fashion statement for train-wreck Hollywood celebrities under house arrest for shoplifting or beating up photographers.

 

[Nunyabinez]

Another market opportunity: iOS-based ankle bracelets for people on home detention. You can check your stock portfolio while the court monitors you with the same device. It'll be the next fashion statement for train-wreck Hollywood celebrities under house arrest for shoplifting or beating up photographers.

The applications are virtually endless.

Me to my kid: That's enough videos games for now.
Kid: But I'm having fun!
Me: Let me see how many calories your watch says you burned today... Put another 300 calories on there and I'll let you play for another hour.

 

[dannyyankou]

It may just be me but that design reminds me of the original iPhone rumours (see image below). It's lazy; take what we know of apple (read iPod/iPhone) and take what we know of watches (read wristband), add them together, presto!

I'd be disappointed if Apple's motivation is "We can do some stuff a bit better, or a bit flash-ier, than what's out there." Personally I want a game changer or don't enter the market at all.

Then again, it would be easy money for them but I'm a romantic... let me dream.

Yeah, I have a feeling we're not going to know anything about the iWatch a week up to the event. This was a mockup of the iPhone a week before it was unveiled.

 

[bryanescuela]

Re:

"Just a Bird"?

 

[flottenheimer]

"Nein" + "Iiiiirh"​

 

[jm001]

I know it's just a concept and thank god it is because this design is flawed. The display area is way too long so you have to turn your wrist over to see the far side of it. The wrist band is limited in adjustability so it will be tight for those with thicker wrists. A grid system system?

 

[IJ Reilly]

Yeah, I have a feeling we're not going to know anything about the iWatch a week up to the event. This was a mockup of the iPhone a week before it was unveiled.

We also have to know that whatever it is, it won't be called the iWatch. MR was also totally convinced that the iPad was going to be called the iSlate, despite all of the obvious problems with that name. Granted we're talking about rumors here, but how about applying a little knowledge and thought to the exercise?

 

[disinfectant]

Not wide enough. Everybody knows that the iWatch will cover the whole forearm! Basically like a landscape iPad that is bent around the arm.


Trust me. I have sources.

So it would basically be more like a Nintendo Power Glove?

 

[TallManNY]

Don't Get It

These mockups are nice and all that can be expected. But there is a fundamental issue that these guys don't get. This is a completely different form factor. So just like OSX is not the same as iOS, the iBand probably won't run iOS or at least not the same GUI. Why do folks keep trying to cram rows of icons onto the wrist when that whole GUI was based on a much larger screen?

Considering every user of the iBand will have a smartphone with them under almost all circumstances, why would the device even need a screen? With power supply being a huge issue, I would design the product to not use a screen under most circumstances. Maybe an E-Ink screen would be the best solution.

 

[Carl Sagan]

These are terrible. Why are the iwatch mock ups so utterly bad??

 

[IJ Reilly]

These are terrible. Why are the iwatch mock ups so utterly bad??

Because they start with the wrong premise.

 

[WilliamLondon]

I'm still trying to understand how concept designs are considered news or rumors.

What's worse, though, is that people transfer their disgust for this design to Apple's (unannounced and unreleased and unseen and perhaps non-existant) iWatch design and declare Apple's iWatch to be dead on arrival, that Apple really screwed up this time, that Apple doesn't know what they're doing and the iWatch is a seriously stupid product, that it just indicates that Apple is indeed in decline as a company and Steve is rolling over in his grave because he wouldn't ever release a product that looks like this. ;-)

 

[kdarling]

Steve Jobs actually showed the rumoured mock-up on stage and proceeded to laugh (real one was much more ridiculous than the image i managed to find).

When Jobs showed this fake image:



He was apparently making a preemptive joke to avoid future ridicule. He knew that sooner or later someone would notice his actual 2005 patent application:



That was Apple's first cut at an iPhone. Heck, as late as summer 2005 Apple was still using iPods as UI test mules for the iPhone design.

We're just lucky that someone showed him a touch design that he liked more. Otherwise everyone here would be talking about whether Samsung copied the iPhone clickwheel design

 

[69650]

That design would be totally impracticable and impossible to use. A touch screen needs a flat surface. The iWatch will look very much like the iPod nano watch adaption from a few years ago which is why they quickly changed the design of the Nano last year. It's the only design that makes sense.

 

[thedeejay]

Well, you won't have to fish the phone out of your pocket every time you want to check the time, a caller ID, reminders and notifications, to screen and reject or text-reply to a call, or to ask the Internet how tall a giraffe is.

"How tall is a Giraffe"
'Sorry iWatch cannot take requests at the moment'

 

[NT1440]

When Jobs showed this fake image:

View attachment 460905

He was apparently making a preemptive joke to avoid future ridicule. He knew that sooner or later someone would notice his actual 2005 patent application:

View attachment 460904

That was Apple's first cut at an iPhone. Heck, as late as summer 2005 Apple was still using iPods as UI test mules for the iPhone design.

We're just lucky that someone showed him a touch design that he liked more. Otherwise everyone here would be talking about whether Samsung copied the iPhone clickwheel design

Actually both products (the click wheel iPhone and the touchscreen iPhone) were concurrently developed by two different teams at apple until the click wheel finally got cut.

 

[urbanlung]

Walk like an iGyptian.

These things all look like iBangles. As such they are inelegant. They would be irritating to wear, feeling both loose and clunky, they would be crappy from a UI point of view cos their orientation and position would be unstable and there for would be more effective as vocal command inputs and therefore they are way to big. Having said that people would still buy them cos they look/are kind of cool despite being a bit *****. I hope, if Apple do release an 'iWatch' it will be to these concepts as the iPhone was to all phones before it, functional, mature and essential.

 

[mistertomlinson]

Well, you won't have to fish the phone out of your pocket every time you want to check the time, a caller ID, reminders and notifications, to screen and reject or text-reply to a call, or to ask the Internet how tall a giraffe is.

This. I don't understand why anyone would wanna take their phone out of their pocket just to see what time it is. Everyone I know that doesn't wear a watch says they'd rather use their phone. When I'm at work and everything is on a schedule, I'm CONSTANTLY checking my watch. I can't imagine having to take my phone out of my pocket whenever I needed the time. (Taking it out just to change tracks is hassle enough. Hopefully the iWatch will allow for this).

In the future, I'll wonder why anyone would wanna take their phone out of their pocket to check notifications. An iWatch would be so convenient for me. As long as it doesn't look stupid.