The Apple Watch will debut on April 24, and customers will be able to take a peek at it in Apple stores starting April 10. But the big question looming is: What purpose will the watch serve in daily life?
While Apple attempted to answer that question at the watch's unveiling event in March — it's great for tracking fitness, getting notifications, etc. -- many have remained skeptical.
Now, a new Wired feature details Apple's ambitions for its most personal device yet. Speaking with Kevin Lynch, the company's vice-president of technology, and Alan Dye, its human-interface designer, the magazine takes an in-depth look at the Apple Watch's origins.
According to Lynch and Dye, the watch will help prevent people from burying their faces in their iPhones all the time.
“People are carrying their phones with them and looking at the screen so much," Lynch told Wired. "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?”
As author David Pierce writes, "The goal was to free people from their phones."
It's become a societal norm to use our smartphones everywhere: on the street; on the train; during dinner. There's an itch to plug into the digital world -- almost as if the real world and the people in front of us aren't that interesting.
Google's failed Glass wearable also tried to solve this growing problem of being too connected to our smartphones. It was born out of the desire to get people back to experiencing what's happening in real life.
“Our goal is for you not to take your phone out of your pocket,” Google cofounder Sergey Brin told Forbes in 2013.
For its part, Apple's intention to ween us off our smartphone addiction may come from a good place, but the irony is that the company kickstarted our addiction in the first place. Sure, there were plenty of suits who had BlackBerry devices attached at the hip, but it wasn't until the iPhone unveiled a massive library of powerful apps that we became borderline obsessive with our phones.
In addition, Wired's recent feature also provides insight into how Apple meticulously considered what different notifications would "feel" like with the watch's vibrating Taptic Engine. According to the article:
There were weekly meetings where the software and interface teams would test out, say, the sound and feeling of receiving a phone call. [Senior vice-president of Design Jonathan] Ive was the decider and was hard to please: Too metallic, he’d say. Not organic enough. Getting the sounds and taps to the point where he was happy with them took more than a year.
BONUS: Apple Watch Hands-On
[brightcove video=4101682591001]