Why the Time Is Always Set To 9:41 In Apple Ads 109
jones_supa writes If you have looked carefully, the clock has traditionally been always set to 9:42 in Apple advertisements. You could see it across various commercials, print ads, and even on Apple's website. The explanation is simple: That's the time in the morning that Steve Jobs announced the very first iPhone in 2007. Around 42 minutes into his keynote address he said "Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone." The picture of the phone was carefully scheduled to pop up at that moment. "We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation", Apple's Scott Forstall confirms. The time was even slightly tweaked in 2010, when the very first iPad was released, so that when it was revealed, it displayed a different time: 9:41.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fascinating (Score:5, Funny)
I can go to bed tonight and finally get some sleep,
Not so fast yayoubetcha.
If all Apple adverts are set to 9:42, explain this one: "Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 06, 2014 @08:57AM.
You can sleep when you're done explaining.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
That's easy. You're in the wrong timezone.
Re:Fascinating (Score:5, Funny)
If all Apple adverts are set to 9:42, explain this one: "Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 06, 2014 @08:57AM.
You live in [counts on fingers]... North Korea?
Re:Fascinating (Score:5, Funny)
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Next up, Slashdot introduces inline pictures in comments, so we can post WTF gifs.
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So in the future now we know we can skip the first 40+ minutes of the talk if all we want is to know about the new product. ... as if I'd ever buy one anyway.
Fascinating (Score:1)
Next announcement... Today, Apple invents the first phone that can display the time in realtime!
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In some ways it makes sense to have the adds with the same time. That way you don't see the differences in the the cutting, or reusing old footage without having to be spotted about it.
Always except when it isn't (Score:5, Informative)
That's some quality editing there, Slashdot.
Re:Always except when it isn't (Score:5, Informative)
That's some quality editing there, Slashdot.
While it might be a little confusing, it's actually correct. The time HAD traditionally been set to 9:42, then they tweaked it to 9:41 with the introduction of the iPad. (The goal was to match actual local time at the moment when the product is actually revealed, which happens slightly more than 40 minutes after it starts.)
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GP was quibbling over the "always" in the headline when TFS/TFA talks about it changing.
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Right. But the headline said "is always", not "has always been". The word "is" denotes the present era. Currently any time you see it, it is 9:41. So to restate it:
It used to be that every time you saw it, it WAS always set to 9:42, but now, since the introduction of the iPad, it IS always set to 9:41.
Re:Always except when it isn't (Score:5, Funny)
Nice contrapedante, M'Lud.
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'The word "is" denotes the present era.'
Which trivializes the use of "always" by shrinking the timespan, making the claim tautological. No one speaks English that way who is honestly trying to communicate.
And it is still factually incorrect, since the Apple Watch is shown at the traditional 10:09 time for watch displays.
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'The word "is" denotes the present era.'
Which trivializes the use of "always" by shrinking the timespan, making the claim tautological. No one speaks English that way who is honestly trying to communicate.
Really? I think you might need a better grasp on usage of the word. Go look at the examples on OED, and you will see many example usages (even some from hundreds of years ago) where "always" does not work the way you seem to think it does.
And it is still factually incorrect, since the Apple Watch is shown at the traditional 10:09 time for watch displays.
Well....now that I can't comment on. I'm not an apple fan, and don't pay attention to any of their advertising, so I wouldn't have a clue to the accuracy of the statement. I'm just speaking about the usage of the language in that particular instance, given the info that wa
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Right. But the headline said "is always", not "has always been". The word "is" denotes the present era. Currently any time you see it, it is 9:41. So to restate it:
It used to be that every time you saw it, it WAS always set to 9:42, but now, since the introduction of the iPad, it IS always set to 9:41.
I bet you enjoyed the "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" arguments at college.
It's A Trap! (Score:3)
What happens at 00:00?
iPocalypse!
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It's an iPademic.
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Correct - the screenshots usually are set so the time is right when the image is shown.
The October keynote was especially jarring because the clock was wrong. Yes, I noticed that - the on
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So is it 9:41 or 9:42?
(Yes I RTFA. Subject line doesn't match the summary.)
Try R-ing both of TFAs, and you'll see that TFS (and TFH--is that a thing?) is correct.
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Well, except for the part that it's ALWAYS one time (I guess for small values of always).
Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
I now recall why /. fell off the list of sites I check regularly.
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You check websites?!
I heard there is this cool new thing called RSS.
Another summary edit (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not "Apple's Scott Forstall," it's "Scott Forstall, formerly of Apple." And I agree this story is not really 'stuff that matters.'
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Doesn't matter to me either, but I'm sure it does to some people.
Re:Another summary edit (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to mention the article IS FROM THE YEAR 2010.
Fuck you very much Slashdot, any excuse to get another article up with Apple in the headline for the SEO huh? Quotas to meet and all.
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Didn't you get the memo? The ego of Zombie Steve Jobs *is* all That Matters.
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Steve Jobs 2G
*insert joke about "holding it wrong"*
No "observer effect" here (Score:2)
If you have looked carefully, the clock has traditionally been always set to 9:42 in Apple advertisements.
And if you haven't looked, carefully or not, it still has.
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Holy crap, this annoys me to no end! Why not insert the following to make sense:
If you have looked carefully, you might have noticed that the clock has[...]
It's the same with "for those who kept count" or any variation thereof. Yeah, the people who did keep a count are precisely the ones who don't need to hear it again.
Both these things are almost as wrong and infuriating as the new "literally".
The right time is 13:37 (Score:5, Funny)
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That's the timestamp in my script generated Docx files.
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9:42 may be good enough for the masses but for the elite only 13:37 [www.free.fr] will do. [...]
13:37 would be a horrible timestamp to use in US ads. Some people would actually discard the product since it is a 24 hour clock instead of 12 hour AM/PM.
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Who the fuck cares?
Well, you cared enough to comment...
Jeopardy (Score:1)
This kind of trivia belongs on a gameshow, or in skymall. News for no one, stuff and nonsense.
Bullshit (Score:1)
Here's iWatch. It's set to 10:09.
http://www.apple.com/ca/watch/ [apple.com]
If you have looked carefully... (Score:1)
If you have looked carefully ... in Apple advertisements.
You really need to get a life.
A ha! The solution is found! (Score:5, Funny)
Why the time is 9:40, quick poem (Score:1)
Because 9:11 would be creepy.
Because 6:40 and I'm still sleepy
Because 6:66 is an impossible time
Into the lake of fire
You'd do it for just one more buyer
Driven by greed,
Then to make your numbers go higher
Composed on the spot in all of five minutes. Judge accordingly, "istartedi" but I'll disown it.
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Composed on the spot in all of five minutes.
I'd never have guessed.
Individually Interesting, Collectively Creepy (Score:5, Interesting)
A number of similar articles have revealed more tidbits of Apples' Jobs-worship culture recently.
Taken one by one, they just come across as nice gestures to honor the company's co-founder. Additively they're starting to become really, really weird.
When Tim Cook dropped the bomb during his Charlie Rose interview that Jobs' office is maintained exactly as it was before his death, sealed, undisturbed - it raised an eyebrow.
The entire affair reminds me of the religion that pulp science fiction author started - the one with an office maintained in his honor at all their locations. You know the one. I suppose next we'll discover there is a Steve Jobs alcove located in the rear stockroom of all Apple stores.
Look, I got my first Apple product in 1983, and own quite a few current models at this time. But... admiration is one thing, hero worship is quite another. No thanks.
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A number of similar articles have revealed more tidbits of Apples' Jobs-worship culture recently.
Taken one by one, they just come across as nice gestures to honor the company's co-founder. Additively they're starting to become really, really weird.
When Tim Cook dropped the bomb during his Charlie Rose interview that Jobs' office is maintained exactly as it was before his death, sealed, undisturbed - it raised an eyebrow.
The entire affair reminds me of the religion that pulp science fiction author started - the one with an office maintained in his honor at all their locations. You know the one. I suppose next we'll discover there is a Steve Jobs alcove located in the rear stockroom of all Apple stores.
Look, I got my first Apple product in 1983, and own quite a few current models at this time. But... admiration is one thing, hero worship is quite another. No thanks.
I suspect it's more marketing. People like to personify companies to get a better understanding of them, a charismatic CEO like Jobs makes it that much easier. Jobs being dead makes him more likeable (and less likely to do something stupid), if Apple can keep Jobs around as a sort of spirit guide it helps sales.
Though for this story I think it's less about Jobs and more about showing off their attention to detail.
Really? (Score:2)
so.fscking.what?
3=8 (Score:2, Interesting)
As a former Apple employee I was taught to set the time of an apple product to what time the slide was scheduled to be presented in the keynote.
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It's not they have decided 'Slide X must show up at time Y', it's that they have practiced, and rehearsed, the presentation to the point that they can be fairly certain what time the slide will be shown. It's just another example of the level of polish Apple puts on anything they produce.
You didn't think that *any* of them are just up there winging it, do you?
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I would be highly tempted to ask a question in the middle of the presentation if I knew in advance the presenter was doing something douchey like this, to throw off their time.
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Including or not including that "The new AT&T" guy [youtube.com]? (Starts at 1:32:35.)
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And if you can make it past that part, some of SJ's best ad lib followed just moments thereafter. His slide remote died, and he went into an anecdote about Woz and a TV jammer.
I, for one, (Score:2)
prefer 4:20.
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Too much free time (Score:1)
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well it's just so that the time matches the time it goes on the screen so that it looks "live" device.
why they didn't simply have some trainee make some little software to update the time on the picture so that they could unveil it at any time and it would show the right time.. too easy for the presenter?
10:09 (Score:1)
The only interesting part of this is to see what they do with their watches which are traditionaly set to 10:10, from I quick google it seems this is the case for the iWatch also.
Dead clock? (Score:1)
9:41 is almost the canonical time for a clock run out of battery since that's when the hands are close to the apex of opposing weight on the clockwork. If the clock shows 9:41 on each announcement, chances are that it's simply dead.
In unrelated news (Score:5, Funny)
Russia has just announced that the times 9:41 and 9:42 are banned as promoting sodomy.
New clocks must be designed so that upon reaching 9:40 they advance directly to 9:43. Unfortunately there will be a transition period where gay fascist clocks are still in wide circulation. Patriotic Russians around such a clock while it displays 9:41 or 9:42 are advised to defend themselves from the homosexual propaganda by deeply meditating on the manly deeds of Vladamir Putin.
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They just have to think about him thrusting his way into unknown territory..
A rare attention to detail. (Score:1)
A better idea (Score:2)
Why the year is always 96 (Score:2)
The iPhone was released in 2007, which is Juche year 96. So from now on I'll pretend the current year is '96, though I maybe would have liked 93 or 91.
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And Apple has to do with North Korea because...?
Fairly positive it's actually illegal to own Apple products in NK.
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because both are about worshipping a dead guy and Apple gets about as much excessive news coverage as the leaders do in their country. Besides, Kim Jong Un is a macintosh user, but does the right thing by running linux on it.
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Oh. I thought they mostly worshiped the live Kim.