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Apple's "Spring Forward" Event Debuts Apple Watch and More 529

Posted by samzenpus from the here's-what-happened dept.
samzenpus (5) writes There was a lot of news at Apple's Spring Forward keynote today. Here's a list of some of the most eye-catching announcements.
  • HBO Now standalone streaming service coming to Apple TV and iOS apps in early April for $14.99 a month.
  • Lowered price of Apple TV to $69.
  • Apple Pay accepted at up to 100,000 Coca-Cola machines by the end of the year.
  • ResearchKit Announced: Is open source and allows medical researchers to create apps, and use the iPhone as a diagnostic tool.
  • New MacBook: Lightest ever at 2 pounds, 13.1mm at its thickest point. 2304x1440 display, consumes 30% less energy. Fanless, powered with Intel's Core M processor. 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0. and 9 hours of web browsing battery life. Supports many protocols through one connector USB-C. Ships April 10, starting at $1,299.
  • iOS 8.2 is available today
  • Apple Watch: Accurate within 50ms of UTC. Read and delete email, built-in speaker and mic so you can receive calls. It tracks your movement and exercise. Use Apple Pay, play your music, use Siri and get any notification you get on iPhone today. 18 hour battery life in a typical day. Sport model starting at $349, stainless steel price: $549-$1049 for 38mm, 42mm is $599-$1099, and gold edition starting at $10k. Pre-orders begin April 10th, available April 24th.
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Apple's "Spring Forward" Event Debuts Apple Watch and More More

Apple's "Spring Forward" Event Debuts Apple Watch and More

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  • Sounds like a perfect match.

    more seriously, I'm shocked at how low the price is on the stainless steel watch is. 549/599? I was expecting near 1k.

    • A laptop with almost no ports?! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What is up with that new laptop? It has like almost no ports! I have a rMBP and even with the two USB ports and the two Thunderbold ports I still need to use a USB hub so I can plug in all of the devices I need to use with my rMBP! Booooo! BOOOOOO! We need more ports, not less!

      • What is up with that new laptop? It has like almost no ports! I have a rMBP and even with the two USB ports and the two Thunderbold ports I still need to use a USB hub so I can plug in all of the devices I need to use with my rMBP! Booooo! BOOOOOO! We need more ports, not less!

        If you need more ports then get a mbp, which they also updated today.

      • Yeah, it's almost like they deleted the word "Pro" from the name of the product when they reduced the number of things that Pros care about!

    • Re:Apple pay at Coke machines and apps for diabete (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 09, 2015 @03:03PM (#49217427)

      Sounds like a perfect match.

      more seriously, I'm shocked at how low the price is on the stainless steel watch is. 549/599? I was expecting near 1k.

      Sadly I was expecting a lower price for this. When the accessory costs far more than the primary device it supports, the pricing model is rather broken regardless of features.

      People also need to realize that in less than three years, they'll likely be replacing that $600 watch due to battery death or software/hardware attrition. By comparison, someone who spends $600 on a traditional timepiece expects to pass that down through generations.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by praxis ( 19962 )

        The kind of timepieces that can be reliably passed down through generations rarely cost $600.

  • Color me Gold (Score:3, Interesting)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @02:49PM (#49217283) Homepage Journal

    While the iWatch might do well in China and Asia (especially the gold version), watches are an old person's deal here in North America.

    Meh.

    Wake me up when the iPhone 7 comes out.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @03:00PM (#49217395)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • "HBO Now standalone streaming service coming to Apple TV and iOS apps in early April for $14.99 a month.

      not really an innovation but, okay. There was nothing stopping this from happening before, why did it need an event?"

      Bigger question, on another site this was listed as an Apple TV "exclusive".

      Did HBO really shoot themselves in the foot by taking the cableless HBO subscription and screwing the pooch by limiting it to Apple TV for now?

      • I'm sure Apple is paying HBO generously to take the bullet.

      • Re:so lets have a breakdown (Score:5, Funny)

        by BasilBrush ( 643681 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @03:17PM (#49217593)

        Did HBO really shoot themselves in the foot by taking the cableless HBO subscription and screwing the pooch by limiting it to Apple TV for now?

        I take it you chose the wrong set-top box.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Did HBO really shoot themselves in the foot by taking the cableless HBO subscription and screwing the pooch by limiting it to Apple TV for now?

        No, because AppleTV is just for the big screen. It's also available on iOS, which if Netflix numbers are anything to go by, smartphones and tablets are the preferred viewing platform for the service.

    • Our phones do all of this, are in ubiquitous use, wont stop working if we carelessly wash our hands, and havent cost this much for nearly a decade. And the real kick in the ass is that apple will immediately slash prices 80% once an android competitor comes out and hangs around in this artificial market long enough until people realize singing talking wrist watches are about as practical as google glass.

      The Android competitors have been out for 8 months. Interestingly, Android Wear watches generally don't have speakers.

      • And the real kick in the ass is that apple will immediately slash prices 80% once an android competitor comes out

        Yep, that totally sounds like Apple.

    • Re:so lets have a breakdown (Score:4, Informative)

      by dontbemad ( 2683011 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @03:18PM (#49217609)

      once an android competitor comes out and hangs around in this artificial market long enough until people realize singing talking wrist watches are about as practical as google glass

      Uh, I have some news [asus.com] for [motorola.com] you [lg.com].

    • Re:so lets have a breakdown (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jeffmeden ( 135043 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @03:28PM (#49217731) Homepage Journal

      And the real kick in the ass is that apple will immediately slash prices 80% once an android competitor comes out and hangs around in this artificial market long enough until people realize singing talking wrist watches are about as practical as google glass.

      o.O

      When has Apple ever slashed prices in response to competition? Their playbook on competition reads "we have no competition, all similar products are inferior". They might decide that the hardware specs (which are traditionally very modest in every Apple rev1 product) need a bump, to keep the price point the same and satisfy their aforementioned competitive mantra. That's the kick in the ass; 12 months from now the rev2 product will have a screen with twice the resolution, it will have a CPU capable of full motion video, enough ram to run iOS 9.0, etc. and all the early adopters will be left with an outdated relic.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Jeremi ( 14640 )

        That's the kick in the ass; 12 months from now the rev2 product will have a screen with twice the resolution, it will have a CPU capable of full motion video, enough ram to run iOS 9.0, etc. and all the early adopters will be left with an outdated relic.

        This is true, and a good reason to wait 12 months if you're not satisfied with the v1 product's performance and feature set (and won't have money to upgrade -- although in that case you're probably not in the market for an Apple Watch anyway).

        OTOH, this is also the behavior you want to see from a tech company -- products being improved on a regular basis. A hypothetical Apple that didn't release better versions of its products on a regular basis probably would have gone out of business by now.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Uberbah ( 647458 )

        When has Apple ever slashed prices in response to competition?

        Why would they when the competition costs just as much? You want a high end smartphone or ultralight laptop, you're going to be paying the same kind of prices whether the product comes from Dell, Apple, or Samsung.

        Enjoy your Hatorade.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Holi ( 250190 )
      What do you mean " once an android competitor comes out ", Samsung Gear has been out for 1 1/2 years already.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by unimacs ( 597299 )

      Apple Watch: Accurate within 50ms of UTC. Read and delete email, built-in speaker and mic so you can receive calls. It tracks your movement and exercise. Use Apple Pay, play your music, use Siri and get any notification you get on iPhone today. 18 hour battery life in a typical day. Sport model starting at $349, stainless steel price: $549-$1049 for 38mm, 42mm is $599-$1099, and gold edition starting at $10k. Pre-orders begin April 10th, available April 24th.

      Our phones do all of this, are in ubiquitous use, wont stop working if we carelessly wash our hands, and havent cost this much for nearly a decade. And the real kick in the ass is that apple will immediately slash prices 80% once an android competitor comes out and hangs around in this artificial market long enough until people realize singing talking wrist watches are about as practical as google glass.

      The Apple Watch has a water resistance rating of IPX7 which means that it can be submerged in 3 feet of water for 30 minutes and it will still work. Washing dishes aren't going to hurt it.

      I can't really say I'm in the market for something like the Apple Watch, - not at its current price, but to me a watch is a much preferable platform for some tasks than a phone, - getting the time being the obvious example. I don't want to drag out my phone for every little thing. I have an armband for running or ridin

    • Small laptop gets smaller, faster, better, and more expensive despite industry-standard hardware used and widely available at lower cost but without the little white light up apple.

      It's not industry standard hardware. 'industry standard' doesn't fit in the tiny laptop case they have. To put it in perspective, this new laptop is half a millimeter thicker than the original iPad. With laptops, Fast, Small, Cheap, pick two.

    • You know, the nonstandard bits of that laptop look quite remarkable. Kudos to Apple to have a product line up with SSD on all laptops. The other manufacturers don't seem to have the guts to do that, let alone change the shape of keys, batteries and touchpads.

  • Death of Thunderbolt? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by glennrrr ( 592457 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @03:07PM (#49217469)
    The one thing I found concerning about the new MacBook is that it does away with Thunderbolt. So will there ever be a 5K supporting Thunderbolt connector, or will this be handled by USB-C? And will the charger for the new MacBook have ports on it? Like a mini-display port, USB, or even Ethernet?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Holi ( 250190 )
      No it won't But Apple will gladly charge you $80 for breakout adapter, that you will need to plug in another usb hub to get more then one port. Worlds thinnest laptop that requires the worlds most adapters to use.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I feel like a dope (Score:3)

    by wcrowe ( 94389 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @03:17PM (#49217587)

    I just bought a new Macbook pro and Apple TV two weeks ago. Yes, I know they're always coming out with new products, but I didn't expect the Macbook to be so much different, for less money, and I didn't expect the Apple TV price drop of 30%.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      I didn't buy an Apple TV because it does not have an easy to install Plex Server. Like most Apple products, the value is in the 'ecosystem' not in the product. Since I do not but iTunes anything, at least not exclusively, it provides not value. I really don't buy any videos or DVDs anymore. I just stream. Videos are in the place music used to be, locked in, non transferable, in other world dead in an old world. I have and Amazon and Roku for streaming. I am also in the Market for a MacBook, as mine is g

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sootman ( 158191 )

      LITERALLY 2 weeks? MOVE! You don't have a second to lose.

      Pricing and Price Reductions/Corrections

      With regards to pricing, Apple reserves the right to change prices for products displayed at/on the Apple Store at any time, and to correct pricing errors that may inadvertently occur. Additional information about pricing and sales tax is available on the Payment & Pricing page.

      Should Apple reduce its price on any Apple-branded product within 14 calendar days from the date you receive your product, feel free to visit an Apple Retail Store or contact the Apple Contact Center at 1-800-676-2775 to request a refund [emphasis added] or credit of the difference between the price you were charged and the current selling price. To receive the refund or credit you must contact Apple within 14 calendar days of the price change.

      http://store.apple.com/us/browse/open/salespolicies

  • does it work without an iphone?
    what does it do that an iPhone does not or cannot?
    will it be subsidized by ATT and Verizon like iPhones are?
    who still wears watches? will they switch if they do? will they start now if they dont?

  • Keep in mind... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by xlsior ( 524145 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @03:43PM (#49217989) Homepage
    ... That is an advertised 18 hour battery life on day one with a brand new device. That means you'll probably be lucky to get 12 hours a day in a year or two, since rechargeable batteries tend to age poorly. By comparison, the upcoming Pebble Time advertised a week of battery life for the base model, and ten days for the Steel version.

  • Good timing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @03:46PM (#49218027) Homepage

    They've given themselves a guaranteed six months with no DST issues.

  • By the event or the comments today. Some interesting news, but nothing too earth shattering.

    And the comments seem to break down to one or the either:
    1. Apple is dumb, watches are dumb, I have a phone.
    2. High end watches (fashion or otherwise) cost money, so the Apple Watches are in the right ballpark.

    I stopped wearing a watch a long while back, but have thought about getting a more fashionable watch, to act more like a piece of jewelry. I like Apple and my iPhone, but I don't really see mysel

  • Apple really is queen of the 9s. Do any of its prices not have a 9 in it?

    It's hard to have respect for a company that doesn't respect your intelligence through ubiquitous use of a dumb pricing trick.

  • ResearchKit! ResearchKit! That's The Big Story! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @04:31PM (#49218561) Homepage

    The single biggest thing to come out of this was the announcement of ResearchKit. I don't think people fully appreciate just how...sparse and brittle medical research data can be, even today.

    Even in situations where there do exist tracking devices, they tend to be clunky, cobbed-together, user-unfriendly things that are built using generations-old, heavily-used devices--generally by dint of the fact that researchers have so little money to spend on this sort of thing.

    Having an open-source platform that'll open the data floodgates? THAT is going to have some real and lasting consequences for medical research.

    • I'm more worried about the invalid correlations that will result from this data, given that the users will be self-selected, upper-class individuals.

      Medical research (especially meta-studies) are already rife with invalid statistics. This can only exacerbate it.

      • I'm more worried about the invalid correlations that will result from this data, given that the users will be self-selected, upper-class individuals.

        Participants in research studies are already stupidly self-selected, and many drop out (and are thus invalidated) because it can be incredibly challenging for people to continue to routinely report over a period of time, especially if the participant has to deal with periods of instability in their lives..

        Seeing as you can get an iPhone that supports ResearchKit included with a phone contract, I'm having trouble buying the "upper-class" angle here. The iPhone may have started its life as a Toy For The Rich,

  • As an Apple product owner and developer.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ronin Developer ( 67677 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @04:33PM (#49218587)

    I was underwhelmed by the watch. Frankly, I nearly coughed up a lung when they mentioned / confirmed the price of the gold model. A few will buy it simply because it's Apple. To me, it's not a something I'd drop the equivalent of a few months rent or mortgage on. The Sport model will sell quickly among the fans.

    Battery life still sucks. Personally, one should not have to charge their phone once a day. A week should be the minimum between recharges.

    Lastly, as a critique item, it's pretty hard to justify why one should pay almost as much for an accessory as the device it extends. The iPhones will be relegated to the back pocket just begging to be sat upon and requiring a new phone be purchased....Wait a minute....

    Does the concept have promise? Perhaps. It will be initially be a success among the health AND selfie conscious. Some interesting and useful apps will be developed ( I can think of a few ). But, it will take about a year for people to decide if its worth having. That's when the general population decides it is or isn't useful. At that time, I may break down and buy one if it looks like the market for Apple Watch apps holds potential (financial) as anything other than a fad.

    • The target demographic for the $10k watch is not the middle class, or even the upper middle class (although some will undoubtedly buy one). It's not the demographic that buys and/or trades high-end watches as investments or heirlooms. It's the rich. It's the people who buy expensive, luxury items because they're bored. It's the people who don't really care if they lose a Rolex, beyond the inconvenience of obtaining a replacement. It's market segmentation: get more money from the people with lots of mon

    • If you are bothered by the price, you are not part of the target market.

  • Apple Watch vs Pebble Time? (Score:4, Informative)

    by sbaker ( 47485 ) on Monday March 09, 2015 @09:40PM (#49221421) Homepage

    I didn't catch the Apple announcement - but I wonder how the Apple Watch compares to the Pebble Time that's doing huge $$$ on Kickstarter right now?

    From what I can see:

    * Pebble is *way* cheaper.
    * Pebble has a 7 day battery life (kinda beats 18 hours!)
    * Pebble works with both iOS and Android, so if you ever want to change your phone, you won't have to change your watch.
    * Pebble allows anyone to develop & ship apps without a fee.
    * Both scheduled to ship about the same time.

    I'm sure there is more to it than this than that...but why on earth would I buy the Apple watch?

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