Apple has a scheduled event this coming Monday with the tag line "spring forward". Let's watch what Apple is up to this spring.
But First, A Word From Our Sponsor:
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top™ to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top™ to pop up in diaries posts around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist reserves the right to edit all content.
|
Grab an orange croissant, and follow me below.
Secrets
OK, what we're watching for is a watch. Formally, to be called "Apple Watch", not "iWatch" as history with Apple products would suggest. The i-thing is sooooo 2006. The secret has been out since last fall, but without some final details such as the official launch date, pricing, and so on. Those details are expected to be filled in at Monday's event.
Why is this a big deal? Because when the company with the world's largest market capitalization ($700 billion and counting) and a huge mindshare introduces a new product, people pay attention. Lots of people.
Days Gone Bye
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (and Ronald Wayne, who sold his initial stake in the new venture for pocket change) started the company in 1976. What began as a partnership, was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. in 1977. The company renamed itself Apple Inc. in 2007. It has increasingly positioned itself as a consumer electronics company, not merely focused on personal computing.
In the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks' title character opens a letter from Apple, leading to Forrest's indication that his investment (via Lieutenant Dan) in "some kind of fruit company" has made him very wealthy. On screen, the letter is dated 1975, which of course is an impossibility. Just for fun, various web sites have made a calculation that Forrest Gump's fictional investment would be worth upward of $7 billion today. Not bad for fruit.
Today, Apple stock closed at $126. It has been split on four occasions over the years, most recently last June in a 7-for-1 split which at that time brought the price per share from $645 to $92. The increase in the stock price over almost four decades has made a lot of people rich (full disclosure: I am not one of them). The well known investor/trader Carl Icahn has said that Apple Inc is already worth more than a trillion dollars, and that the stock price is undervalued. Others disagree, saying that the trillion dollar mark will be reached eventually, but it may take a few years to get there. No doubt Icahn would like to see his $6 billion worth of stock soar even higher. However you cut it, that's an awful lot of money.
As of last December, Apple was sitting on a cash and securities hoard of $178 billion. They could probably buy several small countries with that much cash. But CEO Tim Cook says that Apple, notoriously stingy with dividends to shareholders, is on track to unload a big chunk of this excess via increased dividends.
What Happened and What's Going On
Last September:
Next month, the Apple Watch will become a thing, having been previewed half a year ago. From what we've seen so far, this device will look like a real watch, unlike some of the newfangled watches from Samsung, Nike, and others. Of course, none of these is merely a watch; they include various features such as fitness tracking, email, and even phone calls via linkage with a corresponding smart phone. The Apple Watch requires matching with an iPhone 5 or later to be useful.
This new watch, we are told, will be available in
two sizes, three styles, and a multitude of other options to choose from - there's a wide range of combinations you can cook up to make sure your iWatch [sic] fits around your life as well as your wrist (oh yes).
Prices start at $350 (iPhone not included), and the sky's the limit if you care to have a gold-plated edition. Unlike Android-based watches currently on the market, the Apple Watch apparently includes very little in the way of fitness tracking; measuring your heart rate is about it. This seems to be because Apple feels that the sensors for monitoring fitness activities, and sleep, are not yet accurate enough for its liking.
Apple is confident that they can redefine the wearables market, and trounce the competition.
The WSJ reports Apple is building five million Apple Watch devices for release in April. Of that five million, 2.5 million are said to be the Apple Watch Sport, $350; a third, the stainless steel version, $500-$700; the, therefore, [sic] will be made up of the Apple Watch Edition –– the company’s primo, $3000-$4000 version (around 850,000).
Good news: The Apple Watch has new technology to be
power-stingy:
In an interview with the Telegraph, Cook said the Apple Watch battery will last a full day...
Umm, wow?
Spend
A new watch isn't the only thing that Apple might talk about on Monday. Most of the Mac computers haven't been updated in well over a year. The rumour mill has it that MacBook Air models might be up for refresh; not much in the way of new design for the existing ones, just newer and faster Intel processors.
The biggest rumour about MacBook Air is a totally new model, slimmer and smaller than its predecessors, with a 12" screen. The most interesting tidbit about this model is the removal of all external ports, including Thunderbolt, USB, and even MagSafe power, in favor of a single USB Type-C port. While being versatile, the existence of only a single port means that you would likely end up with an extension hub in order to simultaneously connect an external display, power supply, and so on. Other compromises include a less powerful CPU, and a keyboard that has keys scrunched closer together. All of this, or none of this may be true; we may know more on Monday. Or not.
Apple TV hasn't been updated for two years. There doesn't seem to be much activity on the hardware front for this box, other than a possible upgrade to support 4K displays, as opposed to the current 1080p. But unrelated to the Apple announcements, HBO is almost ready to launch its streaming service, HBO Now, with Apple TV being one of its platforms.
Apple probably won't have much to say about the iPad or iPhone on Monday. There has been a rumour of a new iPad Pro model for some time, featuring a larger form factor and larger screen. But production has been pushed back due to problems manufacturing the new screens. Availability may stretch into the fourth quarter of this year, or even next year.
What Lies Ahead
Electric and/or autonomous cars seem to be all the rage these days. Apple is reported to be getting in on the action with a project code-named Titan. Although referred to as "iCar" in the media, whatever this ends up being will almost assuredly not be named that. It may be an electric minivan, with the Apple brand name. For real, or not?
The Journal notes that Apple is always experimenting with new products, many eventually abandoned. But it says the senior people involved in the electric car project suggest that it is serious venture.
The iPhone 7 is an inevitability, but hasn't been talked about much. But Apple is continually filing
patents for future technologies, and among them are "sidewall displays". A concept illustration shows an iPhone still with rectangular edges, but one edge having a secondary active display. The edges are squared off, unlike the
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, which has one curved edge, or the upcoming
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, with both left and right edges curved.
The Macworld article cited just above lists many other patents filed recently by Apple. Some of these will work their way into future products; others may be just concepts. Perhaps you'd like Siri to take over your house? Your life? Big Sister might some day be watching you!
Coda
I won't be getting an Apple Watch myself. I don't actually enjoy the iPhone experience, and of course that phone is a necessary companion to the new watch. For one thing, I find that typing on the iPhone's virtual keyboard to be very error-prone; my fingers frequently end up hitting the wrong keys. Anyway, I'm an Android kind of guy. My personal phone is a Samsung Note 4. I can type on its keyboard with much greater accuracy. Of course, that's just me. YMMV.
TOP COMMENTS
March 5, 2015
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU
when you find that proficient comment.
From Indycam:
In lawrencegoodman's diary "I'm sick and tired of organic, shade-grown, cage-free blah, blah, blah, what can I say? I L3RV TEH COMMENT by Wisper.
From a2nite:
Excellent comment & call to activism by Gooserock in one of the many diaries on the DOJ report on Ferguson. This one is "Will we have justice? Skepticism and doubt are abundant in wake of DOJ's Ferguson report" by Shaun King.
From Mopshell:
In Paul Hogarth's diary "Here is what the Daily Kos community did while Netanyahu spoke to Congress", Onomastic's comment has that "Wow! Yes! That's why it's important to contact your congressperson!" factor. Read it and you'll see exactly what I mean!
Flagged by high uintas:
In Leslie Salzillo's diary "Merle Haggard - It's 'Almost Criminal' What They Do To Our President", stlsophos highlights some of Haggard's lyrics.
From your diarist, lotac:
In this is only a test's diary "Wash Post Calls Ferguson Police Racketeering", otto comes up with an example of "manner of walking".
|
TOP MOJO
March 4, 2015
(excluding Tip Jars and first comments)
Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary FAQing Top Mojo.
1) They police may have shot the woman and the by OregonWetDog — 205
2) John Boehner by Quabbin — 141
3) Great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by TomP — 141
4) I concur. As to this: by valion — 118
5) They are predators by hnichols — 105
6) Kim Jong-Un. by TomP — 102
7) I heard him speak on MSNBC by Shockwave — 99
8) morticians by konving — 99
9) well played by humanistique — 98
10) They probably had the same thought, too, which by SphericalXS — 94
11) someone should ask Boehner by rexymeteorite — 92
12) I confess by Steven D — 90
13) valion by Vet63 — 85
14) You forgot expansionist Iran by Paleo — 79
15) I had the same thought, by OIL GUY — 76
16) Israel is always happy for the US taxpayers by Lily O Lady — 73
17) Iran is complicated. by grumpynerd — 73
18) Meantime, Ann Curry interviews Iran's Zarif by Sybil Liberty — 68
19) It's been more than 250 years since they've by Jim P — 64
20) This is good news for John McCain! by Its the Supreme Court Stupid — 61
21) More often too embarrassed to admit that we are by LaFeminista — 60
22) Yeah, but he'll always have by AnnetteK — 60
23) I don't understand what's going on with the US- by bevenroDEUX — 59
24) Apparently there is no end to the thievery by dagnome — 59
25) They are worse than the criminals by Primordial Ooze — 59
26) oh, I dunno. by corvo — 58
27) He's a pig. A disgusting person. by TomP — 58
28) The markets have spoken... by Zeta Retuculi — 55
29) The cops would have killed or harassed them by a2nite — 54
30) It looks like all of FL is a giant organized crime by flitedocnm — 53
31) I was surprised how few Democrats didn't by LaFeminista — 53
TOP PHOTOS
March 4, 2015
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
|
|