Weird Rumor Says Apple & Intel Are Working On An iWatch For 2013

For a couple of glorious years, Apple’s iPod nano came in a form factor that could be worn as a watch. Then this year, as Apple is wont to do with the permanently schizo iPod nano line, Apple switched to another design entirely, leaving fans who want a bonafide iWatch in the lurch. But perhaps there is method in Apple’s madness, as a new rumor suggests that Cupertino has phased out the watch-like nano to build their own Bluetooth Smart Watch for 2013.

German blog Mobile Geeks spins off a rumor from a Chinese site to speculate that Apple and Intel are working together on a Bluetooth Smart Watch for 2013.

To be honest with you, the rumor doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s true that Apple has rolled out Bluetooth 4.0 to its line-up of Macs of iDevices, and one of Bluetooth 4.0’s best features is a low-power mode that makes it a perfect candidate for keeping your watch constantly in communication with your laptop, tablet or smartphone. It’s also easy to see how a dedicated iWatch could communicate with your devices to make your life more convenient: imagine changing tracks or reading a text message using your watch to communicate with the iPhone in your pocket!

But why would Intel be involved with all of this? A watch doesn’t need an x86 cpu: if anything, it needs an even weaker and less powerful CPU than the one that powers your iPhone. Using Bluetooth 4.0, all of the processor intensive stuff can actually be offloaded to a connected device. And why would Apple ink a deal for more chips with Intel when Cupertino is doing everything possible to bring chip design and fab in-house?

It’s a wild rumor, and I suspect it has the details all wrong. Still, Apple made a big deal about how the Nano could be worn as a watch, only to backpedal just a couple generations later. More over, there was clearly a market for an iWatch. Maybe Apple saw the success of the nano-as-watch and thought it was time for a dedicated product instead?

http://mobilegeeks.de/apple-und-intel-arbeiten-zusammen-an-bluetooth-smart-watch-fuer-2013/”>Mobile Geeks

• Source Thanks Sascha P!

Comment »