April 24, 2015: It’s time for the official release of the Apple Watch, the wearable device Apple CEO Tim Cook describes as the “next chapter in Apple history.”
Fans, having endured a seven-month wait since the device’s unveiling at a keynote the previous September, can finally strap an Apple Watch onto their wrists. Behind the scenes, however, the Apple Watch launch is a moment long in the making.
Something weird is brewing in Apple land. The company, which for years wasn’t big on embracing its past, has gone retro.
While the innovations — ranging from the first 5G iPhones to the exciting new Macs powered by Apple’s proprietary processors — keep coming, Cupertino is reportedly revisiting some of its past designs for its next generation of products.
And you know what? I like it.
Apple’s long-time design boss Jony Ive revealed today that he is leaving the company.
After helping create some of the most iconic consumer products of all time for Apple, Ive says he is going to strike out on his own to create a new creative business called LoveFrom.
The Apple Watch is the first major product to be launched without any involvement from Steve Jobs, but according to one of his long-time associates, the Apple cofounder was well aware that Jony Ive was working on a timepiece.
On Thursday at Glance Conf in San Francisco — the first Apple Watch conference ever — Tim Bajarin who had an on-and-off relationship with Jobs for over three decades, said Jobs had at least been told about the watch before he passed.
Adweek has released its Creative 100 list, honoring the people it views as the “current masters of the creative idea” across advertising, branded content, technology, products, and pop culture.
While it’s no surprise that Apple would make such a list, what is interesting is that none of the usual suspects appear. There’s no sign of Jony Ive, Angela Ahrendts, or even Tim Cook. Instead, the people Adweek claim are driving Apple’s creativity today are Richard Howarth and Alan Dye.
In case you don’t immediately know the names, this is the pair who now control Apple’s Industrial Design studio and UI departments, after Jony Ive was promoted to chief design officer to do more “blue sky thinking.” Here’s what Adweek has to say about Howarth and Dye:
The man charged with keeping Apple user interfaces looking and working beautifully made his bones by suggesting hand-painted boxes for the original iPhone.
That’s just one shimmery detail from the resume of Alan Dye, Apple’s new vice president of user interface design. Here’s everything else you need to know about the man taking over from Jony Ive when it comes to the day-to-day running of all things UI.
The Apple Watch was created under crazy, sleep-deprived conditions, with its first working prototype being an iPhone strapped to the wrist with a Velcro strap, and the Digital Crown represented by a custom dongle plugged into the bottom of the phone via the headphone jack.
Those are a couple of the revelations from a new in-depth article, reporting on the creation of Apple’s eagerly anticipated wearable device.
