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How Apple Reportedly Plans To Solve 'Bendgate' Problems In Future iPhones - Forbes
In September 2014, Apple started selling the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. Shortly after the devices were released, several iPhone 6 Plus owners revealed that their devices bent after being placed in the pockets of tight pants. The iPhone 6 smartphones are built with a unibody enclosure constructed from machining 6000 series anodized aluminum with stainless steel and titanium inserts to reinforce its high-stress locations. Apple said that the bends in the iPhone 6 Plus smartphones are extremely rare, but there are rumors that the next-generation of iPhones will use stronger materials to prevent another “Bendgate” from happening.
With dimensions of 6.22-inches by 3.06-inches, the iPhone 6 Plus appears to bend at 110 pounds of pressure. Unbox Therapy, an online program that focuses on product-based coverage, posted a video called the “iPhone 6 Plus Bend Test” that went viral and currently has over 65 million views. Several months later, it was revealed that the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge also bends at 110 pounds of pressure.
According to Taiwan-based Economic Daily News, the successor to the iPhone 6 Plus (code-named iPhone 6S Plus) will be using the same 7000 series aluminum as the Sport edition of the Apple Watch. If 7000 series aluminum is used in the iPhone 6S Plus, it will become 60% harder. The 7000 series aluminum is the same material used in competition bicycles, according to CultOfMac.com. Apple altered the material to make it lighter and durable with one-third the density of stainless steel. The Economic Daily News has correctly predicted several rumors in the past, but we will not know if this rumor is true until September.
Apple has been very consistent when it comes to integrating features across its product portfolio. Retina Display — which was introduced by Steve Jobs during the iPhone 4 announcement in 2010 — is now built into iPhones, iPads, iPods, MacBooks and iMacs. The Touch ID fingerprint sensor is now available on newer iPhone and iPad models. And the haptic ffeedback Force Touch feature introduced in the Apple Watch is now built into the trackpad of the new 12-inch MacBook. This is why it seems plausible that Apple will build iPhones with materials that are similar to the Apple Watch.
Bendgate Example / Credit: Unbox Therapy
The aluminum used in the Apple Watch is buffed and polished. Then it is textured with microscopic zirconia beads. Anodizing the watch creates a hard outer layer to protect it from dings and scratches. “We believe this aluminum alloy sets a new standard both in the way it performs and the way it looks,” said Apple’s Senior Vice President of Design Jony Ive in the video below:
The “iPhone 6S” and “iPhone 6S Plus” is expected to be announced in September 2015. I am guessing that those devices will have A9 chips and the Force Touch feature. There is also a rumor that Apple will offer a 4-inch option of the next-generation iPhone called the iPhone 6C aside from the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch versions.
What are your thoughts about the “Bendgate” issue? Let us know in the comments section!
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New Apple Watch straps spotted at official launch event in Milan - Digital Trends
The Apple Watch PR tour continues to traverse the globe, with the likes of Jony Ive in tow, and we got an interesting peek at some possible new straps when it stopped in Milan on Friday. Luminaries of the fashion world were out in force for Milan Design Week, and among the straps they were showing off were a few colors that we haven’t seen before.
The snap above, courtesy of Umberta Gnutti Beretta, shows dark blue, red, yellow, and pale pink straps that we haven’t seen before — the Sport bands (which is what these seem to be) on the Apple site are limited to white, black, light blue, pink and green. England rugby player Will Carling has also tweeted out a picture of what seems to be a red sport strap for his own watch.
Related: Apple adds new Watch videos for Siri, Maps, and Music to its ‘Guided Tours’ site
Are these rich and famous celebrities getting exclusive access to band colors that the rest of us will never see? Or is Apple planning to roll out more colors and styles in the months ahead? We’ll have to wait and see, because the Cupertino company hasn’t made any official comment on the new bits of kit.
As for the Salone del Mobile design fair in Milan, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller was in attendance alongside Jony Ive, as was the company’s recently hired designer Marc Newson. The executives were happy to pose for photos and guide attendees through the process of setting up their new devices.
Italy isn’t actually on the list of launch countries for the Apple Watch, but the significance of Milan Design Week in the fashion calendar is the reason why Apple wanted a big presence here — it’s a reminder that its new wearable is as much about fashion as it is about tech. Presumably the rest of Italy will eventually be able to get their hands and wrists on the smartwatch at a later date.
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HBO Wants You to Watch "Game of Thrones" On Apple TV Instead of iPhone - Motley Fool
Image Source: Apple.
The fifth season of Game of Thrones has officially landed. For cord cutters signing up for Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX ) new HBO NOW over-the-top streaming service to catch the hit show, the company would highly prefer that you watch the hit show on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) TV.
That's because where you sign up has significant financial implications behind the scenes, according to a new report from Re/code.
Where matters
Apple has long taken a 30% cut of all sales through its booming iTunes App Store, which includes subscription services. This is common knowledge at this point. This is also why many companies prefer to sell products and services outside of Apple's reach, and subsequently provide access to these products and services with an app.
Amazon.com has always done it this way, selling Kindle books on its website (instead of through its iOS app) and then allowing the free iOS app to download purchased content, for example. Companies may lose some of the convenience that Apple offers (consider what Amazon did to its Comixology acquisition) to mutual customers, but 30% is a hefty cut.
However, for Apple TV, the Mac maker's demands are somewhat more manageable: Apple only takes 15% of monthly subscription fees for sales generated from Apple TV. HBO NOW is Apple's current headliner for its set top box, enjoying a 3-month exclusivity window before the service rolls out more broadly. HBO NOW is available on all iOS devices as well as Apple TV.
But new subscriptions generated on iOS devices will be subject to the existing 30% cut, while subscriptions from Apple TV will reportedly only hand over 15% to the Cupertino company. Once signed up, users can access HBO NOW from any of these devices.
Other popular services like Netflix and Hulu Plus also enjoy this lower fee.
Slow and steady wins the race
As Apple slowly but surely forges ahead with trying to reinvent the TV, Apple TV will be its primary weapon. As a platform, Apple TV has made steady progress over the years, expanding its feature set and stable of content partners, but there's still a lot of work to do until it can reach critical mass.
Content is king, and in order to promote the growth of content availability, which in turn will promote the growth of the Apple TV user base, Apple recognizes that it must appeal to content providers in the form of lower fees. That's especially true when compared to what premium networks currently face when selling through cable operators, which collect a fee of up to half the monthly charge.
Apple's angle
For Apple, its cut under the agency model has never been about profit. Apple's primary goal here is to strengthen its ecosystem and cover its operating costs in the process. Apple has long said that it operates most of its digital storefronts around breakeven -- or at least attempts to. If Apple is enjoying operating income from these stores, it's mostly from its pricey software applications that target creative professionals.
Other than that, so long as there's a very high likelihood that you'll buy an iPhone, iPad, or Mac the next time you're due for an upgrade, that's fine by Apple.
This $19 trillion industry could destroy the Internet
One bleeding-edge technology is about to put the World Wide Web to bed. And if you act right away, it could make you wildly rich. Experts are calling it the single largest business opportunity in the history of capitalism... The Economist is calling it "transformative"... But you'll probably just call it "how I made my millions." Don't be too late to the party -- click here for one stock to own when the Web goes dark.
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1 Huge Surprise Inside of Apple Inc.'s New MacBook - Motley Fool
When AnandTech first published its review of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL ) 2015 MacBook, the reviewer observed that Apple may have designed its own solid state drive controller based on how Mac OS identified the solid state drive. iFixit's teardown of the new MacBook leads AnandTech's Ryan Smith to suggest that "Apple had some kind of hand in developing the SSD controller."
Some background
Back in 2011, Apple purchased Israel-based Anobit, a developer of flash memory controllers, for a purchase price said to be $390 million.
To put this into perspective, this is the kind of money that established flash memory controller vendors -- complete with respectable revenue streams -- have sold for. For example, LSI paid $370 million for flash controller vendor SandForce in 2011 (It was later sold to Seagate for $450 million).
At any rate, Apple's purchase price was probably a major hint that it had significant ambitions in the flash controller silicon space; it seems that acquisition may finally be paying off with the new MacBook.
What does this mean for Apple (and its current suppliers)?
Most of Apple's Mac products use flash controllers sourced from third party vendors. In the latest MacBook Air, Retina MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro computers, iFixit reports that Apple uses controllers designed and built by Samsung.
I suspect that, if the new MacBook really does feature an Apple-designed flash controller, Apple eventually plans to migrate away from Samsung controllers in favor of internally designed chips.
By bringing its own controllers to the market, Apple can have more control over the storage subsystems in future Macs. Apple seems to like having as much control of the design and performance characteristics of its products as possible, so this fits right in with Apple's strategy.
Has Apple done a good job?
In AnandTech's review of the new MacBook, the storage subsystem of the device seems to deliver very high performance. In many tests, the new MacBook delivered better storage performance than the mid-2013 MacBook Air, although it did fall behind in the 4KB random write test.
At any rate, if this really is an Apple-designed flash controller, it looks like the company got its money's worth from that acquisition of Anobit.
This is why I love Apple's M&A strategy
Although Apple recently spent a lot of money acquiring Beats (I'm still scratching my head over that one), it generally buys relatively small companies to help it add key technological assets and capabilities to its portfolio.
Perhaps the best examples of this strategy in action are Apple's acquisitions of P.A. Semiconductor and Intrinsity for $278 million and $121 million, respectively. These relatively small acquisitions, coupled with smart investment over several years, have allowed Apple to become a premier processor design house.
Apple obviously doesn't announce every acquisition that it makes, but news of those acquisitions often leak to the public. Given Apple's successful track record of acquiring and developing compelling technology, I can't wait to see the fruits of Apple's other acquisitions, such as its recent purchase of mobile camera start-up LinX, in due time.
Wall Street hacks Apple's gadgets! (Investors, prepare to profit.)
Apple forgot to show you something at its recent event, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering Apple's brand-new gadgets. And its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors. To be one of them, just click here!
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The 10 biggest technology stories this week: WWDC 2015, Apple Watch, Tim Cook - AppAdvice
It’s been another huge week as we approach the launch of the Apple Watch, with none other than Cupertino’s WWDC being announced. Let’s take a look back at the 10 biggest technology stories of the past week.
Apple announces WWDC 2015
This week, Apple announced its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) for 2015, and this year, the conference is scheduled to take place from June 8–12 at San Francisco, California’s Moscone West. The all important keynote, of course, is scheduled for June 8, and during the presentation Apple is expected to unveil iOS 9, OS X 10.11, and perhaps even a software update for its incoming wearable, the Apple Watch.
Apple’s Phil Schiller said:
The App Store ignited an app ecosystem that is simply amazing, forever changing the lives of customers and creating millions of jobs worldwide. We’ve got incredible new technologies for iOS and OS X to share with developers at WWDC and around the world, and can’t wait to see the next generation of apps they create.
We can’t wait.
There’ll be no Apple Watches in retail stores on April 24
April 24 might be Apple Watch launch day, but according to Apple, no Watch units will be available for customers to purchase in retail stores this coming Friday. The news came from Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president of Retail at Apple, and in a memo to retail staff she explained:
due to high global interest combined with our initial supply, we are only taking orders online right now. I’ll have more updates as we get closer to in-store availability, but we expect this to continue through the month of May.
As such, Apple’s website no longer advertises April 24 as launch day for the wearable. Instead, Apple merely notes that “The Watch is coming,” and offers customers the option of preordering the smartwatch through the Apple Online Store. Of course, the vast number of configuration options available for the Apple Watch means it was always going to be difficult for Apple to maintain a proper launch day stock for each device, but according to Ming-Chi Kuo (noted Apple analyst), there could be another reason for the retail move …
Ming-Chi Kuo on the Apple Watch launch
Before the news of Apple’s Watch retail strategy surfaced, Ming-Chi Kuo offered his insight into Apple Watch preorders. He noted that by May, preorders for the wearable could top 2.3 million, and added that the device’s haptic feedback feature, which is powered by Apple’s Taptic Engine, could be causing a delay in production.
Trouble with the Taptic Engine, which brings a more precise vibration system to Apple’s smallest device yet, could be the reason why Apple is choosing to keep the Watch out of retail stores for the time being, according to Kuo. If production bottlenecks are absent, the analyst expects sales of the Apple Watch to top 2.5 million by May, however whether Cupertino is able to overcome its delays and ramp up production remains to be seen.
Apple partners with IBM on new medical research platform
This week, IBM announced Watson Health, a new analytics platform aimed at advancing health and wellness. In announcing the new platform, however, the company also noted that it’ll be supporting both HealthKit and ResearchKit, and Apple launched ResearchKit for developers and researchers soon after the announcement was made.
Indeed, both frameworks are very well suited to IBM Watson Health. And by linking to HealthKit and ResearchKit, IBM Watson Health can capture large amounts of health data from iOS device owners, strip them of the identity of the users, and store them along with data from other sources in a secure hub that allows access to and sharing among medical researchers.
The move sees IBM continue to work closely with Apple; the two companies announced a partnership for enterprise last year, and this has seen the release of several MobileFirst iOS apps from Apple and IBM.
Apple releases iOS 8.4 beta 1 featuring an all-new Music app
It looks like a Beats Music-inspired streaming service could indeed be set to come from Apple later this year. Because iOS 8.4 beta 1, the company’s first beta for its upcoming iOS 8.4 mobile operating system, has introduced a brand new Music app – seemingly in preparation for such a move.
In the release notes for the update, Apple explained:
The iOS 8.4 Beta includes an early preview of the the all-new Music app. With powerful features and an elegant new look, enjoying your music is easier than ever. This preview provides a sneak peek into what we’ve been working on, and what’s to come — the music is just getting started.
“The music is just getting started,” indeed. I’m sure we’ll hear more at WWDC later this year.
HBO only pays Apple a 15 percent cut for Now sign-ups on the Apple TV
In a bid to attract content providers to its Apple TV platform, it seems Cupertino’s usual 30 percent cut doesn’t apply to the set-top box. According to a recent report, HBO Now sees the network pay Apple just 15 percent when users sign up to the service using their Apple TV. The same rate also goes for Netflix, Hulu, and MLB.TV, the same report added.
Apple unveils custom Sport Bands for its Apple Watch
This week, Apple also unveiled a selection of custom Sport Bands for its Apple Watch, and former pro rugby player Will Carling posted a picture of one red band to Twitter. He also provided Brits with a sneak peek of how the Apple Watch charger is going to look for U.K.-based owners of the wearable; the mains charger features a fold-out plug allowing for easier, safer transportation, and it looks great.
Indeed, Carling seemed more excited about the charger than the band, and we don’t blame him. Though we’d hypothesised that the pictured band might rather be a (RED) product, it seems a selection of further custom bands were previewed by Apple later that day in Milan.
Tim Cook features in Time’s list of ‘100 most influential people’
Once again, Tim Cook has appeared in Time Magazine’s annual list of the “100 most influential people,” and an entry penned for the magazine, congressman John Lewis celebrated several aspects of Cook’s character and conduct as CEO of Apple. It read:
It could not have been easy for Tim Cook to step into the immense shadow cast by the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs. But with grace and courage and an unabashed willingness to be his own man, Tim has pushed Apple to unimaginable profitability – and greater social responsibility.
Though Jony Ive didn’t feature in the list this year, he did write an entry for Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb. Ive said of Chesky, “his obsession with detail and practicality doesn’t confine or compromise his dreaming but rather makes what could so easily be noble but abstract ideas functional and real.”
Apple Pay is headed to Canada before November
If a recent report has it right, it seems Apple Pay could be set to launch in Canada later this year. Apple is reportedly in negotiations with Canada’s six biggest banks over the service, which allows iOS device and Apple Watch owners to pay for purchases without using a card.
According to The Wall Street Journal, no agreement has yet been reached between Apple and the banks, and it seems the banks aren’t pleased with current fee proposals or security risks.
Apple introduces Apple Watch Basics workshops
Finally this week, we heard that Apple is planning on offering a new workshop on “Apple Watch Basics” in retail stores starting April 24. The course is due to take place in one-hour intervals and aims to teach customers the basics of the Apple Watch platform. It seems certain stores are offering extended hours in order to host the classes, too, and these are now available to reserve from Apple’s website. This is a smart move on Apple’s part, since certain reviewers noted that the Watch software takes some getting used to.
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Failed Apple Rootpipe Fix Leaves Backdoor On All Macs, Researchers Claim - Forbes
When Apple released the latest version of Mac OS X Yosemite earlier this month, it claimed to have fixed a significant flaw, a backdoor named Rootpipe, that had been resident on its computers since 2011. But, due to some uncodified Apple policy on patching, anyone running an operating system below 10.10 remained vulnerable, leaving tens of millions with documented weaknesses in their PCs. And, according to researchers, Apple botched the patch anyway, so all Mac machines remain vulnerable to Rootpipe attacks.
Patrick Wardle, a former NSA staffer who now heads up research at security firm Synack, said he was on a flight when he discovered he was still able to exploit the Rootpipe vulnerability, which essentially opened up a path to the highest privilege level, known as root access.
Apple put additional access controls to stop attacks, but Wardle’s code was still able to connect to the vulnerable service and start overwriting files on his Mac. “I was tempted to walk into the Apple store this [afternoon] and try it on the display models – but I stuck to testing it on my personal laptop (fully updated/patched) as well as my OS X 10.10.3 [virtual machine]. Both worked like a charm,” Wardle told FORBES over email. In a blog post, he’d said his exploit was “a novel, yet trivial way for any local user to re-abuse Rootpipe”.
TOKYO, JAPAN – MARCH 19 : A salesman looks at the new apple device on a Macbook in the Apple store at the high-end shopping district of Omotesando in Tokyo, Japan, on March 19, 2015. (Photo by David Mareuil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
He would not reveal his attack code, however, which he has passed on to Apple, in the hope the firm will issue a full and unbreakable fix in the coming months. The video below shows his hack in action.
When Apple was initially told about the Rootpipe backdoor in October last year, it took until April to address the issue, having originally planned a January fix. Though the attack requires a hacker to have obtained local privileges, most likely via an exploit of other software sitting on Macs, Apple has still failed to patch an issue that it had evidently struggled to eradicate in the first place.
A separate researcher, Pedro Vilaça, told FORBES over Twitter the Rootpipe fix was “doomed since it was released”, saying there were a “tonne of ways to bypass it due to the wrong fix design”, though didn’t go into more detail. Vilaça has uncovered numerous Mac OS X issues in recent years.
Apple had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Apple security practices have been flagged repeatedly in recent months. Not only was it criticised for purposefully leaving Rootpipe on masses of Mac machines, its attempts to protect iOS devices were also blasted by German researcher Stefan Esser. During the Syscan conference in Singapore, Esser claimed repeated attempts by Apple to close off iOS vulnerabilities failed, leaving them open to so-called “jailbreaks”, where users can release their phone from Apple’s control to install whatever software they wanted on an iPhone or other iDevice.
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Motorola Goes on the Offensive Against Apple Watch - Motley Fool
Image source: Motorola.
Just days after Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) began taking pre-orders for Apple Watch, Motorola is already going on the offensive with its Moto 360. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) (NASDAQ: GOOGL ) now sells the Android Wear device for just $165, a hefty discount from the typical $250 that the Moto 360 was originally priced at. The Moto 360 also got a price drop on Amazon.com last week.
The war has begun.
The best Android Wear device
The broader smartwatch market remains tepid right now, since the mainstream consumer still needs a compelling reason to adopt wearable technology. But the Moto 360 was easily the most successful among the first wave of Android Wear devices, so in a way it is a leader within the Android camp.
The initial inventory of the Moto 360 sold out within three hours when it went on sale last September. Two months later, Canalys estimated that the Moto 360 grabbed 15% of the smart band market during the third quarter of 2014. Earlier this year, the same research firm said that the Moto 360 was constrained during the fourth quarter, calling it the "clear leader" thus far.
Even the most expensive Moto 360 is now cheaper than the most affordable Apple Watch, which starts at $350.
Stop me if you've heard this one before
This storyline may sound familiar. Apple prices its gadgets at the premium end of the market while commoditized Android vendors battle each other for the low end. Android will dominate unit market share, while Apple gobbles up profit share.
Broadly speaking, the same trend will very likely play out for the nascent smartwatch market, and this Moto 360 price cut is just the first evidence. Strategically speaking, what remains to be seen is whether or not any Android Wear OEMs will be able to position themselves as "fashion" companies in the way that Apple is attempting to do. Even Apple's fate is uncertain at this point.
But Apple has a much better chance at selling a $10,000 smartwatch than all of its Android Wear rivals combined. I'd be surprised if any Android Wear OEM, be it Samsung, Sony, ASUS, LG, or Motorola, could get away with selling a smartwatch with a five-digit price tag. The only way Apple can conceivably accomplish such a feat is by positioning itself as a fashion company. The only reason Apple could be considered a fashion company is that it's already considered a lifestyle company. It just also happens to make consumer electronics.
Goodbye, Moto?
Canalys estimates that there were a grand total of 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped throughout all of 2014. By the looks of it, Apple took over 1 million Apple Watch pre-orders in a single weekend. The product mix was probably skewed toward the lower end Sport models, but even an average selling price of $500 would yield a $500 million weekend.
For now, it's entirely possible that Apple is winning the smartwatch race in terms of unit market share and profit share. And Apple Watch hasn't even officially shipped yet.
This $19 trillion industry could destroy the Internet
One bleeding-edge technology is about to put the World Wide Web to bed. And if you act right away, it could make you wildly rich. Experts are calling it the single largest business opportunity in the history of capitalism... The Economist is calling it "transformative"... But you'll probably just call it "how I made my millions." Don't be too late to the party -- click here for one stock to own when the Web goes dark.
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How Apple Reportedly Plans To Solve 'Bendgate' Problems In Future iPhones - Forbes
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The Inquisitr |
How Apple Reportedly Plans To Solve 'Bendgate' Problems In Future iPhones
Forbes In September 2014, Apple Apple started selling the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. Shortly after the devices were released, several iPhone 6 Plus owners revealed that their devices bent after being placed in the pockets of tight pants. The iPhone 6 ... iPhone 7 Release Date Update: Apple To Use 7000 Series Aluminium Alloy For ... Apple iPad Leaks: High-Tech Metal, Massive Size iPhone 7, iPad Pro to Use Apple Watch's Aluminum Alloy? Release Date, Specs ... |
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New Apple Watch straps spotted at official launch event in Milan - Digital Trends
The Apple Watch PR tour continues to traverse the globe, with the likes of Jony Ive in tow, and we got an interesting peek at some possible new straps when it stopped in Milan on Friday. Luminaries of the fashion world were out in force for Milan Design Week, and among the straps they were showing off were a few colors that we haven’t seen before.
The snap above, courtesy of Umberta Gnutti Beretta, shows dark blue, red, yellow, and pale pink straps that we haven’t seen before — the Sport bands (which is what these seem to be) on the Apple site are limited to white, black, light blue, pink and green. England rugby player Will Carling has also tweeted out a picture of what seems to be a red sport strap for his own watch.
Related: Apple adds new Watch videos for Siri, Maps, and Music to its ‘Guided Tours’ site
Are these rich and famous celebrities getting exclusive access to band colors that the rest of us will never see? Or is Apple planning to roll out more colors and styles in the months ahead? We’ll have to wait and see, because the Cupertino company hasn’t made any official comment on the new bits of kit.
As for the Salone del Mobile design fair in Milan, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller was in attendance alongside Jony Ive, as was the company’s recently hired designer Marc Newson. The executives were happy to pose for photos and guide attendees through the process of setting up their new devices.
Italy isn’t actually on the list of launch countries for the Apple Watch, but the significance of Milan Design Week in the fashion calendar is the reason why Apple wanted a big presence here — it’s a reminder that its new wearable is as much about fashion as it is about tech. Presumably the rest of Italy will eventually be able to get their hands and wrists on the smartwatch at a later date.
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HBO Wants You to Watch "Game of Thrones" On Apple TV Instead of iPhone - Motley Fool
Image Source: Apple.
The fifth season of Game of Thrones has officially landed. For cord cutters signing up for Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX ) new HBO NOW over-the-top streaming service to catch the hit show, the company would highly prefer that you watch the hit show on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) TV.
That's because where you sign up has significant financial implications behind the scenes, according to a new report from Re/code.
Where matters
Apple has long taken a 30% cut of all sales through its booming iTunes App Store, which includes subscription services. This is common knowledge at this point. This is also why many companies prefer to sell products and services outside of Apple's reach, and subsequently provide access to these products and services with an app.
Amazon.com has always done it this way, selling Kindle books on its website (instead of through its iOS app) and then allowing the free iOS app to download purchased content, for example. Companies may lose some of the convenience that Apple offers (consider what Amazon did to its Comixology acquisition) to mutual customers, but 30% is a hefty cut.
However, for Apple TV, the Mac maker's demands are somewhat more manageable: Apple only takes 15% of monthly subscription fees for sales generated from Apple TV. HBO NOW is Apple's current headliner for its set top box, enjoying a 3-month exclusivity window before the service rolls out more broadly. HBO NOW is available on all iOS devices as well as Apple TV.
But new subscriptions generated on iOS devices will be subject to the existing 30% cut, while subscriptions from Apple TV will reportedly only hand over 15% to the Cupertino company. Once signed up, users can access HBO NOW from any of these devices.
Other popular services like Netflix and Hulu Plus also enjoy this lower fee.
Slow and steady wins the race
As Apple slowly but surely forges ahead with trying to reinvent the TV, Apple TV will be its primary weapon. As a platform, Apple TV has made steady progress over the years, expanding its feature set and stable of content partners, but there's still a lot of work to do until it can reach critical mass.
Content is king, and in order to promote the growth of content availability, which in turn will promote the growth of the Apple TV user base, Apple recognizes that it must appeal to content providers in the form of lower fees. That's especially true when compared to what premium networks currently face when selling through cable operators, which collect a fee of up to half the monthly charge.
Apple's angle
For Apple, its cut under the agency model has never been about profit. Apple's primary goal here is to strengthen its ecosystem and cover its operating costs in the process. Apple has long said that it operates most of its digital storefronts around breakeven -- or at least attempts to. If Apple is enjoying operating income from these stores, it's mostly from its pricey software applications that target creative professionals.
Other than that, so long as there's a very high likelihood that you'll buy an iPhone, iPad, or Mac the next time you're due for an upgrade, that's fine by Apple.
This $19 trillion industry could destroy the Internet
One bleeding-edge technology is about to put the World Wide Web to bed. And if you act right away, it could make you wildly rich. Experts are calling it the single largest business opportunity in the history of capitalism... The Economist is calling it "transformative"... But you'll probably just call it "how I made my millions." Don't be too late to the party -- click here for one stock to own when the Web goes dark.
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1 Huge Surprise Inside of Apple Inc.'s New MacBook - Motley Fool
When AnandTech first published its review of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL ) 2015 MacBook, the reviewer observed that Apple may have designed its own solid state drive controller based on how Mac OS identified the solid state drive. iFixit's teardown of the new MacBook leads AnandTech's Ryan Smith to suggest that "Apple had some kind of hand in developing the SSD controller."
Some background
Back in 2011, Apple purchased Israel-based Anobit, a developer of flash memory controllers, for a purchase price said to be $390 million.
To put this into perspective, this is the kind of money that established flash memory controller vendors -- complete with respectable revenue streams -- have sold for. For example, LSI paid $370 million for flash controller vendor SandForce in 2011 (It was later sold to Seagate for $450 million).
At any rate, Apple's purchase price was probably a major hint that it had significant ambitions in the flash controller silicon space; it seems that acquisition may finally be paying off with the new MacBook.
What does this mean for Apple (and its current suppliers)?
Most of Apple's Mac products use flash controllers sourced from third party vendors. In the latest MacBook Air, Retina MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro computers, iFixit reports that Apple uses controllers designed and built by Samsung.
I suspect that, if the new MacBook really does feature an Apple-designed flash controller, Apple eventually plans to migrate away from Samsung controllers in favor of internally designed chips.
By bringing its own controllers to the market, Apple can have more control over the storage subsystems in future Macs. Apple seems to like having as much control of the design and performance characteristics of its products as possible, so this fits right in with Apple's strategy.
Has Apple done a good job?
In AnandTech's review of the new MacBook, the storage subsystem of the device seems to deliver very high performance. In many tests, the new MacBook delivered better storage performance than the mid-2013 MacBook Air, although it did fall behind in the 4KB random write test.
At any rate, if this really is an Apple-designed flash controller, it looks like the company got its money's worth from that acquisition of Anobit.
This is why I love Apple's M&A strategy
Although Apple recently spent a lot of money acquiring Beats (I'm still scratching my head over that one), it generally buys relatively small companies to help it add key technological assets and capabilities to its portfolio.
Perhaps the best examples of this strategy in action are Apple's acquisitions of P.A. Semiconductor and Intrinsity for $278 million and $121 million, respectively. These relatively small acquisitions, coupled with smart investment over several years, have allowed Apple to become a premier processor design house.
Apple obviously doesn't announce every acquisition that it makes, but news of those acquisitions often leak to the public. Given Apple's successful track record of acquiring and developing compelling technology, I can't wait to see the fruits of Apple's other acquisitions, such as its recent purchase of mobile camera start-up LinX, in due time.
Wall Street hacks Apple's gadgets! (Investors, prepare to profit.)
Apple forgot to show you something at its recent event, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering Apple's brand-new gadgets. And its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors. To be one of them, just click here!
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The 10 biggest technology stories this week: WWDC 2015, Apple Watch, Tim Cook - AppAdvice
It’s been another huge week as we approach the launch of the Apple Watch, with none other than Cupertino’s WWDC being announced. Let’s take a look back at the 10 biggest technology stories of the past week.
Apple announces WWDC 2015
This week, Apple announced its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) for 2015, and this year, the conference is scheduled to take place from June 8–12 at San Francisco, California’s Moscone West. The all important keynote, of course, is scheduled for June 8, and during the presentation Apple is expected to unveil iOS 9, OS X 10.11, and perhaps even a software update for its incoming wearable, the Apple Watch.
Apple’s Phil Schiller said:
The App Store ignited an app ecosystem that is simply amazing, forever changing the lives of customers and creating millions of jobs worldwide. We’ve got incredible new technologies for iOS and OS X to share with developers at WWDC and around the world, and can’t wait to see the next generation of apps they create.
We can’t wait.
There’ll be no Apple Watches in retail stores on April 24
April 24 might be Apple Watch launch day, but according to Apple, no Watch units will be available for customers to purchase in retail stores this coming Friday. The news came from Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president of Retail at Apple, and in a memo to retail staff she explained:
due to high global interest combined with our initial supply, we are only taking orders online right now. I’ll have more updates as we get closer to in-store availability, but we expect this to continue through the month of May.
As such, Apple’s website no longer advertises April 24 as launch day for the wearable. Instead, Apple merely notes that “The Watch is coming,” and offers customers the option of preordering the smartwatch through the Apple Online Store. Of course, the vast number of configuration options available for the Apple Watch means it was always going to be difficult for Apple to maintain a proper launch day stock for each device, but according to Ming-Chi Kuo (noted Apple analyst), there could be another reason for the retail move …
Ming-Chi Kuo on the Apple Watch launch
Before the news of Apple’s Watch retail strategy surfaced, Ming-Chi Kuo offered his insight into Apple Watch preorders. He noted that by May, preorders for the wearable could top 2.3 million, and added that the device’s haptic feedback feature, which is powered by Apple’s Taptic Engine, could be causing a delay in production.
Trouble with the Taptic Engine, which brings a more precise vibration system to Apple’s smallest device yet, could be the reason why Apple is choosing to keep the Watch out of retail stores for the time being, according to Kuo. If production bottlenecks are absent, the analyst expects sales of the Apple Watch to top 2.5 million by May, however whether Cupertino is able to overcome its delays and ramp up production remains to be seen.
Apple partners with IBM on new medical research platform
This week, IBM announced Watson Health, a new analytics platform aimed at advancing health and wellness. In announcing the new platform, however, the company also noted that it’ll be supporting both HealthKit and ResearchKit, and Apple launched ResearchKit for developers and researchers soon after the announcement was made.
Indeed, both frameworks are very well suited to IBM Watson Health. And by linking to HealthKit and ResearchKit, IBM Watson Health can capture large amounts of health data from iOS device owners, strip them of the identity of the users, and store them along with data from other sources in a secure hub that allows access to and sharing among medical researchers.
The move sees IBM continue to work closely with Apple; the two companies announced a partnership for enterprise last year, and this has seen the release of several MobileFirst iOS apps from Apple and IBM.
Apple releases iOS 8.4 beta 1 featuring an all-new Music app
It looks like a Beats Music-inspired streaming service could indeed be set to come from Apple later this year. Because iOS 8.4 beta 1, the company’s first beta for its upcoming iOS 8.4 mobile operating system, has introduced a brand new Music app – seemingly in preparation for such a move.
In the release notes for the update, Apple explained:
The iOS 8.4 Beta includes an early preview of the the all-new Music app. With powerful features and an elegant new look, enjoying your music is easier than ever. This preview provides a sneak peek into what we’ve been working on, and what’s to come — the music is just getting started.
“The music is just getting started,” indeed. I’m sure we’ll hear more at WWDC later this year.
HBO only pays Apple a 15 percent cut for Now sign-ups on the Apple TV
In a bid to attract content providers to its Apple TV platform, it seems Cupertino’s usual 30 percent cut doesn’t apply to the set-top box. According to a recent report, HBO Now sees the network pay Apple just 15 percent when users sign up to the service using their Apple TV. The same rate also goes for Netflix, Hulu, and MLB.TV, the same report added.
Apple unveils custom Sport Bands for its Apple Watch
This week, Apple also unveiled a selection of custom Sport Bands for its Apple Watch, and former pro rugby player Will Carling posted a picture of one red band to Twitter. He also provided Brits with a sneak peek of how the Apple Watch charger is going to look for U.K.-based owners of the wearable; the mains charger features a fold-out plug allowing for easier, safer transportation, and it looks great.
Indeed, Carling seemed more excited about the charger than the band, and we don’t blame him. Though we’d hypothesised that the pictured band might rather be a (RED) product, it seems a selection of further custom bands were previewed by Apple later that day in Milan.
Tim Cook features in Time’s list of ‘100 most influential people’
Once again, Tim Cook has appeared in Time Magazine’s annual list of the “100 most influential people,” and an entry penned for the magazine, congressman John Lewis celebrated several aspects of Cook’s character and conduct as CEO of Apple. It read:
It could not have been easy for Tim Cook to step into the immense shadow cast by the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs. But with grace and courage and an unabashed willingness to be his own man, Tim has pushed Apple to unimaginable profitability – and greater social responsibility.
Though Jony Ive didn’t feature in the list this year, he did write an entry for Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb. Ive said of Chesky, “his obsession with detail and practicality doesn’t confine or compromise his dreaming but rather makes what could so easily be noble but abstract ideas functional and real.”
Apple Pay is headed to Canada before November
If a recent report has it right, it seems Apple Pay could be set to launch in Canada later this year. Apple is reportedly in negotiations with Canada’s six biggest banks over the service, which allows iOS device and Apple Watch owners to pay for purchases without using a card.
According to The Wall Street Journal, no agreement has yet been reached between Apple and the banks, and it seems the banks aren’t pleased with current fee proposals or security risks.
Apple introduces Apple Watch Basics workshops
Finally this week, we heard that Apple is planning on offering a new workshop on “Apple Watch Basics” in retail stores starting April 24. The course is due to take place in one-hour intervals and aims to teach customers the basics of the Apple Watch platform. It seems certain stores are offering extended hours in order to host the classes, too, and these are now available to reserve from Apple’s website. This is a smart move on Apple’s part, since certain reviewers noted that the Watch software takes some getting used to.
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Failed Apple Rootpipe Fix Leaves Backdoor On All Macs, Researchers Claim - Forbes
When Apple released the latest version of Mac OS X Yosemite earlier this month, it claimed to have fixed a significant flaw, a backdoor named Rootpipe, that had been resident on its computers since 2011. But, due to some uncodified Apple policy on patching, anyone running an operating system below 10.10 remained vulnerable, leaving tens of millions with documented weaknesses in their PCs. And, according to researchers, Apple botched the patch anyway, so all Mac machines remain vulnerable to Rootpipe attacks.
Patrick Wardle, a former NSA staffer who now heads up research at security firm Synack, said he was on a flight when he discovered he was still able to exploit the Rootpipe vulnerability, which essentially opened up a path to the highest privilege level, known as root access.
Apple put additional access controls to stop attacks, but Wardle’s code was still able to connect to the vulnerable service and start overwriting files on his Mac. “I was tempted to walk into the Apple store this [afternoon] and try it on the display models – but I stuck to testing it on my personal laptop (fully updated/patched) as well as my OS X 10.10.3 [virtual machine]. Both worked like a charm,” Wardle told FORBES over email. In a blog post, he’d said his exploit was “a novel, yet trivial way for any local user to re-abuse Rootpipe”.
TOKYO, JAPAN – MARCH 19 : A salesman looks at the new apple device on a Macbook in the Apple store at the high-end shopping district of Omotesando in Tokyo, Japan, on March 19, 2015. (Photo by David Mareuil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
He would not reveal his attack code, however, which he has passed on to Apple, in the hope the firm will issue a full and unbreakable fix in the coming months. The video below shows his hack in action.
When Apple was initially told about the Rootpipe backdoor in October last year, it took until April to address the issue, having originally planned a January fix. Though the attack requires a hacker to have obtained local privileges, most likely via an exploit of other software sitting on Macs, Apple has still failed to patch an issue that it had evidently struggled to eradicate in the first place.
A separate researcher, Pedro Vilaça, told FORBES over Twitter the Rootpipe fix was “doomed since it was released”, saying there were a “tonne of ways to bypass it due to the wrong fix design”, though didn’t go into more detail. Vilaça has uncovered numerous Mac OS X issues in recent years.
Apple had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Apple security practices have been flagged repeatedly in recent months. Not only was it criticised for purposefully leaving Rootpipe on masses of Mac machines, its attempts to protect iOS devices were also blasted by German researcher Stefan Esser. During the Syscan conference in Singapore, Esser claimed repeated attempts by Apple to close off iOS vulnerabilities failed, leaving them open to so-called “jailbreaks”, where users can release their phone from Apple’s control to install whatever software they wanted on an iPhone or other iDevice.
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How Does Apple Watch Stack Up as a Health-and-Fitness Tracker? - Re/code
One of the proposed benefits of wearable technology is the notion of having a health-and-fitness tracker attached to your body 24/7 — or at least for a good portion of the day. This is the case with activity-tracking wristbands, like Fitbit and Jawbone Up, and also the appeal of some smartwatches, such as Apple Watch.
To test these features of Apple Watch, which starts shipping this Friday, I have gone on a workout spree over the past few weeks. I’ve gone running indoors and outdoors, finished a 5K road race, sweated through a few spin classes, practiced yoga, lifted weights and hiked a particularly hilly area in my neighborhood. I had my iPhone nearby most of the time, but I intentionally left it behind on a few occasions.
As I wrote in my earlier review, I’ve found Apple Watch to be a capable health-and-fitness tracker — especially for a smartwatch. I think it will appeal to people who either want to get up and move around more during the day and need reminders to do so, or who work out regularly and want a way to record these activities.
But it’s important to keep in mind that many other health trackers work with different smartphones and operating systems. Apple Watch, on the other hand, requires users to have an iPhone 5 or newer. And while its health-and-fitness features could be a big enough draw to convince people to buy the watch — maybe even more so than the promise of notifications — the watch is not yet at its full health-and-fitness potential.
The hardware
For people who plan to use Apple Watch primarily as a health-and-fitness device, the $349 Apple Watch Sport is the one to go with.
That’s the category I fit into, but I’ve been using the stainless-steel model, because that’s what was loaned to me by Apple for review purposes. It’s pricier and a little bit heavier than the Sport model, but the guts are the same.
The watch has an accelerometer, a gyroscope and optical heart-rate sensors, which measure your heart rate from your wrist. This combination of sensors is becoming pretty standard fare for activity trackers; products from Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, Fitbit, Basis, Mio and other vendors also have optical heart-rate sensors.
Apple Watch does not have built-in GPS. If you want to use GPS while going for a run or a bike ride, you’ll have to bring your iPhone with you. But, as I explain in the running section of this column, Apple Watch calibrates so that even if you do run without iPhone, recorded distances should be fairly accurate.
Apple Watch’s display isn’t highly visible in certain outdoor lighting.
Apple Watch is also not waterproof, which many people have asked me about. To be fair, most smartwatches aren’t fully waterproof, with the exception of Pebble and Sony SmartWatch 3. If you’re seriously into swimming or other water sports, a triathlete sport watch or a waterproof activity-tracking wristband is a better choice.
And while I suspect that the combination of sensors could technically track movement during sleeping hours and allow for interpretation of your sleep patterns, Apple Watch currently isn’t a sleep tracker.
Another not-insignificant note for outdoor enthusiasts about Apple Watch’s display: While it is pretty to look at indoors, it can be difficult to read in direct sunlight, even with the brightness dialed up to the max.
The software
There are two Apple-developed apps you’ll find yourself using for health and fitness on the watch, another app you’ll use on iPhone, and a fourth app that acts as a back-end data repository. That’s a lot of apps, and I generally dislike having to use so many to manage fitness, but these start to make sense after a little while.
The Activity app on Apple Watch colorfully displays key data points — calories burned, length of exercise sessions, and how many times you’ve hit your “Stand up!” goal throughout the day — in a series of rings. Each time you go above and beyond one of those preset goals, the ring for that goal will start to loop around again. Swiping up from the main “ring” display will show more data, like your total steps and total distance traveled for the day.
There’s a more comprehensive version of this Activity app on iPhone, where you can get a more in-depth view of your Move, Exercise and Stand progress, as well as a monthly view of your activity rings. But one of my biggest gripes with this app is that it doesn’t allow you to edit or add to the information that is already in there. I tend to use fitness apps like diaries — noting that this is the day I went stand-up paddling, or that I was feeling slow during a particular run — and you can’t do that here.
When you reach your activity goal for the day, Apple Watch lets you know. When I worked out early in the morning the watch would say, “Way to seize the day!”
One of my favorite features of the separate, dedicated Workout app on Apple Watch is that it shows you stats from your most recent exercise session right at the top of the list of workout options. Within Workout, you can record indoor and outdoor runs, walks, cycling, elliptical machine workouts, stair-stepping and rowing. There’s also an “Other” category, for everything else.
“Other” is considered the equivalent of a brisk walk — whether you’re taking a zen yoga class or are in the middle of an intense weight-lifting session. I hope at some point that Apple can offer more specific insights around these “Other” activities. Most likely, you’ll have to use a third-party yoga app, or a separate app for weight lifters.
Finally, there’s the Health app, which also runs on iPhone. It acts as push-and-pull software for all of your health-and-activity data that Apple is gathering. For instance, if you’re an iPhone user who has opted to share your health data for medical research purposes through Apple’s ResearchKit, some of this data may be pulled from Health. The Health app is an uninspiring-looking collection of graphs, but it’s really meant to be back-end software.
Here’s another example: If I use an an app like Strava to record my outdoor run, and I’m using MyFitnessPal to log my calorie intake that day, and I have them both connected to Apple’s Health app, the calories burned during my workout in Strava will automatically be deducted from my calorie count in MyFitnessPal.
Recorded workouts on Apple Watch should theoretically work the same way, but I did run into a bug: The “Other” workouts I recorded on Apple Watch were not shared to MyFitnessPal as they should have been. Apple says this should eventually be fixed, once more third-party developers finalize their Apple Watch apps.
Not-yet-at-the-party apps
There aren’t many third-party health-and-fitness apps running on Apple Watch yet, so I couldn’t really test this category. Apple says that dozens of health-and-fitness apps should be available by the time the end of the month, including Strava, MyFitnessPal, Endomondo, RunKeeper, FitStar Yoga, Jawbone Up, Nike+ Running and more.
But I did try a couple of apps that are already available for Apple Watch, and it was easy to see their potential. I tested Runtastic Six Pack, which guides you through ab exercises, and Lose It!, a food-logging app.
Runtastic’s Six Pack app for Apple Watch takes you through guided ab workouts.
With Six Pack, it was convenient to have a guided workout right on my wrist (admittedly, I did not get through many crunches). Lose It! was useful for quick glances of calorie and nutrient intake on the wrist, but most of the data-inputting still has to be done on the iPhone. In fact, with all of these apps, the load of the processing is happening on the iPhone.
Since Apple’s own apps don’t give many insights — for example, Apple does not plan to offer any kind of observations or recommendations based on trends in your heart-rate readings — it will be up to third-party app-makers to turn this data into something more valuable. Once they are available, it may be worth a follow-up column, because I think more apps will change the Apple Watch experience a lot.
The “get up off your a%&” feature
At this point in the column, you should probably take a break. Get up. Seriously, get up. Read the rest on a treadmill. Take a hike — literally.
This is what it’s like wearing an Apple Watch all day. It nags you more than an Italian mother. Many medical experts say that being sedentary is bad for your health. For this reason, Apple Watch buzzes regularly — up to a dozen times a day — to remind you to get up and move around for a minute. Each time you do this, it gets logged in your Activity app.
Apple Watch reminded me to move even when it was in airplane mode during a flight.
Apple Watch is hardly the first wearable to track inactivity. Jawbone, Garmin, Fitbit, Polar and Nike have all offered variations of the you’ve-been-sitting-too-long feature.
With Apple Watch, these gentle reminders happen whether or not you’ve worked out that day — underscoring that even if you exercised that morning, you still shouldn’t sit at your desk for eight hours straight. They also happen regardless of whether your iPhone is in range or paired with the watch. For example, I was reminded to stand up during long flights, even when my iPhone and Watch were in Airplane Mode.
Taking heart with Apple Watch
I’ve tried many wrist-wearables with optical heart-rate sensors, and some of the readings I’ve seen have been pretty erratic when compared with a simultaneous reading from a chest-based heart-rate monitor. That is not the case with Apple Watch.
I should note that none of these tests were done in labs; I conducted them during regular workout sessions, which is how most people will experience the watch. Every few minutes, I would check the reading I was getting from Apple Watch and the reading I was getting from my chest strap. During indoor cycling classes, the heart-rate readings from both wrist and chest often matched, or were off by just a few beats per minute.
I also tested this while running, since the watch tends to move around more when you’re pumping your arms, and can make accurate readings challenging. I was again pleasantly surprised by how close the readings were.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that heart rate readings from the optical sensors on Apple Watch were often consistent with the readings from a heart rate strap.
The one issue I had with these readings was how long it took to show heart rate while I was running (sometimes several seconds). Fortunately, Apple Watch can pair with a Bluetooth LE heart-rate strap, and will default to that instead of the wrist sensors. When I paired the watch with a Wahoo TickR heart rate strap, heart-rate readings showed up instantaneously.
When you’re not working out, Apple Watch captures your heart rate in two different ways. It will bring it up “on demand” when you raise your wrist and swipe to the heart-rate screen in the Watch’s “glances” of quick information. It’s also capturing your heart rate intermittently, every 10 minutes, in the background.
Runs with Apple Watch
Apple Watch doesn’t have GPS, so you have to carry your iPhone with you if you want to track your run with GPS. Even if you do run with your iPhone, neither the Workout app nor the Activity app show you maps of courses you have run.
Also, the Workout app doesn’t show runners things like splits or cadence, although it’s possible that a third-party app-maker could make an app that utilizes the watch’s sensors and would display this. And the Workout app doesn’t give audio alerts at key points throughout your run, which many running apps do.
That said, the Apple Watch automatically calibrates to your stride during your first few runs, so that even if you later run without your iPhone, you’ll get a close-to-accurate reading on distance. I found this to be true when I ran a couple of my regular neighborhood routes, and when I ran a 5K road race on an unfamiliar route, without my iPhone. For example, Apple Watch recorded my 5K race as 3.05 miles, just .05 shy of the actual distance.
My smartphone usually records this route as a 3.7 mile run. As you can see here, Apple Watch (without iPhone) came close to calculating the same distance.
Privacy Concerns
Because of privacy concerns, some Apple Watch wearers may not want the watch to track their health-and-fitness data at all, or may not want to share their data with Apple’s Health app. All of this is optional. To opt out of heart rate and fitness tracking, go into the main Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then to Privacy and Motion & Fitness.
Conclusion (for now)
If you already planned on getting an Apple Watch, you’ll likely be satisfied with its built-in health-and-fitness features — unless you’re a hardcore runner, a water-sport enthusiast, or you’re really sold on the idea of sleep tracking.
If you’re basing your purchase decision on how your favorite third-party health-and-fitness apps work on the watch, unfortunately, it’s too soon to tell. But we’ll be sure to follow up with more app experiences once we’ve tried them.
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