Inside the 'iWatch': The technology Apple is looking at for your wrist
Apple's anticipated entry to the wearable devices market has taken on near-mythical status, with rumors reaching every corner of the technology map. AppleInsider has rounded up some of the technologies most likely to find their way into the still-unannounced "iWatch."
Apple's interest: A $578 million deal with sapphire equipment maker GT Advanced Technologies to open and operate a massive commercial sapphire plant in Arizona.
Much has been made of Apple's agreement GT Advanced Technologies. Many believe the new jointly-operated facility in Arizona will produce display covers to replace the Gorilla Glass currently used in the iPhone and iPad; some think the crystals will be used in an iWatch, while still others believe that Apple simply needs more sapphire for its camera lenses and Touch ID housings.
If sapphire is to be used as a main component of an Apple device, the iWatch is its most likely target. High-end watch companies have long used sapphire to cover the faces of their timepieces because of its scratch resistance, but -- as anyone who has dropped a sapphire-covered watch can attest -- the material is prone to shattering, making it far better suited for a device that's constantly strapped to a person rather than hanging loosely in their hands.
Liquidmetal
A number of cast Liquidmetal casings for mobile phones | Source: Liquidmetal
Apple's interest: A $20 million contract for exclusive rights to use Liquidmetal in consumer electronics and a number of manufacturing patents related to the material. That agreement was re-upped through February 2015 earlier this week.
Liquidmetal is an amorphous alloy -- essentially, metallic glass -- that is much lighter, harder, and more flexible than metals traditionally used in electronics manufacturing. Parts made of Liquidmetal could "snap back" from deformations that might cause permanent bends or dents in other metals, such as Apple's omnipresent aluminum, and it's extremely scratch-resistant.
Liquidmetal is difficult to work with, however. Apple famously tested its viability by using it to make the SIM ejector tool included with the iPhone 3GS, but Liquidmetal's inventor predicted in 2012 that at least two to four years of further refinement in manufacturing processes was necessary before it could be commercially viable on a large scale.
Complicating Liquidmetal's possible appearance in Apple's iWatch is a deal with Switzerland's Swatch group that granted the horologists exclusive use of Liquidmetal in watches.
Apple's interest: Apple has a number of OLED-related patents to its name, including dynamic brightness adjustment and improved power efficiency. The company also hired away a senior OLED researcher from LG Display.
OLED -- or organic light-emitting diode -- displays are a new type of display in which each pixel is made of an organic compound that emits light when electrical current is passed through it. Because of this design, OLED panels don't require a backlight, making them thinner and lighter than traditional LCD-based panels and adding the potential to be folded or curved.
While many Apple watchers previously expected the iWatch to ship with a more traditional LCD panel, the tide of opinion has shifted in recent months in favor of OLED. The inclusion of a flexible OLED would allow for a more form-fitting design in which the screen could curve with the contours of the wearer's wrist, rather than sitting flat on the top.
From the outside, Apple has long seemed apathetic toward OLEDs. Former CEO Steve Jobs is thought to have disliked the technology, and current chief Tim Cook panned OLED earlier this year, saying that the displays showed "awful" color saturation.
"If you ever buy anything online and really want to know what he color is, as many people do, you should really think twice before you depend on the color from an OLED display," he said.
Micro-LED
A similar micro LED array displayed by Taiwanese researchers
Apple's interest: Acquired micro-LED display maker LuxVue Technologies earlier this month for an unknown price.
Micro LEDs are essentially exactly what they sound like: very small LEDs. The technology that enables their miniaturization also plays a part in lowering power consumption and increasing brightness, with the combination placing micro LED arrays in direct competition with OLEDs.
This is a relatively new technology, however; Apple's acquisition of secretive LuxVue is likely to have given micro LEDs more exposure the day it was uncovered than the technology has received since its invention. Despite a number of high-profile backers -- and their rumored inclusion in Google's next-generation Glass headset -- micro LEDs have yet to find their way into shipping consumer device.
Still, there is reason to believe that Apple may have chosen the micro LED route. At least one of LuxVue's patents covers the manufacturing of a curved micro LED array, which could replace the flexible AMOLED display Apple is thought to have targeted.
Apple has made a massive investment in semiconductor technology in recent years, and the iWatch is likely to put those advancements front-and-center. While the iPhone is a technologically impressive piece of kit, the iWatch would have to be a miniaturization tour de force in order to live up to the rumors surrounding its capabilities.
Apple began its semiconductor roadshow in 2008 with the purchase of P.A. Semi, a power-efficient fabless semiconductor design firm working on PowerPC-based chips. Later, in 2010, they purchased Intrinsity, an ARM-focused studio that is thought to have contributed to the development of the A-series processors.
Last August, Apple acquired Passif Semiconductor, a company that develops ultra-low-power communications chips. The company has also been seen snapping up senior RF engineers from Broadcom, sparking rumors of a new in-house baseband team.
Finally, last November, Apple picked up Israeli firm PrimeSense for a rumored $360 million, pushing their total investment in semiconductor technology up toward $1 billion. Taken together, the sheer volum of chip design talent and intellectual property now in-house in Cupertino is staggering -- any iWatch introduction is likely to bring along with it a similarly-impressive display of silicon engineering.
That probably won't include noninvasive blood glucose monitoring or three-dimensional mapping, though. Apple is more likely to put its considerable resources to bear on more mundane, but still difficult tasks -- like integrating an application processor, baseband, and wireless communications controller in a single, smaller, less power-hungry chip.
Materials
Sapphire
Apple's interest: A $578 million deal with sapphire equipment maker GT Advanced Technologies to open and operate a massive commercial sapphire plant in Arizona.
Much has been made of Apple's agreement GT Advanced Technologies. Many believe the new jointly-operated facility in Arizona will produce display covers to replace the Gorilla Glass currently used in the iPhone and iPad; some think the crystals will be used in an iWatch, while still others believe that Apple simply needs more sapphire for its camera lenses and Touch ID housings.
If sapphire is to be used as a main component of an Apple device, the iWatch is its most likely target. High-end watch companies have long used sapphire to cover the faces of their timepieces because of its scratch resistance, but -- as anyone who has dropped a sapphire-covered watch can attest -- the material is prone to shattering, making it far better suited for a device that's constantly strapped to a person rather than hanging loosely in their hands.
Liquidmetal
A number of cast Liquidmetal casings for mobile phones | Source: Liquidmetal
Apple's interest: A $20 million contract for exclusive rights to use Liquidmetal in consumer electronics and a number of manufacturing patents related to the material. That agreement was re-upped through February 2015 earlier this week.
Liquidmetal is an amorphous alloy -- essentially, metallic glass -- that is much lighter, harder, and more flexible than metals traditionally used in electronics manufacturing. Parts made of Liquidmetal could "snap back" from deformations that might cause permanent bends or dents in other metals, such as Apple's omnipresent aluminum, and it's extremely scratch-resistant.
Liquidmetal is difficult to work with, however. Apple famously tested its viability by using it to make the SIM ejector tool included with the iPhone 3GS, but Liquidmetal's inventor predicted in 2012 that at least two to four years of further refinement in manufacturing processes was necessary before it could be commercially viable on a large scale.
Complicating Liquidmetal's possible appearance in Apple's iWatch is a deal with Switzerland's Swatch group that granted the horologists exclusive use of Liquidmetal in watches.
Displays
OLED
Apple's interest: Apple has a number of OLED-related patents to its name, including dynamic brightness adjustment and improved power efficiency. The company also hired away a senior OLED researcher from LG Display.
OLED -- or organic light-emitting diode -- displays are a new type of display in which each pixel is made of an organic compound that emits light when electrical current is passed through it. Because of this design, OLED panels don't require a backlight, making them thinner and lighter than traditional LCD-based panels and adding the potential to be folded or curved.
While many Apple watchers previously expected the iWatch to ship with a more traditional LCD panel, the tide of opinion has shifted in recent months in favor of OLED. The inclusion of a flexible OLED would allow for a more form-fitting design in which the screen could curve with the contours of the wearer's wrist, rather than sitting flat on the top.
From the outside, Apple has long seemed apathetic toward OLEDs. Former CEO Steve Jobs is thought to have disliked the technology, and current chief Tim Cook panned OLED earlier this year, saying that the displays showed "awful" color saturation.
"If you ever buy anything online and really want to know what he color is, as many people do, you should really think twice before you depend on the color from an OLED display," he said.
Micro-LED
A similar micro LED array displayed by Taiwanese researchers
Apple's interest: Acquired micro-LED display maker LuxVue Technologies earlier this month for an unknown price.
Micro LEDs are essentially exactly what they sound like: very small LEDs. The technology that enables their miniaturization also plays a part in lowering power consumption and increasing brightness, with the combination placing micro LED arrays in direct competition with OLEDs.
This is a relatively new technology, however; Apple's acquisition of secretive LuxVue is likely to have given micro LEDs more exposure the day it was uncovered than the technology has received since its invention. Despite a number of high-profile backers -- and their rumored inclusion in Google's next-generation Glass headset -- micro LEDs have yet to find their way into shipping consumer device.
Still, there is reason to believe that Apple may have chosen the micro LED route. At least one of LuxVue's patents covers the manufacturing of a curved micro LED array, which could replace the flexible AMOLED display Apple is thought to have targeted.
Semiconductors
Apple has made a massive investment in semiconductor technology in recent years, and the iWatch is likely to put those advancements front-and-center. While the iPhone is a technologically impressive piece of kit, the iWatch would have to be a miniaturization tour de force in order to live up to the rumors surrounding its capabilities.
Apple began its semiconductor roadshow in 2008 with the purchase of P.A. Semi, a power-efficient fabless semiconductor design firm working on PowerPC-based chips. Later, in 2010, they purchased Intrinsity, an ARM-focused studio that is thought to have contributed to the development of the A-series processors.
Apple has spent nearly $1 billion on semiconductor technology firms -- that we know of.
Last August, Apple acquired Passif Semiconductor, a company that develops ultra-low-power communications chips. The company has also been seen snapping up senior RF engineers from Broadcom, sparking rumors of a new in-house baseband team.
Finally, last November, Apple picked up Israeli firm PrimeSense for a rumored $360 million, pushing their total investment in semiconductor technology up toward $1 billion. Taken together, the sheer volum of chip design talent and intellectual property now in-house in Cupertino is staggering -- any iWatch introduction is likely to bring along with it a similarly-impressive display of silicon engineering.
That probably won't include noninvasive blood glucose monitoring or three-dimensional mapping, though. Apple is more likely to put its considerable resources to bear on more mundane, but still difficult tasks -- like integrating an application processor, baseband, and wireless communications controller in a single, smaller, less power-hungry chip.
Comments
Oh Look!! It has a Mac 128K built in...!!!
I see no mention of the med-tech that Apple has been sourcing.
FOOLS!
These crystals are the key component in a new technology designed to communicate with alien civilisations who are already taking over the planet. Look at the new 'flying saucer' Apple campus. We are all doomed.
Nicely done, a brilliant article.
"as anyone who has dropped a sapphire-covered watch can attest -- the material is prone to shattering"
This statement surprises me. Surely there are instances of people breaking their watch crystal sometime. But EVERYBODY drops their watch. It just happens. And I can't think of any instance I've experienced, or that I know of, where someone has dropped their watch, and kind-of automatically said "Darn, there goes my watch crystal. They are extremely durable. "Prone to shattering"? Nah. That's way overstating.
As has been noted, as hard as sapphire is, it still can be scratched. And I would wager that this, still by far, makes up for the majority of sapphire watch crystal replacements over actual breakage. (?)
What about the software? No mention about it in the article.
Or is it that everyone assumes that it will run some form of iOS?
Even if the final product does run some iOS based OS, I wouldn't be surprised that Apple also currently has an iWatch prototype running the Pixo OS (iPod OS) as a plan B.
If you look at the latest iPod nano OS, you'll see that the Pixo team went to great lengths into reproducing iOS behaviours (looks like iOS 6 though, but that's a detail). With no new update to the iPod lineup and dwindling iPod sales, you have to wonder what the Pixo team is doing right now with an OS that evolved a lot since the original iPod in 2001.
Does an iWatch really need to support CPU intensive apps? If needed, can't the paired iPhone or the cloud serve to handle complex calculations? With a small screen like that, I don't think anyone is expecting to run GarageBand or Numbers.
And what if using a similar process to CarPlay, the iPhone could project third party app interfaces into the iWatch touch screen? CarPlay runs on small embedded OSes like QNX, something the Pixo OS could handle without problems.
If Apple is planning on releasing an iWatch, I would imagine it will need to be very dependent on Siri. Unfortunately, Siri is almost unusable for general purposes. Just today, while I was driving I asked, "Who won the Indianapolis 500?" Sire responded with, "This is what I found". Of course I can't read the screen while driving, so I said please read it to me. The gibberish that followed was so incoherent I can't even remember what she said. Eventually when I was no longer driving I was able to see she had offered up a wikipedia page on the definition of Indy 500. Useless. After giving Siri first crack I then turned to Google and unsurprisingly got a full run down of the exciting conclusion of the final laps, all in clear voice, although she did have a bit of trouble with the name of the Brasilian native Hello Castroneves' pronunciation.
That seems to imply it would have its own cellular and WiFi capabilities. I would be surprised if either of those are included. I would think that BLE and being heavily dependent on another iDevice would be how this would operate. Not unlike how many firness bands operate insofar as they have basic stand-alone UI options but most of their utility is shown when connected to an iPhone all the data is synced and then displayed on screen. I would shocked to see Apple follow in the footsteps of the "smartwatches" we've seen crop up since over the last couple years.
That seems to imply it would have its own cellular and WiFi capabilities. I would be surprised if either of those are included. I would think that BLE and being heavily dependent on another iDevice would be how this would operate. Not unlike how many firness bands operate insofar as they have basic stand-alone UI options but most of their utility is shown when connected to an iPhone all the data is synced and then displayed on screen. I would shocked to see Apple follow in the footsteps of the "smartwatches" we've seen crop up since over the last couple years.
Not necessarily have its own cellular, just that if it is going to be useful to people who do not want to take their phone out of their pocket to view general information, she should be able to communicate the exact information requested, when it is so clearly specific and also with time context, not just a Wikipedia page, particularly while driving.
Siri. where is the nearest high ground to escape a flood? I found this " Wikipedia definition of flood."
I would expect Siri but only though an iPhone which would basically add a flag to state you're requesting via the wrist worn device. This would lead to it not being the exact same information but something more limited and handled differently. For instance, anything that requires opening up Safari would tell you that you need to use your iPhone, but other info like appointments, reminders, daily steps, etc. it could read back and even display that simple information for you.
No matter how you slice it, Siri is just awful at doing anything but setting appointments or sending text messages, although I would never trust her to do that. She can convert knots to miles per hour reliably but if I had to really depend on her, she would just as likely make a sarcastic comment as offer some useful information. In my opinion Siri is about one tenth as usable as Google voice, maybe less because she causes me to become annoyed and lose my cool and I'm not just saying that because I am a Google fan, just that Siri fails 90% of the time for the things I ask her, but it is one more swipe and tap to get to Google but it is always worth it.
Complicating Liquidmetal's possible appearance in Apple's iWatch is a deal with Switzerland's Swatch group that granted the horologists exclusive use of Liquidmetal in watches.
My feeling is that an Apple watch would be barely discernible as a smart watch... more likely (possibly several) (elegant) dress watch designs. The watch would exhibit hands and hour markers and possibly a minute rail, a display watch face that provides limited data display and alerts (set by user preference and current activity) and possibly a dynamic bezel. The overriding interest for Apple however, would be the watch as a super transducer. Apple would pack as much sensing capability into this device as physically possible. The watch would pass data processing and analysis off to the iPhone but provide limited data storage for those times when an iPhone cannot be found. Swatch, an approximately $10B Swiss company might be of interest to Apple for its patents, movement and other watch design, capabilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swatch_Group
Apple will only release an iWatch for utterly compelling reasons, not to be just another 'smart' watch manufacturer. Whatever 'big' health issues can be addressed with this device, Apple would at least look at very closely. Power hungry facilities though will be very, very carefully scrutinised and therefore, communications might be limited to ultra low-power bluetooth for example.
An OLED display with a that ultra thin Helvetic Neue font could reduce the power output to the display significantly. And they could use sensors to know when it's on your side and when you're lifting it up to be used.
You know how dive watches have the physical bezel that can be turned? I could see an elegant solution that has a visceral clicking feel that would allow you to change modes, apps or whatever. This doesn't negate the need for a touchscreen, but it could add to it and make it natural to use.
When I look at nice watches, especially the smaller women's watches I wonder if we're there yet. I have no doubt that wearables are coming but I am not sure we're at a point where Apple can release a great wrist worn device that can be a worthwhile accessory to the iPhone (and potentially the iPad and Mac) without having such a horrible battery life or charging option that it kills interest as well as being something universally stylish without being more than a few hundred dollars..
When I look at nice watches, especially the smaller women's watches
I've noticed that women are wearing large mens style watches lately.
That's good because there is no way you can give the same functionality and battery life to the range of small to large watches we have seen our whole lives.