robjn

You write: “Apple had originally said that the titanium Apple Watch would be 45% lighter.”

This is is incorrect, both at the event and on the webpage they said that “titanium is 45% lighter than steel”.

They did not say the watch was 45% lighter, just that the material “titanium” is lighter.

Very roughly Titanium has about twice the mass of aluminum and about half that of steel.

It’s exceptional quality is NOT being light, it is being strong for it’s weight.

The weight of the titanium watch case falls about half way between the aluminum and steel models.

Apple’s glasses maybe a year or two away. However, there is some speculation that Apple will unveil Stereo AR as soon as next week.

The idea is that Stereo AR will launch with basic 3rd party hardware and/or a Google Cardboard-like build it yourself kit. Developers will be able to use this to start making Stereo AR apps and games and users will be able to get started with it right away.

By the time Apple releases its hardware there will already be apps that support Stereo AR. This will allow the new hardware to hit the ground running.

Apple’s hardware will unlock new capabilities and take the experience to a much higher level.

The basis for this speculation is the fact that Apple already have Stereo AR running in non-public builds of iOS13.

I’ve had the card for 11 days tucked into the back of my leather Decoded XR case.

Every time I put my phone down the card makes contact with various surfaces.

Nether-the-less the white paint finish still looks perfect. The magnet strip has a few marks, like on any other card.

The white finish is extremely durable. According to Apple’s video, the finish is sprayed on before the Apple logo is laser de-bossed. Amazingly, the white finish is not discolored by a laser hot enough to vaporize titanium. I find this hard to believe.

If the card starts looking really scruffy over time it’s no big deal because Apple put a ‘send me a fresh new card’ button in the Wallet app.

I was waiting to see what card-gate the media could come up with, I expected to see not just scratch tests but also drop and bend tests.

But whatever happens it’s no big deal, just tap a button in the app and they send you a new card. 

rob53 said:

edit: Also got an email from Apple saying there were changes to my billing information even though all my information was up to date.

This is probably because you made the new card the default for you Apple purchases (in order to get the 3% cash back).

The card associated with your Apple ID was changed to the new one.

You write: Another obstacle is the terms of Apple's legal settlement with Qualcomm, which resulted in a six-year licensing deal and a chip supply arrangement that could potentially last just as long. If so that could mean Qualcomm chips in iPhones as late as 2025.

Apple has licensed Qualcomm’s patents for 6 years. However, the chip supply deal is only described as “multi-year”. This could just be 2 or 3 years. Apple could potentially release it’s own chips at any time and these chips could use some Qualcomm technology under the licensing deal. Apple may first use its own modems in products like Watch and iPad before later bringing them to iPhone.