This Time It’s Personal
Uneasy lies the head that wears a digital crown. In a scene that would make product announcements in Dave Eggers’ The Circle seem understated (giant screens, cheering crowds, near-religious fervor), Apple once again drew the entire Internet’s attention to its latest tech release. You’ve got the bigger iPhone. You’ve got a new wireless, online/offline payment system. And you’ve got the much-anticipated Apple Watch (with a digital crown scroll-wheel) that Tim Cook described as “the most personal product we’ve ever created.” You can track fitness, share a drawing, check the latest Tweets, pick a movie on Apple TV, or, if you really want to, you can “even share something as personal as a heartbeat.” This is the just a hint of our wearable digital future. It will feature technical advances. It will show off remarkable design achievements. And it will mean never being offline again. The Verge has a quick overview of Apple’s 15 most important announcements. (At the end of the event, U2 performed. That seemed backwards. Technology is the new rock star. U2 should have opened for the watch.)