Watches

A number of solid reports have suggested that Apple is developing a smartwatch as it searches for new revenue streams in the increasingly competitive mobile market. While initial claims suggested the “iWatch” was still in the early stages of its development, some reports have pointed to a 2013 launch and now new evidence supporting that timeframe has emerged. More →

Apple (AAPL) plans to debut its much rumored smartwatch later this year, according to a new report. Bloomberg on Monday issued a claim that the so-called “iWatch” could pose a larger revenue opportunity than the HDTV Apple has supposedly been working on for years. The report suggests that Apple hopes to launch the device later this year and is considering a variety of functionality such as voice calling, mapping features and the ability to display notifications from the user’s phone on the watch’s display. The report claims Apple’s iWatch will also include pedometer features, and it may even monitor the wearer’s heart rate.

Apple (AAPL) has always been known for its trend-setting designs, but it looks like an early sketch of its long-rumored “iWatch” took a page from a long-forgotten fad from the early ’90s. Patently Apple has some good analysis of a 2011 patent filing that shows Apple has been working on a wristwatch that is essentially “a slap bracelet configured to display information wirelessly transmitted from a portable electronic device.” More →

Let’s be honest — an Apple (AAPL) wristwatch doesn’t at first glance sound like the most exciting product the company has come up with over the past decade. But if past patent filings are any indication, the long-rumored ‘iWatch’ could be much more interesting than some might think since they could help make the classic wristwatch work a lot more like an iPod. Researcher Nickolay Lamm, best known for his pre-release renders of the iPad mini and his futuristic iPhone design concepts, passed along some new renders showing what an iWatch could look like if Apple chooses to incorporate some key design elements from some of its older patent filings. More →