Last Tuesday, September 9th, 2014, at the Fleet Center in San Francisco, took place the much anticipated Apple keynote, where the new iPhones were presented (iPhone6 and iPhone6 Plus), as well as the new paying system Apple-Pay, and especially the Apple Watch, Apple‘s vision for the future of smartwhatches. We at Oimmei are very excited about the news that were presented and want to share the reasons with you!
iPhone6 and iPhone6 Plus
We already knew how the new iPhone is like, and we hope Apple will move production to the US entirely like they did for the MacPro, so we will find again the pleasure of discovering the news the day of the keynote. Putting aside these nostalgic personal reflections, there are two aspects that peaked our curiosity: the new M8 processor and the Apple-Pay developer system.
The first is an evolution of the M7 that was already present in theiPhone5S , which allows to gather numerous information about the state ofactivities of theiPhone, like how many flights of stairs we climbed at the start of the training session, how many times we stood from the chair in the last period of time, etc… not counting the possibility of gathering GPS information based on the activity the user is doing (running, biking, car ride). Thanks to this information it will be possible to write new, more precise fitness or geolocation apps, or modify the information based on the activity a person is doing, for example it will be possible to edit the navigation directions given on the way if the user leaves their car and proceeds on foot, or to differentiate the type of training in a training app, like running, treadmill, biking.
ApplePay is instead Apple‘s solution for payments, already tested by Android with the introduction of NFC, but which never got much traction. Thanks to the capacities of Apple in partnerships, this could be the “right one”, but other than its use in physical stores (which remains an exclusive implementation for Apple), it will be possible to use the same security system for electronic payments inside the Apps, so there will be no longer a need to use third-party services (PayPal, Square, etc..), instead the payment will be directly channeled by the tools made available by Apple, and through authorization using the user’s TouchID (fingerprints). The change for App developers is huge; the possibilities to create applications with payments directly made through the App (paying a taxi called through the App or the bill at the restaurant I booked through the App) without the user having to input their credit card info and without worrying about security issues (transmission of data to third parties for verification, saving credit card numbers, etc.). My prediction is that we’ll see more and more applications that will allow us to pay for “physical goods” directly from the App, especially because the users will feel safer about their data being compromised (they already used the same payment method in the AppStore).
AppleWatch
The much anticipated and long-awaited iWatch has finally been revealed, with a standing ovation at the “One More Thing” announcement (a sentence that had not been used since the death of Steve Jobs) made by Tim Cook and in my opinion it did not betray expectations. I will not start commenting the form, dimensions and if it is fashionable or not (I’m a geek at heart after all). I already knew that if the “heart” of the AppleWatch had convinced me, I would have bought it regardless of its appearance. To have a complete overview of the various models, wristbands and more, it’s possible to browse the nice mini-website made by Apple. I’m particularly interested in the possibilities that will open for us developers; in fact it will soon be possible to have the WatchKit, a development environment for theAppleWatch through which it will be possible to create interactive notification, complete Apps or “glances”, which are the widget version of AppleWatch and which on the iPhone will be present in the Notification Center.
Here at Oimmei we already have a multitude of ideas about the possibilities to expand our applications outside of the iPhone, to create a user experience even more immediate and engaging. Something in particular caught my attention; behind the watch case there are 4 sensors, 2 of them to monitor heartbeats and gather information on a person’s health, while the other 2 send light stimuli (like tiny taps) to the user. Apple showed its usefulness in case a notification arrives or to inform the user during navigation without always having to look at the watch and we instantly wondered if it could be possible to use this function outside of the “standard” applications. With this it could be possible to create an App to send messages in Morse Code, for example, or to alert the user in a particular way in case something important happens in the app.
The more I think about what could be done, the more ideas I get, and I can’t wait for Apple to release the developer kit to understand exactly what can and cannot be done.
Images from Apple.com
