Coming soon: an iPad you can wear on your wrist? Reports are piling up that Apple is working on what some are calling the "iWatch," a wristwatch that would perform functions similar to the iPhone and iPad. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal first reported the rumors over the weekend, but a report from Bloomberg today has quite a bit of detail: 100 product designers are supposedly working on the device, according to two sources who give specific names of two senior employees involved. The size of the team, which is said to include employees from marketing as well as engineering, suggests Apple has gone beyond the experimental phase, the sources say.
The Next Web agrees with that assessment, and adds that it's also "out of character" for a story like this to include specific names. Now that three reports are out, there is "some weight" to the rumor, it concludes. Some details from the Times and the Journal, both of which make the requisite Dick Tracy comparisons:
- Bendable, curved glass, which Corning recently figured out how to make, will likely be used in the watch.
- Foxconn is involved, and is looking into how to make displays more power-efficient. (No one really wants to charge their watch every day, right?)
- Some things the watch could potentially be used for: health and fitness tracking, real-time navigation, text messaging, mobile payments, and of course, constant access to Siri.
Of course, if you just need an Apple watch now, you can always
turn your iPod Nano into one. (More
Apple stories.)