AdWeek:

Sean Bonner says, “There’s no way for a brand to “insert themselves into a conversation” about a tragedy like this without it being bad.

“Today (or whatever other tragedy this kind of thing has happened with) isn’t the time for marketing. It isn’t the time for branding or getting people to pay attention to companies. It’s a time for people to interact with each other, and the only respectful thing for brands to do is stay out of it and wait for tomorrow to get back to business.”

I see these kinds of marketing “tributes” all the time in these situations and Bonner and Monteiro are right – if you are a brand, just STFU.

Even though you have to sign-up to watch this keynote, I would recommend you do it. I was at the event yesterday and I just love Legere. He’s crazy as a bag of hammers, but he speaks bluntly and honestly about today’s carrier market. If you don’t want to watch the video, you can read the press release.

National Geographic:

The Knowledge of London is a real-time, street-level test of memorization skills so intense that it physically alters the brains of those who pass it.

To qualify for that elusive green badge, you need to learn by heart all 320 sample runs that are listed in the Blue Book, the would-be cabbie’s bible. You will also have to commit to memory the 25,000 streets, roads, avenues, courts, lanes, crescents, places, mews, yards, hills, and alleys that lie within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross.

I am severely directionally challenged and couldn’t complete The Knowledge on pain of death but reading about the process they have to go through is fascinating.

New York magazine:

It will start with a friend. A friend who lives in San Francisco, maybe. Or who works as a venture capitalist. Or who recently had a birthday.

And then, sometime around June, you’ll get an unexpected infusion of cash — a security deposit you forgot you’d paid, or a few hundred dollars from your tax return. And you’ll find yourself on Apple.com late at night, admiring the watch, wondering if the $349 you’d spend would ever really be worth it.

What the hell, you’ll say. Add to cart.

It won’t work this way for most people but this will be a process very similar to what many have gone through in the past with Apple products and certainly will with the Apple Watch.

I love a good engineering effort. Paul Sprangers uses known numbers and some images from the Apple Watch site to build a more complete picture of the various Apple Watch dimensions. Be sure to read the comments, too.

A nice tip, just in case U2 is not your cup of tea.

New York Times:

Apple is facing a potential setback in China, one of its biggest and fastest-growing markets, after the much-anticipated introductions here of the new iPhone models were delayed.

On Wednesday, Apple told China’s three big state-owned mobile service providers that it would not release the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in mainland China on Sept. 19, when sales start elsewhere. The carriers had already booked advertising campaigns for the phones.

Last year, Apple released both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in China on the same day it was released in the US. It’s not clear how long the lag will be for the iPhone 6 release. The issue seems to be one of regulatory approval:

News reports in China on Wednesday said the iPhone 6 had not yet been approved by the Ministry for Industry and Information Technology, which must sign off on the technology of devices like smartphones. No approval for the iPhone 6 could be found on the regulator’s website on Wednesday.

Here are some comments on the announcement of Apple’s “newest” digital device:

“I was so hoping for something more.”

“Great just what the world needs.”

“Heres an idea Apple – rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive line up? Or are you really aiming to become a glorified consumer gimmicks firm?”

“I still can’t believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares? I want something new! I want them to think differently!”

“Why oh why would they do this?! It’s so wrong! It’s so stupid!”

“Come on everyone, y’all are saying it sucks before you have even held it in your hand.”

“The reason why everyone’s dissapointed is because we had our hopes up for this incredible device.”

Pretty typical commentary.

Except, all of the above is taken from the forums at Macrumors and all of the above, and more, are referring to the launch of the original iPod.

Some things never change.

Fast Company:

In January of 1984, Apple announced the Macintosh. Among the many things which made the launch memorable was the fact that the brand-new computer was accompanied by a brand-new magazine, IDG’s Macworld. Thanks to a deal hashed out by IDG’s David Bunnell and Apple’s Steve Jobs, the first issue debuted the same day that the Mac did, which means that there’s never been such a thing as a Mac market that wasn’t covered by Macworld.

Sadly, that long run is about to end.

The 800lb gorilla of Mac publishing just became a 4lb chihuahua. Sad day.

For those of you who want a copy of your own, Apple has posted the video of yesterday’s event on their Apple Keynotes podcast page.

HODINKEE:

I do not believe it poses any threat to haute horology manufactures, I do think the Apple Watch will be a big problem for low-priced quartz watches, and even some entry-level mechanical watches. In years to come, it could pose a larger threat to higher end brands, too. The reason? Apple got more details right on their watch than the vast majority of Swiss and Asian brands do with similarly priced watches, and those details add up to a really impressive piece of design. It offers so much more functionality than other digitals it’s almost embarrassing. But it’s not perfect, by any means. Read on to hear my thoughts on the Apple Watch, from the perspective of a watch guy.

Great perspective from “the other side of the fence” – how does the Apple Watch fit into the watch market? Thanks to Jared Earle for the link.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. will reap fees from banks when consumers use an iPhone in place of credit and debit cards for purchases, a deal that gives the handset maker a cut of the growing market for mobile payments, according to three people with knowledge of the arrangement.

Under deals reached with banks individually, Cupertino, California-based Apple will collect a fee for each transaction, said one of the people, who requested anonymity because terms aren’t public. While that gives the tech company a share of the more than $40 billion that banks generate annually from so-called swipe fees, lenders expect to benefit as consumers spend more of their money via mobile phones and other digital devices, the person said.

“The timing is right with customer behavior, the customer experience is right, and elements have come together around how the ecosystem is evolving for this to be a game changer,” Gavin Michael, JPMorgan’s digital chief, said in an interview. “We’ve seen — certainly in our customer base — a drive to the mobile channel.”

Game changer, indeed.

Sprint is certainly aggressive.

Streaming Media:

Apple’s live stream of the unveiling of the iPhone 6 and Watch was a disaster today right from the start, with many users like myself having problems trying to watch the event. While at first I assumed it must be a capacity issue pertaining to Akamai, a deeper look at the code on Apple’s page and some other elements from the event shows that decisions made by Apple pertaining to their website, and problems with how they setup storage on Amazon’s S3 service, contributed the biggest problems to the event.

Interesting take on the utter disaster that was the streaming video of this morning’s event.

Ars Technica:

Apple has officially announced a release date for iOS 8, the latest version of the operating system that powers iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. The new software launches on September 17, and as we’ve written before it will be available on the iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S; the iPad 2, both Retina iPads, the iPad Air, and both iPad minis; the fifth-generation iPod touch; and all revisions of the third-generation Apple TV.

This was almost lost among the news of all the other cool things Apple announced today.

TidBITS:

With Apple Pay, Apple’s self-described mission is to replace your wallet, enabling you to pay a bill by holding an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, or the forthcoming Apple Watch, up to a payment sensor. No more fumbling with credit cards and signing receipts, or worrying about having enough cash. In theory, at least, Apple Pay both improves the payment experience and brings new levels of security and privacy to credit card payments.

Adam makes a very good point about wallets, too. This won’t replace it for most of us because we need to carry around other cards as well. But it’s a step towards an interesting future.

My question has always been, is using a credit card really all that difficult for most people that they need and want this kind of replacement?

Macworld:

With the death of the iPod classic, we witness the last of the original 5GB white iPod’s line. No more hard drive. No more squarish screen. No more wheel control.

And, no surprise.

True but there’s still nostalgia for the little thing.

The Verge:

The Apple Watch is amazing and boring at the same time.

After nearly two years of rumors, the Apple Watch has finally been unveiled.

Ignore the stupid words associated with this article but go look at the real world pics they have of the various watch faces and bands.

Apple has posted a page with a good overview of the four iPhone models and their specs. The pics are interesting and the iPhone 6 Plus seems huge.

Microsoft may be understandably peeved about this after committing to spend $400 million on an exclusive advertising and equipment deal with the NFL, but then the networks that cover the games aren’t under the league’s control. Educating their commentators may be as important to Microsoft as enlightening the rest of the world to the Surface’s advantages.

I disagree. These announcers are well educated. Watch the video below. They know an iPad-like device when they see one.

Pavan Rajam, writing about a potential iWatch and its place in your device ecosystem:

The smartphone is easily the most personal device we own today. It is our life in our pockets. It is our connection to the rest of the world. We take them with us and use them where ever we can.

Yet there is still a gap, there is still some friction. There are moments when we are without our phones. We can lose them. They can be stolen. On the less sinister side, we give them to other people to look at something, or to hold for us.

There is simply no guarantee that the person using a smartphone is the person to whom it belongs. That’s problematic when you look at use cases which benefit from stronger ties between a user’s identity and presence in the physical world. Use cases like health tracking, home automation, payments, and transitioning between devices. These use cases benefit from something better, something more omnipresent to the user than a smartphone.

This is an excellent point. A wearable is personal. While someone else might use your phone, there are far fewer cases where someone would use your wearable, which makes it the perfect sensor for gathering truly personal data (e.g., pulse, stride, glucose/insulin levels).

While a watch is a wearable, it is not the perfect wearable for all use cases. By its very nature, a watch’s shape is constrained to be of a shape, size, and weight to fit unobtrusively on your wrist. Google Glass is a wearable that serve a very different function, so its place is on your face.

One advantage of a watch as a wearable is that it occupies some very special real estate on your body. If you want to communicate, your wrist can quickly be extended as needed. For example, if your watch was part of a payment system, you can extend your wrist to bring it into contact with a payment terminal, much more easily than digging out your phone or glasses.

Quartz:

One of Apple’s most successful products—which rarely gets recognized as such—is made not of aluminum and glass, but of words and pictures. The Apple keynote is the tool the company uses a few times a year to unveil its other products to millions of people.

To understand their hidden structure, Quartz reviewed more than a dozen Apple keynotes, logging and analyzing key elements. Here’s what we found.

Those of us who have attended these events in person have often remarked on the similarities in structure and tone from one to the next.