MacRumors

Apple CEO Tim Cook today sent out an email to all Apple employees to thank them for the effort they've put into the launch of the Apple Watch and to announce a major discount on Apple Watch models for Apple workers. The email was obtained by MacRumors and is shared below.

Employees will be able to order any stainless steel Apple Watch or Apple Watch Sport for personal use at a 50 percent discount, and Apple is also offering $550 off the Apple Watch Edition. $550 is half off the most expensive stainless steel Apple Watch and the maximum discount that employees can obtain.

Team,

The day we’ve all been waiting for is almost here: Apple Watch is ready to ship.

Our retail stores are training for a whole new way to engage customers and help them experience Apple’s most personal product yet. On Friday, in over four hundred stores across four continents, we’ll open our doors to people who want to try on Apple Watch for the first time and start deciding which one is right for them.

Tens of millions of people have seen our keynotes and demonstration videos about the watch, and there’s much more to come. Some of the most innovative developers in the world are working on new experiences designed specifically for Apple Watch. More than one thousand apps were submitted in just four days last week when the App Store started accepting them, and the rate of submissions has only been climbing since then.

I know that many of you have been looking forward to choosing an Apple Watch for yourselves, and we want to make it easy for you. Starting Friday in countries where the watch is available for pre-order, a special Employee Purchase Plan will offer a 50% discount on any Apple Watch or Apple Watch Sport for your personal use.

As we introduce the watch in more countries, the special pricing for employees will be offered in those countries as well. Discounts will begin at pre-order and last for 90 days after availability. AppleWeb has more details, so I invite you to check it out.

Our products enrich people’s lives like no others, and we think Apple Watch is going to delight our customers in ways people can’t yet imagine. We want you to share in that experience right alongside them.

Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard for years to help this product reach our customers. And thanks in advance to the thousands of retail employees around the world who will start placing it on people’s wrists starting Friday.

Tim

Over the course of the past several weeks, MacRumors has spoken to multiple Apple retail employees who have relayed just how much work has gone into Apple Watch preparations. Training for the Apple Watch has been intense and somewhat stressful, as employees have needed to learn all new sales techniques to relate to customers in a more personal manner to offer fashion recommendations.

Employees are also gearing up for a couple of busy weeks as customers begin scheduling try-on appointments in stores beginning April 10, so the discount on the Apple Watch will be seen as a welcome bonus. In his email, Tim Cook says that he wants Apple retail employees to "share in the experience" of the Apple Watch right alongside the customers that are purchasing them, and he goes on to thank all of the retail employees that will be working with customers in the coming weeks.

Tim Cook's email also includes a note about third-party apps. He says that "more than one thousand apps" were submitted to Apple for approval last week after the company began accepting submissions, and that "the rate of submissions has only been climbing since then." We've covered many of the Apple Watch apps that have already surfaced, both in a comprehensive list that contained many of the first available apps and individual posts (airlines, to-do lists, transit apps) that give a deeper look at how we'll be able to use the Apple Watch. Even more info on Apple Watch apps can be found on Apple's dedicated app site.

The Apple Watch will be available for pre-order beginning April 10, which is also the day that try-on appointments will become available. The Apple Watch officially launches on April 24.

Apple's retail employees were today given newly redesigned shirts that will be worn during the Apple Watch launch, MacRumors has learned. The shirts are a dark shade of navy blue, much darker in color than the existing brighter blue shirts employees wear now. Employees have been given two T-shirts each and have been instructed to wear the shirts beginning on April 10. Apple also typically distributes polo shirts and T-shirts with longer sleeves, but employees have not yet received these.

The new shirts Apple employees are receiving for the Apple Watch mark the second wardrobe change that's been enacted this year. In January, Apple distributed redesigned T-shirts and polo shirts all in a dark shade of blue, with an Apple logo located at the top left of the shirt, over the heart.

Apple's head of retail Angela Ahrendts was rumored to be behind the first style change, and she's likely handling the new look for employees during the Apple Watch as well, using her expertise as Burberry's former CEO to find a uniform look that's suitable for employees handling every day sales and those dedicated to serving high-end retail customers as Apple prepares to start selling its first luxury item, the gold Apple Watch Edition.

Along with new shirts, the launch of the Apple Watch has brought many changes for retail employees. Employees are undergoing rigorous training in order to get ready to sell the Apple Watch, which is being positioned as a fashion item. As we've learned from leaked training materials, employees are learning how to interact with customers in all new ways, evaluating customer style and preference to make product recommendations.

Training is still ongoing, and as of this week, employees have been learning what store-front displays will look like and they've begun to receive word on which stores will be carrying the gold Apple Watch Edition. It appears that only a limited number of flagship stores will have the higher-end device available for sale, and safes are being installed in some of these stores this week. In the United Kingdom, for example, only the Covent Garden and Regent Street Apple Stores are said to be selling the Apple Watch Edition, along with the dedicated shop in Selfridges department store in London.

Employees are also beginning to receive details on how reservations and try-on appointments will be handled (try-on appointments will be worked into the Mac queue), and they are preparing for a major overnight revamp of stores, which will include the installation of Apple Watch try-on tables and display stations.

The Apple Watch will go on sale online this Friday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time. It will be available in all first-wave launch countries simultaneously, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Ukrainian website Rozetka has compared the new 12-inch Retina MacBook to the 11-inch mid-2013 MacBook Air in a new video, providing a closer look at the physical design of the new MacBook and offering a side-by-side view of the different features between the notebooks. The video also highlights how the new MacBook, which measures 0.51" at its thickest point, is nearly as thin as the original iPad (0.50").

The video provides an in-depth look at the new MacBook's ultra-thin design, Retina display, redesigned keyboard, Force Touch trackpad, unlit Apple logo and more, interspersed with stock video footage and screenshots of the notebook from Apple. The fifteen-minute clip complements Vietnamese website Tinhte's unboxing photos and video of the new MacBook that surfaced last week.

Apple's 12-inch Retina MacBook will be available to purchase in silver, space gray and gold on April 10, the same day that Apple Watch pre-orders begin in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and United Kingdom. The notebook starts at $1,299 for the base 256GB configuration, while a 512GB model with a slightly faster processor is available for $1,599.

Last Friday, third-party warranty firm SquareTrade released its findings of high-pressure testing on the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and HTC One M9, showcasing some pretty dramatic results once the phones hit certain pressure thresholds. Today, Samsung has responded with testing and results of its own, asking SquareTrade to conduct a new test under the guidance of its official findings.

Samsung points out that the 110 lbs of force exerted on the Galaxy S6 Edge to result in the cracked-glass warning is far from a normally occurring real-world circumstance, with the average force generated "when a person presses the back pocket" being around 66 lbs of force.

The company tested the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge and found the two phones weren't bendable even up to 79 lbs of force, "which is equivalent to putting pressure to snap a bundle of five pencils at once."

Samsung continued to point out that SquareTrade's video failed to showcase the higher strength of the Galaxy S6 Edge's backside, which in normal circumstances would face equal amount of pressure as the front. With these facts in mind, the company decided to make a force-test video of its own to showcase its results.

Secondly, even though both front and back sides are exposed under the same level of pressure in normal circumstances, this test does not show the strength of the back side. Some smartphones have different durability in each the front and back sides respectively. SquareTrade has only tested the front side, which may mislead consumers about the entire durability of smartphones.

All our devices are put rigorous high-quality validation tests before they are delivered to consumers. These tests include various conditions, such as dropping, bending, and breakage. And we are confident that all our smartphones are not bendable under daily usage.

Stating these reasons, Samsung says it will deliver its statement to SquareTrade and ask the firm to perform the stress test once again, mainly targeting both the front and back sides of the phone, and publish its new findings to the public. Apple faced a similar damage control situation last year following the first wave of "Bendgate", going so far as to allow reporters into its testing labs to showcase various iPhone 6 Plus durability tests to the media outlets in attendance.

While it could be a factual error, Reddit points us towards an interesting comment on the LG Display blog last week that claims Apple announced it will release a new iMac with 8K display later this year. Apple, of course, has not made any announcements about a new iMac since last year, and 8K displays are not expected until 2016.

"It has become clear that Japan is planning to launch an 8K SHV test broadcast and then promptly restructure the UHD service. Apple has also announced that they will release the ‘iMac 8K’ with a super-high resolution display later this year. Korea is also preparing to offer an 8K service demonstration at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. LG Display displayed a new beacon of the 8K era by revealing their 98-inch 8K Color Prime Ultra HDTV at CES 2015."

VESA's new DisplayPort 1.4a standard paves the way for future displays at 7,680 x 4,320 pixels, but Apple has not made any announcements about releasing a Mac with an 8K display. Apple's highest-resolution Mac is the iMac with Retina 5K Display, which has a resolution of 5,120 x 2,880 pixels.

While this report should be treated lightly until further information surfaces, it still proves interesting that LG Display would make a public-facing comment like this on its website. The most likely scenario is that LG will eventually remove or modify the comment now that it has been put in the spotlight.

Update 7:00 PM PT: LG has since taken down the article mentioning the "iMac 8K."

Since the release of Apple's in-house Maps app as part of iOS 6 back in 2012, Yelp has been the company's sole partner for integrating customer reviews of businesses and other points of interest. In recent days, however, Apple's Maps app has begun including reviews from TripAdvisor and Booking.com on select hotel listings.

It is currently unclear what the criteria are for determining whether a given hotel listing includes reviews from Yelp, TripAdvisor, or Booking.com, but based on a spot check of several cities, the vast majority of hotel listings in the United States continue to display Yelp reviews. Other types of business listings also continue to use Yelp reviews on Apple Maps.

Internationally, Booking.com in particular seems to be more strongly represented, with brief surveys of London, Paris, and Sydney all showing reviews from that site on a majority of hotel listings viewed.

Apple has yet to update its Maps acknowledgements page to note it is now sourcing TripAdvisor and Booking.com, citing only Yelp as a data partner for reviews.

Apple has been working hard to improve Maps since its rough launch in 2012 that saw Tim Cook issue an open letter apologizing to consumers for not meeting their expectations with the new Maps app. The company has since improved its directions and three-dimensional imagery, although other changes such as transit integration planned for iOS 8 last year were pushed back as Apple's mapping efforts have reportedly been hampered by internal politics.

One major improvement that appears to be in the works is street-level imagery similar to Google's Street View and Microsoft's Streetside for Bing Maps. Minivans outfitted with sensor arrays and apparently leased by Apple have been spotted in several areas around the United States, with the behavior of the vehicles on residential streets and in parking lots suggesting they are collecting street-level imagery.

(Thanks, Aaron and Ram!)

Following up on last month's claim that Apple is planning to show off a revamped Apple TV set-top box with App Store and Siri support at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, BuzzFeed now reports that the new box will not include support for 4K video streaming even though several services like Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube offer content in the high-resolution format.

“4K is great, but it’s still in its infancy,” said one source familiar with Apple’s thinking.

Enabling 4K video support in Apple’s first major overhaul of Apple TV in three years might seem like a smart bit of future-proofing — particularly given reports that the A8 chip in the guts of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is 4K-capable. But it’s arguably an unnecessary one at this point.

The report points out that 4K streaming is expensive for content providers given the bandwidth required, and the vast majority of Americans do not even have Internet connectivity at fast enough speeds to support such streaming. Still, those who do currently stream 4K content or hope to in the relatively near future are likely to be disappointed by Apple's decision to forgo support in the next Apple TV.

Beyond existing Apple TV services and new third-party apps, the revamped Apple TV is also expected to support a package of streaming television channels if Apple can manage to reach agreements with the necessary content providers. Apple is reportedly in talks with ABC, Fox, and Disney, as well as Discovery and Viacom, to try to put together a "skinny" TV package of select channels that would reportedly cost consumers somewhere in the range of $25 to $40 per month. Apple is said to be aiming to announce the service at WWDC in June and launch it in the September timeframe.

Apple on Friday updated its online store with instructions on how to purchase the Apple Watch, reiterating that the wrist-worn device can be ordered online or reserved for in-store pickup. The new section appears to confirm that Apple Watch in-store reservations will be available beginning April 10, allowing customers to reserve a specific Apple Watch for pickup at an Apple Store beginning April 24.

The wording and timing of the new section suggests that Apple Watch in-store reservations will be available April 10, a move that would generate more foot traffic in Apple Stores on Apple Watch launch day. Nevertheless, there remains a slim possibility that reservations will begin on April 24. Apple did not immediately respond to request for comment, although we will update this post if we receive confirmation.

Last week, Apple Store training documents obtained by MacRumors indicated that Apple will not allow walk-in purchases for the Apple Watch upon launch, meaning that reserving the wrist-worn device for pickup at a specified date and time will be required initially. Walk-in customers can join the queue for a try-on appointment, after which they can order the Apple Watch online or make a reservation for in-store pickup.

Apple Watch pre-orders kick off at 12:01 AM Pacific on April 10 in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and United Kingdom. Apple has added "Guided Tour" videos to its website that outline various functions of the Apple Watch, while we've prepared detailed guides on how to pre-order the Apple Watch and what to expect at a try-on appointment.

Apple today updated its dedicated Apple Watch website with a brand new "Guided Tours" section that includes several Apple Watch walkthrough videos. The introductory video on the site, entitled "Welcome to Apple Watch," walks users through all of the things the Apple Watch can do. Apple Watch Guided Tours are also being featured on the main Apple site.

The site includes dedicated videos on various Apple Watch features, like Messages, Faces, and Digital Touch. Other video walkthroughs on features like Phone Calls, Siri, Maps, Music, Apple Pay, and more, are labeled as "Coming soon," and may be added over the next few days.

The four videos available today are "Welcome to Apple Watch," "Messages," "Faces," and "Digital Touch." As previously mentioned, the first video is a walkthrough, but other videos are more specific. In "Messages," for example, we see a demo of how Messages works on the device. An incoming message causes a tap on the wrist through the Taptic Engine, and raising the wrist displays the message. Lowering the wrist dismisses the message, while tapping "Reply" lets the user pick a pre-defined response or dictate one through Siri.

There's also a walkthrough of the animated emoji that can be sent through the Messages app, and a demo on how to send new messages directly from the watch.

In "Faces," there's a demonstration of all of the different faces that are available on the Apple Watch, and a walkthrough on how to customize each watch face. A firm press on the watch face brings up a faces gallery and access to customization options. Each face has different customization options, from adding more detail like weather to changing second hand colors.

"Digital Touch" goes through sending sketches, taps, and heartbeats to contacts. Touching the side button of the Apple Watch gives you access to your friends list, where you can make a call, send a message, or send a Digital Touch. With Digital Touch, you can send a quick sketch, tap to send a tap to a friend, or hold two fingers on the screen to send a heartbeat.

These videos are also referenced within other areas of the Apple Watch site, with the Messages, for example, available in built-in apps section, and the Digital Touch video available in the "New Ways to Connect" section.

Today's walkthrough videos from Apple come a week ahead of Apple Watch pre-orders, which are set to begin on Friday, April 10 at 12:01 AM PT. April 10 will also mark the date when Apple begins offering in-store try-on sessions, giving customers the opportunity to test the Apple Watch out before its April 24 launch.

Update 6PM PT: Apple's added the Guided Tour videos to its YouTube channel.

Apple today updated the Apple Watch page of its online store to note that online pre-orders for the Apple Watch will begin at 12:01 AM Pacific Time on Friday, April 10. Just after midnight on the West Coast is Apple's typical time for pre-orders, and the company will likely take the store down beginning at 9PM to prepare for orders.

Apple Watch pre-orders will go live simultaneously in all of the first-wave launch countries, meaning U.K. customers will be able order at 8:01 AM local time while Australian pre-orders will go live at 5:01 PM AEST.

Here's a full list of pre-order times by country (in local time):

- U.S., Canada: 12:01 a.m. (Pacific Time), 3:01 a.m. (Eastern Time)
- U.K.: 8:01 a.m.
- Germany: 9:01 a.m.
- France: 9:01 a.m.
- Australia: 5:01 p.m.
- Hong Kong: 3:01 p.m.
- China: 3:01 p.m.
- Japan 3:01 p.m.

Apple will accept orders both through its website and through its Apple Store app on the iPhone. Placing an order through the app can often bypass some of the congestion that occurs when pre-orders first begin.

Pricing for the Apple Watch begins at $349 for the Apple Watch Sport, $549 for the stainless steel Apple Watch, and $10,000 for the gold Apple Watch Edition. Pre-orders will be delivered to customers beginning on April 24, which is the device's official launch date.

We've known that AppleCare+ will be available for the Apple Watch since Apple's March 9 media event, but pricing for the extended support has thus far remained a mystery. A source has now shared some purported pricing information with MacRumors that may shed some light on the cost, suggesting AppleCare+ for each version of the watch will be priced differently.

According to the claimed internal Apple screenshots, AppleCare+ for the entry-level aluminum Apple Watch Sport will be priced at $59, while AppleCare+ for the middle-tier stainless steel Apple Watch with Sport Band will be priced at $79. AppleCare+ for a $15,000 gold Apple Watch Edition will be significantly more expensive at $999. It is unclear from the information we have received whether band choice will affect AppleCare+ pricing, as band prices vary significantly.

While we can't verify the legitimacy of these claimed screenshots, other sources at Apple have indicated they are hearing unconfirmed word of similar pricing and 9to5Mac is reporting the same.

Without AppleCare+, purchases of the Apple Watch Sport and the stainless steel Apple Watch will be covered by a limited one-year warranty for hardware repairs and 90 days of complimentary support. Edition Watch purchases will include a two-year warranty and complimentary support.

With the purchase of AppleCare+, the warranty for aluminum Apple Watch Sport and stainless steel Apple Watch models will be extended to two years from the date of purchase, plus accidental damage will be covered. Apple Watch Edition coverage will be extended to three years with AppleCare+. Employees have not received word on how much accidental damage repairs will cost, but for the iPhone, AppleCare+ is priced at $99 and accidental damage carries a $79 service fee for each incident, with a maximum of two covered incidents.

Apple Watch buyers will be able to purchase AppleCare+ as an add-on both online and in-store. With the iPhone, AppleCare+ can be purchased up to 60 days after an initial iPhone purchase, and it's likely Apple will adopt a similar policy with the Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch will be available for pre-order beginning on April 10, which is the same day that in-store try-on appointments will begin. The device will officially launch in the first wave of nine markets on April 24.

Third-party warranty firm SquareTrade recently released a video showcasing the durability of the new Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and HTC One M9, discovering the Galaxy to bend at 110 lbs of pressure and the One M9 to bend at 120 lbs of pressure.

Although the Galaxy S6 Edge's pressure limits are comparable to the iPhone 6 Plus' testing, the Galaxy's screen ended up cracking under the pressure instead of slightly bending similar to Apple's plus-size iPhone model. The HTC One M9 lasted further than its two competitors, reaching 120 lbs of pressure, but the phone was rendered useless thanks to a faulty power button following the pressure test.

Testing to the point of "catastrophic failure", the iPhone 6 Plus survived 179 lbs of pressure, beating out the Galaxy S6 Edge's 149 lbs stress test. As SquareTrade points out, the Galaxy's stress tests proves the phone could be worse for users due to the smartphone's screen cracking under intense pressure.

Following the "Bendgate" controversy last year, both Samsung and HTC parodied Apple's woes on social media. Though SquareTrade's pressure tests are meant to measure intense circumstances, it's still interesting to see where each smartphone lies on the durability scale when compared to one another.