The Apple rumor mill has been working overtime this week following reports that the company is winding up to make a multifunction watch featuring a new kind of glass. There are already smart watches on the market, however, so for a company with design geniuses who like to "think different," the questions revolve around how Apple would make its mark with wearable computers. Possibilities include app and Siri integration.
Apple is developing a smart watch made of flexible curved glass that will do more than just tell time, according to reports from both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
The device would run on iOS, but beyond that it's unknown what an Apple smart watch would be able to do -- for example, which apps would be accessible, whether it would receive notifications, or if it could support Siri or GPS functionality.
An Apple watch wouldn't be the only smart watch on the market: There's the Pebble, a customizable watch that can be synced to iPhones or Android smartphones. Users can choose from thousands of apps for the US$150 device, including many fitness apps, and receive email and phone notifications via the watch.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is said to be a fan of the Nike FuelBand, a device worn on the wrist that measures daily physical activity. Sony and MetaWatch also have smart watches on the market for less than $200 each.
Apple could reportedly separate itself from those devices by making the hardware out of a flexible glass that could bend around a wrist. Corning makes such a product, dubbed "Willow Glass," that the company says is thin and pliable enough to be wrapped around a device or structure. Corning also created the Gorilla Glass found on the iPhone.
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