Apple entering the car business

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in apple on (#3T6W)
story imageYou've got an Apple product on your desk, and you've got another in your pocket. You might even have one on your wrist. But is the next step something for your garage?

Many outlets are reporting that Apple has recently indulged in a spate of poaching, picking up battery and automotive engineers from leading car makers and battery suppliers in the EV industry. That leads to more than just casual speculation that Apple is working on an automotive product of some sort. Will your next car be an Apple product? At the moment we don't know much, but it is beginning to seem at least a little bit likely.
Reply 9 comments

I know this joke (Score: 3, Funny)

by hyper@pipedot.org on 2015-02-26 10:54 (#3VST)

I will be on this bandwagon as soon as Apple finishes laying down enough roads such that I can drive to work. On the bright side, at least having to stop the car; roll the windows down; roll the windows back up again at random intervals won't be required.

Hmmm (Score: 2, Insightful)

by axsdenied@pipedot.org on 2015-02-27 14:17 (#3YES)

Will it have rounded corners?

Re: Hmmm (Score: 1)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-02-27 21:37 (#3Z79)

Say what you will about their legal department (i.e. they are assholes), but you have to admit that Apple makes some damn nice hardware. Also, they often push manufacturers upper bounds to make sure their stuff is the latest and greatest.

For example, when most desktop users are still drooling over the new 4K monitors, Apple releases a 5K iMac. Most people have heard of their CNC milled MacBook frames, but another example of a neat manufacturing technique is how they use lasers to shine light through metal. No other company puts that much effort into the design.

Re: Hmmm (Score: 1)

by axsdenied@pipedot.org on 2015-02-28 07:27 (#3ZSX)

Apple does make nice hardware. However, it should be noted that they are not the first to have 5K displays:
http://gizmodo.com/dells-27-inch-5k-monitor-is-like-filet-mignon-for-your-1630946185

Re: Hmmm (Score: 1)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-02-28 08:28 (#3ZWJ)

Both the iMac and the Dell 5k monitor use the same LG AH-IPS panel. Because LG is a well known Apple supplier and the 5120x2880 resolution of the panel is exactly doubling the X and Y resolution of the previous iMac's 2560x1440 resolution, leads one to believe that this panel size was very likely specified by Apple. They seem to love to do that perfect "2X pixel ratio" thing even when it leads to an odd resolution like 5120x2880 for the iMac or 2048x1536 for the iPad.

Plus, how many of those Dell monitors do you think they sold at $2500 vs. how many iMac Retina's that Apple managed to sell (also at $2500) to fanboys.

Re: Hmmm (Score: 1)

by axsdenied@pipedot.org on 2015-02-28 12:17 (#40D6)

Well, if you want to go that path, 5120x2880 is also a double (x and y) resolution of Dell U2713HM and few other Dell monitors (possibly using the same panel). This could also be interpreted the other way from your conclusion. The most likely scenario however, is that LG came up with a high-res panel which got used by several companies, including Apple and Dell.

There is zero evidence to your claim that Apple ordered the panel from LG. If they did I am sure that they would not allow any other company to get access to "their premium panels", and especially not to let anybody beat them to the game and release a 5K monitor before them, like Dell did.

And why do you think that 5120x2880 is a weird resolution? The numbers are higher than everything else around but they are just a multiple of very commonly used 720p resolution (1280x720 -> 2560x1440 -> 5120x2880 - doubling x and y at each step).

And I think that your argument that Apple loves "2x pixel ratio" does not make sense in this case. We are not talking about a phone or a tablet where doubling a display makes sense because the apps are full-screen and they scale easier. This is iMac where the applications are designed to run at any size you want them to be. And even iPhone resolution did not follow 2x (x and y) resolution jumps, actually the only 2x (x and y) change was from iPhone 3 to 4. After that the increments were much smaller and also aspect ratio changed.

And finally your comparison of who sold how many is irrelevant to the question. And you are also comparing apples and oranges (monitors and computers).

Re: Hmmm (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-03-11 14:12 (#4QDW)

It will look like this. ;-)

Uh oh (Score: 2, Funny)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-02-28 00:16 (#3ZDW)

The Apple car will be one hell of a white-knuckle ride:

http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/apple-maps-600.jpg