The New Digital Hub

Very cool piece by Glenn Fleishman (which I came to by way of John Moltz) titled “iWatch, iHub.” Here’s the key line:

The Watch is the digital hub around which everything rotates in the new Apple universe.

For a refresher, here’s Steve Jobs introducing the “digital hub” strategy, the engine that continues to drive Apple, way back in 2001. The short of it: as you life goes digital, the Mac (and later the iPhone) should be the central repository for all your stuff.

Fleishman envisions a future Apple Watch with its own radios and GPS (the forthcoming inaugural models require an iPhone to connect to the web) and how it will be the key to your digital life. The most interesting (to me) idea he mentions with what to do with such a wearable is this:

The entertainment hub for your car, which no longer needs a radio/receiver unit at all, but just a surface-mounted magnetic charging dock against which you place your Watch while driving.

That reminded me of the opening scene of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, in which Ryan Gosling’s meticulous “Driver” ties a watch to his steering wheel so he can time a heist underway. (You get five minutes with The Driver, then he’s gone.)

Drive Timer

I actually only recently started wearing a watch again, in part to gauge how much I like having something on my wrist should I take the leap and get an Apple Watch. On the drive in to work this morning I happened to test checking the time on my wrist. It’s silly since I have a clock on the in-dash stereo as well as next to the speedometer.

I was left wondering: why on earth would I want to look at my wrist while driving? Where would the Apple Watch go? Fleishman’s idea sounds like a good one.

And if we need to stoke the flames of the Apple Car rumor, this is kind of a fun place to take things.