1. At the D Conference this year, Tim Cook said that Apple will “double down on secrecy”. Well, the company has issued invitations for a September 12th event that seems all but absolutely certain to introduce the new iPhone. If the rumor sites are correct, then ardent Apple followers already know what the new phone is going to look like, what many (if not most) of its components are, and a great deal of the software changes coming in iOS 6. If Tim Cook meant what he said, then what is left? That’s what has me excited about the event on Wednesday. Even if it turns out to be small additions to software or clever hardware design tricks that make the phone a little smaller or a little bit more efficient, it will be worth watching the presentation. For people who have followed Apple for years in the way that I have, it’s the details that delight the most. Sure, once in a great while you have the surprise of a radical iMac with a floating screen over a domed base when everyone expects the whole computer to hang from the stand. And once ever you get the original iPhone, a device so different from all speculation, so much betterment so much more impressive, that it lives on to haunt all future introductions in its product line. I loved those surprises, but not every introduction can be a gasp-inducing shock. The joy of following Apple is in the details, as is the benefit to using their problems (which makes that benefit very difficult to explain). Cook says secrecy is as important as ever, so what have they kept secret? On Wednesday it’ll be in the details.

    At the D Conference this year, Tim Cook said that Apple will “double down on secrecy”. Well, the company has issued invitations for a September 12th event that seems all but absolutely certain to introduce the new iPhone. If the rumor sites are correct, then ardent Apple followers already know what the new phone is going to look like, what many (if not most) of its components are, and a great deal of the software changes coming in iOS 6.

    If Tim Cook meant what he said, then what is left? That’s what has me excited about the event on Wednesday. Even if it turns out to be small additions to software or clever hardware design tricks that make the phone a little smaller or a little bit more efficient, it will be worth watching the presentation. For people who have followed Apple for years in the way that I have, it’s the details that delight the most.

    Sure, once in a great while you have the surprise of a radical iMac with a floating screen over a domed base when everyone expects the whole computer to hang from the stand. And once ever you get the original iPhone, a device so different from all speculation, so much betterment so much more impressive, that it lives on to haunt all future introductions in its product line.

    I loved those surprises, but not every introduction can be a gasp-inducing shock. The joy of following Apple is in the details, as is the benefit to using their problems (which makes that benefit very difficult to explain).

    Cook says secrecy is as important as ever, so what have they kept secret? On Wednesday it’ll be in the details.

    ∞ September 10, 2012