Technology is filled with all kinds of rumours, real and fabricated. It gives us a look at might be and will be. BitStream gathers these rumours all in one place to divine what the future has in store.
As is tradition, Apple did a lot of things to screw up its first Apple Watch, battery life and tattoo-phobic sensors just being two examples. But it also kind of forgot that jewellers exist — jewellers who will happily turn your not-gold Apple watch into a whatever-karat wonder — for less than half the price of what Apple is hawking.
This is a little bit more than just painting, which we saw one enterprising YouTuber accomplish last month. This is gold plating, a much more fancier (and pricier) way of making that Apple Watch sport look reeeal ritzy. 9to5Mac says that two online watch services, Golden Dreams and Watch Plate, will both coat your $500 Apple Watch in 18k or 24k gold or rose gold. The only difference is that one service requires you to supply the Apple Watch while the other does the whole processor for you. Does this void your warranty? Oh, most assuredly, so try not to destroy your opulent wearable in an unfortunate moment of butterfingers.
The Golden Watch route, which supplies the watch, is still a $US4200 affair, a cool 4k more than most would every consider paying for a smartwatch. But, hey, maybe you can pay off your car this way. [9to5Mac]
Speaking of the Apple Watch, here’s an old rumour that’s now all but certain — third-party watch bands are coming. It seemed Apple was going to keep a pretty tight grip on what could be considered an “Apple Watch band”. Looks like things are changing. But charging watch bands may still never happen.
You can now soon own a smartphone that even Tony Stark himself would approve of. Marvel and Samsung are teaming up for an Iron Man special edition of the Galaxy S6 Edge. Rumours say the phone should be coming out at the end of May, but there’s no word on whether the rest of the Avengers will also assemble. [Korea Times]
It’s about time: Lots of rumours begin circling about Windows 10 upcoming flagship smartphones, codename Cityman and Talkman. Finally. [Unlease the Phones]
Tweet no more: Age of Ultron director and nerd prophet Joss Whedon unexpectedly quit Twitter after an amazing opening box office weekend. The reason? Most likely death threats of course. [Time]
Raising the app IQ: Google just bought a management app named Timeful, known for creating methods so an app can learn your habits over time. Google, please make Gmail smarter first. [Android Community]
Uber a car… and an ad: So… this happened. Prepare to start hailing ads for all your UberX adventures.
There’s something buzzing in LA. pic.twitter.com/nmtErWTXtX
— Uber (@Uber) May 3, 2015