iPad Day: 9:41 AM
In which Secret Lab waits for an iPad and learns secrets from Scott Forstall
The iPad has had some interesting effects on the geek community at large. The majority of us love it, and a rather vocal minority hate it. They hate it for a variety of reasons – some because of a perceived lack of openness, some because they don’t see the point in using it, and some who just seem to be jealous.
But I’m not talking about that today!
After getting in to the Apple Store (to much cheering and apparently genuine joy on the part of the apple employees), I happened to see Scott Forstall wander in to the store. He was looking about happily as the population of Palo Alto expressed their adoration and love, $499 at a time.
I was planning on going up to him and saying hi, but then I noticed something.
The time on the images of the iPad had changed.
All promotional images of the iPhone show the time as 9:42 AM. Nobody knew the exact reason why, though theories abound.
But on the iPad, the time is shown as 9:41 AM. Hmm.
I wandered up to Scott, who was leaning against a table showcasing the new device, introduced myself, and got right down to business.
“Why’s the time changed? Heck, why does the iPhone show 9:42 in the first place?”
Scott looked around conspiratorially, and then chuckled.
“You want to know the real reason for that time?”
I nodded, with no small amount of eager anticipation.
“We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation. When the big image of the product appears on screen, we want the time shown to be close to the actual time on the audience’s watches. But we know we won’t hit 40 minutes exactly.”
“So you add a couple of minutes.”
“Yeah! And for the iPhone, we made it 42 minutes. It turned out we were pretty accurate with that estimate, so for the iPad, we made it 41 minutes. And there you are – the secret of the magic time.”
“So what you’re saying is that you picked a number close enough to suit your needs, and used it in the keynote and all promotional images.”
“Yep! It’s as simple as that.”
I thanked Scott, and wandered off in a happy Apple-induced daze. A mystery was solved, and I had an iPad in my hands. It was a good day.
Jon Manning
Lead Developer
Tags: adventures, anecdote, apple, design, folklore, hardware, history, ipad, secret lab
Apr 12, 2010
[...] [Secret Lab via NetworkWorld] [...]
Apr 12, 2010
[...] I’ll just have to turn to another Jon. Apple’s iPhone number question has bugged Jon Manning, lead developer of Secret Lab, for years. Did the numbers have some sort of cosmic significance or [...]
Apr 12, 2010
[...] I’ll just have to turn to another Jon. Apple’s iPhone number question has bugged Jon Manning, lead developer of Secret Lab, for years. Did the numbers have some sort of cosmic significance or [...]
Apr 12, 2010
[...] iPad Day: 9:41 AM | Secret Lab. This entry was written by TimeDoctor, posted on April 12, 2010 at 12:50 pm, filed under apple [...]
Apr 12, 2010
My question would have been different: “Are you the secret brother of Nicholas Cage?”
Apr 12, 2010
[...] showed 9:42 am. It turns out that Apple’s own Scott Forstall was the one who spilled the beans to Secret Lab developer Jon Manning during a recent visit to the Palo Alto Apple [...]
Apr 12, 2010
[...] I’ll just have to turn to another Jon. Apple’s iPhone number question has bugged Jon Manning, lead developer of Secret Lab, for years. Did the numbers have some sort of cosmic significance or [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] domande frullavano anche nella testa di Jon Manning, sviluppatore di Secret Lab, mentre si aggirava per l’Apple Store di Palo Alto osservando i [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] I’ll just have to turn to another Jon. Apple’s iPhone number question has bugged Jon Manning, lead developer of Secret Lab, for years. Did the numbers have some sort of cosmic significance or [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] Scott Forstall, uno dei massimi dirigenti della Mela, a rivelare il perché di quegli orari al lead developer di Secret Labs Jon Manning, che lo ha intercettato all’App Store di Palo Alto il giorno del lancio [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] Scott Forstall, uno dei massimi dirigenti della Mela, a rivelare il perché di quegli orari al lead developer di Secret Labs Jon Manning, che lo ha intercettato all’App Store di Palo Alto il giorno del lancio [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] domande frullavano anche nella testa di Jon Manning, sviluppatore di Secret Lab, mentre si aggirava per l’Apple Store di Palo Alto osservando i [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] I’ll just have to turn to another Jon. Apple’s iPhone number question has bugged Jon Manning, lead developer of Secret Lab, for years. Did the numbers have some sort of cosmic significance or [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] recent blog post from Secret Lab developer Jon Manning has finally shed some light on the time mystery, but try not [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] recent blog post from Secret Lab developer Jon Manning has finally shed some light on the time mystery, but try not [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] recent blog post from Secret Lab developer Jon Manning has finally shed some light on the time mystery, but try not [...]
Apr 13, 2010
[...] recent blog post from Secret Lab developer Jon Manning has finally shed some light on the time mystery, but try not [...]
Apr 14, 2010
I thought the keynotes started at 10:00 AM in Pacific time?! Shouldn’t it be 10:41 AM by this logic?
Apr 14, 2010
[...] recent blog post from Secret Lab developer Jon Manning has finally shed some light on the time mystery, but try not [...]
Apr 14, 2010
[...] [via secretlab] [...]
Apr 14, 2010
[...] wondered why the promotional images for the iPad show 9:41am (and the iPhones all say 9:42am)? Secret Lab has the answer. I love that even the trivial, incidental stuff tells a story. Wednesday, 14th April 2010 – [...]
Apr 14, 2010
[...] سوال میکند ولی جواب دقیقی نمیگیرد. مدتی بعد منینگ (از نویسندگان سایت سیکرت لب)، اسکات فورستال قائم مقام اجرایی نرم افزارهای آی.فون [...]
Apr 14, 2010
[...] recent blog post from Secret Lab developer Jon Manning has finally shed some light on the time mystery, but try not [...]
Apr 16, 2010
I thought that was really interesting. Thanks for the unusual post. I’ll keep checking back on this.
Apr 16, 2010
[...] dell’iPhone l’ora mostrata è 9:42 mentre in quelle dell’iPad è 9:41? Sono i margini di errore del keynote, [...]
Apr 20, 2010
[...] Check out this blog post from Secret Lab developer Jon Manning – iPad Day: 9:41 AM [...]
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