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 06, 2010
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Secret Lab, Thomas Westfeld. Thomas Westfeld said: RT @thesecretlab: New blog post: iPad Day: 9:41 AM http://secretlab.com.au/blog/posts/ipad-day-941-am/ [...]
Apr 06, 2010
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by thesecretlab: New blog post: iPad Day: 9:41 AM http://secretlab.com.au/blog/posts/ipad-day-941-am/...
Apr 06, 2010
Awesome thanks,
No details are missed in Apple Keynote.
Apr 07, 2010
[...] it will kill iPad falls short on cloud integration How to use a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad iPad Day: 9:41 AM iPad Hits a Bump: Wi-Fi Woes Point to Apple Bug How to Reset your iPad The iPad: What is a [...]
Apr 08, 2010
Stupid.
Apr 08, 2010
Great info! I was curious about this. So what about the 17th of July in the calendar then?
Apr 08, 2010
[...] took Aussie blogger Jon Manning of Secret Lab to get to the bottom of the mystery, and he did so by going straight to the top — [...]
Apr 09, 2010
The iCal icon date is the same sort of reason — it first premiered at Macworld Expo in New York on July 17, 2002.
Apr 09, 2010
17th of July is the date iCal and iSync where presented to the public for the first time during the keynote at Macworld Expo NY (2001?). The date was chose so the icon in the dock didn’t change when the application was launched…
Simple.
Apr 09, 2010
[...] maar groter. Maar aan deze queste is een einde gekomen zo las ik op networkworld.com. Apple fan Jon Manning viel op dat bij de introductie verkopen van de iPad in Palo Alto, Scott Forstall stond, en dat is [...]
Apr 09, 2010
[...] quis saber por que todas as imagens oficiais de iPhones têm o relógio ajustado para as 9:42, o Secret Lab conseguiu a resposta, vinda da boca de Scott Forstall! Mas, se você reparou que o relógio dos iPads de divulgação [...]
Apr 10, 2010
[...] Manning, Lead Developer at Secret Labs spotted Scott Forstall (Senior Vice President of iPhone Software at Apple) in an Apple Store at [...]
Apr 10, 2010
Funny, I actually had this on my mind a few days ago and now I come across your website.
Apr 11, 2010
Hey Apple — if you’re going to go through all the trouble to try to time the clock time on the image to match up with the real time when the image is displayed … why not just make that part of the image dynamic in the keynote presentation?
It doesn’t save you from having to make a time choice for other, necessarily static promotional images … but at least during the big reveal, you’d be guaranteed to have the time right.
Apr 11, 2010
[...] Lab 的主程序员 Jon Manning 在 Palo Alto 苹果店逮到了面部表情切换速度极快的 Scott [...]
Apr 11, 2010
[...] [Secret Lab via NetworkWorld] [...]
Apr 11, 2010
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Apr 11, 2010
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Apr 11, 2010
Apple obsesses over minute details in everything because its users obsess over minute details in everything.
Apr 11, 2010
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Apr 11, 2010
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Apr 11, 2010
Unfortunately it’s pretty inaccurate this timing. At the 2007 MW Expo the word “iPhone” appeared at 28’58″ from the beginning (9 AM, San Francisco time) and the image at 32’31″. The iPad was unveiled last January 27 at a special event begun at 10 AM, San Francisco time, the word “iPad” appeared at 8’41″ from the beginning and the image at 8:53″. Apple chrono failed. Anyway a couple of US iPhone TV ads didn’t show the 9:42 time, it happened with “Dilemmas/Urbanspoon” and with “Loopt” (both published in November 2008), the first showed 7:42 PM and the second 11:42 AM. Strange enough the Italian version, one of the rare TV ads for us, the first TV ads was converted to 19:42 (because we use the 24 hour system). I think Apple should correct the separator between hours and minutes, because is a stupid “.” instead of “:”, it’s an issue arrived with OS 3 (June 2009), at least in the Italian version of the mobile OS.
Fabio
setteB.IT
Apr 11, 2010
[...] [Secret Lab via NetworkWorld] [...]
Apr 11, 2010
[...] Network World and Fast Company noticed, Secret Lab developer Jon Manning blogged that he ran into iPhone software honcho Scott Forstall at the Palo Alto Apple Store, and Forstall [...]
Apr 11, 2010
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Apr 12, 2010
[...] not just a random choice, but it actually got a reason “sort of”. While Jon Manning from secretlab was waiting for his iPad he happened to see Scott Forstall wander in to the store. While he was [...]
Apr 12, 2010
[...] Le 9:42 del mattino. Una spiegazione razionale non c’è mai stata finché lo sviluppatore Jon Manning, pochi giorni fa, ha incontrato Scott Forstall in un Apple [...]
Apr 12, 2010
[...] to yesterday and a blog post by Jon Manning , lead developer at Secret Lab, which makes software for the Mac, iPhone and iPad. [...]
Apr 12, 2010
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Apr 12, 2010
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Apr 12, 2010
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Apr 12, 2010
[...] Secret Lab Filed Under: Apple Tablet News, iPhone News. Tagged With: Apple, iPad, iPhone, Keynotes, [...]
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Apr 12, 2010
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Apr 12, 2010
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Apr 12, 2010
Thanks! This reeks awesome!
Apr 12, 2010
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Apr 12, 2010
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Apr 12, 2010
[...] or something), 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
[...] or something), 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
[...] 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
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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 Palto Alto Apple [...]
Apr 12, 2010
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Apr 12, 2010
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