By now, you’ve heard the big news for 8 March: There’s a new Activity Challenge for Apple Watch.
I’m kidding. I mean, there is a an Apple Watch Activity Challenge for 8 March, but that’s not the big news. The big news is that Apple is holding a socially distanced media event to talk about… something.
TechCrunch was among the many sites spreading the word on Wednesday - that Apple had sent out invitations to a thing that either no one can go to or everyone can go to, depending on how you think of it.
The announcement itself is pretty simple. It features a black field with an Apple logo on it. That logo kind of looks like a tunnel, replete with Apple’s rainbow colors of old. Under the logo are the words “Peek performance,” which - one assumes - is a play on words. While that term spoken would sound like speaking of the height of performance, the spelling “P-E-E-K” implies getting a short look or first look at something heretofore unseen.
Expanding a tiny bit on the invitation art, Apple SVP Marketing Greg Joswiak hit Twitter with a short, sleek video. That featured a bare stage - bare except for a floating AR Apple logo. The Tweet included the message, “Peek performance. March 8th. See you there. #AppleEvent"
From the Twitter Feed of Greg Joswiak
Peek-a-Huh?
As for what we’ll see, we’ve talked about that a time or two. The guy who originally pegged the 8 March date, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, has said he’s expecting a 5G-enabled iPhone SE, an updated iPad Air, and maybe some sort of Apple Silicon-powered Mac.
Of course, it is an Apple event announcement, and people can’t help trying to read between the pixilated lines. A piece from 9 to 5 Mac suggests:
The “Peek performance” tagline could be referring to the possibility that Apple provides a teaser look (“peek”) at one of the new ultra-powerful Mac Pro or iMac Pro models, even if they aren’t yet ready to be shipped.
They also put out the possibility of a “peek” at Apples’ AR/VR/MR/XR multiverse headset. The site does, just as quickly, kill that idea, though. The way they see it:
…unless Apple has a major surprise in store, this seems unlikely. The latest reports indicate Apple Headset won’t ship until the end of this year at the earliest. Furthermore, any sort of teaser/preview would likely happen at the developer-focused WWDC, because Apple needs developers to adopt its realityOS platform in order for the headset to be a success.
Who’s Reality Is It, Anyway?
As it has done for the last several event announcements, Apple added a touch of augmented reality flair to yesterday’s heraldry. A piece from MacRumors says if users hit Apple's events website using an iPhone or an iPad, they can have the same tunnel-esque Apple logo featured in the Joz Twitter post floating in their own home or office or wherever the heck they happen to be. To access it, MacRumors says:
Tap on the colorful Apple logo on the page to open Apple's AR viewer, which allows you to scan the area around you and see the animated logo in action. You can also view it in "Object" mode to get a clearer picture of what it looks like.
No Peeking, Yet
And now, we wait five or six days. The “Peek performance” event is scheduled for Tuesday 8 March at 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern - other times other places, consult your local star-chart. The event will be streamed on Apple’s events site. The company has also put up a placeholder image on the YouTube.
