Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Why the Time Is Always Set To 9:41 In Apple Ads

Posted by samzenpus on from the ticking-away-the-moments-that-make-up-a-dull-day dept.

jones_supa writes If you have looked carefully, the clock has traditionally been always set to 9:42 in Apple advertisements. You could see it across various commercials, print ads, and even on Apple's website. The explanation is simple: That's the time in the morning that Steve Jobs announced the very first iPhone in 2007. Around 42 minutes into his keynote address he said "Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone." The picture of the phone was carefully scheduled to pop up at that moment. "We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation", Apple's Scott Forstall confirms. The time was even slightly tweaked in 2010, when the very first iPad was released, so that when it was revealed, it displayed a different time: 9:41.

14 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. Always except when it isn't by gweilo8888 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Headline: "the Time Is Always Set To 9:41 In Apple Ads"

    Summary: "the clock has traditionally been always set to 9:42 in Apple advertisements." ... "The time was even slightly tweaked in 2010" ... "it displayed a different time"

    That's some quality editing there, Slashdot.

    1. Re:Always except when it isn't by R.Mo_Robert · · Score: 4, Informative

      Headline: "the Time Is Always Set To 9:41 In Apple Ads"

      Summary: "the clock has traditionally been always set to 9:42 in Apple advertisements." ... "The time was even slightly tweaked in 2010" ... "it displayed a different time"

      That's some quality editing there, Slashdot.

      While it might be a little confusing, it's actually correct. The time HAD traditionally been set to 9:42, then they tweaked it to 9:41 with the introduction of the iPad. (The goal was to match actual local time at the moment when the product is actually revealed, which happens slightly more than 40 minutes after it starts.)

      --
      R.Mo
    2. Re:Always except when it isn't by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nice contrapedante, M'Lud.

      --
      Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
  3. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I now recall why /. fell off the list of sites I check regularly.

  4. Another summary edit by Hussman32 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not "Apple's Scott Forstall," it's "Scott Forstall, formerly of Apple." And I agree this story is not really 'stuff that matters.'

    --
    "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    1. Re:Another summary edit by Swampash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not to mention the article IS FROM THE YEAR 2010.

      Fuck you very much Slashdot, any excuse to get another article up with Apple in the headline for the SEO huh? Quotas to meet and all.

  5. The right time is 13:37 by fgouget · · Score: 4, Funny

    9:42 may be good enough for the masses but for the elite only 13:37 will do. And that's why the elite chooses Free as their ISP.

  6. A ha! The solution is found! by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 5, Funny

    NOW we know why Apple always has problems with daylight savings time and leap years...

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  7. Re:Fascinating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can go to bed tonight and finally get some sleep,

    Not so fast yayoubetcha.

    If all Apple adverts are set to 9:42, explain this one: "Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 06, 2014 @08:57AM.

    You can sleep when you're done explaining.

  8. Individually Interesting, Collectively Creepy by Scot+Seese · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A number of similar articles have revealed more tidbits of Apples' Jobs-worship culture recently.

    Taken one by one, they just come across as nice gestures to honor the company's co-founder. Additively they're starting to become really, really weird.

    When Tim Cook dropped the bomb during his Charlie Rose interview that Jobs' office is maintained exactly as it was before his death, sealed, undisturbed - it raised an eyebrow.

    The entire affair reminds me of the religion that pulp science fiction author started - the one with an office maintained in his honor at all their locations. You know the one. I suppose next we'll discover there is a Steve Jobs alcove located in the rear stockroom of all Apple stores.

    Look, I got my first Apple product in 1983, and own quite a few current models at this time. But... admiration is one thing, hero worship is quite another. No thanks.

    --
    THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
  9. Re:Fascinating by _xeno_ · · Score: 4, Funny

    If all Apple adverts are set to 9:42, explain this one: "Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 06, 2014 @08:57AM.

    You live in [counts on fingers]... North Korea?

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
  10. Re:Fascinating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    JCST (Jobs Coffin Standard Time)

  11. In unrelated news by quantaman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Russia has just announced that the times 9:41 and 9:42 are banned as promoting sodomy.

    New clocks must be designed so that upon reaching 9:40 they advance directly to 9:43. Unfortunately there will be a transition period where gay fascist clocks are still in wide circulation. Patriotic Russians around such a clock while it displays 9:41 or 9:42 are advised to defend themselves from the homosexual propaganda by deeply meditating on the manly deeds of Vladamir Putin.

    --
    I stole this Sig