Jay Blahnik
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Apple labored over the perfect interface for its Watch Activity app
Apple's Watch designers did a lot of reps on the Workout and Activity apps before arriving at the final design, according to an internal memo dug up by 9to5 Mac. The company's in-house fitness guru Jay Blahnik detailed the design process of the Watch's key apps, saying, "We kept asking ourselves, 'What could we do to measure all-day activity that would be more useful than traditional all-day activity trackers?'" To arrive at the answer, the company decided to build both apps in-house, in order to "build our own knowledge base from the ground up" rather than using off-the-shelf software.
Apple hires former Nike FuelBand consultant Jay Blahnik
Apple has hired fitness expert and former Nike FuelBand consultant Jay Blahnik, reports 9to5Mac. Blahnik is well-known in the fitness industry and has worked for Apple in the past on unspecified products. The fact that Apple is now bringing him on in a full-time role now suggests that he will have a high level of input over a specific product, which many people assume to be the rumored "iWatch." Though his personal website has been taken offline, a cached version of it still exists where his bio reads: Jay has been a Nike Elite Athlete and Nike consultant for almost 20 years. He worked closely with Nike on the launch of Nike+Running, which has become the largest digital running community in the world. He was also the original creator and program developer of the Nike Training Club App, and the Nike Training Club in-gym program, which boasts over 6 million digital users. He is also a key expert and consultant for many of Nike's new Digital Sport initiatives that launched in 2012, including Nike+ Kinect Training and Nike+ FuelBand. Blahnik himself confirmed the news of his hire by Apple on Twitter, before removing the tweet.
