Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.) — From admonishing his home state’s record on gay rights to revealing new details about the Apple Watch, it’s fair to say Tim Cook has had a busy 24 hours.
The Apple CEO, an Auburn University alumnus, was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor on Monday, and he used the opportunity to encourage lawmakers in the state to move toward equality for all people.
“As a state, we took too long to steps toward equality,” he said, according to Al.com. “We were too slow on equality for African-Americans. We were too slow on interracial marriage, and we are still too slow for the equality for the LGBT community.”
In the evening, Cook attended the Wall Street Journal Digital Conference in Laguna Beach, California, where he revealed more details about Apple’s success and dropped hints about what’s to come.
Apple Pay
Apple’s mobile payments solution had a strong debut — in the first three days, Cook said there were more than 1 million credit cards activated.
“The early ramp [of Apple Pay] looks fantastic,” Cook said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Apple Watch Battery Life
Apple dazzled when it debuted its watch last month, however the company left many unanswered questions about the device, which is scheduled to ship in early 2015. Among them was battery life.
Cook shed more light on that Monday night, revealing, “You’re going to wind up charging it daily,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Potential Partner
Cook said he plans to meet with Jack Ma, CEO of Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba, about a possible partnership.
Earlier in the day, Ma, a fellow conference attendee, told the crowds he would be “very interested” in the possibility of a partnership to bring Apple Pay to China.
“We’re not Big Brother,” he said. “We’ll leave [collecting your data] to others.”
Why the iPod Classic is Dead
The old school 160 GB iPod Classic that can hold tens of thousands of songs isn’t being manufactured anymore because Apple wasn’t able to get the parts anymore from anywhere in the world, Cook said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
He Listens
Cook remarked that he gets more feedback from users than “any CEO alive.”
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