Apple announced a plethora of new products and updates at their September event this year. Most of these were expected to be announced by Apple, and a couple of them were a bit controversial. But most importantly, it provided everyone with a view into the future of Apple as a company and what their new products will look like. Apple recorded the entire event, and uploaded it to YouTube, allowing people who weren’t invited to the event to get a better look at what it was like, instead of just reading news articles about it.
Source: Apple
The Verge also uploaded a shortened, highlights version of the event, which is great for anyone who wants to see what went on at the event, but doesn’t have time to watch a 2+ hour video.
Source: The Verge
iPhone 6s and 6s Plus
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus were the most predictable parts of the event, building off of the pre-existing iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The new phones have quite a bit of upgrades going on under the hood, while the only noticeable physical change being the addition of a new color. Apple calls the new color “Rose Gold”, which is more of a metallic pink, rather than a gold. As for the technical changes, the 6s will be sporting Apple’s new A9 processor and M9 motion co-processor. According to Apple, the A9 is a “desktop class” processor with a 64-bit architecture. Although 64-bit architecture is used in desktop computers today, the A9 does not come anywhere close to matching the performance of a low end modern desktop processor. To go alongside the new A9, Apple has finally given its flagship phones more than 1GB of RAM. An iOS app developed figured out a way to use the asset library in XCode 7 (The program used to create iOS apps) to reveal that the iPhone 6s has 2GB of RAM.
Another part of the iPhone that has been redesigned is the aluminum body. When the iPhone 6 hit the stores, owners of the new iPhone were terrified when they found out that their precious new device could bend in their pocket. This idea was based upon the concept that the iPhone 6’s lightweight aluminum body was so thin at certain points that it could bend under the pressure created when sitting down with your phone in your pocket. Apple addressed this flaw in the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus by making the body out of a higher strength, 7000 series aluminum and thickening weak points such as the volume and power button cutouts.
To accompany the faster hardware, and better build quality, there are some new toys that come with iOS 9. The two main ones, “Retina Flash” and “Live Photos”, are both camera-related. Retina Flash is a screen-based flash that is used with the front facing camera. When taking a picture with the front facing camera while Retina Flash is enabled, the screen will turn white, and turn the brightness up to three times the maximum brightness that the user is able to set. According to Apple, this will allow users to take great photos, no matter where the light source is. To go along with Retina Flash, Apple also announced a feature called Live Photos, which is meant to capture the entire moment. With Live Photos turned on, when you take a picture, the camera will capture a video (with sound) of the moment of the photo, and a still photo to go along with it. The interesting part about this is that one would assume that a photo and a video would take up a lot more storage than just a single photo, but Apple said that it would not take much more space on the phone… And storage is a limiting factor on the iPhone, as they still have the base model at 16GB of storage, and no 32GB version, while other companies such as Samsung have made the base model have 32GB of storage on their flagship phones, for the same price as the iPhone.
iPad Pro
Along with the highly anticipated new iPhone, Apple released a new variant of the iPad; the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro has a massive 12.9 inch display with a resolution of 2732 x 2048, which when turned in landscape mode, has the same height as the iPad Air in portrait mode. This means easier multitasking with apps designed for the original iPad, and a thin side window for things like maps or notes.
Along with having a massive screen, Apple announced that it would have an A9X processor, which is a slightly beefier version of the new A9 chip that will be in the iPhone 6s. They are marketing it as a replacement for the desktop computer, just like Microsoft’s Surface. But, the main problem is that the iPad Pro is running iOS, and not Mac OS. If Apple is trying to market their new iPad as an equivalent to a desktop computer, they should at least give it a more powerful operating system that can run the full Adobe Creative Cloud suite, or the Microsoft Office suite.
The same developer that found out that the iPhone 6s will have 2GB of RAM discovered that the iPad Pro will have 4GB of RAM, which will allow for more desktop-like multitasking performance. In addition to a slightly more powerful processor and more RAM, the iPad Pro has a couple of extra features than the regular iPad. Apple has introduced a new connector that they call the Smart Connector. The Smart Connector will be used to attach accessories to the iPad, such as the new keyboard, which they are calling the Smart Keyboard. And to accompany the addition of a keyboard, they announced the “Pencil” which is essentially a stylus. The thing about Apple introducing a stylus, is that they have criticized Microsoft, and other companies that implemented styluses into their 2-in-one tablet-PC. Ever since Steve Jobs died, the product developers at Apple have been doing whatever they want, even going against what Steve Jobs had instructed them not to do, and it is the same case with the new iPad.
Apple TV
Apple also announced that they will be coming out with a new model of the Apple TV. There are three main features that they are trying to push. A new remote, apps, and Siri. With the new version of Apple TV, you can use Siri, the same personal assistant that you would have on an iPhone, but to browse TV shows, movies, etc. Adding Siri to the TV is Apple’s way of competing with Amazon Echo and other smart-house personal assistant devices.
Along with the addition of Siri to Apple TV, there is finally an actual app store for the Apple TV. This means that developers that make games for iOS or Mac OS can develop apps for your TV, such as games and other types of apps that other Smart TV platforms, such as Android TV or Roku already have. By opening up the opportunity for developers to finally make apps for people’s TVs, people will be able to utilize the new touch remote and Siri features to get the most out of their expensive entertainment system.
Watch OS 2
Another highly anticipated, yet exciting announcement at Apple’s event was Watch OS 2. Ever since they first came out with the Apple Watch, people have been realizing the potential features that the Apple Watch has, but they have not been able to use them. This is mainly because there was no app store for apps dedicated to the Apple Watch. When Apple introduced Watch OS 2 and the app store for the watch, they noted that users are now able to download apps from the app store, directly to their watches. This is a very important factor for people who are in the market for a smartwatch, because up until now, you had to have the apps stored on your phone and run them off of your phone every time you wanted to use it on your watch. Not only did this take up more space on your phone, it meant that you had to have your phone on you every time you wanted to use an app on your watch. But now, you could leave your phone at home, and still run the app on your watch without being connected to your phone. The only problem with that, is that if you don’t have your phone with you, you won’t be able to update any information from the Internet, as the Apple Watch relies on its parent phone to do all of the data transferring.
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