Apple’s biggest event of the year this year took place at the Steve jobs Theater in Apple Park, Apple’s new headquarters in San Jose, California. It seemed like Tim Cook was quite emotional at the opening of his keynote this time. He mentioned how at Apple people miss the great Steve Jobs and he said it was an honor of his lifetime to introduce the Steve Jobs Theater to the world.
Apple plans to start moving their to the spaceship building later this year. Apple Park is also one of the most green buildings in the US. It uses 100% renewable energy as well as Hs over 9000 trees.
Apple Watch Series 3
The first announcement was the Apple Watch. Apple says Apple Watch has grown 50% year on year and is also the number 1 watch in the world ahead of Rolex, Fossil and Omega.
Watch OS 4 will be giving users a host of new features on the Apple Watch. Apple made advancements to the heart rate app, which now also gives you resting and a recovering heart rates. Apple Watch will also notify users when it sees an elevated heart rate and the user is not active.Starting September 19th people will start getting the Watch OS 4 update. Apple also announced Apple Watch Series 3 which has cellular built in.
This makes Apple Watch a stand alone device. No need to carry your phone everywhere now. The Apple Watch Series 3 will have the same phone number as you phone. There is a new dual-core processor that Apple says is 70% faster than the previous version. The Watch Series 3 biggest challenge was to get cellular in it. The Display itself is the antenna for Apple Watch. The Apple Watch Series 3 retains the same size as Watch Series 2. It does not use an nano-Sim but uses an electric SIM for connectivity.
Apple Watch Series 3 will start at $399 and will be available starting 22nd September 2017.
Apple TV 4K
Apple TV also gets an update for 2017. It now is 4K and HDR. The Apple TV UI has also been redesigned to support 4K resolution. At its heart Apple TV now comes with the A10X fusion Chip that is also used in the Apple iPad Pro. Apple TV will also get later this year, Live Sports on Apple TV app as well as Live News. Apple TV 4K starts at $199.
Apple iPhone 8 and 8 Plus
Apple iPhone was the most awaited announcement for this event. Tim Cook in a short keynote told the world how iPhone has been a revolutionary device of the 21st Century. Apple announced Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. The new phones run on iOS 11 operating system. The new phones come with front and back that’s made of glass. The phones come in silver, grey and a new gold colour. The new phones are water and dust resistant. There is a 4.7 inch Retina display on iPhone 8 and 5.8-inch on 8 Plus. The new iPhones also come with new speakers wit richer bass. The phone runs on a new chip called A11 Bionic. It’s a six-core processor that’s also supported by Apple’s new GPU.
The A11 bionic also uses a new ISP for faster low-light autofocus and comes with hardware multi band noise reduction. The iPhone 8 comes with a new 12MP camera with an all new sensor. The iPhone 8 Plus comes with f/1.8 and f/2.1 dual-cameras with 12MP sensors. iPhone 8 Plus comes with a similar portrait mode as seen on the iPhone 7 Plus. Apple says that the bokeh is more detailed than what was seen on the iPhone camera last year. There is a new Portrait Lighting that helps users to select the lighting type that you want on your subjects face.
On the video front, Apple iPhone 8 comes with Apple designed video encoder inside the A11 Bionic chip. The devices are capable of shooting 4K @ 60fps. Now you can also shoot a 1080p 240fps slow-motion videos on the iPhone 8. Apple has also calibrated the cameras on the iPhone 8 Plus for Augmented Reality. The CPU now handles world tracking scenes and the GPU renders graphics in real time on the camera of the iPhone 8 Plus. Apple also gave a demo of an AR app from Directive Games at the keynote event where they showcased an upcoming AR based game that used the new iPhone 8 Plus’ camera to play it on stage at the keynote. The AR Game called Machines from Directive Labs was an interesting AR capability demo on the iPhone 8 Plus.
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus also comes with Qi wireless charging capabilities as well. All Qi certified wireless chargers will work with the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus for charging. The new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will come in 64 GB and 256GB storage versions and will start at $699. The iPhone 8 Plus will come at a starting price of $799 with similar storage Variants as the iPhone 8. The Pre-orders start September 15 and the new phones will be available starting 22nd September.
Apple iPhone X
Apple iPhone X is what everyone was waiting for, it comes with an edge-to edge display. The iPhone X also comes with a front and back glass design. The iPhone X comes in two in finishes of space gray and silver. The iPhone X comes with a super Retina display from Apple. It’s a 5.8-inch display an comes with 458ppi of pixel density. The display used in the iPhone X uses OLED technology. In addition it gets 3D Touch as well as tap on screen wake function for the iPhone X. Swipe up from the bottom is a simple gesture that replaces the home button function on the iPhone X.
So how do you unlock the iPhone X?
The iPhone X uses FaceID which is basically facial recognition on the Apple iPhone X. Most of the hardware is packed in the top front of the iPhone X, that also make the phone capable of unlocking even in low-light. It has a neural engine, dual-core design and can for 600 billion operations per second. To set up Face ID is also as simple as setting up TouchID. The Face ID also learns your face through machine learning. So even if you grow a beard or wear glasses it recognises you. Even your Face Data is protected by the iPhone X. Face ID stores your data locally on the device and does not send it to any server. Apple claims that Face ID’s chance of unlocking by someone else other than the user is one in a million. Face ID also adapts to your face overtime and works with payment apps as well. Apple iPhone X also comes with Animoji’s which are basically animated emoji’s that a user can control with his face.
The iPhone X comes with vertically arranged dual-12MP cameras with f/1.8 and f/2.4 cameras. The cameras are loaded with dual-OIS and a quad-LED True Tone flash. Just like the iPhone 8 Plus the iPhone X comes with the Portrait mode and is also tuned for Augmented Reality (AR) apps. The front camera on the iPhone X comes with a true depth camera that comes with a front portrait mode for taking images as well. The iPhone X also comes with A11 Bionic chipset that’s also there on the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
Apple claims that the iPhone X comes with 2 hours more worth of battery life than the iPhone 7. The iPhone X also supports wireless charging which are Qi certified. Apple also gave a sneak peek into Apple Charging matte called AirPower with which you can charge your iPhone , Apple Watch as well as for AirPods all on single mat wireless charger.
Apple iPhone X will come in 64GB and 256GB storage versions and will come at a starting price of $999. The iPhone X is available on Pre-order starting 27th October 2017 and will be available starting November 3, 2017.
(Disclaimer: The author is in San Jose, USA on the invite of Apple India)
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