The newest iPhones may have been the big reveal, but surprises were plenty throughout. From what we can tell, it was a good day for the Cupertino giant at the latest Apple iPhone event. Apple didn’t just introduce three new phones, it also made key announcements that got countless of Apple fans giddy with excitement.
Arguably, it’s been a while since we’ve been served this many surprises by Apple. Speaking of which, here are the main takeaways from the first Apple event at their new Apple Park:
Steve Jobs Tribute
This year’s Apple event was held at the bright, new Steve Jobs Theater and it kicked off with a heartfelt tribute to the man who brought us the iPhone. The affair (and by extension, the venue) opened with a famous speech from Steve Jobs and it visibly shook an emotional Tim Cook.
Apple Stores Renamed
Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Retail, presented that the company’s retail stores were adopting a new name. From the simple “Apple” store, retail stores will now be called “Apple Town Squares”. These outlets will come complete with “plazas” for hanging out, “board rooms” for group meetings, “forums” for collaborations, “avenues” for retail opportunities, as well as Genius Groves.
watchOS 4 Features
The upcoming Apple Watch operating system (OS)will bring in fresh updates, including the new Gym Connect feature. This feature lets you sync fitness stats with compatible gym equipment (e.g. rowing machines and treadmills) for a better fitness assessment.
The watchOS 4 can now tell whenever you have an elevated heart rate—thanks to its better heart monitoring capacity. You may also take a gander at pre- and post-workout heart rates with the OS.
Expect watchOS 4 to be available for download on September 19.
Series 3 with LTE
The next line of Apple Watch hardware is the Series 3. The highlight of the announcement is that the newest Apple Watch model will be getting LTE. Now you can get messages, calls, and alerts on the Series 3 even when your iPhone is well out of its range.
Impressive as that may sound, there’s something even more remarkable about the newest Apple Watch: its size. Apple has, indeed, managed to add LTE to the Series 3 without putting in extra bulk to the device. The watch also comes with a barometric altimeter, a vocal Siri, a new chip, and an 18-hour battery life. It’s mighty impressive if you ask us.
You may pre-order the Apple Watch Series 3 on September 15 (Friday) so you can get it 7 days after (September 22).
Apple TV Goes 4K
The Cupertino-based company had good news for its long-time Apple TV customers: the Apple TV gets a 4K upgrade. Not only did they introduce a new Apple TV 4K, but also revealed that customers who have purchased HD movies will receive 4K upgrades of the said media in their iTunes libraries at no additional cost. What’s more, new titles in 4K quality will be sold at the same price as HD versions.
Besides getting support for 4K videos, the Apple TV 4K also adds support for High Dynamic Range (HDR). It even comes with live news, live sports, and Bluetooth 5.0.
iPhone 8, 8 Plus Unveiled
The main draw of the Apple event, of course, was the launch of the newest iPhone models: the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. The rumored successors to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the new iPhones share similar features with their recent predecessor: body bezels, LCD screen, Touch ID, Home button, and a Lightning port. They bring in a fair share of upgrades, though.
Both the iPhone 8/8 Plus have a glass back, a TrueTone Retina display, and an A11 Bionic processor chip. Interestingly, Apple implemented a wireless technology for charging on the newest iPhones.
We’re excited to see how that goes.
The iPhone X Surprise
An even bigger draw during the Apple event was the model that commemorates the iconic device’s 10-year anniversary: iPhone X (note: pronounced as “ten”). Looking like a true, technological marvel, this latest iPhone mostly differs from the iPhone 8/8 Plus in the hardware department.
It comes with very thin bezel, has no Home button, and uses an edge-to-edge OLED display with a resolution of 2436×1125. The iPhone X’s screen boasts of a shocking pixel density of 458 ppi, which Apple calls a “Super Retina” display.
Be warned, though: it comes with a hefty price tag at $999.
Face ID on the iPhone X
With the iPhone X dropping the home button for Touch ID, Apple introduced a different way to unlock the device: the Face ID. Using a TrueDepth camera-and-sensor system, the iPhone X assesses and detects your facial features and uses them as a digital key. It can even perform its facial recognition protocol in the dark, with your glasses on, or even after a haircut.
AirPower in the Works
With the newest iPhones fully embracing inductive charging (using the Qi wireless standard), it was only a matter of time before Apple came up with its own wireless charging mat. Introduced to the audience as “AirPower”, Apple’s incoming charging mat is said to be capable of charging your Apple Watch, iPhone, and AirPods all at once.
(Image credit: ZDNet)
Sadly, it won’t ship until 2018.
No Love for Macs and iOS?
Much to the dismay of Mac-heads, Apple had little to share on iOS and Mac. The Cupertino giant, however, mentioned that the macOS High Sierra will come out of beta and launch on September 25.
On the other hand, the iOS 11 will publicly release on September 19.
It was a busy day at the Apple Park, indeed. The Apple event not only treated us to a ton of surprises, it also unveiled meaningful improvements. And to be honest, we haven’t been this excited about Apple’s latest products for a while now.