Apple revealed a whole heap of information about the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 models at its event today.
While it was hard to miss the tag lines repeated ad nauseam — “most advanced iPhone ever”, “the ultimate device for a healthy life” — it would be understandable if you missed some of the finer points. So here they are.
Kicking off with a cameo from talk show host James Corden and Pharrell driving Tim Cook to the event, Apple took a straightforward approach to promo’ing its new show: Carpool Karaoke. Cook segued nicely from Corden’s car to the main stage and detailed Apple Music’s new look and its 17 million users.
We have all the details here… but you can also check out everything that happened in just 107 seconds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeoUELDgyM4
Apple Music
The streaming service got a major redesign in iOS 10, and a sorely-needed one at that. Aside from bold new aesthetics, the personalized playlist generator called Discovery Mix could make for an easier transition from Spotify, if you’re in love with the latter’s Discover Weekly playlist (I am).
You’ll also see lyric integration and a simplified interface that looks, well, a lot like Apple News.
Mario is coming to iOS!
Mobile gaming never seemed complete without Mario on the iPhone or a non-emulated Android device. Today, Nintendo creator Shigeru Miyamoto announced Super Mario Run – an endless runner that fully supports one-handed play. Miyamoto mused that the one-handed play was so that you could “hold on in the subway, eat a cheeseburger, or an apple.”
Super Mario Run will be available at a “fixed price” and it’ll release this holiday season. Miyamoto said the decision to offer a fixed price was so that you could enjoy the game without worrying about in-app purchases.
You’ll get some cool new teaser stickers for the game featuring Mario’s mug when iOS 10 drops on September 13.
Education and iWork
Cook took the stage to talk about some of Apple’s education initiatives, such as the ConnectED grant. ConnectED aims to deliver 50,000 iPads to students and 4,500 Macs to teachers.
Next Cook invited Susan Prescott, VP of worldwide apps, to the stage to detail what’s coming in the oft-forgotten iWork.
All the iWork apps — Pages, Notes, and Keynote — now offer real-time collaboration between colleagues. Prescott demo’ed the new feature on stage by editing a Keynote presentation with five contributors. The live contribution was underwhelming, and it essentially welcomed Apple to 2006 — or Google Drive.
Headphones
Apple’s new EarPods are chock full of options, as long as ‘chock full’ in this case means wired or wireless. The new EarPod is completely redesigned to actually fit in the ear, rather than nestled neatly between your earlobe and the ear canal. The redesign is a necessary one, as Apple’s new headphones offer completely wireless playback through Bluetooth.
The EarPods can also be plugged in, although not in the headphone jack — that’s gone. Now, you’ll have to plugin via the Lightning port, which doubles as the port used to sync the phone to a desktop or charge it. Gone are the days of multi-tasking, as Apple shifts to a one port to rule them all approach that it previously made with its Macbook and USB-C connection.
Apple claims that its AirPods, and their new W1 chip in particular, go well beyond the capabilities of “traditional wireless chips.” The new chip can wirelessly transmit “high-quality AAC audio” (the fine print mentions testing 256 kbps AAC tracks), and instead of an often-complex Bluetooth pairing process, AirPods will recognize when an iPhone is nearby for one-tap pairing.
They’ll also simultaneously connect with an Apple Watch, and can pair to an iPad or Mac over iCloud.
AirPods are packed with some additional sensors as well. Infrared allows them to only start playing when they’re in your ear, while an accelerometer recognizes speech and uses dual beam-forming microphones to filter out background noise. Double-tapping on either AirPod calls up Siri for voice commands.
As for battery life, each AirPod will run for five hours on a charge, and they come with a wireless charging case that brings back a few hours of runtime after 15 minutes inside. In total, the case provides up to 24 hours of battery life.
We’ll also see a trio of new Beats offerings later this year.
iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
Performance: The new chip powering the phones is called the A10 Fusion, which is more powerful than the previous chip but also features a new kind of architecture. Like the processors seen in many Android phones, it has separate performance and two efficiency cores. This means that although the battery is the same size you should see better battery life because less power will be used when performing non-taxing tasks like checking your email. On average, Apple says the iPhone 7 will last two hours longer than the iPhone 6s, and the iPhone 7 Plus one hour longer than last year’s Plus model.
Camera: The standard iPhone 7 features optical image stabilisation, a 12MP main camera with a bigger aperture, a six-element lens and the ability to capture a wider gamut of colours. The iPhone 7 Plus has this same camera system, as well as a second 12MP telephoto lens that provides an optical 2x zoom. Any digital zoom beyond 2x will also use this lens, meaning less distortion. The cameras can also work together to sense the depth of a scene and apply a blur only to the background for portrait pictures, but that feature won’t be available until a software update to come later. The front camera is now 7MP. A new signal processor, which which Apple VP Phil Schiller called a “supercomputer for images”, processes over 100 billion operations for each single photo. The rear flash is now brighter and photographers can capture images in RAW format.
Design: The iPhone 7’s Home button is now powered by a ‘taptic engine’, like the touchpad on the new MacBook, which means it’s a pressure-sensitive panel rather than an actual button. This should make the need for repairs a bit less frequent, and it also helps make the new phones water and dust resistant to the IP67 standard. The 3.5mm headphone jack is gone, meaning audio will come through the new stereo speakers or a headset attached via the Lightning port. The screen on the iPhones is now brighter and displays a wider gamut of colours for “cinema-standard colours”. The resolution remains the same.
Finishes: The phones come in the familiar silver, gold and rose gold (pink) finishes, but the usual space grey is nowhere to be found. Instead the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus have two versions of black: a matte black and a glossy “jet black”. The antenna lines on the back of the phones have been moved to be less obvious.
Apple Watch Series 2
Performance: The Apple Watch is powered by the new S2 dual core processor, which is twice as fast as the chip that powered the original device. There’s a new GPU for better graphics performance too. Both these upgrades are being brought over to the older watch design, which will be sold as “Series 1”. The Series 2 watch has an in-built GPS to measure distance, pace and speed even when you don’t take your iPhone with you, but that won’t be coming to Series 1.
Design: No longer merely “splash proof”, the Apple Watch is now water resistant to 50 metres so you can take it swimming (choose your bands wisely though, they’re not all suitable for submersion!). The screen features the brightest display Apple has ever shipped, twice as bright as the original Apple Watch, to make reading information easier in outdoor conditions.
Bands and editions: Series 1 will come in an aluminum case (gold, rose gold, silver or space grey) and a sports band, while Series 2 comes in either aluminum, silver or black stainless steel or white ceramic (this is the new Editon version, replacing the gold models), with one of a wide variety of bands. Special Hermès and Nike+ versions of the Apple Watch Series 2 will also be available. All watches come in either 38mm or 42mm.
WatchOS 3 also releases to the public on September 13.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments or follow GoodThingsGuy on Facebook & Twitter to keep up to date with good news as it happens.
by 