This column is a recap of the Apple Event held at the brand new Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino on September 12, 2017. I want to hear the words they say and report those words in this column. I will only share my personal opinion at the top of this column about the first 22 minutes.
The video opens with beautiful shots of the Steve Jobs Theater. It is a beautiful structure, and one that I am sure Steve would be proud of. Steve Jobs speaks while the simple text “Welcome to the Steve Jobs Theater” is on screen. It is beautiful. I remember you Steve, and my eyes tear up. Tim Cook comes onto stage and presents the theater. His words are fantastic as he presents this theater, only a portion of what Apple Park will be.
Retail update. They call their stores town squares because they are gathering places for 500 million people that visit Apple each year. They are becoming art pieces in cities and they will be great places for people to experience Apple products. Today at Apple, is the in-store experience designed to inspire customers to go even further with their passions. Apples retail purpose is to enrich lives.
21;48 Apple Watch
Apple Watch is the number 1 watch in the world with a 97% satisfaction rating. Heart rate is on the watch face and is providing more data. Watch will notify you if your heart rate goes up and you are not active.
Apple Heart Study is a study to help understanding heart rhythm. They are hoping to help detect heart irregularity earlier.
Series 3 now has cellular built in. Phone number on your phone is you watches phone number. Messages, streaming music, maps all work without the iPhone. Siri is able to talk on the watch now. New WiFi chip. Added altimeter. There is a red dot on the crown.
To handle cellular they use the case as the antenna, and they went with a virtual SIM card. The phone is the same size as the series 2. They demonstrate a call right from the watch.
New Gold Aluminum finish. Introducing a sport loop watch band. They are adding a ceramic watch in a grey finish.
Summary: Cellular, GPS, Swimproof, 70% faster dual-core processor, W2 wireless chip, Barometric altimeter, All-day battery life, watchOS 4
$399 with cellular
$329 without cellular
$249 Series 1
Order September 15, available September 22, 2017.
43:40 Apple TV
Intro Apple TV 4K. Two big advancements. 4k and High Dynamic Range or HDR. Apple supports Dolby Vision and HDR10. A10X CPU.
Netflix and Amazon will be providing 4K content on Apple TV. Live sports coming later this year from ESPN. Live news.
Pricing:
Apple TV: $149
Apple TV 4K 32GB: $179
Apple TV 4K 64GB: $199
Order September 15, ships September 22, 2017
57:12 iPhone
iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. Glass front and back. Silver, Space Grey and Gold finish. Most durable glass in a smart phone. Sealed for water and dust resistance. Retina HD display. True Tone technology to allow the color to look right in different light. Better speakers. New A11 Bionic chip. 64 bit design. New Apple-designed GPU. Better camera. Apple-designed ISP. 12MP sensor in the camera. The Plus has two 12MP dual cameras.
Portrait lighting is beta but will be released with the iPhone 8. This will enable lighting effects on your subjects face. You can modify this as well in the photo app after you take the picture.
Apple-designed video encoder for video. Real time image and motion analysis. Slow motion now works in 1080p 240fps.
Augmented Reality. Cameras are calibrated for AR. There is an AR demo that shows a game named “The Machines” played on an empty table.
iPhone 8 has wireless charging. Qi open wireless standard. Mophie and Belkin both will provide Qi chargers.
Summary:
Glass and aluminum design
Retina HD display with Tru Tone
A11 Bionic
12MP camera
12MP dual cameras (iPhone 8 Plus)
Portrait mode (iPhone 8 Plus)
Portrait Lighting (iPhone 8 Plus)
Quad-LED True Tone flash
Slow Sync flash
Touch ID
LTE Advanced
Bluetooth 5.0
Stereo speakers
Water and dust resistant
Wireless charging
Fast-charge capable
iPhone 8 in 64GB and 256GB options starting at $699
iPhone 8 Plus in 64GB and 256GB options starting at $799.
Pre-order September 15, available September 22.
Phones can update to iOS 11 on September 19th.
One more thing…
iPhone X, the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone.
Edge to edge display. Glass front and back. Surgical stainless steel. Dust and water resistant. Space Gray and silver. Super Retina display. OLED display.
Raise to wake or tap on screen to wake it up. There is no home button. Swipe from bottom to go home. Swipe up from bottom and pause and you can go into multi-tasking. Talk to Siri or hit the side button. To unlock you will use your face. Face ID, the future of how to unlock your phone.
On the phone is the A11 Bionic neural engine. This is the thing that does the work to recognize your face.
They are introducing Animoji. They use the camera to face map so you can animate one of these Animoji characters.
Face unlock failed, but I will give them credit it brought up the backup option quick.
In order to unlock you must look at the phone and swipe up from the bottom.
They demo face unlock two additional times without failure.
The face mapping demo of the Animoji was incredible. As Craig talks the Animoji talks.
Dual optical image stabilization on iPhone X.
AR kit is tuned for iPhone X.
You can do better selfies with portrait mode and portrait lighting on the front facing camera.
Battery life lasts 2 hours longer than iPhone 7.
Qi charging. Apple sneak peeks their charging mat. The mat is called AirPower, and will allow you to charge your phone, watch, and wireless ear buds with option charging case. Available in 2018.
iPhone X comes in two configuration 64GB and 256GB starting at $999. Order on October 27th, and shipping starts November 3, 2017.
The entire iPhone lineup:
iPhone SE $349
iPhone 6s $449
iPhone 7 $549
iPhone 8 $699
iPhone X $999
b
I'm just a guy that loves technology! 