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[UPDATE] Wonderlust – Apple September event; new iPhones and watches

Lightwreather
By Lightwreather
in Tech News
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Go to solution Solved by Lightwreather,

So, here are all the announcements, and stuff that happened:

Apple Watch Series 9

-Largely the same design, the most significant changes are to the internals

-Improved performance, but more crucially, longer battery life, are promised by the new S9 chip. Apple claims 60% more transistors than the Series 8 and a GPU with 30% more transistors. The neural engine's significant improvements to on-device processing for Siri requests, including 25% faster voice dictation, may be the most significant.

-Display now goes up to 2000 nits, double the brightness of Series 8, making it easier to use outdoors. Also goes down to a single nit in dark conditions

-Addition of an Ultra Wide-Band chip to show you the distance and direction to your phone, rather than simply having your phone make a loud noise.

-Apple also promised a new gesture - "Double Tap" that it claims Watch users will be using "every day". This works supposedly by the Neural Engine's detection of "the unique signature of tiny wrist movements and changes in blood flow when the index finger and thumb perform a double tap." Bit skeptical if this will actually catch on though.

-FineWoven is a new watch strap design that Apple is phasing out of its whole product line to replace the leather. FineWoven is a "microtwill made of 68 percent post-consumer recycled content that has significantly lower carbon emissions compared to leather," according to Apple. 82 percent of the yarn used to make the new Sport Loop is recycled.

- Supposedly, the company's first carbon-neutral device.

The Apple Watch SE remains available for $249, while the Series 9 starts at $399. They're both available for preorder today and should be released on September 22.

image.thumb.png.0d40c1b4125c596e50f996f23130ca67.png

 

Apple Watch Ultra 2

-The Ultra 2 has the same new S9 chip as the Series 9 alongside the same "double tap" feature.

-There's a new display that hits 3k nits, even more than the Series 9. (Sidenote: How bright would be too bright?)

-There's also a new "modular ultra" watchface that uses the edge of the display, “to present real-time data, including seconds, altitude, or depth”.

-There's also now support for Bluetooth cycling accessories, and ANT+ support.

-The battery is the same, hitting 36 hours on a single charge and 72 hours in low-power mode.

 

iPhone 15 and 15 Plus

Why, it's star of the show, and was literally what everyone was waiting for, waiting agonising minutes after it was revelled to see if a highly anticipated feature would be released. It was.

 

-Apple ditched its proprietary Lightning port in favour of USB-C (albeit on the USB2 standard; some claim it's because of SoC limitations) on this iteration of the iPhone, very likely because of the EU.

-The edge of the aluminium enclosure has a new contoured design that looks a bit different from the iPhone 14 and gives me a Pixel 4-esque vibe

-Apple also claims the iPhone 15 devices are the first phones to have a "color-infused back glass." Apple's announcement said that it strengthened the phones' back glass with a "dual-ion exchange process" and then polished it with nano-crystalline particles and etched it for a "textured matte finish."

-Dynamic island was introduced.

I take minor issue with Apple calling it an "all-new design" when it really isn't that different from the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro but I suppose that's a me thing.

 

-Spec bump to the A16 which was on last year's Pro line-up

-Main camera system was upgraded to a 48 MP sensor that takes 24 MP photos, using a default computational photography process. This is the same system found on the iPhone 14 Pro. Alternatively, you can opt for the "2x Telephoto" option with three "optical-quality" zoom levels (0.5x, 1x, or 2x).

-Additionally, for all of the iPhone 15's cameras, machine learning will automatically switch the main camera into portrait mode, with richer color and low-light performance, when appropriate. Night Mode ("sharper details and more vivid colors") and Smart HDR (brighter highlights, and improved mid-tones, shadows, and renderings of skin tones) are reportedly upgraded, too.

 

-The cameras will also introduce focus and depth control, which lets you switch focus on an image from one subject to a different subject after the photo has been taken.

I will admit, that is pretty cool

 

-Also includes the second-gen Ultra Wideband chip (same as in the Apple Watch). Apple said it enables connectivity with other devices from up to a three-times longer distance.

-The iPhone 15 is supposed to have better audio quality during calls, thanks to a new machine learning model that automatically prioritises your voice and can filter out more background noise, if you select "voice isolation" mode during a call.

This is also pretty cool, and will absolutely be very helpful when yer trying to listen to someone talking in a very windy place. THANK YOU APPLE.

-Apple is also adding Roadside Assistance via Satellite with the new devices. Users will be able to text roadside assistance and then select what they need assistance with, with options such as "flat tire" and "locked out" appearing via a menu that comes up in response. The feature will debut in the US with AAA.

-The iPhone 15 starts at $799 (128GB), and the iPhone 15 Plus starts at $899 (128GB) available on September 22, with preorders starting this Friday.

-Apple also launched new case options for the iPhone 15 series, including the new FineWoven material.

 

image.thumb.png.605a45ad77ef302f304408a319a6baca.png

Apple (via ArsTechnica)

 

iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max

-Apple announced that new iPhone 15 Pro line-up will switch from a stainless steel frame to one made out of a brushed "grade 5 titanium," which they says makes the phone more durable and lighter.

I honestly expected them to bump the price just because of this

-The phone is also a little smaller than past models thanks to slimmer display bezels. The screen sizes stay the same—6.1 inches for the base model and 6.7 inches for the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max one. Apple didn't announce any changes to the phones' actual screens, so expect the same resolution, ProMotion refresh rate, and brightness as before.

-The iPhone's tradition mute switch was replaced by an "action button" . By default, it still serves as a mute switch, but users can change it to launch apps or the camera or custom Shortcuts workflows, which I see as a neat inclusion. There will be a different haptic response depending on if the action mutes or unmutes.

-The Pro line-up will once again be a generation ahead of the non-pros with the introduction of the A17 Pro, which is apparently Apple's first chip built on TSMC's 3nm node. It continues to use two large high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores; Apple says the performance cores are 10 percent faster than they were before, a relatively mild improvement, while the efficiency cores are more efficient rather than being faster.
   -The A17 Pro's six-core GPU is 20 percent faster than the A16 and Apple has also added hardware-accelerated ray-tracing. This is something I don't see as being particularly useful on a phone, but I did call out that this would be implemented by Genshin Impact and Honkai Star rail. Speaking of which RE4 will also be coming to the iPhone.

   -The chip also includes hardware acceleration for the AV1 video codec that is becoming more popular on streaming services.

-Apple has also added a new USB controller to power that USB-C port, allowing the iPhone 15 Pro (Max) to use USB 3 transfer speeds. 
"technically, this would make it either a USB 3.1 gen 2 or 3.2 gen 2 controller, if you can keep the USB-IF's naming straight" –ArsTechnica

-Apple says the Pro's 48-megapixel main sensor is larger than the one in the regular iPhone 15. Like the iPhone 15, by default, it will shrink the finished product down to 24 MP to save storage space, but if you're shooting in ProRAW mode you can get the full 48 MP image for cropping and editing. The camera defaults to a 24 mm focal length, but 28 mm and 35 mm options are also made possible by the large sensor, and you can set any of the three focal lengths as your default.

 

-Apple says that after an iOS update "later this year," the phone will be able to shoot spatial video that can be viewed in three dimensions in a Vision Pro headset.

-The iPhone 15 Pro starts at $999 (128GB), and the iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,199 (256GB) available from the 22nd of September with preorders starting this Friday. FineWoven cases will also be available for the Pro line-up.

 

iOS and macOS

-iOS 17 hits supported devices on September 18

- macOS 14 Sonoma will be available on September 26, just over a week after iOS 17

 

Sources

Apple - [1] [2]

ArsTechnica – [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Posted
52 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

No gold and purple on the 15 Pro

Slide1.PNG

sure, but I don‘t see how that relates to my comparison to the colors of the regular non-Pro 15.

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Posted
9 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

I was referring to the Mother Nature segment where they mentioned nothing about repairs

I mean, do you care about if they improve repairability, or if they talk about it in their cringey video?

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Posted
9 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

Because of the difficulties in anodizing Titanium, Apple created the most dull and boring colors in pro iPhones to date.

At least in pictures, I find the "natural titanium" to be one of the best looking iPhones ever.

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Posted
7 hours ago, CarlBar said:

Just going to drop this here as i don't feel upto tring to make a new thread about it atm, but figured it would be of interest to apple centric folks:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66795168

 

TLDR france has ordered Apple to fix an EM radiation issue with the iPhone 12 within 2 weeks or face a forced recall, mandate likely to spread across the whole EU as other nations examine the french regulators data.

Curious - so there's likely still no health risk, but according to the ANFR it's above the legal limit for a limb check when measuring the SAR.

 

Apple claims this isn't the case, and they claim third party tests confirm this.

 

So what's the deal? I'd like to see more information regarding this. If the iPhone 12 is indeed above the maximum limit, they need to fix that. But why the inconsistency between tests?

For Sale: Meraki Bundle

 

iPhone Xr 128 GB Product Red - HP Spectre x360 13" (i5 - 8 GB RAM - 256 GB SSD) - HP ZBook 15v G5 15" (i7-8850H - 16 GB RAM - 512 GB SSD - NVIDIA Quadro P600)

 

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Posted

One weird trick Apple doesn't want you to know to get the new usb-c case for your old Airpods Pro2:

 

 

But honestly I don't see the point...I'd rather charge the Airpods case via Qi/Magsafe/Watch_puck..

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Posted
7 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

One weird trick Apple doesn't want you to know to get the new usb-c case for your old Airpods Pro2:

 

 

But honestly I don't see the point...I'd rather charge the Airpods case via Qi/Magsafe/Watch_puck..

And you can confirm that this is working and the Airpods can be paired with a different charging case?

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Posted
2 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

And you can confirm that this is working and the Airpods can be paired with a different charging case?

 

That’s the first thing a number of youtubers are gonna try next week when they ship…I can’t confirm it right now, of course.

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Posted

Later in the article it’s revealed it is a variation on the “best camera is the one in your pocket” adage. 

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Posted
On 9/15/2023 at 6:23 AM, HenrySalayne said:

And you can confirm that this is working and the Airpods can be paired with a different charging case?

I mean, if it's considered as "lost part" replacement, one would think it should work. Why else would they offer just the cases that wouldn't work with your earbuds in the end?

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Posted
2 hours ago, RejZoR said:

I mean, if it's considered as "lost part" replacement, one would think it should work. Why else would they offer just the cases that wouldn't work with your earbuds in the end?

The other person suggested you can "upgrade" your Lightning Airpods to USB C by replacing the charging case with a USB C variant. Apple's trackrecord suggests it is highly unlikely that this will work.

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Posted

Apple's track record: the one and only time (so far) that two generation of Airpods were physically compatible (i.e. exactly the same shape and size), they were case-compatible.

 

I'm talking about the original 2016 Airpods and the 2nd gen 2019 Airpods. 

 

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP793?viewlocale=en_ZA&locale=en_ZA#:

 

Quote

The Wireless Charging Case works with AirPods (1st and 2nd generation) 

 

What you couldn't do was mismatch them. (e.g.: 1st gen left bud + 2nd gen right bud inside the same case)

 

 

For all we know the Airpods Pro "2.0" (2022) and Airpods Pro "2.1" (2023) are physically compatible, with no visible changes on the outside. (whereas the chipset inside was obviously updated to add the Lossless/Low_latency protocol for the Vision Pro)

 

The minute Airpods Pro "2.1" ship (next Friday), someone will put a pair of Airpods Pro "2.0" inside a "2.1"/usb-c case, do the reset/repair procedure and finally solve this fundamental mystery of our existence, worthy of name calling and forum drama.

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Posted
3 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

The other person suggested you can "upgrade" your Lightning Airpods to USB C by replacing the charging case with a USB C variant. Apple's trackrecord suggests it is highly unlikely that this will work.

You could buy MagSafe capable cases for AirPods that originally came without it. Why would USB-C port be any different? Apple may be greedy, but they know people won't buy all new earbuds just for USB-C port. Whole new case however, likely.

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Posted
20 hours ago, Paul Thexton said:

“It's Going to be the Best Game Console”


 they’re addicted to shooting themselves in foot aren’t they? 

You know what they say... hope dies last

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Posted

I was today years old when I found out 2nd gen Airpods Pro (both the 2022 and the 2023 flavors) are FCC approved to also operate in the 5GHz range

 

2022 Airpods Pro:

https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/BCG-A2698

 

2023 Airpods Pro:

https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/BCG-A3047

 

IMG_1229.thumb.jpeg.dcfe984b23e3f326a1bc2a70e7e581ab.jpeg

 

What gives?

Maybe the lossless/low_latency communication with the Vision Pro works over 5GHz?

 

An interesting tidbit from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman: internally, in the past months, the lossless mode was being tested using 2022 Airpods Pro, the ones with a lightning case. So it looks like technically they were able to support it at some point. Of course it could be that the 2023 Airpods Pro establish a more robust and reliable lossless connection, making them good enough for prime time. (with the 2022 model only being good enough for internal testing)

Or Apple is just messing with us by keeping the lossless mode exclusive to the 2023 model.

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Posted

Well... I ordered an Ultra 2 for me, and 15 Pros for my wife, mom, and dad (all 3 are due for $1000 off a phone this year from AT&T, so made sense).

 

If 3nm Macs come out this year, probably will get two of them, as well (Mac mini as a family computer, to replace our 2011 iMac, and 14" MPB, to replace my MBA)

 

Big Apple year.

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Posted
20 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

Or Apple is just messing with us by keeping the lossless mode exclusive to the 2023 model.

More likely as to artificially fragment their product line. Kinda like how night mode didn't come to the iPhone XS via software update even though the camera hardware is capable of it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There is more that meets the eye
I see the soul that is inside

 

 

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Posted
3 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

More likely as to artificially fragment their product line. Kinda like how night mode didn't come to the iPhone XS via software update even though the camera hardware is capable of it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Got any source for that? For the iPhone SE, Apple went to great lengths to add a (properly working) portrait mode, even though it misses the focus pixel information all the other iphones use for this feature.

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Posted

Just installed a fully interactive Minesweeper widget, with sounds and all, what a time to be alive, with iOS17 and interactive widgets! 🤯

 

IMG_1265.thumb.jpeg.34a08d1cf8a744275053d981c90abf5b.jpeg

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Posted

Also it would be interesting how fast the battery health deterioration in the iPhone 15 Pro/Max after 6-10 months. My sister and my friend both with a 14 Pro Max already had their batteries replaced after less than a year due to rapid battery health deterioration.

There is more that meets the eye
I see the soul that is inside

 

 

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Posted

Apparently despite the 3nm lithography used by the A17 Pro, it's worse than the A16 Bionic when it comes to power efficiency (thread). So it mean that the battery drain issue will be much worse than the 14 Pro/14 Pro Max. It seems that the A17 Pro chip uses more power to attain the measly 10% performance bump over the A16 Bionic! 🚩🚩🚩

 

Time stamped it. A17 consumes more power despite the smaller transistor size compared to A16. At 10:22, the 15 Pro/Max has 3% worse battery life than the 14 Pro/14 Pro Max which may not sound a lot but give it 8 months and it maybe as bad or even worse than the 14 Pro/Pro Max. I'd like to be proven wrong but I think this batterygate 2.0 will also be seen in the upcoming M3 MacBooks.

 

 

Since it consumes more power, more heat is generated so people with the 15 Pro/Max will probably see this angry iPhone temperature warning especially when charging during summer or if you live in the tropics.

 

Spoiler

ios-16-iphone-13-pro-lock-screen-charging-on-hold.png.7de9461d5eb5c10e3d2ba00a5f1f1dd2.png

 

There is more that meets the eye
I see the soul that is inside

 

 

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Posted

to those planning to play AC Mirage on the 15 Pro/Max. You can only play it probably around 30 minutes because the phone gets very hot at 118°F/47.8°C.

 

This might as well be the iPhone version of the 2018 core i9 MacBook Pro thermal throttling, or maybe similar woes of the Snapdragon 810 that Samsung abandoned for the Galaxy S6/S6 Edge but who knows? Maybe it's just a software bug in iOS 17.

 

 

 

There is more that meets the eye
I see the soul that is inside

 

 

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Posted

@captain_to_fire you have some post left there in your speculation. How about we wait until reliable tests and benchmarks are available and iOS 17 has at least left the early release stage?

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