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