Like clockwork, Apple officially announced its inevitable iPhone event late last month in order to unveil its next wave of hardware and software.
Now that Sept. 7 has arrived and Tim Cook & Co. have graced the stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, we finally got to see what Apple had up its sleeve. Read on to find out what’s soon in store for Apple fans.
UPDATE: We Take a Closer Look at the Apple Event Announcements
Apple Watch
After Apple CEO Tim Cook gave Apple Music (now at 17 million subscribers), App Store (Super Mario Run is coming to iOS soon), education and iWork (real-time collaboration added) updates, he switched to hardware with Apple Watch.
Although the Apple Watch is the second-best selling watch worldwide, Apple hasn’t stopped there. Apple COO Jeff Williams took the stage to talk more about the watch including the new watchOS 3 features such as Instant Launch and Scribble, and the addition of Pokémon GO.
The biggest watch announcement, however, was the next generation – the Apple Watch Series 2. The new Series 2 has been redesigned and is not only splash proof, but also “swim proof” and is water resistant to 50 meters.
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On the inside is a new and faster processor and GPU, and the brightest display that Apple has ever shipped. There is also now built-in GPS, adding a plethora of new possibilities for workouts.
Series 2 is available in aluminum, stainless steel and a new ceramic. There were also several new bands announced including a partnership with Nike. Nike has paired with Apple for a Nike+ model, geared specifically for runners with a special rubber band and aluminum build.
Apple Watch Series 2 and Nike+ will be priced starting at $369 while the previous generation (now named Series 1) will be priced starting at $269.
iPhone
Cook again took the stage to discuss the main event: iPhone. Apple has now sold over a billion iPhones worldwide, and Cook re-iterated many of the iOS 10 features announced earlier this year at WWDC.
Next he announced what we’ve all waited for: iPhone 7. The iPhone 7 features a new design and manufacturing process as outlined in a video by Jony Ives. The new model has “10 major features” as outlined by Phil Schiller.
- Design: New Jet Black and Black colors in addition to Silver, Gold and Rose Gold.
- Home Button: Now force-sensitive with a Taptic engine with haptic feedback.
- Water resistant: Water and dust resistant enclosure with all-new adhesives.
- Camera: Optical image stabilizer in all models, a new lens, a faster and more efficient lens, a new Quad-LED True Tone flash, and a new image signal processor. There are also new editing features for Live photos. The front FaceTime HD camera also gets an upgrade. iPhone 7 Plus has dual 12-megapixel cameras with all new zoom features. Finally, a new “portrait” style was added for a depth effect in photos for 7 Plus owners.
- Display: Retina is now brighter and more vibrant than ever.
- Audio: Stereo speakers on bottom and top of the iPhone with increased dynamic range.
- EarPods: Now connected over lightning. The headphone jack is indeed removed from the iPhone 7. Also included with the iPhone is the 3.5mm headphone jack-to-lightning adapter.
- Wireless: New wireless in-ear AirPods announced. AirPods have feature Siri capabilities and five hours of listening time per charge. New Beats headphones also announced.
- Apple Pay: New countries added.
- Performance: New four-core A10 Fusion chip announced, which is 120x faster than the original iPhone and graphics are 240x better than the original iPhone. Console-level gaming now possible on iPhone 7. The iPhone 7 also gets the longest battery life ever in an iPhone.
The iPhone 7 is priced starting at $649 starting at 32GB. iPhone 7 Plus starts at $769. Pre-orders start Sept. 9 and ship Sept. 16. iOS 10 available Sept. 13.
Tim Cook graced the stage last with closing statements to thank those who worked on the latest Apple products.
What did you think of today’s announcements? Let us know in the comments section!
