Overview of Apple’s Announcement’s at Today’s Live Event
To start off with I’ll do a short recap of all the announcements in outline form. Then I’ll provide more details in the individual sections which follow.
- Apple has a new healthcare development software package called Care Kit which will allow developers to more readily develop health apps. One of the first new apps is an app for sufferers of Parkinson’s disease.
- Several new Apple Watch bands were introduced
- There’s all new software being released today for Apple TV which includes ‘Hey Siri’ integration
- ios 9.3 is available today
- The new iPhone is a 4″ phone called the SE…it has the power of 6s in a smaller form and begins at $399.
- A brand new iPad was introduced today…the iPad Pro Small…which is the size of the current iPad Air but has the power of the Pro’s well as double the storage capacity. They begin at a price of $599.
Apple Watch News
Tim Cook introduced a new spring lineup of watch bands including an all new fabric band made of woven nylon. The woven nylon bands look beautiful in photos, and come in a variety of color combinations. They all cost $49.
They also introduced several new leather colors for Watch as well as a new space- black Milanese band. These bands cost more, ranging from $129
The biggest news is that Apple has reduced the base price for all Apple Watches which now begin at $299!
Apple TV
Apple TV now has Siri integration for the App Store utilizing Siri’s ‘Always On‘ feature. This means that Siri is always ready and standing by listening for your commands. I was surprised recently to accidentally discover this feature and Siri startled me…but it’s amazing now that I know.
You can also now access your entire photo library via Apple TV, including Live Photos…starting today.
Apple TV also has new folders, and enhanced privacy for users and as well as password integration.
The Brand New 4″ iPhone SE | Last year over 30 million 4″ iPhones Were Sold
Some Highlights of the New 4″ SE iPhone
- The brand new 4″ iPhone now has a rose gold option
- The SE’s internal components make this the most powerful 4″ iPhone Apple has ever released
- It uses an embedded M9 processor…which is the same as the 6s including the same incredible graphics processor
- Always on ‘Hey Siri’ integration now included because of the better cpu and processing power
- Incredible battery improvements
- The 12mp iSight camera and the image signal process of the A9 which allows it to take Live Photos
- The front facing camera has Retina Flash which improves photos in dark environments tremendously
- The SE can capture 4K video and can edit 2 4K videos at once using iMovie
- It includes Touch ID and a new NFC radio so it handles all of Apple Pay’s features
Prices start at $399 for the 16GB $499 for the 64GB or $17 per month with no service contract.
Orders begin Thursay March 24 and shipping next Thursday March 31st.
Early coverage of the live event reveals some reporters aren’t happy with Apple’s newest iPhone…saying it’s not a new phone at all but only a slight upgrade to the iPhone 5s…which has been removed from Apple’s lineup completely. But a close comparison of the specs below tells a different story entirely.
You can watch the complete Apple Live event here. It runs a little longer than an hour.
In fact quite the opposite is true imho…this new iPhone is an awesome addition to the lineup and offers a ton of features and power for a very low price. I suspect that some of the people who’ve shelled out upwards of $800 for the 6 or 6s will regret having not waited for the SE instead…because they would have saved a lot to of money!
ios 9 | 9.3 is available today
ios 9 is running on over 80% of all ios devices versus about 2% for Androids newest OS
The new Apple headquarters
Some of 9.3’s Newest Features
- Notes can now be password protected…this is a welcome and long overdue addition!
- Greg Joswiak told us that the News app, new to ios 9 has become the primary source of news for over 50 million ios users already | News now has trending topics with the 9.3 update
- Every major car brand now has car play. More than 100 models of cars have announced that they are producing Car Play cars
- Night Shift is a new nighttime display mode that should be far better for users’ sleep cycles. It adds a new setting that you can tweak to always turn on at a certain time, that keeps the blue light emitted from your mobile devices’ screens to a minimum. Apple has replaced the blue tones with warmer ones, although critics complain that this is too little to late and say it will have only a negligible impact on user’s ability to fall asleep at night.
Phi Shiller Introduced the Newest iPad Pro
“Why Make a Smaller iPad Pro” he asked? The iPad has been the best selling tablet size and form factor for both Apple and around the world. It’s improving upon an already good thing. This new smaller iPad Pro is less than 1 lb. As evidence for how popular iPads have become he told us that there are now over 1 million App’s just for iPads alone in the App Store.
Phil’s enthusiasm was difficult to hide. He went on to tell us that the new iPad Pro’s Display has the highest resolution and lowest reflectivity of any iPad…its the brightest too with the broadest color gamut. It’s the best display Apple has ever produced. It includes Night shift for less eye strain during nighttime viewing. It also incorporates a new true tone display concept that measures the amount of ambient light and color temperature and then adjusts the images displayed accordingly. This display breakthrough is hard to go back from. It has incredible audio.
A Few More Not So Boring Specs Include
- The same A9x cpu that it’s bigger sibling has providing enough processing power to outpace many computers. It’s more than an XBox 360…and I can attest to the fact that it’s blazing fast!
- An embedded motion coprocessor with always on ‘Hey Siri’
- The most welcome new spec of all is that Apple doubled the storage capacity for the largest size new iPad. Instead of 128GB’s being the maximum sized ‘drive’ available on iPads, the new Pro is available is a 256GB size! This is a huge deal for iPad lovers everywhere and the new size is also being added to the current iPad Pro (the really big one) too.
9 to 5 Mac wrote a very good comparison article showing the differences between the new 9.7″ Pro and the older (by 6 months) 12″ model. The iPad Pro is available in the same four colors as the rest of the Apple mobile device lineup, including, silver, space grey, gold and rose gold. It’s available for preorder in Thrusday March 24th and will be shipped, or maybe delivered on the following Thursday March 31st.
Some iPad Pro Accessories Were Mentioned By Phil Too
A brand new smart keyboard $149 which also serves as a case
The new smart keyboard for the new iPad Pro
Apple Pencil
- A new lightening to usb 3.0 camera adapter $39
- A new lightening to SD card reader $29
- A new lightening to usb-C cable $25
- A new 29W sub-C power adapter $49
Phil talked about the amazing new connectivity of this new iPad Pro. He mentioned a powered usb connection device which would give the new iPad a huge boost in connectivity, but it’s unclear right now exactly what he meant by that. Apple lists the above four new connecting cables in their press release today. The press releases is packed full of details that are too numerous to mention here but well worth a look at. Here’s a link to apple insiders discussion about the new connectivity potential which explains a little more about the confusion of what will really be available.
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