Mobile

Everything Apple announced at its keynote

Written by Muneeb Ahmad ·  3 min read >
Apple Event

As part of its largest show of the year today, Apple finally pulls the veil off its newest products.

Today is definitely the Apple day with the Cupertino-based tech giant introducing its refreshed line of products. The long list of released products includes 3 new iPhones, a completed overhauled next-gen Apple Watch along with a few software updates that come packed with the iOS 12.

The dedicated event which was held at the enormous Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, California packed journalists and smartphone enthusiasts from across the world. Apple fans and all others, have been waiting for this day for quite some time now as the leaks kept piling up, so without any further ado, let us take you through everything that was announced today.

Apple Watch 4:

The new Apple Watch 4 this year comes with a major design change. The display has been redesigned to make it as much as 30% bigger and more bezel-less. The watch is powered by watchOS 5 on a dual-core 64-bit S4 processor which can now show more information on the screen. Apple says that it has also improved the performance on the watch by as much as 200% and the gyroscope and accelerometer sensors on this watch device have also been improved.

This time around, Apple has introduced a new feature specifically for the adventure enthusiasts. The new Fall Detector feature can detect if the user tips over and stays immobile for over a minute. The watch then independently connects to the emergency services. The crown on the new watch now comes with Haptic feedback. The Watch Series 4 goes for preorder on Friday, priced from $399 for the GPS version and $499 for the GPS + LTE model.

After unveiling the Apple Watch 4, Tim Cook took the stage to introduce the all-new iPhone models.

iPhone XS:

At first look, the newly released iPhone XS would look mostly the same as iPhone X. The notch is still there but the bezels are, albeit, slightly thinner. The new iPhone XS comes with what Apple calls a modified display, a Super Retina OLED display which spans at 5.8.

As far as the internal on this smartphone is concerned, the A12 bionic chip which powers the smartphone is the industry’s first 7 nm chip. The smartphones come with a 6-core CPU, accompanied with a 4-core GPU and a neural engine. As far as the design compartment on these smartphones is concerned, the iPhone XS comes with a new Gold finish, a surgical-grade stainless steel and a more durable.

The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, both come with a dual camera setup. The setup includes a f/1.8 12MP wide-angle camera and a f/2.4 12MP telephoto camera with optical zoom. The front section of the camera also has two camera. There is an f/2.2 7MP front camera with a faster sensor RGB camera along with an IR camera. The XS will be able to last about 30 minutes more than iPhone X.

The iPhone XS would be priced starting $999. The smartphones would be rolled in select markets starting September 21.

iPhone XS Plus:

The upsized iPhone XS model is being labelled as the iPhone XS Plus. There are no significant differences between the two models, except for the fact that the iPhone XS Plus comes with a larger screen The screen on this model spans at a huge 6.5 inches display which definitely is the biggest display that we ever saw on an iPhone. The smartphones also has a same pixel density of 458ppi, with a resolution of 2688×1242.

As far as the rest of the internals and the camera section on this smartphone is concerned, they are the same as that on iPhone XS.

The pricing for the iPhone XS Max model starts at $1099 and it will also be available in three storage options – 64GB, 256 or 512GBs. This model would go into the markets alongside the standard iPhone XS model next week. Another minor improvement is with the battery section on this smartphone, the iPhone XS Max can last about 90 minutes longer than the iPhone X model released last year.

iPhone XR:

There is a smaller model of iPhone XS Max too, this model is known as iPhone XR.

Apart from the regular iPhone XS release, Apple has also introduced a slightly cheaper iPhone model this time around. For iPhone XR, Apple has chosen to go with an LCD instead of an OLED to keep the price bracket smaller. The new display has been termed as Liquid Retina (instead of the Super Retina that we saw on iPhone XS models) and spans over 6.1 inches.

The rest of the internals on this smartphone are almost the same, this smartphone is also being powered by a A12 Bionic chip. The rear camera section, however, boasts only one lens – the 12MP wide-angle camera as available on the elder iPhone XS models. There is no Telephoto lens but the single camera system is able to produce an artificial background blur, due to the software-powered background segmentation all thanks to the ML running on a 4 core GPU.

The smartphone would come in three storage options, including 64GB, 128GB and 256GBs with prices starting at $749.

Software Updates:

With the new iPhones come a set of new applications and software updates too. As far as the new applications are concerned, they mostly make use of the advanced GPU based camera renderings and improved AR features that have been introduced with this launch. The application HomeCourt is more like a personal trainer which can use only camera input to analyze your game play patterns and suggest improvements. The AR application Galaga AR is an AR game which could make you believe more than 200 of sea species springing up in your Kitchen.

The new memory controller which power this smartphone can handle 512GB of storage. Apple has also replaced TouchID with a more accurate FaceID feature.

The software on this smartphone, iOS 12 also has a bunch of new updates. Last year, a lot of buzz was made around animoji, this year Apple has introduced Memoji, some Siri Shortcuts and AR. The A12 Bionic has also been configured to make the AR experience more streamlined. Cameras have also been calibrated for low light, and Apple mentioned that the GPU renderings have also been made more realistic.

Conclusion:

That was all from the grand Apple event that took place today at California. Although the smartphones and watches look great on paper, we still would have to wait as the smartphone critics get their hands on these devices and place neutral verdicts. Follow along with TechJuice and we would strive to get all the reviews to you, as they unfold.

Source — Apple

Written by Muneeb Ahmad
I love to talk about global tech-happenings, startups, industry, education and economy. Get in touch: muneeb@techjuice.pk. Profile