Apple September Event

September 11, 2019
8 min read

Yesterday Apple held its biggest event of the year. As was rumored we’ve seen three new iPhones, watch and so much more. Luckily this time not all rumors came true, we’ve had a couple of surprises. On the other hand, some were expecting too much, so as always my strategy of not reading rumors before the event pays off.

 Arcade

If you didn’t notice, Apple is services company now, so it started with two of them. Apple Arcade is gaming service, starting from 100 exclusive high quality games. You will pay the subscription fee and play whatever game you want on iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV. The games in the trailer look amazing. Considering that Apple announced support for xBox and PS4 controllers, this could be a very big deal for many.

As it often is, game demos are the weakest part of Apple presentation, after Tim Cook said “I won’t waste your time with usual updates” we’ve watched three game demos in a row with one of them being Froger, in 2019.

It will be available September 19 in over 100 countries around the world for a price of $4.99 per month for the whole family. And Apple will give 1 month free trial.

Considering the price, I feel like this is the one to at least try. As I said games look good, the lineup of developers looks strong with some big names and indie.

tv+

As every company under the sun Apple is launching original content. tv+ will have three shows at start adding more every month. Tim Cook was so excited that the trailer for the Morning Show was “one of the most watched trailers ever” it wasn’t even funny.

We also saw a trailer for the TV show See, which looks very promising.

It will cost $4.99 per month for family and will be available in over 100 countries. What was surprising, you will get 1 year of the service included with the purchase of any Apple device. Considering Apple only has a couple of shows at the start and doesn’t have any backlog this is very smart strategy.

iPad

This one was a surprise. There were some rumors about new iPad, but most thought it would be shown in October event later this year.

What Apple did is update it’s most popular iPad, the original size one. It is now 7th generation iPad, they’ve changed screen size a bit, increasing it to 10.2 inches (instead of 9.7). It has updated specs and is shipping on September 30 starting from $329.

Interesting how Apple doesn’t compare it to other tablets (because that market doesn’t even exist), all of the comparisons were with top selling PC and of course iPad beat it in every aspect.

Up until now, this was The iPad to get, considering the price and power you get. It remains the one device in Apple lineup which you can consider inexpensive and well worth every dollar you spend.

watch

Tim Cook started with the video showing how Apple Watch save lives with its ECG function. What was nice this time – it also showed how Apple Watched helped get healthier by asking you to close your rings or stand. Those videos are always Apple at its best.

There will be three new studies – Hearing, Women’s health and Heart and movement study. Those are great, but unfortunately available only in the United States.

And here is the announcement I was most surprised by – new Apple Watch. Watch Series 5 will have THE feature, the one many asked for from the very beginning – always on display, while still having all-day 18 hour battery life.

All the watch faces were optimized for low-power mode when it shows time, so you don’t have to tilt your wrist or tap the screen. This is the feature for getting a new watch, especially if you didn’t upgrade to the Series 4 last year.

As everything in the US, Apple Watch now has a compass. As most of the cities in the US were built considering the directions, this will be helpful to Americans, but also around the world, Maps app will now be able to show where are you heading more precisely.

There will also be international emergency calling in more than 100 countries if you have cellular Apple Watch. Amazing feature, which I hope nobody has to use.

This year Series 5 is available in a couple of new finishes – two Titanium models and white Ceramic. They look great, but will cost accordingly.

Apple Watch Series 5 will start at $399 for GPS model and $499 for cellular. You can already order one and it will ship on September 20.

What also interesting, Apple leaves Series 3 in its lineup for $199. It is great entry price, but only if you don’t care about the look and newest feature. By itself it is ok, but if you ever come across Series 4 or 5, two year old model looks very old and dated.

iPhone

The main star of the event – iPhone. Last year, I think Apple confused buyers with releasing three models which were hard to differentiate for average consumer (believe me, I know, the amount of questions I got about which one should someone buy was like a customer sat – through the roof). Fortunately this didn’t stop iPhone XR to become the most popular iPhone and smartphone in the world.

This year the lineup is much more clearer. First, there is iPhone 11. Which you can consider the standard one – everyone who wants to buy an iPhone this year should get this one. It has 6.1 inch display, Haptic Touch and Spacial Audio.

It also has two cameras this year, but instead of adding telephoto, the second camera is ultra-wide. This will allow you to switch to x0.5, which means you will be able to capture 2 times more of the scene from the same point.

This is also shown in the new camera interface. When you launch it, it will look more immersive, showing you the whole available picture instead of black bars.

Although there is no telephoto camera, Portrait mode is still made using hardware, so it will work on animals, unlike the iPhone XR.

Apple also showed Night mode, which in presentation looked great, but we will need to see comparisons with Google Pixel, where night mode is just out of this world. Hope Apple delivers.

If photography is something Android manufacturers, especially Google, mastered, in videos Apple is still unbeatable. Adding to that ultra-wide and cinematic stabilization, makes it even more impressive.

Front camera was also updated, it is now wider 12MP sensor which will take normal selfie, until you rotate it sideways and it will get wide.

Apple also added 4K video support and slo-mo to the front camera and invented the word Slofies – which is probably officially the worst word of 2019.

A12 processor leads the industry, the overhead it has is not even funny, it is still faster than all the newest Android phones and Apple made it even faster. A13 Bionic is the new processor inside iPhone. It is so ahead, it will take Android manufacturers a couple of years to catch up.

What iPhone XR did have, was amazing all-day and then some battery life. In iPhone 11 it was improved – adding 1 hour.

It will be priced starting from $699 and as I’ve already mentioned, this is the one to get.

iPhone 11 Pro

As Phil Schiller said – this is the first phone Apple called Pro and it is worthy of its name.

There are four new colors – Midnight Green, Space Grey, Silver, Gold. And at least on photos the green looks amazing, I will be surprised if it will be available on first day in enough quantities. The back has a nice matte finish now, which doesn’t even look like glass anymore.

There are two phones iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, with the same sizes as last year of 5.8 and 6.5 inches. It will also have A13 Bionic processor, but one of the biggest improvements is battery life. 4 hours more for iPhone 11 and 5 hours more for iPhone 11 Pro Max. As a XS Max user I can tell you this will be amazing, it will bring phones closer to the main iPhone 11. It will also have 18 watt adapter in the box, so you will be able to charge it faster.

There is now three cameras. The ultra-wide was also added to the Pro models. One amazing thing 3rd party developer Filmic Pro demoed, was shooting video with two cameras at the same time. So you have more different footage for the same moment.

Apple also showed sneak peak for a feature coming later this year called Deep Fusion. What it does is it takes 9 photos (8 of them before you even press a button) and combines them to bring a lot of detail. On stage it looks great, we will have to wait for it to come out.

The iPhone 11 Pro will start at $999 and iPhone 11 Pro Max at $1099 with pre-orders this Friday and shipping on Septemver 20th.

Apple will also keep in it’s lineup iPhone XR for $599 and iPhone 8 for $449.

Some already are saying this was the weakest Apple event in recent history, but I think it was good. Making already great iPad even better, always-on display on the Apple Watch making it even better in the market with almost no competition. And iterative update on the iPhone, which should be expected, as this is a mature market already.

WWDC 2019 Keynote Impressions – watchOS

June 5, 2019
3 min read

Don’t have a lot of time for writing today, so it’s very fitting that watchOS is next in my series of posts about WWDC. There were not a lot of changes and most of them might seem minor at first glance, but could have some big implications. 

Watch Faces

The most noticeable thing for the users are new Watch Faces. They look good on the big screen, but I’m not sure they will be functional and will they be available to the older watches? Also, we didn’t get any information on old watch faces – will they be updated? In my opinion, after Apple focused mostly on Health features of the Watch, watch faces became the worst “feature” of the device. It’s hard to find the best one, especially if you don’t have Series 4 Apple Watch.

Chimes and Silent Taps

If I started with the negative aspect, let’s get all out of the way. Chimes and silent tap every hour. I don’t think I imagine myself using silent tap like ever, but maybe someone needs this function, but chimes? Who would need their watch to sing every hour? Just … why?

More personal Health app

One of the most interesting features that got presented was – Activity Trends. This is one of those features that shines on the iPhone, but you still need Apple Watch to gather all the information. Apple Watch gathers so much data, but there is no story behind it. This year Activity Trends brings much needed analysis of the data.

A couple of health related features are very welcome additions. Not for me personally, but I could see how helpful Cycle Tracking would be for women. I know there are apps on the AppStore, but with Apple stance on privacy, this is great addition. 

Hearing Health – this could help a lot of people. I could see being at the concert and moving somewhere farther away from the sound source if the watch tells me it’s too loud. 

App Store and independence

Probably the biggest feature of this years release of the watchOS – App Store. Sure, at first it looks funny, how you search and scroll, look at screenshots on such a tiny screen, but this is just another step towards independence of the Watch. I can see how in 2-3 years you would be able to buy cellular Apple Watch and set it up without ever needing to connect to the iPhone. 

From the development point of view Independent apps, App Store, Streaming Audio and SwiftUI – all those things will help to untie the Watch from the iPhone.

And this last bit is what I meant in the very beginning. Every one of those features by itself may seem minor, but bring them all together and you’ve got a strong contender for the future.

One more thing

September 15, 2014
4 min read

It has been almost two weeks since Apple announcement and I still have not written about the Apple Watch. After rewatching the Watch part of the presentation, reading a crapload of articles, listening to a lot of podcasts and most importantly thinking about the product, I’m ready to give my opinion on the product. (As if anybody cares).

Before the announcement, I actually was convinced Apple would show a wearable, but not a watch, something else, something different. This time, I think, Apple made Samsung’s product.

The Next Chapter in Apple’s History

It is hard not to notice how excited Tim Cook was presenting this product, he chocked a bit a couple of times and they’ve received standing ovation after the first video introduction. Straps looked great in that video, I didn’t know historic value of some of them, but you can read about that in a great piece by Benjamin Clymer. I was worried about magnetic strap, but it seems it’s pretty solid.

Tim Cook talked about Digital Crown, how you cannot just use touch screen for most things, because your fingers would be in the way of content, so you zoom in and out or scroll through the list using this crown. However, later Kevin Lynch used the Digital Crown only handful of times and actually scrolled a lot on the screen (probably, not even that, but the Demo was scrolling on the screen).

They’ve also showed 11 minute video, which, if you believe Tim Cook was made this morning and Jony Ive narrated it (that part was true, I guess). There were a lot of functions showed and that’s not a good thing, in my opinion. Sending someone a heartbeat, so he feels it on his wrist, why would you do that?! In addition, in the video, Ive said the phrase “using GPS and Wi-fi from your iPhone” – I can see how the watch uses the GPS from the phone to save battery life, but why Wi-fi? There was a moment with hundreds of photos on the screen of the watch, why would you do that? I’m rarely nostalgic enough to want to see photos right away on my watch and if I’m showing someone, I’ll pull out a phone. Another thing is Stocks widget. Maybe I don’t get something, but who needs to look at the stock price on his wrist? Tim Cook after presentation, maybe, but that function is there, just to feel the screen, nothing more.

They have mentioned Siri couple of times, but used it only one’s. Speech recognition is one of the strong sides of Android Wear, so Apple has very good competition in that space. You can also read your Twitter timeline, on a watch. Again, something that’s done best on a smartphone, and would probably be painful on a 1.5” screen.

The one thing I like about that watch is it’s fitness and health capabilities. I would use it as a fitness tracker, the app looks great and it seems like there are many great ideas in that space. Again, there are different devices for that kind of usage.

Two things unanswered:

  • How much would the model you will actually want would cost. Starting price at $349 sounds a bit pricey, as it is, but it’s even more interesting how much the best one would cost?
  • Battery life. The phrase Tim Cook used was “It’s simple to charge at night”. Everyone seems to think it will last a day, which is okay, compared to Android watches (most of them can last a day), but still, many of us were thinking Apple would do something different.

I’m sure they’ll sell a lot of those, but I can’t see the real use for that watch, especially at such a price. It looks somewhat good, it’s thick, but as often with Apple products, looks good. It doesn’t do much of the interesting stuff, I think Google Now on a watch is more advanced. The only interesting thing I saw was Fitness capabilities. I won’t buy one, because I’ve decided on my next phone, and as you can guess, it won’t be an iPhone. More on that later.