Apple Event Recap: September 9, 2014

Apple Event Recap: September 9, 2014

Disclaimer: I’m an Apple Fan Boy. I was born in 1985. My father opened the first Apple Specialist in Michigan in 1984. I’m more Apple than most. Any sensed biased is not on purpose. It just seems to happen. I firmly believe that Steve Jobs was one of the greatest people in history and that there is not a better tech company on this planet than Apple.

It’s here. The day we’ve (I’ve) been waiting for. It’s Apple Day. So let’s get started.

iPhones

Courtesy of Gizmodo

Tim Cook says this is the biggest advancement in iPhones since the debut.  They showed a really cool video. It was sexy and amazing. The new phones are called iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+. They have Retina HD Displays. They are stunning. The iPhone 6 will come in 4.7” and 6.9mm thick., while the iPhone 6+ will come in 5.5” and be 7.1mm thick. Both are HD.  There are two up displays for email and text, and when in landscape mode, you can have the dock on the right side of screen instead of the bottom.  There are also new gestures, which help with dealing with the new real estate. There is now a great scaler built in for apps to use all of the real estate of the screen without sacrificing quality.

A8 Chips have 64-bits of amazingness. It is also more efficient, by 50%, than the A7 chips in the iPhone 5s. The graphics are also beautiful. They are 84% better than the original iPhone. The demonstration by Big Evil Megacorp was very cool to watch.

Now battery life. It’s incredible compared to the iPhone 5s.  Up to 16 days of standby time, 80 hours of audio, 14 hours of video, and 24 hours of talk time (iPhone 6+). All of this is so much better than any other iPhone. The motion chip is great. It can keep track of what activities your doing and can even measure elevation changes, heart rate, and works with new apps to be more accurate. The iPhone 6 will also feature VoLTE (Voice Over LTE), WIFI calling, and a few other features that will be dependent on carriers. The WiFi calling switches seamlessly to LTE when you move away from the WiFi. That is slick.

Camera

The camera will feature an 8MP, 2.2 aperture lens with true tone flash and a new sensor. One cool feature is Focus Pixels, which is phase detection autofocus, which means a faster autofocus. Great news for the panoramic junky - up to 43MP panoramic photos and stitching is near seamless. The 6+ will have optical image stabilization and both will have 1080p at 60FPS with slo-mo up to 240FPS.

Order Details

Starts at $199 (6) and $299 (6+)

Available on September 19

Pre-order on September 12

iOS 8 on September 17^th

iPay

Apple wants to replace your wallet, one step at a time, and it’s called iPay. And it’s pretty cool. Cards are stored on the iPhone, the device uses a one time number to pay, and it’s that easy. Apple stated they were not in the business of collecting data, which means Apple has no idea what you’re paying for, which might be a good thing.  Most places that accept contactless payments will accept iPay. Many vendors and developers have already signed on. I believe this will be big very quickly. This feature is only compatible with the iPhone 6, 6+, and…iWatch

One more thing…

Courtesy of Engadget

The next chapter in Apple is…iWatch. It is a precise customizable time piece. It creastes new, intimate ways to connect and communicate. It is a health and fitness device. It a fully functional traditional crown, with a twist. It is digital. It senses your finger rotating around and reacts just as you’d suspect something from apple to react. It is amazing. The design is wonderful. The user experience seems great. As far as design goes, only this video will show you what it all really means. All I can say is flexible Retina display that can tell a touch from a press and wonderful interactions throughout.

The watch contains a Taptic engine, which does a lot. Mainly it will tap you on the wrist without anyone else knowing. It does this for anything that requires a response or anything that is an alert. The heartbeat sensor is on the underside of the watch and consists of LEDs and photodiodes. This, along with wifi, gps, and an accelerometer in your iPhone create a wonderful fitness tool. The S1 chip is a fully integrated computer chip and completely encapsulated to protect it. Charging it is simple with induction charger through magnets. This allows you to easily charge it overnight with no worries about open ports or misalignments.  They come in two sizes and 3 different models.  First you choose from either 38mm or 42mm case, then you can choose from iWatch, iWatch Sport, or iWatch Edition. The iWatch is stainless steel with ceramic back and sapphire crystal display, the iWatch Sport is aluminum with Ion-X glass and a composite back, and the iWatch Edition is 18kt Rose Gold with a ceramic back and sapphire crystal display. You can have custom watch faces, move things all over, and customize just about everything. The swipe might be crazy if you have big fingers, but the demonstration looked like it was flawless. Notifications are supposed to work without anyone knowing except you. That is cool. Siri is built in. iPhone is required to use.  All in all the iWatch seems very responsive and looks just like any Apple product should.

The Watch works with iPhone 5 and newer. It starts at $349 and will be released in early 2015. Apple Pay will work with iWatch.

Also to be noted, U2’s new album is free for all iTune subscribers until mid-October, so go and download it now. You can see the ad here.

So who will be upgrading and what watch will you buy?

Tipping the Hat,