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Apple Product Event Highlights
samzenpus writes: The Apple product event just finished, read below for the highlights.
- Apple Watch:
- Adding Facebook Messenger.
- iTranslate — speak into the mic and hear translations in over 90 languages.
- Physician app AirStrip can monitor vitals.
- New band options, two new finishes gold and rose gold.
- Watch OS 2 comes out September 16.
- iPad:
- iPad Pro announced: Screen is 12.9 inches, 5.6m pixels, A9X chip, with 2x memory bandwidth, storage and graphics performance, 10-hour battery life, 8MP camera, 802.11ac with MIMO, 150Mbps LTE modem, TouchID, 6.9mm thick and 1.57 pounds.
- Smart Keyboard connects magnetically.
- The Apple Pencil stylus: "Highly responsive sensors built into the tip of Apple Pencil sensor pressure, tilt, and stroke."
- Corporate VP from MS Office, Kirk Koenigsbauer talks Microsoft Office for iPad.
- New suite of Adobe apps.
- Apple Pencil is $99 and Smart Keyboard is $169, all available in November.
- New iPad mini 4 $399.
- Apple TV:
- New remote with glass touch surface. 10mm tall, A8 chip, Bluetooth 4.0. Built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, 3 months per charge, charges over lightning. 32GB for $149, 64GB for $199.
- iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Showtime are searchable.
- New cleaner looking UI with Siri integration.
- New OS: TV OS.
- new games and game collections for the family, using your iPhone or iPod Touch as a controller.
- MLB app, NHL Game Center live in 2016.
- tvOS developer beta available today, available to consumers in late October.
- iPhone:
- iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, Silver, gold, space grey, and new Rose Gold. 4.7-inch 6S and 5.5-inch 6S+.
- 3rd-generation A9 chip 70% faster CPU than A8, 90% faster GPU than A8.
- New pressure-sensitive 3D Touch.
- New Taptic Engine
- New Siri feature allows you to speak to your iPhone whether you're powered on or not.
- New 12 megapixel iSight camera. 50% more pixels and 50% more focus pixels for faster autofocus.
- 4K video
- 5MP FaceTime HD Camera.
- Retina Flash, display can light up 3X brighter than usual to be a flash for the front-facing camera.
- Live Photos: Press with 3D Touch and pictures will move.
- iPhone 6 $199-$399, iPhone 6 Plus $299-$499 all on two-year contracts.
- New iPhone Upgrade Program for a new iPhone every year, choose your carrier, unlocked phones, 24-month installment plan starting at $32/month.
- preorder Saturday, Sept 12. Available September 25th.
- iOS 9 available September 16th.
- New iCloud storage pricing: 50GB for 99 cents a month, 200GB for $2.99/mo, 1TB for $9.99/mo.
How do I hide the stories about a tech giant making a round of announcements on this tech site?
Bitch bitch bitch.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
None of this seems "revolutionary" or "magical". Some of it looks like a rip off of Amazon TV, Google Translate, and the same look as last year's model which was nothing more than a larger look of the year before that's model. What happened to Apple supposedly "leading" the way? Did the sheep cause the shepard to fall behind?
This made me laugh more than it probably should have:
Apple Pencil is $99
I just hope they don't start requiring an #2 Apple Pencil for standardized tests.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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iTranslate — speak into the mic and hear translations in over 90 languages.
That would be hard to understand. Did they mention an option to only hear once language at a time?
More importantly is how does Siri answer your questions whether the phone is on or off?!?
There is no more "off" as you and I remember it. There is now "responsive" (on) and "not responsive" (what they call off) but the machine is still monitoring you, even when it is "not responsive". Now we know why the batteries are not removable.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Hence apple introduced new thing called "Pencil" for $99. They had to bring in MS to demonstrate how to use that thing.
Apple Pencil? Is this the return of the Newton?
"New Siri feature allows you to speak to your iPhone whether you're powered on or not."
Which means that the iPhone is never really "off". Which means that it's ALWAYS listening to you. Which probably means that the NSA is listening too.
No thanks.
Look like they didn't only copied the spect of the Surface pro 3, they also copied the price.
Elok
Apple mentioned that in the keynote and quoted both contract prices and monthy payment plan prices, which is what you see on US carrier sites now.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Lame. I've had a Roku3 for a couple years and it does this very nicely. And yes I have an AppleTV 3 also. I rarely use it. The Roku does everything the AppleTV does, and significantly more.
OK, the Roku won't mirror my iPhone, but that's a pretty minor thing.
You mean the Apple PencilTM doesn't knock your socks off?
Two (2) new bands for the Apple Watch?
How about the fact that they got OS2 to run on the Apple Watch?
You are welcome on my lawn.
The summary, as viewed from the front page, was a single sentence with a link.
Let me tell you why the 6s is the first iPhone "S" update I'm not skipping over:
* Higher res camera sensor, but not just higher res- also has improved photosite separation.
* 4k video (hopefully for slo-mo too?)
* Significantly faster performance ("up to" 70% faster than old model iPhone 6).
* Force touch (useful for quicker multi-tasking and other actions).
* Live Photos - anyone who likes photography is pretty excited about this, especially as it captures just a bit before you press the capture button...
* Motion coprocessor is always-on now so using that feature heavily comes with no battery penalty.
* Taptic hardware on device for better user feedback than mere vibration (as a developer I'm particularly excited about that).
* Front screen brightness can increase 3x normal for short period of time to act as a flash.
Also faster WiFi support and more LTE bands, but I can't seriously so those are features compelling enough for me to upgrade - it's really the ones above, especially related to photography... the newer sensor alone would not have done it, it's the conjunction with other features.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I don't see how a bigger screen and better performance suddenly make this oversized phone a professional tool.
I have to say the only thing I was waiting for from this announcement was whether the iPad Pro would have OS X or iOS. As I think Windows RT showed us, the primary difference between a consumer tablet and a productivity device is whether it uses a desktop OS.
Can I run the full versions of Photoshop and XCode on the iPad Pro? Can I use the desktop verson of Microsoft Office on the iPad Pro? How easy is it to dock the iPad Pro to my Thunderbolt screen to have multiple monitor support? These are the important questions to answer. Everyone knew Apple could create a device that looks like the Surface Pro, we just needed to know if it could be a true laptop replacement in quasi-tablet form.
I'm sure it will still sell like hotcakes though, since iOS still has a much better app ecosystem than Windows RT did. And if the Apple watch can sell, anything Apple creates (for a while at least) will sell.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Hey now, that feature is very important... for Apple's profit margins! It insures that their 16 GB phone buyers will run out of storage faster, so they'll spend more money on iCloud storage and make sure to pony up the extra $100 for the 64 GB model next time.
Sadly, I'm only being semi-sarcastic here. Releasing a brand new high end phone with only 16 GB of storage and no expansion slot in 2015 is just evil.
Smart Keyboard connects magnetically.
Hey! They introduced their own Surface Tablet!
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
I'm sure that the people who use microscopes to look at their phone displays might notice a difference, but will anyone else?
Umm, perhaps all the people using 5K retina iMacs? Or even Retina laptops which have resolution greatly exceeding 1080p...
It's not like you take video and never see it anywhere else. Heck, if nothing else you can edit three 4k video streams simultaneously on an iPad pro...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
costs USD$50 less than an iPod touch and runs the same apps from what I understood
Not at all, it's a different SDK. All apps must be built specifically for the Apple TV. I think I do remember them saying if you bought an app for the phone you'd automatically get an AppleTV version if there was one, but I'm not sure about that.
the remote has a touch area, which is bad for gaming and annoying for surfing. Swipping makes sense when it's part of the display and you touch what you see, otherwise not so much.
From the demo it works great for browsing and controlling videos, because it's more about gesture than touch.
too expensive (more than twice the cost of the old version, way too expensive compared to the competition)
There is literally no competition to what the AppleTV does now. The app store and the prevalence of developers who can quickly write to it mean a vast variety of stuff is coming, way beyond games... the Roku for example supports apps but how many are there? Have you looked at the SDK? Not easy to get into.
or even more expensive (we now need to buy an HDMI splitter AND an HDMI audio converter)
I have zero pity for anyone who has strayed off the HDMI path, as you say you can make it work. The expense is because of choices you have made to stay outside the standard. I can say this myself because I too resisted for some time, I had multiple HDMI splitters and converters and all kinds of nonsense. Just give in man.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm an Apple fan and I'm concerned they are falling into the trap of customer confusion. For example, when I bought my iPad (which I love) I went to the Apple Store and picked up the iPad. It was done quickly and I was a happy customer. Now, there are *5* different iPads.
Which one do I pick? Christ, I have to research this now? What's my use case? How important is screen size, battery life, cost, etc etc etc.. This is why I hated buying anything from Dell.
On a related note, which Apple laptop should you buy? MacBook, Air, Pro? What's the difference? Customer confusion leads to customer paralysis.
Apple's been down this road before. In the mid 90s there were so many different Apple models, Performa, Centris, Quada, God knows what else, that I had no idea what to get. You know which one I got? None of them. That's when I finally went to PC.
In my opinion, Steve Jobs' genius when he returned to Apple was to make it EASY to buy a Mac. Just get an iMac. Pick the color and you're done. Want an iPod or an iPhone? You didn't need to research and weigh the pros and cons of 5 different models. Now you do. I strongly believe a good part of why Apple revived was a clean product line with minimal choices.
I fear Apple is making a mistake that may come back to bite them.
Why does there have to be something "revolutionary" every year (or two years)?
Because Apple's stock price won't stay in the stratosphere if they just keep pumping out 'same but better' products like these. It's priced on 'revolutionary', not 'bread and butter'.
I've been thinking of replacing my iPad 3 and I like the idea of a larger screen iPad, but could they puhleeze add support for a bluetooth mouse?
RDP sessions from an iPad work fine now, but touch just doesn't translate well into Windows UI. A mouse would make an iPad quite useful for a lot of remote admin tasks.
I don't care if you couldn't use the mouse with the home screen or even as a touch replacement, just make it so it can be paired and developers can see mouse events.
I know, I could just buy a regular laptop but they're not nearly as couch/bed friendly as an iPad is, and it's casual settings where I use it most now. But those marginal times where there's a chance I might need to do some kind of work, I find myself bringing my laptop as well because touch is such a shitty way to do Windows UI.
No, a Surface Pro is not a viable replacement. Yes, I do own one and I can't stand the Windows "tablet" mode or its micro-sized app collection, which makes any touch Windows device nonviable.
What's the use of a higher res camera sensor with this itsy bitsy small lens with a microscopic apperture?
The sensor does not just have higher res as I said but better separation under the CFA.
I have a real DSLR with a number of lenses that cost north of $1k so I know what truly professional images look like. I am telling you, what Apple is doing is THE future of mass photography. The images already look great for most uses, and even beyond the resolution increase Apple is doing a great job of software that handles mixed WB, low light, super quick focus, and all sorts of other things.
The future I see for any other still camera that does not support Live Photos (or non-trademarked equivalent) is a role relegated to producing images for print. Now I personally enjoy that, which is why I have a DSLR. But I think it's insane to not realize how vastly the camera market will contract as the phones push quality and ease of use inexorably forward and upward.
At some point very soon, being a serious photographic amateur will mean you have a set of attachment lenses for your phone...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Welcome to the new boss, same as the old boss...
However, this new system has many benefits, such as "buy a used phone for less, get cheaper service", and "keep your phone past the end of the payments, watch your service price drop", etc.
So actually this is an improvement.
The screen isn't 4k. This is for indie film makers, not for viewing on the phone at full quality.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
Call the iPad Pro what it is, the iSurface RT.
Except this one doesn't suck.
without real productivity apps, what purpose does the iPad Pro serve?
Reading magazines and print PDFs without having to scroll around and zoom in on the page?
I've found the "Untethered Hey Siri" jailbreak tweak very useful at times, so it's good to see this coming to official iOS.
This one seems pretty obvious; but it's funny how often the best jailbreak tweaks end up in iOS one or two iterations later. I'm hoping that, eventually, Apple will make the control center buttons customizable - the way FlipControlCenter does right now. That's probably the jailbreak tweak I've found to be the most useful.
#DeleteChrome
Whether you believe in 4k or not, it's coming. It so happens that making a 4k TV is a lot more expensive than making a 4k camera sensor, so we're getting the cameras first. All that means is that the video you shot of your kid's first steps will be viewable in 1080p today, but will be viewable in 4k in the future when the 4k TVs come down enough in price that they become standard.
I can't wait to say "Hey Siri" over the PA system at a large event! Should be entertaining.
I find the idea of an iPad "pro" stupid enough as it is, but the joke used to be about how predictably Microsoft copied Apple's moves.
So much product fragmentation that is feels a lot like the John Scully years before Jobs came back... ah well they did some good things i guess.
These days in Apple-speak -- "Pro" == "same as consumer product but faster". Look at the MacBook Pro for another example.
I don't know when you think "these days" starts; but the MacBook Pro has been a model designator for over a decade.
Actually, "Pro", as in "MacBook Pro" actually means more like "More Features" (although "Faster" is usually one of the features).
It's a common marketing term in tech circles: E.g., Surface Pro.
The summary is poorly phrased. The change is that there is now hardware support for 'Hey Siri' that means it uses less power. So instead of only being available only when you are plugged into the mains, it's also available on battery.
You could ruin a whole lot of people's days by announcing "Hey Siri call 911".
And you would almost certainly go to jail afterward for "malicious mischief".
#DeleteChrome
yawn, if i really wanted to waste money i'd throw it into the East River.
But if you wanted to spend it on something worthwhile, you'd buy an Apple device.
I call bullshit. And I guess I'm insane because I always use my PS4, and previously, Xbox ONE to use Netflix for ~4 hours a day. It hasn't increase my electricity bill by more than $5/mo (I monitor it regularly). I suspect many others do too (my friends all do), so I don't know what the fuck you are talking about.
$5.00 a month JUST to run your GAME CONSOLE?!?
Holy Fuck! My 15,100 BTU Air Conditioner only increases my summer electric bill by about $15 a month. And that's running almost 24/7!!!
Better watch out! Your PS4 may well decide to sprout a killer energy beam like the M5 unit on TOS, just to feed itself during a gaming session!
Generally speaking a phone that's off isn't much use for receiving phone calls. That's why they just go to sleep when they time out, or you tap the on/off switch. But for those time that you genuinely want an iPhone off, you hold down the power button for a few seconds, then swipe to switch off. Then it's really off. No phone calls, no Siri.
You know what does work?
"Hey Siri, tweet I'm a dumb hipster douche who can't stop buying the latest crap from Apple!" (pause) "Yes."
You need to pause to give Siri a chance to ask if you really want to tweet it.
Apple really should have added a way for Siri to recognize who's speaking to it before making this change, but when this new iPhone hits...
"steadily diluting" = "becoming increasingly watered down"
MacBook Pros without a dedicated Ethernet Port have TWO Thunderbolt Ports, each of which can support a variety of "adapters", including Ethernet, don't you?
I do.
However:
1 - I can't plug an ethernet cable into a thunderbolt port. I encounter ethernet cables everywhere I go. The purpose of a nice portal laptop is largely defeated the larger the bag of accessories I need to carry around with me.
Just last week I just grabbed the laptop, no bag to attend a meeting in another building, I had a full charge, and knew it would get me through the meeting. After the meeting I'm asked to troubleshoot a wifi access point that was acting funny... and I need to borrow someone elses laptop because my thunderbolt dongle is in my bag, half a block away.
A pro level ultrabook should have:
i) one full size video out port (HDMI is the logical choice in 2015). Not mini-displayport (my previous macbook pro), not mini-DVI, not-miniHDMI -- full size HDMI. Because that's the plug on the end of the cord provided by the hotel, the conference center, the boardroom projector etc. I'd argue that even bog standard VGA should still be on a pro class unit too. Because if where-ever your standing doesn't have an HDMI projector... odds are you've just been handed a VGA cable.
ii) full size USB-A ports (3+). It can have mini-usb-C and other such marvels if you like, but it should have a few USB-A ports, because that's what all devices you are likely to run into will have. From a barcode scanner, to a printer to an electric piano, to a corneal topographer, to an external DVDRW. I shouldn't need an adapter for this. (WTF new Macbook!!)
iii) gigabit ethernet. Actual ethernet. Not something else that can be ethernet with a $40 dongle.
That is a laptop that can do things, rather than a laptop that can do things as long as you have a bag of overpriced dongles.
As for the thunderbolt port... meh... its nice enough but if I had the ports above I don't need it. I'd get more use out of a serial port.
Yes, I know the laptop would need to be slightly thicker than it is right now. (ie as thick as a non-retina macbook pro. Fine. That's just fine. Give me some extra battery life and improve the cooling system with the space, or make the ram and SSD upgradable.
2 thunderbolt is a security hole. Like firewire. Anything that plugs into your thunderbolt port pretty much owns your laptop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I could disable thunderbolt I guess... but that makes using my Ethernet dongle even more irritating than it already is.
With the chromecast, you have to count the power use of the device to control it too.
Modern game consoles use modified PC hardware. It's no shock they use so much power. Consider they use AMD chips :)
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
For me personally, XCode doesn't make a whole lot of sense on a touch screen device with limited screen real-estate. I'd prefer to use a Macbook.
I'll grant you the touchscreen part (though they are offering an overpriced keyboard lid), but not the "limited screen real-estate". They are offering a 12.9" screen. Macbooks have long been offered in a 13.3" size. The iPad will be in a 2732×2048 resolution. I've considered the 11.6" / 12" range to be the minimum for a laptop that could be usable as a real computer (as compared to 10" netbooks). Those 12" laptops would frequently have 1366x768 resolutions. 13"-14" computers are easily usable full time. The iPad Pro's screen is obviously not a limitation. The oversized cellphone apps on it may get in the way, but not the screen.
For working with textual information like you are in Xcode, the native resolution on retina displays is almost meaningless. For example, the native resolution on my MBP 15 with retina display is 2880 X 1800, but the default effective resolution is 1440 X 900 which is the same as the non-retina displays of previous versions. Same with the iPads. The newest iPad Air has the same effective resolution as the original, - 1024 X 768. That's because Apple pixel-doubles the text so it's large enough to read.
You could have a native resolution of 2880 X 1800 on an iPhone but that doesn't mean the screen would be optimal for doing Xcode work.
That being said, the screen size of an iPad Pro is approaching that of an MBP 13 which I used for many years for software development. Before that I briefly had a Macbook Air. Obviously portability is an important feature to me and I could hook them up to external displays in the office. However, when away from the office I found the 13" display to be a liability unless I was just working in the terminal, web browsing, checking email, etc. The latest MBP 15 that I have now is almost as light as the earlier generation MBP 13 and is probably thinner. The larger screen is well worth the added footprint when I'm away from the office.
So I guess I don't see the fact that Xcode doesn't work on the iPad Pro as much of a downside since I don't think it's a great form factor for that kind of work anyway.
I certainly appreciate the portability of the new MacBook pros with fewer big giant outdated ports littered all over the sides of them.
His point is that they are *not* outdated. You really think having a full-size HDMI, ethernet and 3 USB-A ports (FWIW my macbook air has 2 USB-A ports) makes it any less portable?
Modern Mac Book Pros have two Thunderbolt ports, two USB-C ports and a full sized HDMI. So I guess it's 1 USB and 1 Ethernet port short of a "real" pro machine. Adding Physical Ethernet would actually make the system thicker. Personally I'd rather carry the dongle. Actually, I carry two as I occasionally connect to multiple isolated networks. But I'm happy with the thinner, lighter machine for the other 97% of the time. Then again, I also connect to a lot of old hardware via DB9 connectors and RS485 but I'm OK using those dongles too rather than have some behemoth with two of everything I use once a year.
But this is an Apple thread so we must be upset that the professionals that require an Ethernet port need to spend $29 for a dongle.
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
Modern Mac Book Pros have two Thunderbolt ports, two USB-C ports and a full sized HDMI. So I guess it's 1 USB and 1 Ethernet port short of a "real" pro machine.
Actually his point was USB-A (which is what most devices are), you'd think they'd at least provide a single USB-A for almost all the USB devices out there.
Adding Physical Ethernet would actually make the system thicker.
By what? 1mm - 1.5mm? If you really care about that then you've probably already gone with a Macbook or an Air rather than the Pro as they are thinner and lighter.
But this is an Apple thread so we must be upset that the professionals that require an Ethernet port need to spend $29 for a dongle.
Why must we? And who is upset? Is there a reason you're trying to take a criticism and make it out as though it's some emotional issue and a critical problem? Also it's not about buying a dongle, it's about actually needing one at all.
Sure, that's nice if your setup currently uses iPads. That doesn't really make this "pro" though. It's just a bigger screen. The iPad Pro doesn't actually have any more relevant functionality than the iPad Air 2.
I would expect a "pro" device to be able to add your lighting hardware as needed, and to be capable of utilizing specialized device drivers when the OS maker doesn't support your device out of the box. A Windows/Linux/Mac device could contain a PCI card that connects directly to a DMX cable, or utilize a USB adapter or RS232 adapter or several other mechanisms. An iPad Pro can't do any of that, it's just wireless. You need another device just to connect the wireless to the lights.
Your setup may be ideal in the long run, but to me a device is truly "pro" when it conforms to your setup instead of dictating it.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
I can't wait to say "Hey Siri" over the PA system at a large event! Should be entertaining.
I have an Apple watch and I glanced at the display during the presentation yesterday. The presenter said 'Hey Siri' and all of the sudden I lost my watch face and Siri came up. It will definitely be a great way to mess with people.