Today marked another historical event in the history of Apple, creators of the revolutionary iPhone. There are a lot of milestones being celebrated by Apple today, I'll go through each milestone and announcement in this blog post, so sit back, relax and enjoy what I think is the beginning of another chapter in Apple's storied history.
The first significant detail in today's special event is that the event is the first to be held at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California.
Here are some pictures of the Steve Jobs Theater which is located in the new Apple "Spaceship" headquarters. Apple will be moving to this new headquarters by the end of this year.
The new Apple headquarters is powered by 100% renewable energy.
The event started with a recording of one of Steve Jobs' speeches to the Apple team which goes:
"There's lots of ways to be, as a person, and some people express their deep appreciation in different ways. But one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful, and put it out, and you never meet the people, you never shake their hands, you never hear their story or tell yours, but somehow, in the act of making something with a great deal of care and love, something's transmitted there. And, it's a way of expressing to the rest of our species, our deep appreciation. So we need to be true to who we are and remember what's really important to us, that's what's gonna keep Apple, Apple, is if we keep us, us." -- Steve Jobs
In the words of Apple's current CEO, Tim Cook, "It is only fitting the Steve should open his own theater."
Tim Cook added that "One of the qualities of Steve Jobs, that made him a genius, was his uncanny ability to unlock the talent of everybody that he worked with. His vision for Apple Park was to build an incredible workplace of the future."
The next historical detail in today's Apple Special event is that Tim Cook is the first person to be able to welcome everyone to the Steve Jobs Theater.
After the tribute to Steve Jobs, Tim Cook took a moment to sympathize with the people in Florida, Texas, South Eastern United States and the Caribbean and the people whose lives have been disrupted by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey.
Apple is working on relief efforts through Hand in Hand and the American Red Cross. Tim Cook mentioned that, aside from Apple's direct contribution, they are making it easier for people to donate through iTunes and the Apple Store.
The first product to be announced was the Apple Watch.
Some facts about the Apple Watch:
- Apple watch sales grew by 50% year-over-year.
- Last year, the Apple watch was the number 2 watch in the world, this year it has become the number 1 watch in the world.
- 97% customer satisfaction on the Apple Watch.
- Apple heart rate monitor is the most used heart rate app in the world
- Smart activity coaching - this will help people close more rings more often.
- Receive personalized progress updates as soon as you wear your Apple watch at the start of the day. Get updates on the achievements you're closing in on, or get encouragement to keep your current streaks going.
- Apple Watch is now smarter, it will offer specific suggestions on how to reach your Move, Exercise and Stand goals.
- Monthly Challenge - To keep you motivated, Apple Watch now delivers personal challenges based on what you've achieved in the previous month. Track your progress anytime with the Activity App on your iPhone.
- New full-screen effects every time you hit your goal or close a ring.
- Completely redesigned workout app with high intensity interval training.
- New features for swimmers. The updated Pool Swim workout automatically tracks sets and rests, pace for each set and distance for each stroke type.
- Gym kit - an industry first, just tap on a machine and get going and all your metrics are in sync. Metrics include heart rate, speed and calories.
- Updated Siri Watch face. It now proactively displays the information you need, right when you need it
- Redesigned heart rate app:
- Apple heart rate monitor will now warn you if you have an elevated heart rate and you don't seem to be active.
- Apple Heart Study. Uses data from Apple watch, analyze A-FIB, working closely with Stanford University.
- WatchOS 4 will be available on September 19.
- Built-in Cellular, will use the same number as your cellphone so you don't need 2 lines. However, this capability is dependent on your cellular provider.
- With Apple Music and Apple Watch you can stream 40 million songs on your wrist. Apple Air Pods now work with the Apple Watch Series 3.
- Dual-core processor allows up to 70% faster performance.
- Siri is faster than ever and for the first time ever, can now talk on the Apple Watch.
- Apple-designed W2 chip for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, delivers up to 85% faster Wi-Fi. 50% more power efficient.
- Since it would be hard to fit a regular sim card or even a nano sim card in the Apple watch, Apple designed the Apple watch to have an electronic sim which is a fraction of the size of a nano sim.
- Despite the built-in cellular and electronic sim, the case of the Apple Watch Series 3 is the same size as the Series 2.
- New bands were announced.
- A new Gray Ceramic Apple Watch was announced.
- Apple Watch Series 3 is still environment friendly.
- Up to 18 hours battery life.
- Apple Watch Series 3 without cellular will be priced starting at $329 while the Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular will start at $399.
- Apple is still offering the Apple Watch Series 1 now with a lower price starting at $249.
- Orders for the Apple Watch Series 3 starts on September 15 and will be available on September 22.
- Apple was awarded their second Emmy for Apple TV. The Emmy was awarded in recognition of how Siri made it so easy to search for content on the TV.
- 4K is 4 times the resolution of HD (High Density).
- Another technology related to TV displays is the High Dynamic Range (HDR). 4K is about the number of pixels while HDR is about the quality of each pixel.
- The Apple TV 4K is both 4K and HDR.
- Supports both HDR 10 and Dolby Vision.
- The Apple TV 4K is powered by a fast A10X Fusion Chip which is exactly the same processor which powers the 10.5" iPad Pro.
- Apple is currently working with big label movie companies to bring their 4K content to the Apple TV. 4K movies are the same price as HD and if you bought any HD movie from Apple, they will automatically upgrade it to 4K HDR for free.
- The Apple TV app which was previously released solely in the United States, will be released in other countries.
- Live News and Live Sports will be coming to the Apple TV.
- The 32GB Apple TV 4K will be priced at $179 while the 64GB model will cost $199.
- Available in Silver, Space Gray and new Gold finish.
- Made of tough Aerospace-grade aluminum. 7-layer color process. 50% deeper strengthening layer. Glass design reinforced by steel. Most durable glass in any smart phone.
- Water and dust resistant.
- Retina HD now on both the 4.7" and 5.5" iPhone 8 displays.
- Powered by an all new A11 Bionic Processor. So far the most powerful and smartest processor with a six-core CPU, 64-bit design and composed of 4.3 billion transistors. Two high performance cores brings the A11 Bionic to be 25% faster than the A10 processor. Four high-efficiency cores, 70% faster than the A10 chip. 2nd-gen Apple-designed performance controller, 70% faster multi-thread workloads.
- Apple-designed GPU, 30% faster than A10, A10 performance at 1/2 the power. GPU designed for 3D games and the Apple Metal 2 framework.
- Photos
- Color accuracy, Cinema wide color gamut, 3D touch display and True Tone display.
- Apple-designed ISP (Image signal processor), faster low-light auto-focus, improved pixel processor and hardware enabled multi-band noise reduction.
- Videos
- Highest-quality video capture ever on a smartphone.
- Apple-designed video encoder.
- Faster video frame rates.
- Real-time image and motion analysis.
- Slow-mo at 1080p 240 fps, that's double the frame rate of previous iPhone cameras.
- Augmented Reality
- Hardware and software integrated for AR.
- Cameras calibrated for AR.
- Low-light and 60 fps.
- New gyro and accelerometer.
- Accurate motion tracking.
- Here is a sample application that uses AR. The map is drawn on the sky, to identify stars and constellations.
- Cameras
- iPhone 8
- 12 MP Camera with an all-new sensor which provides 83% more light, deeper pixels, new color filter and optical image stabilization.
- iPhone 8 Plus
- 12 MP dual cameras with all-new sensors, f/1.8 aperture on the wide angle camera and f/2.4 aperture on the telephoto lens.
- Optical image stabilization.
- New lighting effects
- iPhone 8
- Wireless
- LTE advanced.
- Bluetooth 5.0.
- Wireless charging made possible by the iPhone 8's glass back.
- Qi open wireless standard compatible.
- iPhone 8 storage capacity options are 64GB and 256GB, prices start at $699.
- iPhone 8 Plus storage capacity options are 64GB and 256GB, prices start at $799.
- Pre-order starts on September 15 and iPhone 8 will be available on September 22.
- iOS 11 will be available as a free download starting September 19.
iPhone X released...
- Sets the path for the next decade.
- Biggest leap forward since the first iPhone.
- The front and back of the iPhone X is made of glass.
- Powered by the A11 bionic chip.
- Two performance cores.
- Four high-efficiency cores.
- 2nd-gen Apple-designed performance controller.
- Apple-designed GPU.
- Apple-designed ISP.
- Apple-designed video encoder.
- Secure enclave.
- Super Retina display - 2436 x 1125 resolution, 458 ppi. This is the highest pixel density in a smart phone. OLED technology. HDR display. Dolby Vision and HDR10. One million-to-one contrast ratio. Color accuracy. 3D Touch. True Tone display.
- Raise to wake or tap on screen to wake the iPhone.
- No more home button. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go to the home screen, this will work even when your in an application.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause for a moment to access multi-tasking and tap on any app to jump right to it.
- Say "Hi Siri" or press the side button (which is now larger on the iPhone X) to access Siri.
- Now that the home button is gone, how do we unlock the iPhone X? Apple has introduced Face ID, face recognition technology in the iPhone X. Face ID works through what Apple calls the TrueDepth camera system. Specialized hardware built for a set of machine learning algorithms.
- Neural Engine, dual-core design, 600 billion operations per second and real-time processing.
- Face ID learns your face, even if you wear glasses, change hairstyle, grow a beard and will work even in the dark. Face data is protected by secure enclave. Face ID uses on-device processing so no data is sent to any server. Face ID requires user attention to unlock, meaning, if you try to unlock with your eyes closed or you're facing sideways, your iPhone won't unlock. There is 1 in 1,000,000 chance of a random person being able to unlock your phone with their face. Cannot be tricked by using a photo of you. Face ID works with Apple Pay and third party apps.
- Animoji - animated emojis which you control with your face. Animojis track more than 50 facial muscle movements. You can create and share Animojis right from the messages app. Currently, there are a dozen Animojis to choose from.
- Camera
- 12MP dual cameras - larger and faster sensors, new color filter, deeper pixels and f/1.8 aperture on the wide angle camera and f/2.4 aperture on the telephoto lens.
- Dual optical image stabilization - better low-light zoom. Improved video stabilization.
- Quad-LED True Tone Flash - 2x better uniformity of light.
- Backside camera photo sample:
- Front facing camera is capable of portrait mode, portrait lighting
- Sample selfie
- Battery life lasts 2 hours more than iPhone 7 despite all the new features.
- Wireless
- LTE advanced
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Wireless charging, made possible by the iPhone 8's glass back.
- Qi open wireless standard compatible
- AirPower - Charging Mat for iPhone 8 or iPhone X, Apple Watch Series 3 and Ear Pods with optional wireless charging case. Available in 2018.
From charging devices separately:
To a single charging pad:
- The iPhone X is environment friendly
- iPhone X storage capacity options, 64GB and 256GB, prices start at $999.
- Pre-order begins on October 27 and shipping will start on November 3.
- Here is the current iPhone lineup:
Phil Schiller closed his presentation of the iPhone X with these words:
"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been" - Wayne Gretzky, this was the line Steve Jobs used 10 years ago to close the launching of the very first iPhone. Steve Jobs said that it's what Apple does, skate where the puck is going to be and that is what the iPhone X is all about.
Tim Cook's closing remarks for the event was "Steve would have been proud"
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