On iPhone’s 10th anniversary, Apple reveals upgrades

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This article was published 13/09/2017 (2979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CUPERTINO, Calif. — The crowd at Apple’s new “spaceship” headquarters was expecting something truly out of this world Tuesday, as the company marked the 10th anniversary of the iPhone with a new design.

Apple opened the event asking the audience to cover their screens as an audio clip of Steve Jobs played. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said it was fitting Jobs opened the theatre, which was named for him.

“His greatest expression of his appreciation for humanity would not be a singular product, but rather it would be Apple itself,” he said.

The bar is very high for Apple. This is not just any launch, after all.

Cook welcomed the crowd to the new campus and invited everyone to check out the visitor’s centre, which is set to open later in the year. Retail head Angela Ahrendts also highlighted upcoming Apple stores, including the firm’s plans to revamp major city stores with new community spaces, concerts and “board rooms” for developers.

Here are the products Apple has announced so far:

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus

The main event of Apple’s presentation launched with Cook promising “huge” iPhone news. Video screens then showed new smartphones with an aluminum finish in black, gray and gold.

Apple’s head of marketing, Phil Schiller, showed off the upgrades to the main iPhone line. They are speedier, with sharper screens and better battery efficiency. Notably, they will accommodate wireless charging. Schiller said wireless chargers will be made by third-party vendors and appear in partner coffee shops as well as some new cars.

The new smartphones have all-new cameras that will use a feature called “portrait lighting” that will automatically optimize the lighting in your photos. The cameras also have substantially improved slo-mo video recording.

Schiller touted the smartphones’ ability to do more in augmented reality — which is expected to be a key area of growth for video games and other software apps. An app from Major League Baseball, for example, will display live stats over players when users look at the field on their screens.

Apple is bumping up the base storage of an iPhone 8 to 64 GB at a price of US$699. The larger iPhone 8 Plus will start at US$799.

The iPhone X

Cook retook the stage to offer, in Jobs’s iconic words, “one more thing” — the iPhone X, with a super-premium price tag, starting at US$999.

The phone, he said, was the “biggest leap since the original iPhone.” (Apple is pronouncing it the iPhone ten).

The new high-end smartphone has a 5.8-inch display that covers the entire front of the phone. Unlike its cheaper sibling, the iPhone X comes in space grey and silver and sports a “super” retina display, which Schiller said was much sharper than any other iPhone because it uses OLED technology.

Notably, there also is no home button. Users must swipe and use gestures to close an app. Calling up Siri can now be done with a new side button.

The iPhone X also has an advanced array of cameras for facial recognition, which allows the phone to be unlocked just by looking at it. The cameras can learn a user’s face and note gradual changes. It can be used night or day.

But Apple promised that it would not collect the data on all of those faces. The information would be kept on the smartphone, not sent to Apple servers.

The camera, Schiller said, will recognize your face and note gradual changes. Biometric data will be stored on the device, not in the cloud.

Apple Watch 3 has cellular service

The first product up for discussion was the Apple Watch. The new Watch — called the Series 3 — will have its own cellular connectivity, said Apple’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, who is also in charge of Apple’s Watch division. The Watch will be able to receive calls — using your iPhone’s number — and can support apps including Maps and WeChat. The new Apple Watch will also be compatible with Apple Music, meaning you can use it as a music player on its own.

Williams said the new watch can play up to 40 million songs using Apple Music. Siri also gets a boost on the watch. Conversations with Apple’s artificial intelligence can happen without even lifting an arm.

The Watch will have up to 18 hours of battery life across LTE, Bluetooth and WiFi. Starting Sept. 22, the cellular version of the Watch will go on sale for US$399. Without cellular connection, it will cost US$329. The series 1 price will drop to US$249.

Apple TV

Apple is making a big push to create its own shows and shore up its position in the living room. The Apple set-top box, Apple TV, is now going to support 4K HDR video, the company said. The company is also adding live news and live sports sections to the Apple TV app.

The box itself is getting faster processors. The company showed how it could connect eight people online and have them play a video game together.

Versions of films and shows filmed in 4K will cost the same as HD videos on Apple’s iTunes store. The new Apple TV 4K will go on sale Friday and ship Sept. 22. It will cost US$179. While 4K adoption has been slow to get started, analysts say it’s reaching a tipping point.

— Washington Post