Last night Tim Cook unveiled the new range of iPhones, Apple Watch and the cutting-edge wireless headphones AirPods at the traditional September Apple event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. The CEO took the opportunity to announce that 1 billion iPhones have been sold worldwide.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
New design, more powerful camera, stereo speakers: here’s the 10 most important features of the next generation of Apple devices:
1) Design
The design of the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus is very similar to Apple’s previous models. The real aesthetic change lies in the antennas, which are almost invisible. The new iPhones will be available in five colors: the color Sidereal Grey disappears to make room for Matt Black and Jet Black (glossy), but the colors Silver, Gold and Rose Gold remain.
2) Home
The new Home button is designed to be sturdy as well as sensitive to the touch, just like the MacBook and MacBook Pro and its Force Touch trackpad. With the new Taptic Engine technology, the Home button, which is customizable, gives a more precise tactile feedback: it can be programmed to be used by third-party apps.
3) Water and dust resistant
The real big news for the new iPhone is the IP67 certification: they are drop and splash resistant, up to 1m depths.
4) Camera
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are equipped with a 12 megapixel camera that includes the optical image stabilization. The diaphragm with a greater openness to ƒ/1.8 and the objective lens with six elements both provide brighter, detailed photos and videos, even with low light, while the ability to capture a wide range of colors provides more vivid colors and more details.
A new 7-megapixel FaceTime HD videocamera with a wide color acquisition for better selfies has been implemented as well as the quad-LED True Tone flash: 50% brighter than the iPhone 6s and features a cutting-edge sensor that detects the flickering lights and the offsets in videos and photos.
The 12-megapixel dual camera is available for iPhone 7 Plus only, one gives a new depth of field effect, while the other camera, with telephoto lens, provides an optical zoom at 2x and a digital zoom, up to 10x. This software update will be release at the end of this year.
5) Retina HD Display
The new models feature a Retina HD Display, 25 times brighter than their predecessors, and a wider color scale. Like on the iPhone 6s, the screen is equipped with 3D Touch.
6) Speakers
The audio quality is two times higher than that of the iPhone 6s thanks to a wider dynamic range of sound and for the first time the presence of stereo speakers, located both at the top and at the bottom of the device.
7) EarPods
The news that definitely sparked more hype was the removal of the 3.5 mm jack headphone, a choice driven by the need to make room for the new hardware. As claimed by Apple: “The audio connector is more than 100 years old. It’s time to move on.” The new iPhone includes EarPods, earphones with Lightning connector that ensure an incredible sound, as well as a headphone jack adapter.
8) Wireless
In addition to wired headphones, Apple designed AirPods. With the new W1 Apple chip, AirPods are an extremely efficient wireless communication device, designed to have a consistent connection, a better sound and 5 hours of battery life.
Siri, with all its features, can be accessed as well, by double tapping on the AirPods.
With iCloud, configuring them requires just one step, and they are able to figure out which device you are using. By removing one earphone, the sound is automatically paused.
The case is also a charger with a 24-hour autonomy and can be charged with the Lighting connector.
9) Apple Pay
In the US, 90% of wireless transfers happen through Apple Pay. New countries will be introduced to this service, including Japan in mid-October and many more in the months to come.
10) Performance
The new A10 Fusion is the most powerful chip ever introduced in a smartphone; the CPU of the A10 Fusion chip now has four cores integrated seamlessly: two high-performance cores with a speed up to two times higher than the iPhone 6, and two high efficiency cores, which are able to consume just one-fifth compared to high performance’s cores. Even graphic performance is more powerful: it’s up to three times faster than on the iPhone 6, whose usage is reduced by half, taking video games and professional apps to the next level.
Apple has finally abandoned the 16GB version and has doubled capacity with the same price: therefore we will have the basic 32GB model, 128 and 256.
Pre-orders will start on September 9, while sale on September 16. For the first time, Italy will be among the first shipping group.
Apple Watch
The new generation of Apple Watch - Series 2 - has been completely redesigned to create amazing features for health and fitness. In this regard, the first major change is about water. If the first Apple Watch was only splash-resistant, Series 2 is also resistant to immersion, which means that you can swim with it up to 50 meters depth. To achieve this, Apple has managed to close all entry points, except for the speaker, which will be the one assigned remove water in excess. Apple has created two training options, designed specifically for swimmers: pool and open water. Apple Watch Series 2 counts laps, monitors the average rhythm and automatically detects the type of stroke to accurately measure the active calories burned.
With a built-in GPS, Apple Watch Series 2 records the exact distance, pace and speed for outdoor workouts, such as walking, running or biking sessions, without having to carry your iPhone with you. Apple Watch uses Wi-Fi, GPS and satellite data stored locally to identify their location. When the session is over, you can view a map of the trail that shows the speed’s changes in the Activities app on iPhone.
Apple also announced another smartwatch: Apple Watch Nike +. Thanks to a decade-long collaboration with Nike, the watch has been mainly designed for runners. Available in 4 colors, the aesthetic news is certainly the band: it is made from a durable, lightweight fluoroelastomer material, and improves ventilation via row after row of compression‑molded perforations, so that it is breathable and lighter.
Apple Watch Series 2 is already equipped with watchOS 3, announced in June at the WWDC.
Apple also introduced a white ceramic version of the Apple Watch, 4 times more resistant than the stainless steel model.
Pre-orders will start on September 9, while sale from September 16 at $ 369. For the first time, Italy will be among the first shipping group.
Games
With over 500,000 games in the App Store, Nintendo has finally decided to introduce Super Mario on iOS. Pokémon Go will be finally available for Apple Watch.
