It's a big day for fans of Apple's line of products, including the iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV. In Cupertino, CA, from inside Apple's brand-new Steve Jobs Theater, fans and developers were given the first sneak peek at all three of those devices and more.
Let's start with the iPhone, which has been a much-talked about item over the past few days, after a iOS leak revealed some rumored details about the new device. According to the livestream of the event on YouTube, the upcoming iPhone 8 looks very much like the iPhone 7, but it’s now all-glass, and it comes in three different colors: silver, grey and rose gold. Peter Schiller, who gave the iPhone presentation, ran through a list of impressive features that the device will ship with, including the True Tone display that adjusts for the temperature of the light, 25% louder stereo speakers and a new "A11 bionic" chip, which will boast a new image signal processor for improved noise reduction and faster low-light autofocus when taking pictures.
The camera is also getting an upgrade, with a new sensor and new color filter on the normal 8. The 8 Plus will get two new sensors for its two new cameras, with a telephoto lens that gets better in low light. The software behind the camera on the 8 Plus will also use the two cameras to build a portrait photo environment and possesses the ability to artificially alter the lighting of the images. According to Schiller, this is also the first iPhone designed for "Augmented Reality," with AR apps that can enhance your real-world viewing experiences like star gazing and sporting events. AR games will also be a big focus for Apple's new devices, especially the iPhone. Finally, all the new phones will support Qi wireless charging as a standard feature (hooray!).
Pricing of the iPhone 8 will start at 64GB, from $699, and the 8 Plus will start at $799.
On to other devices now, specifically the Apple Watch and the Apple TV. Where the watch is concerned, the newest physical edition will boast a built-in mobile connection. This way, you'll still be connected to your phone at all times, with the number staying the same for both devices. You'll also be able to stream audio to the watch, provided you're an Apple Music user. Elsewhere, the watch's faster processor will provide Siri talkback and a new WiFi chip will supposedly reduce power drain by 85%. Apple Watch pricing looks like this: $329 without cellular, $399 with cellular, and series 1 drops down to $249.
As far as the Apple TV goes, the big news to report is 4K support (finally). So, if you've got one of those fancy UHD TV's at home, this might be a worthwhile purchase or upgrade for your streaming or iTunes viewing. Even better news: Apple will be bringing 4K content to iTunes and, because of a won battle with Hollywood studios, there will be no raise in price as a result. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video will also support the new platform. The new Apple TV starts at $179, and will ship on 22 September.
Update: Details about the iPhone X below.
This anniversary device, which is pronounced "iPhone 10" is made up of a huge screen taking up the entire front of the model. In total, it's a 5.8 inch OLED super retina display with a glass back, a dual camera and a small contour cutting in near the top of the device's screen. There's no home button, so the display is enabled by tapping on the screen,. You return to the home screen by swiping up from the bottom, and multi-tasking can be turned on by swiping up and pausing. The side-button is now a dedicatedon/off control for Siri.
TouchID has also been replaced with "FaceID". Called "the future of how we unlock our smartphones" by Schiller, it works using the front camera, where seven separate sensors are packed into that little area at the top of the device - a system that will also work at night. It's worth nothing that the first go-round of the live demo failed, so clearly the feature isn't perfect yet, but it's a move that should help them overcome the disaster that was the initial roll out of the TouchID.
“The chance that a random person in the population could unlock your iPhone X and unlock it with their face is one in a million", Schiller added, comparing it to the reported one in 50,000 for TouchID. Unfortunately, FaceID can allegedly get wonky if someone looks similar to you, so if you've got a nosy twin sibling, it might be better to set a passcode. Otherwise, it works with everything else TouchID does, including Apple Pay. The X will feature two 12MP cameras as well, with improved tweaks to the flash and picture-taking software as well. The biggest plus? A reported two extra hours of battery life compared to the iPhone 7, according to Schiller. There's also this thing called "animated emojis," which will now haunt my dreams forever. I'm still too shook to talk about it, so here's a link for you to check out.
The iPhone X will start shipping on November 3rd for $999 for the 64GB, and it can be pre-ordered as of 27 October. The iPhone SE also has a price cut down to $349, iPhone 6S to $449, and iPhone 7 to $549.
For more updates on the Apple tech, follow The Guardian's live-updating blog here.
