Yesterday Apple streamed a special event from Apple Park. Tim Cook started by kicking us all in the teeth by telling us all what we already feared. There would be no iPhones at this event. He said that this event would be all about two devices and there’s so much to talk about I’m going to head straight into it with the,
Apple Watch
The Apple Watch line up kicked off with the Launch of the Apple Watch Series 6. Featuring a new Blood oxygen level sensor, you’ll be able to track even more of your health from your watch. The watch also features a more advanced Always on display. Inside the watch there is the Sixth generation of the Apple SiP and includes a new U1 Chip (Ultra Wideband) This chip makes it more Likely to see AirTags this year as this is a chip that would make them work. Interestingly there wasn’t much mention about battery life I hope its improved with the upcoming sleep features in WatchOS 7.
Now unlike normal the series 6 wasn’t where the Apple Watch fun ended as they announced the launch of the Apple Watch SE. This has the same design as the S6 but includes the same processing power as the S5 Apple Watch. It also doesn’t include an Always on display and all the fancy health features like ECG & Blood oxygen monitoring.
I’ve actually pre-ordered the series 6 so I’ll be writing a review on it in the upcoming days along with SE. The current Apple Watch line up looks like this.
Series 6 (£379 $399)
SE (£269 $279)
Series 3 (£199 $199) (And yes, it’s still available!)
iPad(s)
This year marks 10 years of the iPad. At what 10 years it’s been we’ve seen over 20 different models of iPad, from the mini to the pro. To mark the occasion Apple refreshed two of the most popular iPads.
The first iPad to get a refresh was the iPad. Now on its 8th generation the iPad looks exactly the same as the previous models expect now it has the A12 Bionic (The same as the one in the iPad Air 3rd Gen) as well as the Apple Neural engine and more battery life. This iPad now supports more devices as well! Working with the 1stgeneration Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard.
The second iPad to get a refresh, really got a refresh. The iPad Air 4th Generation. The iPad Air now has a gorgeous all screen display, Similar to the iPad Pro. Coming at 10.9 inch’s the screen is ever so slightly bigger than 3rd generation.
The iPad Air 4th gen still has TouchID but now built into the lock button on the top of the iPad. Maybe we’ll see this on the new iPhones later this year. (Personally, I hope not) The iPad Air now has the flat design similar to the iPad Pro but also comes in some gorgeous new colours. The iPad Air also comes with a USB-C connecter instead of lightning.
There is simply so much to talk about when it comes to the new iPads that I’m going to be writing a separate more in detail article this week about them so keep an eye out for that to get a better look.
The iPads are available to pre-order now and will be out on Friday. Let’s look at the new line-up.
iPad (£329 $329)
iPad Air (£579 $599)
iPad Pro (£769 $799)
iPad Mini (£399 $399)
Services
As was rumoured for a while Apple announced “Apple One” a bundle of their services in one neat package. There are three different versions available. The individual, family and Premier. Each of them can save you some money depending on what services your using, obviously it wouldn’t save you money if you just used Apple Music. Personally, though I use Apple Music, currently have 50GB iCloud and was thinking about keeping my AppleTV+ which runs out in about a month’s time. Now I think I’ll get myself the personal Apple One bundle.
This would cost me £14.95 per month $14.95 and comes with Apple Music, iCloud 50GB, TV+ & Arcade. Purchasing all of them separate would cost me £20.76 per month. The family option includes the same as the personal except 200GB of iCloud instead of 50GB and the services can be shared with 5 others. The premium plan costs £29.95 per month ($29.95) and can be shared with 5 others but also includes 2TB iCloud as well as Music, TV+, Arcade, News+ and Apples newest service Fitness+
Fitness+ is due to launch late 2020 and is new Workout service by Apple which is powered by the Apple Watch. Video workouts including trainer’s workout with you on screen and your Apple Watch displays all your metrics on screen including your heart rate, time working out, your activity rings as well as any other useful metrics depending on the workout.
Apple One is due to launch sometime this fall and Fitness+ later this year.
This is just a summary; I’m going to be writing more about each topic later this week so if you haven’t already Follow me on Twitter to keep up with the latest. www.twitter.com/kylewilkinson46
Thanks for reading
Kyle Wilkinson
Kyle Wilkinson Blog – The Podcast
Episode 2 – iOS 14, WatchOS 7 & BigSur
Is available now, Listen here:
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Read more about the upcoming Software updates:
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MacOS 11.0 BigSur
Images are screen grabs from the Apple 09.15 event video stream. Apart from the image about Apple One pricing which is a screenshot from https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-one/
Images are not owned by me, Pricing of Apple One or services provided may change from the image above.
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