It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to talk about Apple, It’s the first time this year and the last time was November, so I’ve got a lot to talk about.
Apple Fitness+
The first one I wanted to talk about was Fitness+ which launched on the 14th of December 2020. Personally, I think it has had a good initial launch from what I’ve read on forums and social media. I have used the service since launch, and I do have good first impressions however I don’t want to talk too much about the service yet as I’m going to be writing a full review in February.
This week Apple also released a new feature for the service called “Time to walk” You can download the Audio’s on to the Workout app of your watch and then using your AirPods you can walk with famous people like Shawn Mendes or Dolly Parton.
AirPods Max
On the 15th of December 2020 Apple released a new style of AirPods called the AirPods Max unlike the other editions of AirPods these are over-ear headphones and come with a steep asking price of £549 ($549). They come in a variety of colours. Space Grey, Silver, Green, Sky Blue and Pink. The headphones do have a port on them so you could connect a 3.5mm lead to the headphones and listen to music the old-fashioned way and soon you’ll also be able to replace the cushions at another steep asking price of £75
Unfortunately, because of lockdown I haven’t been able to test these out or even see these in the Apple store, but I have read good things about the quality of the headphones. iJustine did a review on them too which I think is worth a watch. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrNO0XqjrIs
Interesting read on Apple’s services
On the 6th of January Apple released an article on their Newsroom which talked about how Apple services helped connect the world in what was a strange year. It’s worth a read and you can check it out here:
iOS 14.4, WatchOS 7.3 Released
On Tuesday 26th January Apple released iOS 14.4 which includes support for Time to walk on Fitness+, Improved handoff features for the HomePod Mini which uses the U1 chip as well as several bug fixes.
Apple celebrates Black History month
Also, on Tuesday 26th of January Apple announced some of the ways they will be celebrating Black history month. Across the Apple services you will see stories highlighting the history. They will also be releasing a special edition of the Apple Watch designed to celebrate and acknowledge black history and culture.
In WatchOS 7.3 there is also a new Unity watch face and in February you can also buy a special Unity Sport band which has “Truth. Power. Solidarity” engraved on the interior of the strap. For people who use the Fitness app a lot there will also be a new challenge for you to do where you can earn a special award by closing your move ring 7 days in a row.
There’s so much too look forward to this year with Apple and later on today they will be announcing there 2021 Q1 earnings and it’s expected to be a record breaker you can listen live here. In February I’ll be reviewing Fitness+. This week is my last week of keeping my survey online where I’m looking at how I could improve my blog so if you haven’t already, I’d really appreciate you answering the short 5 anonymous questions.
Thanks for reading
Kyle Wilkinson
All images shown in the article are from Apple’s Newsroom site www.apple.com/newsroom all images are owned by Apple. Apart from the screenshot of the AirPods Max replacement cushions this is a screenshot from the "Apple Store" iPadOS application on 27/1/21 , The screenshot of Time to walk is from WatchOS 7.3 on 27/1/21
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