The most anticipated phone of the year is now official, but without much excitement as most of the feature was leaked already. The main highlight of 2017 Apple event was the Steve Jobs Theatre at the Apple Campus California. This was the dream project of Steve Jobs, which will be in operation by the end of this year.
Now talking about the product launched at the event, the company launched 3rd generation of Apple Watch, AppleTV 4K, iPhone 8 and 8Plus and the most waited 10th anniversary special iPhone X. With these products the latest firmware for Apple Watch watchOS 4, tvOS 11 for the AppleTV and iOS 11 for iPhone were also official.
Apple Watch Series 3
The Apple watch series 3 is basically same as the watch series 2 with a cellular connection which frees dependence on iPhone for voice calls and data. Apple Watch Series 3 is equipped with a new W2 chip that is 50 percent more energy efficient. With both the LTE and non-LTE versions of the Series 3 supposed to deliver up to 18 hours of battery life.
The watch series 3 has a new red digital crown and signal meter, as well as a built-in barometric altimeter. Color options include a new gold aluminum finish, plus silver and space gray. Watch series 3 will be available on Sept. 22; it costs $399 with cellular and $329 without. In the UK, that’s £399 with LTE and £329 without; in Australia, it’s AU$459 and AU$559.
Apple TV 4K
Another product launched at the event was Apple TV 4K. This upgraded Apple TV box brings 4K-resolution and High Dynamic Range video to your television screen. The new box is running on an A10X Fusion processor (the same used in the iPad Pro). Apple TV 4K is twice faster than the fourth-gen Apple TV and graphics performance is four times better. It adds compatibility with 4K as well as HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR video. That means the new box will deliver the best 3,820×2,160-pixel resolution and — more importantly — the improved color palettes and contrast ratios of high dynamic range (HDR) video when connected to compatible TVs.
The Apple TV 4K will also have a built-in 4K video scaler to improve the look of HD content so it looks better on a 4K-resolution TV. Apple also said it will output at the highest resolution possible for your TV and automatically detect your 4K TV’s capabilities to tweak your setup for the best experience.
Updated connections include Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi‑Fi with simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and Bluetooth 5.0. The video out is now HDMI 2.0a to support 4K HDR video.
The upgraded box will sell for $179 with 32GB of storage or 64GB for $199. (In the UK it’s £179 or £199; in Australia, it’s AU$249 or AU$279) which will ship on Sept. 22.
iPhone 8 and 8 Plus
The regular variant of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will retain similar design, with glass back instead of aluminum. The main reason for opting glass over aluminum is for the introduction of wireless charging. For the display size, the iPhone 8 has a same 4.7-inch screen and iPhone 8 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen with similar retina HD display. Both the devices are powered by a proprietary six-core, 64-bit A11 Bionic processor, the iPhone 8 purportedly runs 30 percent faster than last year’s A10 CPU and runs more efficiently at half the power. Both the device will have iOS 11 out of the box, which features newly animated emojis, more languages with Siri’s translation services and a refreshed Control Center menu.
Apple also updated the iPhone’s camera. With the same 12-megapixel rear shooter and optical image stabilization, it features additional color filters, a new sensor and software tweaks that make it easier to adjust lighting effects. Slow-motion video capture at 1080p gets smoother as well, at 240 frames per second (doubled from last year). And there new camera modes, like the Portrait Lighting beta that adds fancy lighting effects to Portrait Mode photos
The iPhone is still dust and water-resistant and comes in silver, space gray and gold.You can pre-order the new iPhone on Friday, Sept. 15, and it’ll be available next week on Sept. 22. The phone comes in two memory capacities, 64GB and 256GB. In the US it starts at $699. If you live in the UK it starts at £699 and in Australia, it costs AU$1,079.
iPhone X
The main highlight of the event was the 10th anniversary special iPhone, iPhone X (ten). This is first Apple device has a bezel-less display. The edge-to-edge 5.8-inch screen is OLED display, which the company calls Super Retina Display. This brings with it all the standard benefits of OLED, including more accurate colors, better image uniformity across the screen, etc. The iPhone X Super Retina Display supports 2436X1125 resolutions, with 458PPi, and HDR in both Dolby Vision and HDR.
With the completely bezel-less display, the Touch ID is omitted from the iPhone X, which is replaced by all new Face ID. FaceID is enabled by a True Depth camera system, equipped with an infrared camera, flood illuminator, dot projector and more all packed into the top of your iPhone. This means that the iPhone will know what your face looks like from all angles and can unlock the phone while it’s, say, lying on a table. It also means that the feature shouldn’t be susceptible to trickery, such as unlocking for a two-dimensional photo of you instead of the real thing. Apple says the chances that someone can trick FaceID and break into your phone are one in a million.
The feature is used for Apple Pay now, as well as a new feature called Animojis for messaging. Animojis use FaceID to lay your facial expressions into emojis, giving them your own unique take. You can pick from a dozen different animated emojis.
Now charge iPhone 8/8+ and iPhone X battery wirelessly.
The camera on the iPhone X is same as the iPhone 8 Plus, the placement of the camera sensors are vertical instead of horizontal. With iPhone X, Apple is introducing a new Portrait Lighting, letting users select their lighting effects. These aren’t filters, but rather a real-time analysis of the light hitting the subject’s face, and these lighting effects can be added before and after the photo is taken.
The front-facing camera is powered by that True Depth camera system that supports FaceID. But the big news here is that Portrait mode and Portrait lighting are now available on the front-facing camera.
Apple has worked with Qi for wireless charging. Wireless charging on Samsung devices works with both Qi and PMA standards while Apple only mentioned Qi support.
The iPhone X ain’t cheap. It starts at $999, £999 in the UK and AU$1,579 in Australia. The 256GB version costs $1,149. Preorders begin Oct. 27, and the phone ships Nov. 3.
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