For the first time in so many years, Almost everyone was able to watch the iPhone 6S event that took place yesterday on their devices. It used to be an event restricted from those not using Apple devices as you could only stream from Safari on Mac OS or iOS.
Apart from the two new iPhones announced, apple also made some important announcements. Considering the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft all these years, one of the biggest surprises came when a Microsoft executive was invited on stage to give a demo of the new iPad Pro.
iPhone 6S & iPhone 6S Plus
Physically, these devices look a lot like the last generation iPhone 6 but under the hood, the specifications have improved and a whole lot of features have been added. Critics often claim Apple release the same product every year and only change the nomenclature but these new products have certain features that seem to restore some people’s faith in the brand.
iPhone 6S and 6S plus are made from a custom 7000 series aluminum. The devices come in four different colors: space grey, silver, gold, and rose gold.
Apple iPhone 6 was a pretty fast phone due to the the A8 processor but the new iPhone 6S has a new 64-bit A9 processor said to almost double the performance of it’s predecessor.
According to Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing:
The only thing that has changed with iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is everything — 3D Touch lets users interact with iPhone in entirely new and fun ways, and the innovative Live Photos brings your pictures to life. These are the most advanced iPhones ever, with 7000 series aluminum, ion-strengthened glass, the new 64-bit A9 chip, 12-megapixel iSight and 5-megapixel FaceTime HD cameras, faster Touch ID, LTE and Wi-Fi. Customers are going to love them.
The new “3D touch” is not the like anything we’ve seen before. This new technology tells the difference between a tap and a touch and performs different actions based on this. The new iPhone generation can distinguish clearly between different level of pressure.
Multitasking on a smartphone just got better with this and users will be required to learn at least two new gestures,”peek” and “pop”. This will allow you to peek into other information without actually leaving what you’re actually doing.
The new 12MP iSight camera breaks away from the conventional 8MP camera Apple has been using for years. The 12-megapixel sensor has 8 million pixels capable of recording 4K video. The new camera also takes “Live Photos”. These are not GIFs or short videos, live photos takes a full resolution image before and after an image is taken and when 3D touch is used on the picture, it plays it like a short clip.
The 5MP front facing camera comes with a flash… not really the conventional LED flash. Apple calls it Retina flash and it’s done with the screen. The screen lights up almost 3 times brighter when taking a selfie.
For global roaming, the new generation iPhones support up to 23 LTE bands.
iPhone 6s Key Specifications:
- 4.7-inch Retina HD LCD LED-backlit display with 1334 x 750 resolution (326ppi) with ion-strengthened glass
- 64-bit Apple A9 processor
- M9 motion coprocessor
- 16/64/128GB of storage
- 12-megapixel camera with f/2.2 aperture, 5-element lens, True Tone flash and 4K video recording
- 5-megapixel FaceTime HD camera
- Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Wi-Fi calling
- LTE-A support (up to 23 LTE bands and VoLTE)
- Touch ID fingerprint sensor
- Battery life (50 hours of audio, 11 hours of video/Wi-Fi browsing, 10 days of standby)
- iOS 9 and Apple Pay support
- Colors: Gold, Silver, Space Gray and Rose Gold
iPhone 6s Plus Key Specifications:
- 5.5-inch Retina HD LCD LED-backlit display with 1920 x 1089 resolution (401ppi) with ion-strengthened glass
- 64-bit Apple A9 processor
- M9 motion coprocessor
- 16/64/128GB of storage
- 12-megapixel camera with f/2.2 aperture, 5-element lens, True Tone flash and 4K video recording and optical image stabilization
- 5-megapixel FaceTime HD camera
- Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Wi-Fi calling
- LTE-A support (up to 23 LTE bands and VoLTE)
- Touch ID fingerprint sensor
- Battery life (80 hours of audio, 12 hours of video/Wi-Fi browsing, 10 days of standby)
- iOS 9 and Apple Pay support
- Colors: Gold, Silver, Space Gray and Rose Gold
Pricing
The unlocked version of the iPhone 6s starts at $649 and for the iPhone 6S Plus, the price starts from $749.
iPad Pro
It seems Apple now has a product to counter Microsoft’s Surface and it’s the iPad Pro. It’s a massive tablet that’s even bigger than some notebooks. It has a 12.9″ screen with a resolution of 2732 x 2048 pixels, the biggest we’ve ever seen on an iPad.
iPad Pro comes with an A9x processor which apple claims is 1.8x faster than the A8X found in the iPad Air 2. This new iPad is the first to feature an optional physical keyboard and a stylus.
It’s indeed a professional tool for those who already know what to do with it. The stylus, called iPencil , was one of the most unexpected appearances yesterday given Steve Job’s stance on the stylus in his lifetime. Things have changed and Apple is obviously bending its rules due to the tight competition in the mobile market today.
Apple Pencil is one of the most advanced technologies we’ve ever created,
Schiller said.
The iPencil comes with a price tag of $99. For the iPad Pro, the price starts at $799 and goes up to $949 for the 128GB version.
Apple TV
Apple TV has been around for a while but it just got re-invented and now has a separate OS called tvOS. It now lets you search across different apps like Netflix, Hulu and iTunes. Siri has lot of work to do on the new tvOS as navigation will be mostly through voice.
The redesigned remote has a glass trackpad, a motion controller, and a tool that starts Siri.
