The Apple Keynote is upon us. Lots of interesting rumors and leaks this year. We will finally see how they pan out. Right upon the start of the show, Tim Cook, CEO, jumps right into the announcements starting with the App Store
App Store
Apple Arcade opens up the show. Remember, this is Apple’s subscription “Netflix” style gaming platform. I love the idea. Mobile Gaming, in my opinion, is one untapped sector. It’s just unfortunate that mobile games have resorted to terrible micro-transactions and freemium models, gating every aspect of a game. I think Apple Arcade is an attempt to fix that, with restrictions on MTX’s and other freemium cancer that ruined the biggest gaming platform in the world.
Konami comes on to chat about their new Frogger game that looks….like frogger (just play Crossy Road….seriously). Capcom talks about their stupid underwater game next, then Annapurna comes on to talk about some on rails rhythm game about pop music and cool women…I guess (they do make pretty games to look at). If you ask me, all three games look stupid as fuck and do not entice me to get Arcade – but even worse, have even less faith in Mobile Gaming. Arcade releases September 19th for $5 a month with family access and a 1 month free trial. It’s not a bad deal, but that means you need at least ONE game worth playing a month to make it a good value.
Apple TV+ hits it up next. This is the new G-rated network with Oprah leading the content. The latest trailers released don’t look too bad though. I’m not opposed to the family-friendly content. I just hope that it doesn’t hinder the work. We then get the trailer premiere of “See” starring Jason Momoa from the creators of Peaky Blinders, one of the best shows on Netflix. Looks cool. It’s then announced that on November 1st, the first Apple TV+ shows will release, again for $4.99 with family access. Also, when you buy a new iPhone or Mac, you get Apple TV+ for 1 year free. This means Apple is serious about TV+. I don’t blame them. With so many devices on hand, they have an untapped market. Look at what they did with Apple Music.
So overall, with Apple Music, TV+, and Arcade, for $15 a month, you get some nice goodies. I still don’t know how much it’s worth it. I’d love to see a full Apple package that bundles it all for a small discount. Nonetheless, I think its too early to tell of its success. It could go wonderfully, adding an entirely new, massive revenue stream, or be a gigantic expense.
7th Gen iPad
We’re jumping into iPad as the first device in this keynote. The new “7th” gen iPad keeps TouchID and the fat bezels. Packs the A10 Fusion chip and a slightly upgraded 10.2″ screen. Just a small refinement for its latest standard iPad, for only $329. I think we all would’ve loved to see the same price, but a much more upgraded screen or at least, fucking USB-C.
Apple Watch Series 5
This announcement opens up with this heartwarming video of people who’ve been directly helped by Apple’s Watch, either with its heart monitoring, or activity tracker, and fall detection. These are features that set Watch apart from the competition – as well as the fact its simply unmatched in tech, feel, power, and usability. This is something I don’t think Android understands. The Watch is so good, it really ingrains you into Apple’s ecosystem. Anyways, the keynote talks about a few new health research studies. One being Noise level and hearing, Cycle menstruation tracking, and Apple’s Heart and Movement study. The new Apple Research app allows you to enroll in these studies, and Apple promises secure privacy.
In terms of what’s new with the latest Watch, we get Series 5. We get a new always-on OLED retina display (yes!), that they claim can refresh as low as 1hz to reserve power, yet display content, while maintaining a claimed 18-hour battery life. This alone makes Series 5 the best Apple Watch to get, and pits it more as a traditional watch. There’s also now a built in compass (yes!!). New emergency calling features. Three aluminum models, three stainless steel models, with new titanium models coming, white ceramic, and new Hermes and Nike models. This starts at $399 and $499 for Cellular models, with Series 3 now coming down to $199.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro
The iPhone 11 cheaper model came first, but I want to discuss the 11 pro first.
The rumors were spot on. Three cameras, all in that back box design. New color includes Midnight Green which gives me a huge hard on. 5.8″ and 6.5″ sizes. New OLED panel, keeping haptic touch, and 15% more efficient. Dolby Atmos spatial sound. They’re calling the new screen the “Super Retina XDR Display”. A13 Bionic 7nm chip contains faster machine learning accelerators, 1tn op/s, 8.5bn transistors, 2 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores, with hundreds of voltage zones and logic restrictions, to highly improve battery life and efficiency keeping top level performance. This means 4 more fucking hours extra of battery with the Max hitting 5 hours.
The new camera packs a new 13mm f2.4 lens. This packs in a wide, ultrawide, and telephoto. It’s pretty crazy how much smartphone photography has improved. The ultrawide looks awesome. Of course, videography is still class leading. Also, the new native video editing on iPhone is great. Selfies with 4k 60fps, and of course “Slofies”. Filmic was promoted in the keynote. They brought Sean Baker out who shot Tangerine, the first iPhone film, to talk about his favorite video apps. Filmic showed off their awesome new lens selection too.
And that’s pretty much it. There’s other little goodies, but in terms of big hardware, that’s pretty much it. One of the coolest parts of the new iphone imo is the new green color. It’s sad that, that color alone is making me want to buy one.
The price is $999 and $1099 respectively with shipping on September 20th. But there’s a catch of course….
for 64gb
Apple iPhone 11
The more affordable model. Fully Aluminum design with new colors, that all look pretty great. Two cameras. One wide, at 26mm f1.8, and now an ultrawide 13mm f2.4. Of course, some more refinements in Apple’s photo software. “Semantic Rendering” will produce much more lifelike HDR. Night Mode has been upgraded to rival Pixel’s Night Sight. Dolby Atmos speakers (how?). And also packing in the A13 Bionic.
Conclusion
Overall…a very underwhelming release. But this was expected. We had big releases from Apple on Software and iPad fronts, along with new Mac options that really drummed up hype. We’re waiting till next year to finally get iPhone caught up with modern feature set, to match its modern hardware. I’ll be waiting for my Pro XDR Display to come in, in the meantime.