The Apple Event Roundup

The highly anticipated ‘Hey Siri’ Apple Event has finally come to a close. With a barrage of new products and software (not really a lot but satisfactory for Apple Users). Even a surprise appearance from Microsoft, I know what you’re thinking but No its for Microsoft Office.

First off, Apple gave a satisfaction statistic of 97%. Apple Watch OS2 is on the horizon. The Apple Watch which now has Facebook messenger, Go pro apps. They introduced a doctor-friendly app called Air strip which sends lab results and alerts to the Apple Watch strapped doctor. It even sends patients waveforms and updates on their health status, live on their wrist.

Another new app, Sense for Baby, interacts with sensors on the mother’s belly. The mother can hear her unborn child’s heart rate from her wrist. The Apple Watch OS2 is set to arrive in September 16th. From deals with fashion to medical companies, the Apple Watch is turning to that very got-to-have device.

Next is the iPad. Tim Cook spoke fondly about the iPad as he ushered in an iPad for the new generation, the iPad Pro. The most capable and powerful iPad Apple has ever created. This 12.9 inch monster comes with the new iOS9 preinstalled and is packed with a new improved retina display (5.6 million pixels). 8 megapixel round back.

Internally, it sports the new A9X chip; Apple’s third Gen 64-bit chip. Doubled memory bandwidth of the A8X and twice the disk performance even doubles the graphic performance as well. For battery life, Apple is claiming 10hours. Its also sports a smart connector by the side which will connect to the smart keyboard. Also following Microsoft’s philosophy that states a device is only smart when it uses a stylus (whatever that means), Apple decided to make an Apple Pencil. No, not a pen, a Pencil.

Taking a page off Microsoft’s Surface Pro line, the Apple Pencil incorporates pressure sensitivity which you’d expect on a device in its class. The Pencil recharges via a Lightning connector which you plug directly in the iPad itself. The apps that make full use of this peripheral include the Mail and Note apps. Microsoft demoed the Office for the iPad which works with any device (Word and Excel side by side) running on the new iOS9, thanks to its multitasking feature.

Another developer that was present on stage was Adobe. They showed off the Adobe Photoshop family app and Sketch. These apps are for the iPad only and will arrive in October.

The New iPad Pro ships in November.

Moving on: Apple TV
Apple TV is Apple’s set-top box which runs applications such as Netflix,hulu etc. and not live TV (for those that don’t know). This time the new Apple TV has Siri baked in the OS called TVOS. You could use commands to get exactly what movie you’re looking for in the Appstore.

For example, saying, “Siri, show me something new” springs up a collection of new TV shows and movies that can be watched with different services. Another example is movies being categorized by genre, “Show me family movies” , “Anything with Kevin Hart”. According to Apple, Touch and Voice are key elements in the Apple TV. Unfortunately most of the apps don’t work in Africa. Sad. But we can play iOS games on the big screen.

Guitar Hero from Activision was demoed on stage. For those the don’t know Guitar Hero, it is a music game where players play musical instruments to match different keys to different colors on the TV screen.

Shadowmastic, a puzzle game that is already on iOS is coming to Apple TV. Beat Sport by Harmonix (the makers of Dance Central) is exclusively releasing on Apple TV. Its about robots hitting pitches. It gets more difficult as the pitches come faster.

Shifting gears: the iPhone

iPhone 6 is most popular iphone ever according to Tim Cook. Apple announced the iphone 6s and 6s plus. Both phones come with a new rose gold aluminum finish and also come in gold, silver and space gray. The display is buried in a stronger kind of glass. The screens bring pressure-sensitive Force touch which Apple coined 3D touch. Pressing your finger on the screen when inside an app opens up shortcuts to things you use and do frequently.

The technology is deeply integrated into the iOS9. Similar to what you’ll find in an Apple Watch, a vibrating Tactic Engine sits under the hood of these phones. The new A9 chip(not A9X;A9) is a 64-bit in-house chipset hosting a new transistor architecture. Its 70% faster at CPU task and 90% faster at GPU task compared to the A8.

The new iPhones sports a front facing 5-megapixel camera and a rear 12-megapixel iSight camera, 50% more than before and can also shoot videos in 4K. It also sports a second-Gen Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The iphone 6s and 6s plus will be available on the 25th of September.