The new iPhones
Today was the day that I and I'm sure a lot of others have been waiting for. Today was the Apple event where they announced the next iPhone. They also announced a few other things and we will do what they did, and get threw those things first.
We have to start off with the venue. This years event and I'm sure any other event they do from now on, took place at the Steve Jobs memorial theater. This is a venue located on the new Apple campus. From all the videos and photos I have seen it looks vary beautiful. They then opened the event with some words from Steve Jobs and talked about him. It was very nice and sincere.
Now lets start the on slaughter. Apple Watch Series 3 was announced with with faster chips better wireless and new bands. But what is a surprise is the inclusion of cellular. With the series 3 you will be able to use the watch with out your phone. The watch will use your same phone number so you can get calls and texts and iMessages when your phone isn't around. Even with the extra cellular things inside it the watch is about the same size as the series 2. The watch will even get up to 18 hours of battery life. The Apple Watch Series 3 will go on pre order on September 15th and will start at $329 with out cellular and $399 with cellular. They will be available in stores starting September 22nd.
Now its time for the little engine that could, the Apple TV. One of the things I keep hearing people complain about the current Apple TV was no 4K. Today Apple addressed this and added HDR. The Apple TV 4K has a slightly faster chip to handle 4K and HDR and will have TV OS updated to display the UI in 4K. As far as what you can watch on the Apple TV 4K, will be iTunes movies will be updated to 4K and cost the same as HD movies. Netflix and Hulu will also be bring 4K streaming to the Apple TV with 4K. If you have any Movies you have bought on iTunes that get a 4K version your perches will be upgraded to 4K free of charge. Apple TV 4K will start at $174 for 32 GBand $199 for 64 GB, you will be able to pre order on September 15th and pick one up on September 22nd.
Ok here it is what you have been waiting for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus!
Right just what everyone said it would look like. Yeah I'm pretty sure this was a troll on Apples part. This is also kind of what I predicted in my last post, which you can read here. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus is the more traditional styled iPhone with a home button and the normal bezel.
It has a slight new look over the iPhone 7 with glass on front and back. They say its their most durable glass though I don't know about that glass on the back. As always we get faster chips better cameras and support for for faster wireless standers. The iPhone 8 will also have wireless charging with Qi wireless charging standard. So if you have a Qi wireless charger you can just plop your phone down on a pad and charge your phone. The iPhone 8 will start at $699 for 64 GBs and the iPhone 8 Plus will start at $799 for 64 GBs. Just like everything else you can preorder September 15th and will be available September 22nd.
Now lets talk about what we really wanted to see, the iPhone X. This is the phone we have been hearing about for months with the edge to edge display. The whole phone is screen with just the tiny little bezel. This phone has no home button and has a super retina display. The screen is also an OLED display. It has image sensors out the wazoo. HDR support and the list just goes on and on.
The real difference seems to be the front image sensors for facial recognition, which will be used for Face ID. This will work a lot like touch ID but with your face. It will recognize your face no mater what day or night, hat or scarf. This also will bring better facial tracking for things like Snapchat and Aniemjie which is a iMessage app that will let you animate your emojis. This also brings portraitmode to the selfie camera.
The iPhone X will not have a home button, instead you will swipe up to go home and swipe up and pause to do multi touch. It will also support all the wireless standers that the iPhone 8 dose including wireless charging. They also showed a charging pad that they will be coming out at some point called the Air Power. This is a pad that will charge your iPhone, Apple Watch, and Ear Pods all at the same time. The iPhone shows a little animation showing the devices being charged.
iPhone X will come in space gray and silver. It will also start at $999 for 64 GBs and will also have a 256 GB model as well. Unlike the other products announced today the iPhone X will go on preorder October 22nd and will be available November 3rd.
That is everything announced today by apple and I will also add, after the announcements I checked for updates on my iPhone running the iOS 11 public beta and I got a iOS 11 update not beta number this time. This is the GM build. So if you are running iOS 11 developer beta or the public beta you can update to iOS 11 today, for everyone else they will have to wait till September 19th. Get your credit cards ready and your F5 keys ready for Friday when most of these things go up for preorder.
Apple Event Predictions
This week on Tuesday Apple is set to make an announcement and we pretty much already know its going to be the new iPhone. As I do pretty much every year I get the blogging craving and need to write what I think might be in the new iPhone. Lets get started!
iPhone X
Lets start with the name or names. Normally we could predict the name by going up one number or adding a S to the current name. This year is a different year compared to others. This year is the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Most people seem to agree that they will show a phone called the iPhone X for the anniversary and this will most likely be the most expensive iPhone. But that will probably not be the only phone they show off, they will probably brake the trend of iPhone # then iPhone #S, and go from iPhone 7 to iPhone 8 and 8 plus.
These Phones will have most of the new features of the iPhone X except for maybe one or two minor features. These phones will probably start at a cheaper price then the iPhone X. So the line up will probably be iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X.
Infinity Screen
Now lets talk about the thing we all use everyday the iPhone screen. Now I think most people seem to think this will be the same for all models, but I think it might be different. I think one of the key features of the iPhone X will be a top to bottom edge to edge screen. This is what most Android phones have been moving to and that look vary sleek. Most people have been making renders of a iPhone looking like that as well.
But most people seem to think that is what all the iPhones will look like, I think this style will only be the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will look and have the same screen as the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. iPhone X will need something to make it different and I think that might be one of the things that makes it different from the 8.
Touch ID or Face ID
The iPhone X will also need something else to make it different from the iPhone 8. We have been hearing rumors about touch ID leaving because of the bigger screen. Also if the screen is bigger we will be seeing the end of a physical home button on the iPhone X. Unless they figure out how to make the Touch ID sensor to work under a sheet of glass the iPhone X will not have Touch ID. Instead they may use Facal recognition in replace of Touch ID.
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus having smaller screens will still have a physical home button and will have the normal Touch ID. Im sure they will come up with some reason the iPhone 8 won't be able to use Face ID so it can be a iPhone X only feature.
Storage
This one shouldn't be too much of a shocker but the rumors have been saying that the new iPhones will start with a 64 GB configuration instead of a 32 GB configuration. We might even see the max storage go to 512 GBs that might be a iPhone X only storage size.
Conclusion
These are probably the mayor things that will be different from the current iPhones. These phones will also have new and faster processors, better cameras, and they will all run iOS 11. I think the prices for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will be similar to what the 7 and 7 Plus are now but the iPhone X will be the one that start higher at $999 or $1,000. So now we wait and see, lucky we only have to wait till Tuesday.