What Apple Announced: The Short Version
The basics on what Apple announced on Wednesday, September 7th.
Apple announced new products in three categories on Wednesday. 4 New iPhones, 3 new Apple Watches and a new set of Air Pods Pro. Here’s the things you need to know.
The Apple Watches
The Apple Watch SE is now the bargain model at $249 or $299 with cellular.
The Apple Watch Series 8 adds a temperature sensor which can be good for lots of things, but Apple emphasized its role in tracking ovulation for those trying to get pregnant. It also added crash detection which uses improved gyroscope and accelerometer features to detect a car crash, and countdown to 10 before automatically calling emergency services. It also got international roaming support. It has 18 hours of battery, or 36 in low power mode, and costs $399 to $499 with cellular. Both the Series 8 and SE are available now, shipping Sept. 16.
The Apple Watch Ultra has a 49millimeter titanium case and a 2000 nit display. It gets 36 hours on a charge or 60 in low power mode. Apple heavily targeted this for outdoorsy activities like hiking, swimming, scuba diving, and mountain climbing. It can do two bands of GPS, L1 and L5 and offers WR100 water resistance. You can get it with one of three bands; the canvas and titanium Alpine band, the elastomer and titanium Ocean band, or the all-cloth Trail band. The Ultra only comes with cellular for $799 available September 23rd.
Air Pods
We also got new Air Pods Pro. A new H2 chip improves active noise cancellation. It also has a new low-distortion audio driver. And there's a new “extra small” ear tip along with the usual small, medium and large. Apple added swipe controls in addition to force touch on the stems. You can also charge it with your Apple Watch and MagSafe chargers now. And the case has a speaker and U1 chip so you can find it when lost, and it can give you things like battery alerts. There's also a lanyard loop on the side. It's $249 available September 9th, shipping September 23rd.
The iPhones
The iPhone 14 has a 6.1-inche screen and the 14 Plus has a 6.7-inch screen. It sticks with the A15 bionic chip. But the camera is improved with a 12 megapixel main camera and F1.5 aperture. The front-facing camera also has autofocus and a larger aperture as well. Something called the Photonic Engine uses some deep learning so you can take better low light photos. Video get an image stabilization feature called Action Mode.
The phone can also handle crash detection, just like the watch.
The US will only get eSIM versions, no more physical SIM tray.
And the big reveal was satellite connectivity for emergencies. You have to point at the right part of the sky, which the phone will help you do with an app, then you can send short messages or answer pre-prepared emergency questions. It takes about 15 seconds to send a message in a clear sky, or minutes if partially obstructed.
Satellite support launches in November, free for two years with purchase.
Also Fitness+ is coming to the iPhone for those who don't have an Apple watch.
The Phone 14 starts at $799 and the iPhone 14 Plus starts at $899.
Pre-orders start September 9, shipping September 16 for the 14 and Oct. 7 for the Plus.
Then there’s the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. It also has satellite emergency connectivity and crash detection. It also has a 30% smaller notch that is now called the Dynamic Island, as notifications will animate in and out of it to make it look like a little notification dock. It has a new A16 Bionic chip, and a 48 megapixel camera with quad pixel sensor. It can use different sensor modes for different photos to do things like 12 megapixel binned photos for maximized light capture. It's also got a 2x zoom at a 48m focal length. Cinematic mode can now do 4K/30fps and 4K/24fps. The Pro starts at $999. The Max starts at $1099. Storage up to 1TB. Pre order Sept 9, avail Sept 13th.
And that’s the essenitals. If you want more details, I included my full (and raw) notes for paid subscribers below.
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