Apple "Hey Siri" Event Highlights

Up until a few hours ago, today’s Apple event was believed to hinge primarily on the release of the iPhone 6s and 6S Pro, which did make almost a last-minute appearance, after an impressive list of formerly rumored products, now confirmed, at an almost mechanical pace, before a packed audience filling the 7500 seats of the historical Graham Hill auditorium in San Francisco.

One of the first remarkable things about this particular keynote is that for the first time, PC users were able to access Apple’s live stream, which, until now has required different kinds of “hacks”, in order to watch each previous keynote. Users of Windows 10 PCs were able to simply visit Apple’s website using Microsoft Edge browser, which will supports Apple live stream from now on.

“...monster announcements across several of our product lines...”

Tim Cook set the stage for Sr. Vice President of Operations, Jeff Williams, who gave us a lengthy introduction of the Apple Watch’s latest apps and updates, including the WatchOS 2, 3rd Party Complications, the upcoming Facebook Messenger app, Transit, iTranslate and more.

A new app made by GoPro will soon enable owners of the Apple Watch to use the device as a viewfinder.

Apple Watch

A notable 3rd party app developer in the medical field was then introduced: AirStrip. Cameron Powell gave a demonstration of his app, designed to enable advanced communication between hospital personnel, with a messaging system that includes real time vital sign monitoring, with TimeTravel integration via the Apple Watch digital crown. Also part of AirStrip is “Sense for Baby”, an app that helps monitoring the heart rate of both a mother and her baby’s, separately.

Paris-based fashion manufacturer Hermes was introduced as the maker of a line of wristbands for the Apple Watch, offering a variety of designs and features, as well as materials, including leather.

New colors were introduced: Rose Gold, Gold and Anodized Aluminum for the 32mm and 52mm versions of the Watch, at the same price as the Sports line up.

Finally, a Red version of the Apple Watch was also introduced, in both sizes. Proceeds of this Red version will go to AIDS research, as soon as the new line goes on sale, as of September 16th.

"The biggest news in iPad since the iPad"

Phil Schiller takes the stage to introduce what everyone, including us at Portable One, have been heavily speculating on: the iPad Pro. The very cinematic, grand introduction of the brand new device almost outshined the unveiling of the 12 inch MacBook Retina.

At 12.9 inches, and with a resolution of 2732 x 2048 pixels, or 5.6Million pixels, the iPad Pro features the biggest display in an iOS device, to date. As Phil Schiller explains, the new screen size was designed to fit the height of the regular iPad, within the width of the iPad Pro, in such way that the height of apps would fit perfectly within the device when set horizontally, while retaining enough room on the side to fit additional apps in split-view mode.

The new display on the iPad Pro also features the same Oxide TFT technology present in the iMac Retina 5K, to enable better management of pixels across the screen, for an improved quality-versus-battery life ratio.

The iPad Pro is powered by the new A9X chip, which is Apple’s latest 64-bit processor, designed for desktop class performance on iOS devices. The new device lasts up to 10 hours on a single charge.

The sound on the iPad Pro is now delivered by 4 dynamically balanced speakers, to deliver greatly improved spatial sound quality for apps, video and games.

Compared to the iPad Air, the iPad Pro is very similar in thickness, at 6.9mm and in weight, at 1.57 lb.

the iPad Pro features an 8MP iSight rear-facing camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MIMO, Touch-ID, Advanced LTE, and the tablet’s unibody is made in recyclable aluminum. Color options for the iPad Pro are Silver, Gold and Space Gray.

The software keyboard that comes with iOS 9 automatically changes depending on the application, and is able to switch from regular QWERTY, to piano keys, and more.

A physical keyboard is also available, sold separately. The Apple Smart Keyboard is covered in woven fabric, and features the same Dome Switch technology found in the 12 inch MacBook Retina.

A brand new Smart Connector is also part of the iPad Pro. This new connector works very similarly to a USB Type-C connector, in that it allows to power the device, as well as connect devices, like the Smart Keyboard, and is bi-directional.

The pricing for the iPad Pro starts at $799 for the entry level 64GB version, $949 for the 128GB model and $1079 for the LTE version.

Apple iPad Mini 4

Amidst the iPad Pro announcement, a surprise refresh of the iPad Mini 4 was announced. The updated device features specs close to the iPad Air, at a price starting at $399.

Yes: Apple made a stylus, and it called it... Pencil

The rumors were true: Apple has created a stylus, and not just any stylus. The Apple Pencil appears to be very much its own product, and a very advanced one at that, although it is still unclear whether it will work with other iOS devices. The new accessory is capable to communicate pressure and inclination, to deliver extremely precise and natural strokes, down to a single pixel, on any app that supports it, in iOS 9.

The Apple Pencil is powered by its own battery, and can be recharged directly by plugging the built-in lightning connector into the iPad Pro.

The price for the Apple Pencil is $99, and will be available in November.

Apple Pencil-enabled Apps

Some of the most notable apps supporting Apple Pencil in iOS 9 are ProCreate, a drawing app, and UMake, a 3D drafting/sketching application.

Microsoft (yes, you read that right) Corporate Vice President Kirk koenigsbauer, took the stage, introducing a whole range of Apple Pencil-enabled new features in Microsoft Office for iOS, many of them very impressive, using Ink technology that uses shape recognition. For instance, when working in a Word document, drawing a circle by hand within a document will generate a perfect circle shape that can be used for charts and presentation. Similar markup features were also demonstrated during the presentation, as well as Split-View applications.

Adobe was also included in the celebrations, with its own range of Pencil-enabled upcoming apps. Adobe Director of Creative Design Eric Snowden took the stage to introduce Adobe Comp, an advanced publishing app designed to create advanced compositions for print and the web. Adobe. iOS 9 Split-View feature helped showcasing Adobe Comp multitasking mode, to switch between Adobe Comp and a brand new Adobe Photoshop Fix app, which includes facial detection and manipulation tools, and Adobe Photoshop Sketch, which features advanced watercolor functionality. Adobe Comp will be available in October.

Medical apps manufacturer 3D Medical’s Irene Walsh took the stage to present a new app designed to work with Apple Pencil. The app accurately simulates a human body, muscles, and skeletal structure, and can be used to simulate surgeries, using Apple Pencil as a scalpel, to make incisions or to simulate different conditions as they would physically appear in a patient’s body, such as arthritis. The iPad Pro’s hardware is capable of running animated real-time rendering at 60 frames per second, delivering a life-like realism.

Apple TV

Finally, the much rumored refresh of the Apple TV has been announced. The updated set top box is visibly taller than its former version, to accommodate the completely revamped hardware, which includes an A8 64-bit chip, Bluetooth 4.0, volume control, accelerometer, gyroscope, and a rechargeable battery, which is a first for Apple TV. The new battery can run for at least 3 months on a single charge.

The Apple TV remote steals the show, as Eddie Cue introduces the updated remote, which features a glass touch surface, and voice search, which is capable of searching content, movies, shows, games and music across all available apps installed in the modified version of iOS 9 running on Apple TV, named tvOS.

No Apple product comes without a bit of eye-candy, and this new version of Apple TV features many advanced visuals, such as animated wallpapers, shot specifically for Apple TV, in high definition, that change depending on the time of day.

Another nice visual effect is the 3D movement of some of the UI elements, like movie posters, that follow the direction of the thumb on the touch surface of the remote.

Navigating the interface on the new Apple TV has been greatly improved and relies heavily on the touch surface of the remote, for instance when scanning through a movie to find a particular scene.

Siri integration is one of the nicest features in the new Apple TV, allowing the user to ask natural language questions like “What did he/she say?” while watching a movie, which will cause the video to roll back and replay the last scene.

When calling Siri while watching a movie will also display at-a-glance information, unobtrusively, at the bottom of the screen, in such a way as not to disrupt the show.

The pricing set for the new Apple TV is higher than previous generations: $149 for the 32GB model, and $199 for the 64GB model, with official availability set for late October.

Finally: the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus

The S version of Apple’s latest flagship smartphone was announced today, which is powered by a A9 64-bit processor optimized for real-world use and advanced gaming, featuring greatly revamped hardware, including new 3D Touch technology powered by Apple’s Taptic Engine, previously featured in the 12 inch MacBook Retina, as well as the iPad Pro.

Just like the Force Touch trackpad on the MacBook, 3D Touch allows for different degrees of force applied to trigger different actions. For instance, shorter pressure will cause a context menu to display, with shortcuts available depending on the home screen app icon selected, which a longer touch will open the application. An updated M9 motion coprocessor will also aid in keeping track of health and fitness data.

Both cameras on the iPhone 6S have also been updated to a new 12MP iSight sensor, and 5MP FaceTime camera sensor. Both cameras use True Tone Flash technology. Video shot with the iPhone 6S now supports 4K, featuring 8MP per frame.

Live Photos

This feature falls into the “eye-candy”category, as one of those that isn’t particularly useful, but it’s still great to look at. When taking pictures with the iPhone 6S, “Live Mode” is on by default, which automatically takes a short sequence of still images (not a video), while taking the shot. When reviewing the photos, a longer press on a photo will make the picture “come alive” by playing the sequence in an animated loop.

The sizes for the regular and Plus version of the iPhone 6S are identical to the previous ones, as well as the color options, with the addition of Rose Gold, and the handsets come with Advanced LTE. New accessories have also been announced, including new charging docks and covers.

The pricing is identical to the previous iPhone 6, starting at $199 for the 6S and $299 for the 6S Plus.

iCloud Pricing

As much as it did not qualify as a “one more thing” moment, Tim Cook left the stage with one more important piece of news, in regard to the pricing of iCloud storage, which is now cut on half, most likely to be more competitive with other cloud services, including Google Drive.