With new products and additions to preexisting ones, Apple looks to add higher quality technological advancements to their brand.
Unless you weren’t tuned into the Internet this past week, Apple held their annual fall announcement on Wednesday. Here’s a quick run-down about all the product highlights you’ll want to check out this year.
The Apple Watch Sport, which has to be the least used Apple product out right now, will be getting a few more stylistic options coming in the future. There are more band and face colors coming out this fall, which include gold and rose gold. These are going to be the regular price of $349.
The upgraded operating system, Watch OS2, will also be released this week. The main feature will be the inclusion of more third-party apps.
Apple TV is now going to feature Siri, who will help users find content based on categories or titles. Users can ask, “What did they say?” during a movie or TV show and she will automatically enable playback to hear it again. The TV is also going to feature a new operating system, which will allow for third-party apps like Netflix, HBO and Hulu.
Another upgrade is the Bluetooth touch-capable remote, which will allow more integration by swiping on the top part of the device. Quick swipes will allow users to quickly go past titles, while lingering will bring up the title cards. The remote reportedly has a three-month charge (how do I get that battery life for any other device in my life?!) and will also feature a gyroscope for games played on Apple TV.
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The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will have their upgrades as well. 3D Touch might be the next big innovation in smartphone technology. This allows you to hold apps, photos or other things on the screen for different lengths of time in order to bring up different actions. Hold down a photo in a message to get a large preview. You could also hold down an app icon for a quick Facebook update or other actions.
For the technical stuff, the 6S and 6S Plus will come with the A9 chip, which is 70 percent faster at CPU tasks and 90 percent for graphic tasks compared to the last model. The camera is now a 12MP iSight, which has 50 percent more pixels and a quicker auto focus. It will also be able to show 4K videos. Siri is going to be a little more advanced, and you’ll be able to say “Hey Siri” to prompt her instead of holding down the home button.
iOS 9 will come standard on the devices, and current iPhone users will be able to download it this week. There’s supposed to be new emojis on the way as well, including a taco, burrito, middle finger and unicorn. The phone will also be available in rose gold for those who enjoy being flashy.
Apple is now allowing customers to upgrade their iPhones each year through their store if they pay it off at payments starting at $32 a month.
The iPad Pro was also recently announced. It is a larger screened tablet at 12.9 inches and is aimed at accommodating entertainment and gaming. There’s 10 hours of battery life per charge and it weighs around 1.5 pounds.
It’s not coming cheap, though, as the starting price is $799 for the 32GB Wi-Fi version (the priciest is $1,079, for the Wi-fi/Data 128 GB device). The software keyboard is $169 and the Apple Pencil — the fancy stylus that will be used to optimize the device — is $99. At minimum, the whole setup will be $1,067.
They are also releasing an updated iPad Mini 4 as well.
Sophie Kruse is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in business and marketing. What was your favorite Apple announcement? Email her at sk139011@ohio.edu or tweet her @kruseco.
