Important announcements from Apple's "Gather Round" event

Apple’s 12th September event “Gather Round” has come and gone and if nothing else, it definitely left everyone amazed by Apple’s latest announcements. The event showcased a lot of new tech and advances but still left something to be desired.

The event certainly brought us the most advanced iPhone and Apple Watch ever, but there were no updates for iMacs, MacBooks or the iPad Pro or even AirPower.

Apple Watch Series 4

Unlike before, the first item on the agenda was the Apple Watch series 4. While the design remains the same, the Series 4 has 30% larger screen and is slimmer than the Series 3. The watch faces and complications use this larger screen estate to show more information at a glance - you can add contacts, fitness info, health details on the watch faces. The digital crown now has haptic feedback and the 3 new Breathe watch faces are great for fans of the Breathe app.

The S4 processor which comes in the Series 4 promises to be twice as fast as the Series 3. The internal gyroscope and accelerometer changes mean that Apple Watch can determine a fall and if it does not detect any movement within a minute of the fall, it can contact emergency services automatically.

The most amazing announcements around the watch were the incorporation of Apple’s new heart rate monitor. The monitor can detect slow heart rate, irregular beats and even record an ECG right from the watch. The Series 4 watch is the first ever device to offer this ability to users making it quick and easy to test your heart’s health. The features has been given the go-ahead from FDA.

And like always, Apple stressed that all this health data is encrypted and stored securely on the device as well as over the cloud. So you have full control of what data you wish to share and who you want to share the data with.

The Apple Watch Series 4 will have prices starting $400 for the GPS model and $500 for the LTE model. The Series 3’s prices dropped to $280. The Series 4 will be available starting September 21.

iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max

Before introducing the new iPhones, Tim Cook said that the iPhone X had become the #1 smartphone in the world with a 98% customer satisfaction. While I’m pretty sure the customer satisfaction score is right, I do have my doubts about the #1 position (I still AM an Apple fan!)

The Xs is similar in style to the iPhone X with a 5.8 inch display. It’s been treated with a special gold finish across the metal and glass and Apple claims that the glass is the most durable ever used in any smartphone. The Xs Max is bigger at a 6.5 inch display (I am not a fan of the name tbh) The iPhone Xs and Xs Max come with IP68 rating for dust and water resistance and can resist immersion for up to 30 minutes. They’ve been tested with a variety of fluids, including beer and wine. What fun testing sessions! :)

Both devices support HDR10 and Dolby and have a sharp 458 ppi.

However the real show-stealer was definitely the A12 Bionic processor inside the new phones. It is the world’s first 7 nanometer chip and upto 40% faster than the A11. It can process upto 5 TRILLION operations per second and improve app launch speed by 30%. This is a MAJOR boost for Augmented Reality, Machine Learning and gaming apps.

This increased processing power lends more power to the camera as well. Both the phones come with 12-megapixel lenses - one wide-angle lens and one telephoto zoom lens. The camera has become smarter too. Smart HDR mode, improved “Bokeh” background blur adjustments, dynamic video.. And finally, the 7-megapixel TrueDepth front-facing camera which provides Portrait mode for the selfie crazy generation. Computational Photography at its best

The Xs range also introduces dual SIM ability to the iPhone which can even be used with eSims. This would be BIG in countries like India and China where most Android users have dual SIM phones.

The iPhone Xs and Xs Max will come in 64gb, 256gb and 512gb models and will ship from September 21st. The iPhone Xs starts at $999 and iPhone Xs Max starts at $1099.

iPhone XR

Apple has released a “cheaper” version of the Xs models, the iPhone XR. It is similar in design to the Xs series, but has an aluminum body and LCD display instead of the stainless steel and OLED display of the Xs. It has a single camera lens at the back, but has all the other camera capabilities of the Xs, including the “Bokeh”.

The XR also sports the A12 bionic chip and will come in 64gb, 128gb and 256gb variants starting at $750 (by no means “cheap”). The XR will ship on October 29.

The iPhone 7 will now start at $499 and iPhone 8 at $599.

HomePod

The last product announcement in the event was the HomePod and AirPlay2. HomePod can now search by lyrics, make and receive phone calls and Find My Phone. It will also work with Siri shortcuts.

Our takeaways

Our major takeaways from the event

1. The super-powerful A12 bionic processor means better on-device machine learning. CoreML gets 9 times faster at 1/10th the energy consumption with the A12

2. The neural processor takes pressure off the GPU which means better rendering of graphics and real-time lighting in games

3. With a major focus on Augmented Reality and better processing, including better surface detection, possibility of an increased number of apps using ARKit, and even a separate section for AR Arcade games

4. Siri shortcuts to perform multiple tasks is an amazing new feature which will help automate a lot of tasks at business and personal fronts

5. The amount of health data that can now be made available with the Apple Watch Series 4 is tremendous and can be instrumental in the healthcare industry

6. Siri shortcuts with HomePods opens up a lot of possibilities of its usage in enterprises and at home

With the new iPhones and iOS 12 releasing soon, now is the time to get your apps updated so you are ready for the holiday season. And if you have any ideas around Augmented Reality apps or Machine Learning apps for the iPhone, these are the best bunch of devices and OS version to get apps out utilizing the amazing hardware and software capabilities they provide.

Need help getting your apps developed or updated? Get in touch today