Major announcements from Apple's "Time Flies" event

Apple finished their "Time Flies" event - its first fall event, and as expected, the Apple Watch and iPad were the major focus this year. Like the WWDC this year, this event was video streamed without the usual in-person event held on arrival of new products.

Here are the big announcements from the event

Apple Watch series 6 - is a mini pulse oxymeter now!

Just when we thought the ECG and fall detection were amazing features to have in a small dial, Apple surprised us yet again with the series 6 Apple Watch. Apple announced that the Apple Watch Series 6 and yet another health sensor - you can now measure your blood oxygen saturation with the new Watch. This is essentially a new age pulse oxymeter (O2 stats + pulse rate) which also tells the time among other things :)

The Series 6 watch is powered by a new S6 chip, which according to Apple is a dual-core processor based on the A13 Bionic in the iPhone 11.

The Series 6 comes in many new colors including a blue aluminum case, gold stainless steel, gray stainless steel (graphite as Apple calls it) and a red model (a novelty without a doubt).

They also introduced Solo Loop - a new stretchable silicone loop without a clasp - along with a braided Solo loop. How much more stylish can it get!

Apple Watch series 6 is priced starting at $399 for the GPS version and will start becoming available from Friday.

A low cost watch - Apple Watch SE

Like we said, the major focus of the event was Apple Watch. Along these lines, Apple also introduced Apple Watch SE - a lower-priced Apple Watch version. This has many of the same features as the Apple Watch Series 6 - built-in accelerometer, always-on altimeter, gyroscope and fall detection. But it’s powered by the S5 chip used in last year’s Series 5 model and is missing the always-on display in Apple Watch series 5.

The Apple Watch SE starts at $279 and will be available starting Friday. Apple will still continue the sale of its Apple Watch Series 3, priced at $199.

Major changes or major hassles?

It had been rumored for quite some time that Apple will do away with the USB power adapters from the boxes of upcoming iPhones. But they took the step with the Apple Watch. The new Apple Watch versions will ship without the USB power adapter to reduce environmental impact. So be prepared, this might become the new normal soon for all their products.

Family setup for Apple Watch

Apple announced a Family Setup feature that lets you manage multiple Apple Watches from a single iPhone. This feature will work only for Series 4 and newer and requires the Apple Watch to have a cellular connection. Using this, you can manage which contacts connected Apple Watch can communicate with - and can receive location notifications on your iPhone.

Apple "Time Flies" - New iPad Air

A new iPad Air was revealed by Apple with an all-screen design like the iPad Pro. The new Air has a bigger Liquid Retina display on a 10.9 inch screen with a 2360x1640 px resolutions. The Touch ID button has surprisingly been moved from the front of the device to the top in the sleep/wake button.

The iPad Air will have a new chip - the A14 Bionic chip which has 6-core CPU, a 4-core GPU architecture and a 16-core neural engine (phew!). It has the same 12-megapixel rear camera on the iPad Pro but with improved video stabilization and also has a 7-megapixel front-facing FaceTime HD camera. The Lightning port has also been switched out for USB-C.

The new iPad comes in five colors - sky blue, green, silver, space gray, and rose gold and it starts at $599. Apple says it will be available next month.

Apple "Time Flies" - Eighth Generation iPad

Apple also announced an eighth-generation iPad. The new iPad has the same design as its predecessor, with the big top and bottom bezels and a Touch ID button on the front. It now has an A12 Bionic chip. It starts at $329 and will be available from Friday.

Apple "Time Flies" - Fitness Plus

Apple seems to be moving into a subscription-service for everything that gains momentum - Cloud storage, Music, Gaming, TV and now - Fitness. The new premium subscription announced during the event is called Fitness Plus. It integrates with iPhone, iPad and Apple TV but is made primarily for the Apple Watch. There are 10 different workout types, including dance, yoga, cycling and new workouts will be added every week. Fitness Plus will be launched before December and will be priced at $9.99 per month (or an annual subscription of $79.99)

Apple One Subscriptions

For all you Apple fans out there who subscribe to most services provided by Apple, they announced new Apple One subscription that brings together many of the services at different price tiers. The cheapest bundle is $14.95 per month with Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage. The Family Plan gives 200GB of iCloud storage to that lineup for $19.95 per month and can be shared between up to six people. The Premier bundle adds Apple News Plus, Fitness Plus, and 2TB of iCloud storage for $29.95 per month and can also be shared between up to six people.

Apple "Time Flies" - Software Updates

Apple will be releasing a bunch of software updates today, September 16th. This includes iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, and tvOS 14. They also said that all of the hardware products announced during the event will have the new software pre-installed.

Are your apps ready to support iOS 14? Apple had announced many features during the WWDC that can be leveraged by app developers - for App Discovery and also functionality. Talk to us and find out which of these features can be useful for your app.