Written by Tunbosun Oyinloye• September 17, 2020• 12:48 pm• Features, Laptops, Mobile, Software • Views: 4

‘Time Flies’ Event: Apple Announced Everything But iPhone 12

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Apple held its first fall event yesterday, October 15.

The product announcement was themed ‘Time Flies’ and live-streamed on its dedicated channel.

The tech giant made a series of announcements at the virtual event.

However, it left out the highly-anticipated iPhone 12, cutting down on people’s expectations.

The reason for taking out the new iPhone is unknown, although it is predicted to launch next month.

Anyway, not to dwell on what’s missing out, here is everything Apple announced last night;

A quick run-through

During the ‘Time Flies’ event yesterday, Apple focused more on the next-gen iWatch, and iPad.

Of course, with other products announced alongside.

The tech giant released the latest Apple Watch Series 6, and Apple Watch SE, debuting as the brand’s latest wearable units.

Source: ThemobileIndian

Likewise, Apple unveiled the redesigned iPad Air, which houses the latest A14 Bionic chip.

The tech giant previously used the A12 Bionic chip (introduced in 2018) for its iPad lineup.

Also, Apple released a new eighteen-gen iPad for entry-level users.

Compared to the high-end iPad Air, the entry-level eighteen-gen iPad is dedicated to students.

It, however, misses out on the new A14 Bionic chip.

Instead, it gets the previous A12 Bionic chip; a significant boost from the old A10 Bionic chip formerly used.

Further, into the event, Apple finally confirmed the highly-rumoured ‘Apple One Bundle’ subscription service.

The subscription service will bunch-up a variety of Apple services under one convenient monthly payment.

Again, Apple confirmed the availability of the much-anticipated iPhone 12 for “a few weeks later.”

ALSO READ: Apple Is Pushing Suppliers To Cut Production For 5G iPhone

Other product that was announced includes the upgraded version of the following Apple OS;

iPadOS 14
iOS 14
Watch OS 7
TV OS 14

According to Apple, these upgraded OS will be made available starting from today, September 16.

For more details on all the new products, keep your eyes glued to the screen and read on.

Apple Watch Series 6 & Apple Watch SE

Over the years, Apple Watch has continued to evolve into a more adaptable lifestyle wearable.

At the event, Apple unveiled the Apple watch series 6, and it introduced a couple of upgraded features.

One notable feature is the new health sensor; it measures the users’ blood oxygen saturation.

Source: Gadget Flow

Guess what? The new watch series also got the latest chipset. Namely S6, the new watch series chip is capacitated with a dual-core processor.

According to Apple, the chipset is based on A13 Bionic present in the current iPhone 11.

The new watch series also got impressively brighter. According to Apple, the watch can get 2X bright when worn outdoors.

ALSO READ: Facebook Launches New ‘Kit’ App for Apple Watch

The Apple Watch SE, on the other hand, is a lower-priced version of the watch series-6. It also packs the same features as the series 6.

Some of the built-in features include a gyroscope, altimeter, accelerometer, and fall detection.

On the contrary, the Apple Watch SE comes with the previous S5 chipset.

Regardless, the notable Always-on display present in model 5 is missing on this model.

Source: HelloTech

For both watch models, Apple introduced a new watch strip – Solo Loop.

This watch band is a stretchable silicon loop absent of clasp.

At $399, the Watch Series 6 is compacted with a GPS tracker.

The Apple Watch SE, on the other hand, sells at $279.

Note that either watch models won’t come with a USB power adapter in their boxes.

Apple iPad Air & 8th gen iPad

The Apple iPad family got new additions. Two of which include colourful iPad Airs and an entry-level eight-gen iPad for education.

Source: BloggerExpert

The devices come with a couple of notable upgrades across the board.

Some of them include an all-screen design, a new processor, and a Touch ID embedded on the top button.

Also, both tablets – iPad Air and 8th gen iPad welcomed an upgraded chipset, respectively.

The iPad Air now operates on the latest A14 Bionic chip from the 2018-released A12 Bionic chip.

With this upgrade, the iPad Air is capacitated to handle heavy-duty tasks such as editing 4K video.

The entry-level iPad, however, houses the A12 Bionic chip; an upgrade from the previous A10 Bionic chip.

As for the screen design, the iPad Air got bigger with a 10.9-inches screen from the former 10.5-inches.

It also features the latest Liquid Retina display with a 2360 X 1640 screen resolution.

Source: DirectionForward

What is more? Apple informed that the iPad Air comes with a 6-Core CPU, alongside a new 4-Core GPU.

Wait for it! The new iPad Air boasts of a whooping 16-Core neural engine.

On the other hand, the entry-level iPad maintains the old size at 10.2-inches.

Not just that, there is no major upgrade in terms of hardware design.

Apart from the new processor, the 8th gen iPad seats pretty well as its immediate predecessor.

The Camera setups for both tablets are alike, of course, at different capacities.

The iPad Air features a 12-megapixel rear camera; the same as that of iPad Pro. On the front side is a 7MP Facetime camera.

Unlike its predecessor, the iPad Air, boasts of upgraded video stability.

The 8th gen iPad, on the other hand, features an 8MP rear camera and a 1.2MP Facetime HD camera.

Furthermore, Apple decided to include a touch ID on the top button.

This way, users can unlock their device alternatively using the top button.

To round this up, Apple switched from the traditional lightning-port to a new USB-C connection.

Pricing of the iPad Air and 8th gen iPad starts at $599 and $329 respectively.

Both will be sold in five colours – rose gold, silver, spray gold, sky blue, and green.

Apple One Bundle (Subscription service)

As stated earlier, Apple One will function as a payment gateway to access multiple services.

It is the company’s latest attempt to attract/integrate more users to its interconnected network of devices and services.

Here, the subscription service will house all Apple paid-service, giving them an edge over competing apps.

Apple Music, TV Plus, Arcade, News Plus, iCloud, e.t.c. will be encompassed under the upcoming service.

Source: Pocket-lint

While a release date isn’t confirmed yet, the service will initially be free for initial 30-days.

According to Apple, the new service will comprise three subscription packages. Otherwise referred to as ‘subscription tiers’ and of course, with limited services.

The first and cheapest tier

This subscription goes for $14.95 monthly. Here, subscribers have access to a total package of four services;

Apple Music,
TV Plus,
Arcade,
And 50GB of storage in the Apple iCloud.

The second tier

This subscription doubles as a mid-range tier and goes for $19.95 monthly. Here, subscribers have access to the same four services (Apple Music, TV-Plus, Arcade, iCloud).

However, the accessibility is open to six users, while the cloud storage gets an additional 150GB.

The third and the priciest tier,

This tier, on the other hand, costs about $29.95 monthly. Here, users get all four mentioned-services, adding Apple News Plus and Fitness Plus alongside.

Note that not all of these services are available across all countries and regions.

Also, these tiers, regarded as ‘Premier’ can be shared among up to six users. Likewise, they would get an extension of iCloud storage up to 2TB.

Interestingly, the subscription packages will be grouped into the ‘Premier plan’ and ‘Individual & Family plan.’

ALSO READ: Apple Develops New Bundles for Their Customers to Enhance Their Digital Services

Going by the announcement, the ‘Premier’ plan will be more limited in terms of geo-availability.

The Individual & Family plan, however, will be available in over 100 countries and regions.

Other announcements (Upgraded Operating Systems)

At the event, Apple mentioned that it would release an upgraded OS across the board.

As such, all newly-announced hardware products will operate on the new OS, respectively.

Source: AppleInsider

iOS 14

Some of the notable upgrades made here include the introduction of widgets on the home screen.

The company designed the new app library in such that all your apps are ensuite in one place.

Source: MacHash

The updated iOS also adds what is called Picture-in-picture mode.

Although, this is currently available on iPad since it was first announced in July.

The new OS update now comes with a translation app by default.

iPad OS 14

As an extension of the July update, the iPad OS 14 adds only a couple of features.

In the new update, there is a scrabble feature that lets you write using your hand.

“Write by hand in any text field across iPadOS, and your words automatically convert to text.” – Apple.

Source: Wccftech

Apple is taking advantage of the iPad’s bigger screen. It includes sidebars and expanded menus for more native apps.

Also, both iOS 14 and iPad OS 14 got an improvement in terms of conversation. There are things like ‘pinned conversation’, ‘mentions’, and ‘inline replies.’