Apple Sept. 12 Event News: The Unveiling of iPhone X and Other New Devices From Cupertino
Apple held its annual September unveiling event on Tuesday in their brand-new Steve Jobs Theater within the Apple Park at Cupertino, California. While most people already had a hunch about the products included on Sept. 12's program, there were still some details that did not quite correspond to earlier speculations.
All the New iPhones
The elephants in the room were, no doubt, the new array of iPhones. Contrary to a lot of speculations circulating for the past several months, Apple skipped the 7S series and technically unveiled two new generations of iPhones as far as product branding goes -- all those polls asking which sounded better between the iPhone 8 and iPhone X were pretty much futile.
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The premium device is now called the iPhone X, while the smartphones that were supposed to be the iPhones 7s and 7s Plus were named the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
What Are the iPhone X Exclusive Features?
A lot of earlier speculations and leaked images were right about one thing – the iPhone X sports a 5.8-inch edge-to-edge OLED screen. Added to that, it supports a Super Retina High-Definition display. Tuesday's affair also confirmed the removal of the physical home button in the iPhone X.
The highly rumored facial recognition sensor was also present as Apple introduced the Face ID security feature that ultimately replaced the Touch ID. And yes, the Face ID can be used on Apple Pay.
Apple also enhanced the device's front-facing camera by adding the TrueDepth technology that will produce selfies with a number of effects and portrait photos with studio-level lighting. It also paves the way for a new and fun feature called Animoji where 12 emojis are programmed to copy the user's facial actions since the TrueDepth camera can detect "more than 50 different muscle movements."
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus and Their Similarities With the iPhone X
On the other hand, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus sport an LCD panel that measures 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, respectively, and both support Retina HD.
Notably, these devices sport some of the major technical specifications and features found on the iPhone X, except, of course, for the OLED screen, TrueDepth camera, and Face ID.
All these new iPhones all have all-glass bodyworks which makes wireless charging possible. They will all run with the A11 Bionic chip with a neural engine advertised as the "smartest chip ever in a smartphone ... capable of up to 600 billion operations per second."
The iPhone X's price starts at $999 (64 GB) and will be out in the market on Friday, Nov. 3 while pre-orders will be accepted starting on Oct. 27.
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus can be pre-ordered sooner on Friday this week and will be released on Sept. 22. Prices for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus start at $699 and $799, respectively.
Apple Watch Series 3
Earlier reports with "sources familiar with the matter" also got it right when it came to the Apple Watch Series 3. The company did introduce two connectivity-based variants for their new smartwatch.
While they incorporated the cellular LTE connection, Apple will also offer a cheaper model with just the GPS feature.
With the LTE chip, Apple Watch Series 3 users can make calls, send a message through Siri's help, and stream music without an iPhone at hand.
On the surface, the newly-announced smartwatch looked quite similar to its Apple Watch predecessors. However, from the inside, Apple managed to pack it with more hardware specs, including an improved Bluetooth component, to deliver better connectivity and performance.
The GPS-only variant costs $329 while having both the independent geo-tracking feature and a cellular connection will incur an additional $70. The Apple Watch Series 3 has the same pre-order and retail release schedule as the iPhone 8.
Apple TV 4K
A new Apple TV 4K will be released this year and it will come with two major changes. First, the new Apple TV will be able to support content streaming in 4K and High-Dynamic Range that will let the user watch shows with more realistic images, thanks to enhanced brightness, contrast ratio, and color accuracy.
Meanwhile, the new Apple TV remote controller features a Siri button so users can just dictate to the smart assistant the title or program they are looking for instead of typing them.
The Apple TV 4K set can also be pre-ordered this Friday and will be shipped on Sept. 22. Its price starts at $179 (32 GB).
