Was there One More Thing, Apple?

Apple just concluded its yearly cycle of launching a new and refreshed line-up of devices.

Amidst all the rumors of some referring to an all-new product and some about the event being just the same as last year, Apple did surprise with one of their best products; Apple Watch!

In an exclusive all-things-Apple style of presentation, there were some amazing shots, edits, and impeccable delivery skills. In between multiple presenters, we saw a bunch of new stuff being talked about from crash detection to temperature sensing to cycle tracking to SOS Satellite messaging, there was quite a lot actually!

In all, the event could have given a sense of Deja-vu had it not been for the Ultra version of the Series 8 Apple Watch. That’s the one to look out for that catapults Apple further away from the competition.

While most of the features are shared across the Series 8 lineup, this is the Ultra that’s got a few more, so much so that it now has a dedicated Action button! It is bigger with 49mm, rugged with military-grade protection, runs longer and shines brighter at 2000 nits. This is aimed at more of hardcore athletes, and adventurers who need to monitor a lot more than just look at how many minutes of the run have they had.

Overall for Apple watch Series 8, in addition to being faster and brighter, there are a few noteworthy additions such as the temperature sensing which provides for some highly precise cycle information that’s helpful to women’s wellbeing and crash detection which we all hope no one ever gets to see being triggered. There are more and precise workout tracking options, my favorite would be the GCT – the Ground Connect Time!

More than the devices, it’s what Apple does to them that creates all that difference. And that science goes on with not just the Watch but the iPhones and Airpods.

AirPods Pro – 2nd Generation

Another long-awaited refresh was finally delivered to the Airpods Pro, with their younger siblings now boasting off the H2 chip to produce better sound quality and reduce even more noise with improved Active Noise Cancellation (ANC).

And it wouldn’t be just that, Airpods Pro also get a few more smart features, to start with they can now be charged with your Apple Watch charger or MagSafe in addition to the usual USB-C to Lightning. They now have capacitive touch controls to change the volume on the Airpods themselves – so your iPhone or the paired Apple Watch stays where it is. With Find My app, individual Airpods or the case can be located for even the case now gets a speaker at the bottom.

There is substantial battery improvement as well that delivers up to 6 hours of listening time and a total of 30 hours through the case. And drifting away from all tech-smart features is a highly functional and needed one – the AirPods Pro case now has a Lanyard, so you use it as a fidget ( not recommended) or never lose it.

iPhone 14

Apple’s yearly events have always been primarily about iPhones. With most of the competition churning out newer form factors and new designs. The stakes were higher to see Apple pushing out new designs, removing the notch and adding the USB Type-C.

Did Apple deliver? Let’s find out. 

Let us address the elephant in the room first, no the iPhone 14s, for the larger part, still look the same as the iPhone 13s, they still are at least a year away from getting the Type-C, they still have the bigger notch but have they done something with it? Keep reading!

Like always, the new iPhones are even faster! How much, you ask? Apple claims they are 40% faster than the competition with the new A16 Bionic Chip, the performance leap is bigger than ever. And with their scheduled yearly refreshes, even if that’s just internal components, this has become more of a norm to expect, so let’s just have a glance:

Processor – Faster

Battery  – All-day

Display – Brighter or the brightest ever

Refresh Rates – Higher (120 Hz for pros) or lower ( 1 Hz)

Cameras – Obviously sharper, brighter, and better

Moving away from the internals, what else did Apple do?

While all the internal revisions might seem like the basic stuff we have come to expect, how you use that extra power and technology is what we look forward to Apple for.

To start, the new iPhones also get Crash Detection based on the High dynamic range gyroscope and a New Dual Core Accelerometer. In an event the iPhone detects a crash situation, the SOS triggers an emergency response. It’s almost like the Fall Detection but it can now identify crash impacts up to 256 Gs of force. We never wish for someone to see that but it’s always reassuring to know there’s a friend on your dashboard, in your pocket or on you to let people know if such a situation (God forbid) were to ever arise.

iPhones also get an SOS Emergency connect through Satellites, its again an extreme safety feature that provides for connectivity in far-out areas with spotty or no celluar signal. How it works is you got to point the iPhone to the sky and keep it steady there for a line-of-sight angle with the orbiting satellite. Once the connection is established, you will be able to send emergency message to the ground teams via that satellite. Its a good-to-have feature and establishes iPhones as one of the most critical equipment to provide a safety net as wide as possible.

Continuing with the tradition of removing things, it’s the poor old SIM card this year. 

Say hello to e-SIM.

Apple has now almost done away with the hardware SIM requirement with all new iPhone 14s supporting e-SIMs. The benefits are easier, seamless and faster onboarding the cellular networks. This also reduces SIM fraud, in the event a phone is lost, no one can eject and insert their own SIM, because there is no SIM tray anymore! The potential downside could be international roaming limitations since not all networks across countries support e-SIMs yet. Be mindful of it if you travel often or plan to, because while the iPhone can still be used to take those awesome photos, using it to call for a cab or another person might not happen. With Apple leading such innovations, we can only imagine networks across the globe hopping onto this new technology soon.

In the display department, really happy to see iPhones now slated to shine brighter with 2000 nits of brightness – the highest ever. The funny thing is, the supplier of the displays, Samsung, doesn’t have it as high as 2000 on their own phones! Apple also got the Always-on display with the tech to support the refresh rate going down as low as 1Hz to preserve the battery while boosting it up to 120Hz in the apps that support and demand a higher refresh rate.

One of the coolest and smartest ways to handle that eyesore of a notch is how Apple did it with iPhone 14 Pro and Max. They are calling it Dynamic Island, and what it does is nothing short of refined human-interface design (HID) that’s bound to elevate the user experience. Something that we all were longing for new iPhones to get rid off, is becoming one of the highlights and that’s Apple at its pinnacle of handing out to you!

What we saw during the event was Dynamic Island using very cleverly the space around the notch to offer a multitude of services. You could see the current-playing song info, any recent notification, map navigation, workout and more. You got to see it to believe how something that the whole tech industry has been struggling to address can be made useful as is. We got to hand it out to the design team to have come up with this revolutionary thought. While the backend implementation must have been a highly intricate process, the outcome makes it look like child’s play. The animations are ever so simple and are rather fun to play around with.

This also, yet again, goes on to show if there’s anyone in the industry to challenge the status quo, it’s none other than Apple! Time and again, they have done things others didn’t even plan to, let alone think. This Dynamic Island is such a fitting blow to the conventional thinkers of how UI is to be designed and how it should behave. They have defied and challenged the design principles. One of those that says keeping everything within the reach of the fingers for better reachability and user experience, haha! Well, humans are smart to evolve and adapt and Apple seems to be on a trajectory to keep us at it. Now, our fingers will no longer complain, and in all likelihood will enjoy this experience. Do we run the risk of blurred selfies because you’re busy smudging that Dynamic Island with your sweaty and oily fingers, well keep that fiber cloth on you!

Until next time!