Show notes
Here are the 5 main announcements that Apple made, in reverse chronological order, and, in my opinion, from most relevant to least relevant for Macpreneurs
- 3 new phones: iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max
- New Series 5 Apple Watch
- New 7th generation iPad
- Release date and price of the Apple TV+ video streaming service
- Release date and price of the Apple Arcade game subscription service
New iPhones
Let’s start with the new iPhones:
- New naming convention, again: iPhone 11, 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max
- Finally, the iPhone name is somehow aligning with the other product lines
- Unfortunately, they kept a number in it, unlike all the other product lines (generation, series, time of the year: early-mid-late)
- Which models succeeds which
- iPhone 11 = successor of iPhone XR
- iPhone 11 Pro = successor of iPhone XS
- iPhone 11 Pro Max = successor of iPhone XS Max
- New colours:
- iPhone 11 => Purple replaced blue & green replaced coral
- iPhone 11 Pro => New midnight green
- New chips: A13 Bionic & U1 on all three phones
- A13 Bionic = latest generation mobile processor that can allocate which part of the chip needs power => much more power efficient
- U1 chip = Ultra Wideband technology for more precise AirDrop using spatial awareness => most features will be activated with iOS 13.1 (source: AppleInsider)
- New additional ultrawide camera
- iPhone 11 => 2 cameras
- iPhone 11 Pro & Pro Max => 3 cameras
- 12 Mpixel front facing camera (ipo 7 Mpixel for previous models)
- New camera features
- Night mode
- Ultrawide video
- Video QuickTake: switch from photo to video by holding the shutter button
- Slow motion selfies (slofies)
- On iPhone 11, portrait mode will also work with animals and objects
- But no video bokeh => Samsung ad making fun of that (source: iMore)
- Much improved battery life, especially the Pro model
- 1 hour more for the iPhone 11 compared to the iPhone XR
- 4 hours more for the 11 Pro compared to the XS
- 5 hours more for the 11 Pro Max than the XS Max
- The 11 Pro overtakes the 11 in terms of battery life with at least 1 hour more
- Removed 3D Touch in favor of Haptic Touch thanks to iOS 13 (source: AppleInsider)
- Should pros absolutely need the pro model ?
- If you absolutely need 512GB of storage
- if you want the best screen colour accuracy and contrast
- If you want better water resistance (4 meters depth for 30 minutes instead of « only » 2 meters)
- If you’re a semi-pro photographer or videographer or youtuber or blogger
- Demo using Filmic app => simultaneous video recording from multiple cameras, including the front facing one
- Should you actually upgrade ?
- Not needed, if you already have an iPhone X, XR, XS or XS Max and even the iPhone 8 Plus, unless you want Face ID
- If you have an iPhone 6, you definitely need to upgrade because not compatible with iOS 13
- iPhone 8 still sold by Apple for $449
- iPhone XR still sold by Apple for $599
- iPhone 11 starts at $699, less than when the iPhone XR was launched
Apple Watch Series 5
- Main improvements:
- always-on display while maintaining 18 hours battery life
- same display as series 4 but now they’re adapting the refresh rate between 60 hz and 1 Hz
- Built-in compass
- 32gb of storage
- Cellular model offer international emergency calling
- Aluminium model made 100% out of recycled aluminium
- Alongside the white ceramic Apple Watch edition, there are two New Titanium versions, one in silver and the other one in space black
- New Apple Watch Studio = preview online different case and bracelet combinations
- Should you upgrade?
- Not if you own the series 4 in my opinion
- Yes for series 3 and older generation apple watch owners
iPad 7th gen
- Main improvements:
- eSim
- Smart connector
- BUT older Touch ID sensor than on the iPad 6th gen
- Made 100% out of recycled aluminium
- New 10.2 inch size
- But same pixel density so more pixelized
- Now must have O365 licence to edit documents (Max 10.1 inch for free)
- Still less colour accurate than Air 3
- Should pros buy the new iPad 7?
- Only if you do lightweight office tasks on it and don’t need much storage (max 128GB)
Subscription services
And at the beginning of the keynote, Apple officially announced the pricing and the release date for two new subscription services: Apple TV+ & Apple Arcade
Apple TV+
- One of many Netflix competitors
- Priced at only $4,99 per month for the entire family
- Available in 100 countries starting November 1st 2019
- Apple will offer 1 year of Apple TV+ subscription for the first purchase of a new Apple device
Apple Arcade
- A gaming subscription service available on iOS, macOS and Apple TV
- Also priced at only $4,99 per month for the entire family
- Available in 150 countries starting September 19, 2019
Launch dates for iOS, macOS and the like
Talking about launch dates, iOS 13 and watchOS 6 will be released on September 19 while iPadOS and iOS 13.1 on September 30th.
This means that if you have an iPhone and an iPad, it’s better to wait at least until September 30th before upgrading your phone. And even if you don’t have an iPad, some of the new features of iOS will anyway be available only starting with iOS 13.1 .
If you absolutely want to discover iOS 13, wait at least until iOS 13.0.1 or 13.0.2 which will fix some nasty bugs that are still present in iOS 13, like the ability to access any contact from the locked screen without needing to know the passcode.
macOS Catalina will be available in October but Apple hasn’t communicated any date yet. My guess is that it will happen at the end of October, just before Apple TV+ will become available
Main takeaways:
- It’s getting harder and harder for Apple to surprise us
- Most of what was announced already leaked
- I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I was entertained BUT in the end it was lacking a big wow factor
- Very tough for Apple because leaks seem to be coming from necessary regulatory filings, necessary code in the beta release of their operating system, from the supply chain and even case manufacturers
- Having said that, they’ll continue to draw attention and interest, especially by embracing popular media, like YouTube where 1.8 million people watched the keynote live for the first time on that platform.
- Despite appearances, Apple is marching more and more towards the consumer market
- Intro video ending with « Give people wonderful tools and they’ll do wonderful things » BUT started keynote with Apple Arcade & Apple TV+ subscription services = pure entertainment & consumption
- Finally, they offer a Pro iPhone BUT it’s marketed to a small niche and there are much fewer differences compared to the non-pro than for other platforms: iPad, MacBook and iMac
- Despite all their best efforts, on some fronts, the iPhone is ahead of the competition and on other fronts it’s behind trying to play catchup:
- A13 Fusion is the most powerful mobile CPU in the market right now benefiting from tight software and hardware integration
- No video bokeh despite remarkable new three cameras system and Samsung is taking advantage of this
- Only one method of authentication, when some android devices offer both fingerprint sensor and face recognition