We have collected in one material everything that was at the Apple presentation on September 9.
A year ago, when Tim Cook officially introduced the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, no one was surprised: everyone saw photos of gadgets before the official announcement. This time the situation was repeated. Moreover, it turned out to be funnier, because a few days before the official announcement, full-fledged video reviews of one of the gadgets got into the Network. In other words, when the new items were shown, it remained only to shrug and say: yes, we were waiting for this. At least, this was true for smartphones, which, indeed, turned out to be two.
Let’s briefly go through the characteristics of the devices.
The iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch screen and, to put it mildly, not the most standard resolution – 1334 by 750 pixels. But the gadget is very thin – 6.9 mm versus 7.6 mm for the iPhone 5S.
Its older brother, the iPhone 6 Plus, boasts a 5.5-inch screen and, with a sigh of relief, a standard resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels for modern top-end mobile devices. Its width is 7.1 mm.
Applications that are not adapted for “sixes” will “just work”, namely, “stretch”. But, as it seems to us, it will still be necessary, at least, to redraw the UI.
This will lead to the fact that it will be possible to talk about further fragmentation of iOS devices and, accordingly, the growth of production costs. However, against the background of marketing budgets, most likely, many will not notice this.
Returning to the novelties. Inside both devices is a new A8 chip, which is the second generation of 64-bit processors from Apple. 25% faster than the previous one in terms of CPU, 50% faster in terms of graphics output (well, the owners of the iPhone 5S have already felt that life has failed?).
All the power of the novelty, as well as the graphical programming interface of Metal Apple applications, was demonstrated by the example of the Vain Glory MOBA game from Super Evil Megacorp. They said that now it would be possible to easily display about 100 animated models at a time on the screen – and there would be no brakes (then you could safely show Total Anihilation, it would be clearer).
Video from the game, but not from the presentation.
Let’s go through the small details of the announcement.
It is clear that we have increased the working time. The iPhone 6 Plus, they say, will take 24 hours when talking on 3G. The new devices will now also understand the difference between whether you ride a bike or climb stairs, which will allow you to more accurately predict how many calories you burn. The new LTE will allow you to pass up to 150 MB per second. Wi-Fi is three times faster.
As for pricing policy. The cost is not biting as much as analysts predicted. For the younger model with 16 GB, they ask for the standard $ 199 (64 GB cost $ 299, 128 GB – $ 399). The price of the older model with 16 GB starts at $299 (64 GB cost $399, 128 GB – $499). But that’s all with a two-year contract. Our prices are likely to be much higher, especially at first.
UPDATE: Apple said that in Russia the price of the younger device will start from 31,990 rubles, and the older one – from 36,990 rubles.
The devices will go on official sale in the States and a number of other countries from September 19 (Russia is not among them). You will be able to order them from September 12. By the end of the year, Apple plans to launch the device in 115 countries.
By the way, now the iPhone can be used as a credit card.
Now let’s go through iOS 8.
The list of supported devices is long. And there is an iPhone 4S in it, as well as an iPad 2. The new axis will be released on September 17 (a deep sigh of relief for those who have not yet had time to adapt their applications to it).
And that’s all about the new OS. But, just in case, we have written a lot about it before, you can read here and here.
Watch.
Apple also introduced a watch. The specification is one, but there is a wide scope for customization (a lot of straps, two types of size plus three types of cases). To be honest, they remind me of the sixth-generation iPod nano on the strap. Despite this, for some reason the people decided to applaud standing up (when Google showed three models of watches, this was not the case, however, no one promised a gold 18-carat modification there).
You can control what is on the screen both by pressing (the screen, by the way, is sensitive to the force with which you tap), as well as using a “digital crown”, something like a joystick that can be used to navigate the screen. This is done due to the fact that the screen is small, the finger easily closes it, and so you do not risk clicking on what is not necessary.
The watch measures the pulse, allows you to answer or reset the call (you can talk in them, yes), it is charged wirelessly, and it is also waterproof.
Apple also reported that using the watch, you can respond with predefined phrases to messages, well, or emoticons. Plus, of course, an accelerometer that monitors how much you walked, ran or rode. All information will be reset to the iPhone.
It is recommended to communicate with the watch, since there is no full-fledged numeric keypad, using Siri. She will tell you what is going on in the nearest cinemas, show you the route on the map. Plus, it is not necessary to constantly look at the clock, the vibration of the clock will show whether you are going there.
You will be able to communicate with friends by drawing on the screen… It would seem that this is not the most interesting feature. On the other hand, why not. People really loved Draw Something.
Facebook, Twitter are supported. Third-party applications for watches can also be made using a special WatchKit tool.
There is a BUT: to use the watch, you need to be a happy (or not so happy) iPhone owner. We may be wrong, but here the story of Android Wear repeats itself, when a watch without a smartphone turns out to be a useless piece of metal.
Be that as it may, the watch should not be on sale until 2015 at a price of $349. Not a word was said about their working hours.
Something like that.