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Apple Silicon: Apple's move to ARM chips – first devices to be launched later this year
by Dominik Bärlocher
No iPhone 12: New Apple Watches, iPads and the best advert in a long time
15.9.2020
Translation: machine translated
The Apple Watch Series 6 doesn't come with quite as many features as rumoured, the iPad Air is blue. That's the most important news from the Apple keynote on 15 September 2020.
Apple has won keynotes this year. The beautifully produced, slick and stylish videos are really great. High information density, beautiful visuals and no theatrics. There are the heart-warming videos of people whose lives have been massively improved or even saved by Apple, but otherwise one piece of information follows the next. That's the way I like it.
The rumours in the run-up
As usual, the rumour mill was buzzing in the run-up to the launch. The tech magazine TechRadar has summarised these - now replaced by facts. Here are the devices that were speculated about in the run-up:
- Apple Watch 6
- Apple Watch SE
- iPad Air 4
- Apple Tags
No one is talking about the iPhone 12 and its variants, even though images based on patents and rumours from third parties have been floating around the web for a long time and speak of a more angular design. Nice.
But let's move on to the one that's actually real, as much as I'd love to have this edgy iPhone in my hands right now. Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, gets down to business. The event, themed "Time Flies", is all about iPads and Apple Watches.
Apple Watch Series 6: More durable and with more sensors
The Apple Watch Series 6 tackles what is probably the biggest problem with smartwatches: Battery life. If you as a manufacturer want a smartwatch that lasts a long time, then it's not particularly compact. If it's not compact, then it will only last a few days at most. Somehow that's unsexy when the competition over there in sports watches, the Garmin Tactix Delta for example, lasts around 20 days.
Apple wants to tackle this with the Apple Watch 6. It may look like an Apple Watch and its many clones, but everything inside is new. Not only does it run the new chipset, Apple Silicon, but the display is 2.5 times brighter than its predecessor.
In addition, the Apple Watch comes with the following features, among others:
- Sleep tracking
- Improved ECG
- Blood oxygen sensor, measured in 15 seconds thanks to infrared sensors
- When you combine the ECG with the blood oxygen meter, the Apple Watch can tell you if you are hyperventilating
Simply a word of warning, because the IT Security Dude in me is screaming "tell them" here. There may not be any acute grounds for suspicion, but Apple collects a huge amount of data about you. Security is not a state, but a process. This means that you should think twice about whether you want to give Apple all this data. Apple is not necessarily the problem - we all tend to be too unimportant as individuals for that - but a lot of data is collected that could identify you.
Among other things, the app's data is currently being used to identify frontline workers - including nurses, carers, firefighters and delivery services - when stress sets in and what's too much. Super. Because Covid-19 is shaking up the world and those who work are working hard and a lot.
The watch has the same shape as its predecessors, but comes in more colours. Including the red colour of the "Product Red" charity series.
In addition: Apple is launching a new wristband on the market called Solo Loop. It is elasticated without a clasp. It stretches and fits snugly around your wrist.
Speaking of the second: Thanks to "Family Setup", you can now connect several Apple Watches to one iPhone. Communication and the like is therefore easy thanks to the extra watch.
Apple Watch SE: The Apple Watch in affordable
The Apple Watch SE looks like an Apple Watch, but doesn't quite have the feature richness of its big sister. In the keynote, it is compared with the Apple Watch Series 3. Of course, the SE is faster than the three. However, the SE has gained some features from the six-series.
Speaking of which, the Apple Watch has arguably the best tech advert of the year. Honestly
Apple One: Apple unites
In addition to Apple Fitness+, a home fitness programme with exercises measured by the Apple Watch, Apple is also introducing a service called Apple One. You can think of the service as a kind of tent that pulls services together under one booking. Apple News, Fitness+, AppleTV+, Apple Music and so on. If Apple offers it as paid software, then it is included in Apple One, depending on the monthly price of the plan.
Apple iPad Gen 8: Same, same, but faster
The new eighth-generation iPad comes with an A12 Bionic chip. It is up to 40% faster in terms of CPU than the previous generation and twice as fast in terms of graphics. Gaming should run faster and be better.
Here's a question: Are there any Apple iPad gamers out there? What's it like?
Apple, however, is quite aggressive with the iPad. Product Manager Ted Merendino claims that it sells massively better than Android tablets, Chromebooks or Windows machines. We don't know Apple like this. But they have reason to be: The iPad is simply better than the rest of the tablet world. And not just because of Scribble, the iPad's handwriting recognition under iPadOS 14 and iOS 14.
Scribble is being expanded, but otherwise there is no particular reason for everyday users to buy the iPad. Except the price. In the USA, the device costs a maximum of 329 dollars, excluding VAT. In Switzerland and Germany, the figure is likely to be higher, as VAT is included in the price here.
Apple iPad Air 4: The redesign is here
An iPad looks great in light blue. That's the first thought when watching the advert for the new iPad Air 4
In terms of design, the iPad Air has borrowed design ideas from the iPad Pro of recent years. It is angular, has a Liquid Retina display and True Tone colour management. As the screen takes up the entire front, TouchID has had to move to the side. As with Sony's smartphones, the fingerprint sensor is built into the device's power button.
The iPad Air comes with an A14 Bionic chip. More graphics, more power, more transistors. That's something to be proud of. For what? Good question, but technologically the device is certainly impressive. But 11 trillion operations per second on 16 processor cores sounds pretty damn good.
Apropos, the iPad Air is charged via USB-C. This allows you to connect your camera directly to the iPad. You can see a Sony camera in the video. Let's see.
On 16 September 2020, iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 will officially be delivered to all devices.
As someone who is back in front of the camera from time to time, I ask myself: Is this really a green screen? Is this a studio? How did Apple create this beautiful setting? Because I'm such a bitzli fan. The sound is perfect, the light is beautiful. But the sizes of the people seem to vary so slightly. On the other hand, Tim Cook moves too much for a green screen. But there's the perfect light.
One last sentence: As usual, I don't know at the time of going to press when and at what price any of the products Apple has presented here will go on sale. Product manager Andrea Jacob will let you know.
So, that's it. By the way, the Apple Watch comes without a charger. For the sake of the environment, of course. However, a charger is guaranteed to be available for a fee.
Update: Apple One - an initial analysis
Update #2: A hidden hint of the iPhone 12
Reader Quicktey thinks he's made a discovery:
Could it be that the next Apple event is on 30 September? In one of the iPad videos, the person in the video made a calendar entry on 30 September with the name Event.
Maybe the iPhone will arrive then. Let's hope so.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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