With its major announcements all ruined by rumors, Apple delivered a curiously rote press event on Tuesday, announcing the iPhone 8, iPhone X, the Apple Watch Series 3, and the Apple TV 4K.
Frankly, very little of this is particularly interesting, and not just because literally every major product announcement already leaked. But I did want to call out one amazing nugget from today’s event. And it regards Apple TV 4K. Yes, a product Apple should have shipped two years ago.
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The hardware itself is nothing special. But what Apple is doing with 4K content in its iTunes Store is special. Rather than charging extra for 4K/UHD content like other online stores are doing, or charging customers an upgrade fee for their existing movie libraries, Apple is instead just going 4K/UHD across the board. So you will get 4K/UHD content for the same price as 1080p content was before. And all of your existing content will be upgraded to 4K/UHD for free.
Folks, that is amazing.
OK, here’s a quick rundown of the hardware that Apple announced today. I’ll provide some follow-ups later this week as/if required.
Apple Watch Series 3. Apple Watch Series 3 utilizes the same form factor as its predecessor, but adds (optional) built-in LTE cellular capabilities, a faster dual-core processor, improved water resistance, and a new barometric altimeter. Thanks to improvements in watchOS 4, the Apple Watch Series 3 can stream the entire Apple TV music library. It becomes available on September 22 with prices starting at $329 (GPS) or $399 (GPS + cellular).
Apple TV 4K. The Apple TV 4K utilizes the same form factor (and, sadly, remote control) as its predecessor but adds support for 4K/UHD and HDR (Dolby Vision and HDR 10). It’s powered by the new Apple A10X chipset, and will ship September 22 for $179 (32 GB) or $199 (64 GB). Preorders begin September 15.
iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. These two devices should have been named iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus, but they add new glass and aluminum designs, (barely) updated cameras, Qi wireless charging capabilities, three new colors—Gold, Silver, and Space Gray—and new Portrait Mode capabilities (in iPhone 8 Plus only). Nothing meaningful, in other words. Pricing starts at $699 (iPhone 8, 64 GB) or $799 (iPhone 8 Plus, 64 GB). You can preorder on September 15, and the devices will become available on September 22.
iPhone X. The “future of of the smartphone” provides an all-glass design with a near-bezel-less 5.8-inch “Super Retina” and True Tone display, a slightly improved rear camera with dual OIS lenses, Face ID facial recognition, and Silver and Space Gray color choices. Pre-orders start October 27 and the iPhone X will be available for sale starting November 3. Pricing? Yep, it starts at $999.
More soon.
Stooks
<p>Honestly nothing really wowed me. </p><p><br></p><p>All good stuff but nothing worth moving off my 7 month old iPhone 7. Until the watch has 3-4 days of battery life and offers a round option I will not even consider it. The Apple TV is nice, but my current version is already an excellent dust collector.</p><p><br></p><p>No news on Siri getting better, or that home pod. No announcement like unlimited photo storage if you have a iPhone….like Google photos.</p>
Bats
<p>OMG…you've got to be kidding? </p><p><br></p><p>THAT'S IT ?</p><p><br></p><p>All of this is already on Android, particularly the Samsung Galaxy phones. </p><p><br></p><p>I wonder what else is from Samsung. Perhaps parts of the A chip? In the past Apple did use a Samsung processor for that. How about the screen? It's usually either Samsung or LG. As for the hard drive, it's probably Samsung SSD, since they do make the best and most popular SSD drives in the world….so says Leo Laporte (lol).</p><p><br></p><p>LOL…Not just that,…but….."SPACE?" Was "Galaxy" taken? Oh yeah…I forgot. It is…LOL.</p><p><br></p><p>Facial Recognition? Samsung had facial recognition even before Microsoft came up with Windows Hello. </p><p><br></p><p>Wireless Charging….are you kidding me? It's 2017. Not 2015.</p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><a href="#176041"><em>In reply to the_risner:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>I've not looked to confirm this anywhere, but I feel reasonably secure in saying that only iTunes purchase will apply. And by reasonably secure, I mean 100% certain.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#176382"><em>In reply to Darmok N Jalad:</em></a></blockquote><p>One could argue that in the case of hard-core Apple fans the wastefulness is ongoing.</p>
Delmont
<blockquote><a href="#176253"><em>In reply to red.radar:</em></a></blockquote><p>OK, on phone calls with your watch.. so everyone makes calls now on Speaker? I've been thinking about this too…</p>
wocowboy
Premium Member<p>In the past few days leading up to Apple's event yesterday, I heard many pundits praise the fact that Apple's upcoming announcements were already known and praising the Apple employee who leaked all the unknown features of the iPhone X, because leaks were the lifeblood of tech journalists and should be justly praised, etc etc blah blah. Now, after the event has ended, these same tech journalists, including Paul, whine about being unimpressed, they grouse that none of Apple's announcements are "significant", they moan about the fact there were no surprises yesterday, and they gripe that nothing new and unexpected happened. Talk about hypocrisy! </p>