By Heather Kelly
(SAN FRANCISCO) The iPhone 7 has arrived and so has a waterproof Apple Watch.
Apple announced its next-generation smartphones and a slew of other products at its annual press event on Wednesday.
iPhone 7 focuses on photography: Apple’s new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are water resistant, come in new shades of black, and have improved cameras.
The iPhone is Apple’s bread and butter. The company has sold over 1 billion of the devices since it launched in 2007, according to Cook. The latest version isn’t a huge departure from the iPhone 6S, but it has a few key upgrades.
It’s water and dust resistant, which is different from waterproof but still an improvement over “easily killed by water.”
The larger iPhone has two side-by-side12-megapixel cameras. One is wide angle and one is telephoto. It gives users 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. The smaller iPhone 7 still has one, lonely camera on the back. The cameras on both phones have been updated with optical image stabilizer, a new lens and a 12 megapixel sensor that’s faster. The flash has four LEDs and can detect the flickers of artificial lighting to better compensate.
The Home button is force sensitive. Instead of knowing you pressed the button because it clicked, it will vibrate. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said the revolutionary new button is “creating new feelings and experiences that could not have been created before.”
The iPhone 7 now comes in two new colors: a high gloss jet black finish and a matte black. It’s also still available in gold, silver and rose gold (yes, pink).
Goodbye, headphone jack: Rest in peace, iPhone headphone jack. As expected, Apple has removed the port from the iPhone 7. Wired headphones, like Apple’s own EarPods, will now connect over the Lightning port instead. Apple spun the controversial decision a few ways. First, we don’t lose a port, we gain improved stereo speakers! Schiller said the decision took courage, “the courage to move on and do something new that betters all of us.”
To help ease the transition, Apple made an adapter that it will include with all iPhone 7 and 7 Pluses.
Apple is also introducing AirPods, wireless headphones that you will probably lose in the first month of owning them. The little wireless buds come with a white case for charging, and they last up to five hours of listening time per charge. Built-in accelerometers and infrared sensors detect when they’re in your ears. The headphones include microphones and one-tap Siri access.
A new, waterproof Apple Watch: It might look the same on the outside, but Apple introduced a waterproof Apple Watch that is 50% faster and has a brighter display. It also has built in GPS. This is the first hardware update since the watch was launched last year. The new version is clumsily named Apple Watch Series 2.
The device is waterproof up to 50 meters deep. To make it waterproof, Apple changed the speaker design so after a swim, surf, or bubble bath session, it can expel any water automatically. The GPS doesn’t sever all ties with the iPhone, but does give the Apple Watch a slightly longer leash.
There’s a new white ceramic option, which makes it look like a little iPod on your wrist. A trio of new leather Hermes bands might appeal to fashionistas. Apple is also teaming up with Nike on a special edition, the Apple
Watch Nike+, specifically for motivating and tracking runners.
The Apple Watch Series 2, which will be available in late October, will start at $369. The original watch is still available, but now has the faster processor and costs $269 and up. Current Apple Watch owners can pretend they have a new watch on September 13, when the new watchOS is released.
Super Mario on iOS: There’s a brand new Super Mario game coming to iOS later this year. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto came on stage to demo Super Mario Run, which can be played with one hand and comes with a battle mode. You can play against players around the world. It’s not an Apple Car, but it was a huge crowd pleaser.
Pokemon Go comes to the Apple Watch: Pokemon Go is coming to the Apple Watch, a natural fit for the augmented reality game and fitness wearable. The game has been downloaded more that 500 million times since
it was launched, according to John Hanke, founder and CEO of Niantic. Its players have walked more than 4.6 billion kilometers. The game will be available on the Apple Watch later this year.
iWork gets collaborative: The suite of work programs is adding real-time online collaboration, a la Google Docs and Microsoft Office. It works across Macs, iPads, iPhones and web versions of iWork apps.
Still to come…
Date for new software: Apple previewed major updates for all its operating systems — iOS 10 for the iPhone and macSierra for Mac computers — this summer at its developer conference. Now, the company is going to recap what’s new and share final release dates. iOS 10 is the most exciting update, which has a ton of major feature additions for messaging, Siri and photos.
The event started with Apple CEO Tim Cook doing a little Carpool Karaoke with James Cordon. Apple recently bought a Carpool Karaoke TV series exclusively for Apple Music that will debut next year. In the video, Tim and James Corden sang “Sweet Home Alabama” (Cook is an Alabama native). Pharrell hopped in the back seat for backup, because why not.
As usual, Tim Cook started with a little light bragging. He recapped some of Apple’s more impressive sounding numbers. Apple Music has more than 17 million subscribers. There were 140 billion downloads from the
App Store this past year, a 106% jump from the previous year.
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