23 Things Apple Announced That You May Have Missed

Yesterday Apple announced new iPhones, a new Apple TV and a new Apple Watch. Here are 23 details and other announcements that you may have missed. Some of these were not even mentioned during the event, but simply posted to the website and through updates later in the day.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Yesterday Apple announced new iPhones, a new Apple TV, and a new Apple Watch. Here are twenty-three details that you may have missed. 
Now even if you don't plan on purchasing one of the new iPhones the release date for iOS 11 is important because everything from a 5S and the SE on up can upgrade to iOS 11. There will be lots of new features and lots of the new cool things talked about will work on your older phones. So look for that update coming soon if you haven't already been trying out the public data. Other release dates were announced as well. On that same day Watch OS 4 and TV OS 11 will come out.
Mac OS High Sierra wasn't even mentioned at the announcements and it usually isn't. This is an iPhone oriented event. But at the website a release date was posted as September 25th. So by September 25th we'll have all new iOS and all new Mac OS High Sierra. 
Now a big new change that actually happened yesterday, it was already released, was iTunes 12.7. It seems like a minor release of iTunes, just to go up one notch, but big changes. There's no more iOS App store. A lot of people have predicted this for a long time but you can no longer browse iPhone and iPad apps in the store. Another thing that's changed are ringtones. They're gone as well. So both apps and ringtones you can purchase directly on your phones and iPads. You can still sync ringtones very easily by drag and drop but the whole syncing section where you could select ones and automatically sync them, that's gone as well. And some other minor changes. Like internet radio is now part of Music and iTunes View is now part of podcasts.
Now, the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X have an interesting change that minimum memory is now 64GB. So all the new iPhones are 64GB minimum. Which is interesting because a lot of the competing phones still have 32G in their base model. The sizes for the new iPhones are interesting. Now the 8 and the 8 Plus are almost exactly the same size as the 7 and the 7 Plus. As a matter of fact you have to go down to the second decimal place to actually find a difference. The screen sizes are exactly the same, 4.7 and 5.5 inch with the same number of pixels. 
The iPhone X is interesting because it actually has the largest screen of all of them, a 5.8 inch screen. However some of that size maybe accounted for by the extras in the corners which I'll talk about in a second. The actual dimensions of the iPhone fall inbetween the  8 and the 8 Plus or the 7 and the 7 Plus if you like. So it's smaller than the largest and larger than the smaller one. So it'll be interesting. An interesting compromise to have this one model for the iPhone X. The pixel density is actually huge. So 2436x 1125. Compare that to  1920x 1080 for the current plus models. 
Now here's what I was talking about about the corners. So the screens of all the iPhones up to this point have been completely rectangular with corners on all four edges. Now you've got these little ears at the top left and right and at the bottom left and right you actually have curves. So pixels are missing at the bottom left and right and there are extra pixels at the top left and right. It's going to be interesting to see how apps change to account for this and how older apps will work on the iPhone X. 
Now the cameras, of course, are improved in many ways but the 8 and 8 Plus have very similar specs to the 7 and 7 Plus. The iPhone X cameras though, the telephoto one, actually has a higher amount of light that will come into it, so f/2.4 instead of f/2.8. So it'll be interesting to see how much better the photos are. But it is one actual real change to the cameras in the iPhone X over the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. 
Now the cameras in all of these new models are going to be capable of doing something pretty incredible. Recording 4K video at 60 frames per second and slow motion video at 1080 at 240 frames per second. Pretty incredible for a phone. 
Now the front camera on the iPhone X is called the TrueDepth Camera instead of the FaceTime camera. The main difference between it, of course it has the infrared sensors and things like that, that will be used for face ID, but it also will allow Portrait Modes on the front facing camera as well as the back. Only the iPhone X will offer this. 
Now wireless charging. Wireless changing is going to take place with third party pads. Apple is offering two at the website right now. Both for $60. Of course they also announced that at some point next year they'll come out with their own pad. Now you may be thinking if it's wireless charging is the lightning connector gone. No, of course, it's not gone. It's still there and it's used for lots of other things. Like data transfer, developers use it all the time. The lightning connector of course is included. So you can just forget about the wireless charging if you don't want to use that and just continue using the lightning connector. As a matter of fact in the box you'll get a set of EarPods, just as before, with the lightning connector. You'll get the power adapter and the cable just as before. You're still also going to get the jack converter to convert old headphones. A lot of people speculated that the 7 and 7 Plus came with this as a temporary thing and that feature iPhones wouldn't. But now all the new models come with that adapter still. 
Also the full lineup is going to be a lot more than just the 8 and the X. You're still going to have the 7 and the 6S available at lower prices and the iPhone SE, the kind of base model, is still going to be there for $349.
Now on to Apple Watch. So Apple Watch Series 3, I think the biggest thing that was missed is the price tag at $329 is not for the cellular watch. That's for a Series 3 that doesn't have the cellulars. If you want the functionality that everyone's talking about, that's the really big deal, you're going to have to pay $399 for that. Another big change in the Apple Watch is Siri will actually respond to you with voice. So that's kind of the big difference between Siri on the watch and the phone now is Siri just shows you things on the screen. But now you'll actually get Siri talking back to you on your watch. Of course the cellular functionality is going to probably come with a price. There are really no details but rumors have it that it's going to be $10 extra. So you have your iPhone plan and then you'll add $10 through AT&T or Verizon, etc., to add your Apple Watch to it. It will use the same phone number and everything and be part of that same account. We'll have to see if it's true or not but that's what most people seem to think. 
Now the Apple TV 4K has a few items as well. One is a huge processor upgrade. So the existing Apple TV is only using an A8 processor. A couple generations back. But the new one is going to be using the same one as the iPad Pro, the A10X. So a lot more processing power that's going to be important for games. Also a change is the USB port is gone. Now the USB port wasn't really used for much on the back of the Apple TV. But some people, like myself, did use it to actually charge the remote because it was just convenient if the remote was low to just plug it in and sit it on the top of the Apple TV and you don't loose it. Now you're just have to use your iPhone charger or plug it into the computer or some other USB port. Any USB port will do. 
Also, and I think this is great, is if you purchased a movie before on Apple TV,  and then you get the Apple TV 4K, and that movie becomes available on 4K then you own it, you're going to get an automatic upgrade. This is great. I remember in the past that we had to pay extra when the quality of music went up and you had like a song that you had bought for 99 cents and now it was a $1.29 and you had to pay extra. Well, you're not going to have to do that this time. You'll get the 4K movie. So my purchase of Rogue Squadron, for instance, with the new Apple TV, I'll probably be able to see it in 4K before too long.
Now some news outside of all of those main devices is Apple also announced a new Beats headset. So if you're into that there's going to be a new urBeats3 at $100 coming out sometime this Fall. Also the Siri Remote. Apple  has a replacement Siri Remote that you can buy for $59 now. Now you may say what's the big deal. The big deal is that it was $79 before. So a lot of people complained about that, that it was too expensive. $59 is the new price. It still seems too expensive to me. But if you loose the remote though at least you save $20 now. 
And to finish up there's a new case that's specifically for the iPhone X. It looks just like a regular folio case, a fold over case. But there's an interesting feature on it. When you open it your iPhone will wake up. When you close it, it sleeps. This is how the case's on the iPad work. Which means the iPhone has the actual magnetic sensor in it. So the iPhone X has got a new feature, this magnetic sensor, that it will sleep and wake when you open and close it with a case like this which makes sense now that the Home button is missing it gives you another way to wake up your iPhone. 
So there are twenty-three different things that you may have missed in all of yesterday's Apple announcements.

Comments: 12 Responses to “23 Things Apple Announced That You May Have Missed”

Cameron

7 years ago

One thing I haven't heard addressed is if putting a case on an iPhone 8/X will prevent wireless charging since it comes between the phone making direct contact with the charging pad. Anyone know the answer?

Gary Rosenzweig

Cameron: I think it depends on the material. Metal cases, probably not. Plastic, rubber or gel cases may be fine. Expect to have cases marked as "wireless charging compatible" or not.

Phil

Any suggestions for deciding whether to go with the iPhone 8 Plus vs the iPhone X?

Phil: It really comes down to what you want and need. For me it is the X because I want the absolute best camera I can get on an iPhone. And, as a developer, I want to be able to test my games on the odd-shaped screen.

Jan Wille

Re. iPhone X: Is there an alternative way to open the phone if Face ID for any reason should fail?

Jan: Absolutely. It is just like Touch ID. You just use your passcode. In fact, you have to use your passcode if you have rebooted the phone, haven't unlocked in in a while, or Face ID failed to recognize your face two times in a row. You could also just not use Face ID at all, and use your passcode any time you want.

Danny Brown

Gary my question is will the iPhone X apps turn on your phone when you turn the phone such as like the iPads or iPhone S.
thanks Danny
Ps I have enjoyed your broadcast since 2009 when I purchased my first iMac an iPhone 3G

Danny: Do you mean will apps rotate into vertical and horizontal orientations? That's up to the app. I don't see why it would be any different between the iPhone 6/7/8 and the X.

peter miller

great round-up Gary. really appreciate this. and yes I did miss some of those spec - even though I watched the broadcast twice! Im the same as you Gary - my GF gets my 7+ as I want the awesome Portrait aspect facing me. Im guessing the new light option eg 'studio' etc on Portrait is a new 8 & X phone feature rather than a software feature ?

Peter: Yes, it appears we need the 8 or X to use those new portrait modes, as they aren't present on my 7 Plus even thought it is running iOS 11.

Clinton Hayes

Hi Gary,

Enjoy your videos as always. Small point and I'm loathed to even mention it but in the interest of feedback from you subscribers, here it is.

Your comments on the 23 items we might have missed is very U.S. centric and as you pointed out in your recent email, you have subscribers/followers from all around the world. So, comments like the cellular addition to Apple Watch 3 will be offered by AT&T (?) for about $10 may not be true for us.

Sorry it's picky but I thought worth it.

Clinton: Yes, but it is the only information we have at this point: a rumor that AT&T may be at $10/month. I would expect that this gives people an idea of what it may cost with their carrier in their country when it is available.

Comments Closed.

23 Things Apple Announced That You May Have Missed

Comments: 12 Responses to “23 Things Apple Announced That You May Have Missed”

Welcome to MacMost

Free Weekly Newsletter

MacMost Online Courses

Keyboard Shortcuts PDF

Connect with MacMost

MacMost Sections

Popular Tutorials

Information