New iPhone 11, Apple Watch, iPad, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today Apple announced new iPhones and more. Let's take a look.

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So the three new iPhone models are called the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. The iPhone 11 comes with two cameras. The regular wide angle lens and an ultra wide angle lens. In addition it has a new A13 chip, all the new iPhones do, slightly better battery life and also it has a new camera on the front. It's a 12 megapixel camera. It can do 4K video and it can even do slow motion. So you can do slow motion selfies. It's pretty much what we expected. But if anything is surprising about it, it might be the price. The price is actually lower than the previous base model iPhone. It starts a $699.

Now the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max they have three cameras. So in addition to the wide and ultra wide there's also the telephoto lens. The prices for those are much higher as you would expect. It's $999 for the iPhone 11 Pro and it's $1099 for the iPhone 11 Pro Max. All three iPhones have better battery life. But the Pro and the Pro Max actually have quite a bit more battery life and they're going to come with an eighteen watt charger for even faster charging.

Besides the cameras the screens are the main difference between these models. With the iPhone 11 you're getting a LCD screen that's 6.1 inches. With the Pro and the Pro Max you're getting a much higher resolution LED screen. 5.8 inches for the Pro and 6.5 inches for the Pro Max. We can order these new iPhones starting this Friday morning. 

Now the new Apple Watch is Series 5. The biggest difference here is it's always on display. So you don't have to raise it up to look at it for the display to come on. It's always on. But it will be dimmer if you're not looking directly at it. As expected there are some new finishes like titanium and ceramic. The prices are $399 for the regular one and $499 if you want cellular connectivity. These come out September 20th. Interestingly Apple is keeping around the Series 3 at a new price, $199. So that's a pretty cheap way to get into an Apple Watch.

So Apple also announced a new base model iPad. 7th generation. So for $329 you get an iPad that has a A12 chip in it. The biggest change is the display. Gone are all of the 9.7 inch iPads now because the base model now is 10.2 inches.

Apple also talked about its two upcoming subscription services. So Apple Arcade is actually coming out really soon. Much sooner than I think a lot of us expected. It's going to be available on September 19th. Now it doesn't sound like they're going to launch with a hundred games but they say there are going to be a hundred or more games available soon. The pricing is pretty good. It's $4.99 a month and there's going to be a one month trial for us all to try out.  The thing I like most about Apple Arcade is you can play the games across all the Apple devices. So you can play on your Mac. You can play on an iPad, iPhone, and on Apple TV.

Now Apple also announced the launch of Apple TV+. So this their TV subscription service that will start November 1st with a few shows. The pricing here is really interesting because it's also $4.99 a month but here's the thing. You can get it for free for a year when you buy a new Apple device. That includes an iPad, an iPhone, a Mac, or an Apple TV. Now for a lot of us who own multiple Apple devices and have multiple family members we buy at least one new Apple product a year. So it pretty much makes Apple TV+ free.

So what about release dates for the latest operating systems. It looks like we're going to get iOS 13 on September 19th. Followed very quickly by iOS 13.1 on September 30th. Apple is already been beta testing 13.1 so I'm not surprised it's going to come fast and include some of the features that they originally said were going to be in iOS 13. As for macOS Catalina all we know now is October. So it looks like there's going to be a little more beta testing on that before we get the new macOS.

Okay, so here's my take on all of this. I think everybody is going to be pretty happy with the new iPhones. It's pretty much what everybody expected and everyone who was planning on upgrading is going to find something here to like and is going to get a new iPhone. It's nice to see a new base model iPad but people probably expected an iPad Pro as well. We might have that later on this year. We got a new iPad Pro last year. I don't expect anything big and dramatic but maybe just new processors and things like that. 

I think the Apple Watch looks really good and I'm glad they are keeping a base model around at such a reasonable price. I think the always on screen is going to be a big deal and a lot of people are going to want to upgrade just for that one feature. 

Now the services, I think, look great. Apple Arcade looks really nice. Five bucks is fine and I can't wait to get that. I think Apple TV+ is a big win because it's essentially free for most Apple users. I mean if you're going to buy any of this new stuff, or anything new here before the end of the year you're pretty much getting Apple TV+ for free and getting to watch all those new shows.

What about you? What did you like or not like from today's announcements. Are you planning on getting one of the new iPhones?