Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com.
Today Apple announced the iPhone 6, the Apple pay system, and the Apple Watch.
Let's take a closer look at each.
The iPhone 6 is going to come in two sizes.
Both sizes will be larger than the current iPhone 5 and 5S.
The two sizes are the iPhone 6 at 4.7 inches diagonally, and the iPhone 6+ at 5.5 inches
diagonally.
Now the screen ratios are the same so the apps will basically scale up to fit the screen
size but a lot of the built-in apps, like say Messages, will have new modes and new
ways of showing things that will take advantage of the larger screen size.
In addition, just about everything inside has been upgraded.
There is a new processor, the A8 processor, to make it faster.
There is a new motion chip in it that will be able to measure things like small changes
in altitude.
There is a better camera in it, both on front and back, that is capable of doing things
like having more frames per second and slow motion.
Also taking better pictures using HDR, using focusing, and the iPhone 6+ is actually going
to have optical image stabilization meaning the optical lens actually moves as opposed
to doing it all in software.
Both models are going to come with three different storage sizes: 16 gig, 64 gig, and 128 gig.
The prices will be 200, 300, and 400 dollars for the iPhone 6 with a two year contract
by a US carrier.
Add a hundred dollars to those prices if you are getting the iPhone 6+.
In the United States and a few other countries you will be able preorder on September 12th
and they will start shipping on September 19th.
Incidentally iOS 8, which will come in all these new iPhones and has been in testing
for a long time now, will be released on September 17th, just two days before the iPhones come
out.
So these phones, of course, will come with iOS 8 but current users of more recent iPhones,
the iPhone 5 and 4S, will be able to upgrade to iOS 8 at that time and probably iPad users
as well although iPad wasn't specifically mentioned today.
Apple also announced a system called Apple Pay and this is something that will be on
the iPhone and you will be able to store your payment information with Apple which most
of us already have with iTunes.
You will be able to wave your iPhone 6, which has near field communication ability, over
a device at a checkout counter at major stores and it's kind of like swiping a credit card
except you never pull out a credit card and you don't even need to have it with you.
They announced lots of stores that are going to have this and also lots of payment systems
like major credit cards and bands.
Apple announced a whole new product today, the Apple Watch.
This has been rumored for a long time but finally we get to see what it really looks
like.
It's a small, squarish sized device that fits onto your wrist and it has a touch screen
that also text force as well as just plain touch and also has a dial on the side as well
as a button and a microphone for input so you can talk to it and ask things.
It is connected to Siri.
So you can have a variety of information displayed on the screen and it will communicated with
your phone for some of this but it appears also that some of it will be stored on the
watch.
In addition to those input devices there are also sensors on the back that will do things
like detect your pulse so you can use it for a lot of health oriented things for working
out and recording information about your workout.
Apple showed off a variety of apps running on the Apple Watch.
Things like Maps that give you directions.
One of the cool things I thought was that you can even get feedback from the watch through
vibrations.
So you can ask for directions and get turn by turn directions that tell you whether to
go left or right as you are walking by sending vibrations into your wrist.
So you don't actually have to glance at the screen.
They also showed messaging a lot.
In addition to being able to send text messages and audio messages you actually will be able
to send touch messages and drawings and things.
We're going to have to see how that actually works once we get the devices.
So a big concern when dealing with small devices like this is battery life.
How long will the battery last before we have to recharge it.
It looks like one of the ways Apple is dealing with this is noticing when you raise your
wrist up to be able to see it and it will activate things.
So, for instance, the clock may not actually be displayed when your wrist is down but when
you raise it up you will see it.
Also when you get notifications it may just be a small vibration but when you raise your
wrist up then it will actually turn on the display.
An important part of today's announcement was that third party's will be able to develop
apps for the Apple Watch.
This is going to be great as we can see what third party's do with the screen and with
all the different sensors and inputs that the Apple Watch has.
Now that we know about the Apple Watch we are still going to have to wait awhile before
we can get one.
The release date is just generally sometime early in 2015 and the only price we got today
was the price of the base model, 349 dollars.
So we're going to have to wait to see how much more the expensive models cost.
They are even ones that are made with real gold so those will probably cost a little
bit more.
There are different bands that you can get for it as well.
So there will probably be extra cost for those as well.
So we're going to have to wait until after the New Year, probably, to find out anything
more about Apple Watch.