Added a 12MP Ultra-wide Front camera with support for Center Stage
Display has TrueTone
Still supports the 1st Gen Apple Pencil
Design stays exactly the same
Other than the bezels on the Silver model which are now black instead of white
Comes in space grey or silver and starts at $329 for the 64GB model
There are also cellular (LTE) options and a 256GB storage option
iPad mini
All new design and it looks amazing
Looks like a mini iPad Air
8.3-inch display with edge to edge design
Uses the A15 Bionic chip
Six cores (2 performance and 4 efficiency cores)
4 GPU cores
Now has 4GB of RAM vs the 3GB of the previous model
TouchID in the sleep / wake button
Single lens rear camera upgraded to 12MP
Front camera is now also 12MP wide-angle with Center Stage support
Switch from Lightning to USB-C
Supports 5G and WiFi 6
No mmWave support.
Colors: space gray, purple, pink, and "starlight."
64GB and 256GB storage options (no 128GB)
Prices did go up with the base model $100 more expensive at $499 for the 64GB wi-fi model
After pre-orders started Friday availability of some models stared slipping from September 24th into mid-October and early November
Benchmarks have shown that even though the iPad has the same A15 Bionic chip as the iPhone 13 it looks like Apple “down-clocked” the mini
Running at 2.9GHz vs the 3.2Ghz in the iPhone
while it would be about a 2-8% performance downgrade from the iPhone I doubt anyone will really notice
The new mini is 40% faster in single-core operations and 70% in multicore vs the previous generation mini
Apple Watch Series 7
As expected it features a larger display with almost no bezels, so the watch size is just slightly larger at 41mm and 45mm
borders are reduced by 40 percent, 1.7 mm, giving the watch 20 percent more screen area
But don’t worry all exiting 40mm and 44mm bands are compatible
UI elements and text areas in apps are larger to make tapping and reading easier
Always on display is also 70 percent brighter indoors
What we didn’t get was a “radical” new redesign.
Now dust resistant as well as water resistant
Faster charging
33 percent faster than previous models
8 minutes of charging to last for 8 hours of sleep tracking, and 45 minutes to go from 0 to 80%
fast-charging USB-C cable
New watch faces that take advantage of the larger display area
Also new keyboard features including a full QWERTY keyboard that supports swiping (QuickPath).
50% stronger crack-resistant crystal
Apple didn’t discuss the processor for this years Apple Watch
Seems like it might be still using the S6 chip according to developer Steve Troughton Smith who did some XCode investigating
Leaked internal documents are still calling it an S7, but the specs don’t seem to have changed
Colors:
five aluminum colors including midnight, starlight, green, blue, and (PRODUCT)RED
steel models are available in silver, gold, and space black
titanium available in titanium or space black
Available ‘later this fall’
Expecting by the end of October
Prices start at USD $399 and the Series 3 and SE models remain in the lineup at their current prices and options
Fitness+
New pilates workouts and guided meditations.
Group Workouts using SharePlay
Seasonal workout themes staring with skiing and snowboarding workouts.
4K streaming upgrade
Support for 15 countries. English workouts with subtitles
Austria, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, and the UAE
Coming later this year
iPhone 13 mini iPhone 13
20% smaller notch
though it’s a teeny weeny bit taller
New A15 Bionic chip
six cores (2 performance and 4 efficiency cores)
4 GPU cores
Super Retina XDR display
That is brighter supports Dolby Vision and HDR10.
Cameras
New “diagonal” orientation
Better low-light performance
47% more light
New ultra-wide 12MP camera with sensor-shift optical image stabilization
New cinematic mode for video that automatically shifts focus based on content using AI
Limited to 1080p at 30 fps
Works with both the rear and front facing cameras
Longer battery life
1.5 hours loner on the mini
2.5 hours longer on the iPhone 13
Sizes remain the same as on the 12, 5.4 inches for the mini and 6.1 inches for the iPhone 13
Base storage has been bumped up to 128GB with 256GB and 512GB storage options
Five new colors, pink, blue, midnight, starlight, and Product (RED)
Prices start at $699 for the mini, and $799 for the iPhone 13
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max
All the features and A15 Bionic processor from the iPhone 13, plus more
A15 Bionic
Six cores, but on the Pros 4 are high performance and 2 are high efficiency
Pro has a 5 core GPU
Display is ProMotion with a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz. Can go as low as 10Hz
Uses AI to “predict” the rate
Cameras
The telephoto has been updated to 77mm with a 3x optical zoom
Lowlight improvements for the ultra-wide lens and the ultra-wide now also supports macro photography
Cinematic mode
All three lenses can shoot in Night Mode
New Photographic styles that can be used in real time
ProRes video support at 4K 30fps coming later this year
Limited to 1080p at 30fps if you only have 128GB of storage
Device sizes remain the same at 6.1 inch for the iPhone 13 Pro and 6.7 inch for the iPhone 13 Pro Max
Battery increases of up to 1.5h for the pro and up to 2.5 hours on the Pro Max
Support for more 5G bands using custom antennas and radio components.
mmWave is still limited to US phones
All the iPhone 13 models also now include support for dual eSIMs
Colors are graphite, gold, silver, and sierra blue
There are storage options at 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and now a 1TB storage option
Pricing remains the same
iPhone 13 Pro starts at $999 and the iPhone Pro max starts at $1099
iPhone SE, iPhone 11, and iPhone 12 will still be available, but not the iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone XR
Other Stuff
iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 will launch on Monday, September 20.
The iPhone Leather Wallet with MagSafe to add support for Find My
All the new iPhones are slightly heavier and slightly thicker (likely due to bigger batteries)
This years phones are not shipping with physical SIMs, carrier will use the eSIM (requires Wi-Fi for set-up)
AppleCare+ for “back-glass” damage is now cheaper. Down from $99 USD to just $29 USD.
Bad year for the rumors
No AirPods
No satellite capabilities in the iPhone
No “Aways on” iPhone display
No re-designed Apple Watch
Same battery life in Apple Watch
No new Apple Watch processor
No smart connector on iPad mini
Colors all wrong
No a single word about “Starlight”
No “bronze”
The “FlickType” controversy
Develop plans to sue Apple
FlickType, updates were blocked from the App Store earlier this year and Apple’s new keyboard is pretty much a clone
Apple says it rejected the update because it won’t work without “full access”, but the developer claims they addressed that issue three years ago
Apple now says it now believes that the app's accessibility keyboard complies with App Store rules.
iPadOS 15 will allow developers to request access to more RAM in the M1 iPad Pro
The current limit os 5GB, now that is being increased to 12GB
Impressions
Play comments from Mark
I too was left excited by what was announced but also a bit conflicted
The pacing of the presentations seemed “weird” to me.
Too many “videos”, though Apple has done this in the past.
Pre-Orders
Went really smoothly for me.
I use Apple’s monthly payments option, but NOT their “upgrade” program.
I also paid off my remaining balance before the pre-order day
Set-up my order a couple days in advance and got in a couple minutes after 5:00 AM PDT.
A couple taps and my order was placed.
Others were not so lucky… seems like there were issues with folks who were trying to use Apple Cards and who were on the Citizen One “loan” program for yearly iPhone upgrades.
But also reports of Apple Card issues and Apple Pay issues
Some people had to use a card “other” than their Apple Pay Card which meant possibly losing out on the 3% cash back
looks like, according to AppleInsider, that Apple and Goldman Sachs have acknowledged the issue and will be looking to correct it. Sending out emails to customer with instructions on how to get their cash back. Might involve updating the payment method with Citizen One
Orders on the 1TB and ProMax models seemed to be the first to slip into shipping delays. Moving into October and November
One thing we noticed is that depending on the model, configuration, and area some models can still be available for in store pickup even if backordered online.
Next gen AirPods, where?
For sure one of the big ones the rumor-mill got wrong
They are still coming according to DigiTimes. They say production has kicked off.
They expect them to be shipped by the end of the year
We’re expecting that Apple will still have an event to announce the 1MX MacBook Pros and then the could debut the AirPods update.
Mark Gurman also still believes Apple will release updated AirPods Pro and a redesigned iPad Pro in 2022
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
Some recent feedback
Play comments from Gary about Apple Pay
Daniel wrote in and agrees with the “creatures of habit” argument. He’s in Canada where tap to pay with credit cards has been widespread for years (no need for a PIN)
Let’s you run automated backups, connected or over wi-fi, and support backing up to external disks or NAS drives.
You can also opt to keep a history of your backups, like Time Machine, so you can go back to a specific backup when you restore
Another Maccaster, Joe, with “The system has run out of memory” errors on an M1 MacBook
It’s a 16GB model with 1TB of storage and about 30% free disk space.
Joe says he’s seen the message at least 2 o3 times since June and twice was on wake from sleep.
So it seems possible there may be an issue with the new machines. At this point it’s just an annoying error message, so hopefully that’s all it is and Apple addresses it soon.
Repurposing old iPads
Dan wrote and mentioned he has 2 or 3 old iPads that he was thinking about repurposing
He mentioned possibly using them as “security” cameras
There are apps that will let you use an old iOS device as a camera
There are different kinds of wall mounts you can get as well
Connect the iPad to your Mac with a Lightning cable
Launch the Configurator app and you should see your device. Double Click it.
You should see info about your device. Click the “Prepare” button
Select “Manual” configuration and click “Next”
Choose “Do not enroll in MDM” (unless you have an MDM server) and click “Next"
Check the “Supervise Devices” option. May also want to check the “Allow devices to pair with other computers”. Click “Next”
You’ll be prompted to enter an Organization name. Click “next”
Select “Generate a new supervision identity”
Then you can choose what set-up steps are presented during set-up. “Show All Steps” is the default.
Click “prepare” then the device will be erased and after set-up you can begin supervising it.
It will be managed from the Apple Configurator
To enable “Single App” mode
Connect the iPad to your Mac with a Lightning cable
Connect the iPad to your Mac with a Lightning cable and select your device
Click the “Actions” menu, point to “Advanced,” and select “Start Single App Mode.”
You’ll see a list of the apps available on your iPad
You can also click the “options” button to enable or disable features like the touch screen, volume buttons, sleep/wake button, and auto-lock.
For example disable auto-lock to make sure the iPad screen is always on.
Select the app you want and click the “Select App” button when you’re done
To disable Single App Mode in the future, connect the iPad to the Mac again, open Apple Configurator, and use the Actions > Advanced > Stop Single App Mode option
Apple Watch Taptic Time
I remember Apple mentioning this feature on Apple Watch, but honestly I don’t think I had ever tried it.
This feature allows you to use a two finger tap and hold gesture on the Apple Watch face and it will “tap out” the time on your wrist without you having to look at the display
So you can discreetly get the time in a meeting without anyone being the wiser.
To enable Taptic Time:
Open the Settings app.
Select Clock, then Taptic Time.
Set the toggle next to Taptic Time to On.
Select the pattern that Taptic Time should use.
You can choose Digits, Terse, or Morse Code.
Digits will tap out a long taps for the “tens” of the hour and then a short tap for the “ones” of the hour and then do the same for the minutes.
Terse combine long and short taps but gives you the time to a 15-minute period.
Long taps to signify that five hours have passed since midnight, followed by short taps for the remaining hours, then long taps again for each 15 minute period
So two long = 10 + 3 short = 13 + 3 long = 13:45 - 13:59 (between 1:45 PM and 1:59 PM)
