Take a Bite of the New Apple

Aiming to reignite excitement about iPhones after seeing sales decline for the first time, last night’s Apple’s launch saw the unveiling of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, along with the new Apple Watch series and AirPods — a set of wireless headphones.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

What’s hot: This is the first water-resistant iPhone and as expected…the fastest one yet. Apple says the iPhone 7’s new processor, which they called a “rocket ship” performs 120 times faster than the original iPhone.

As rumours had predicted — in an extensive transformation — the new iPhone 7 will do away with the headphone jack and has taken a step closer towards a wireless future with the AirPods. For older standard headphones Apple will include an adaptor that can be plugged into the Lightning port.

The iPhone 7 Plus will ship with two camera lenses with the capacity to zoom without losing resolution. The camera includes an optical image and video stabiliser, wider lens, all-new flash that recognises artificial lighting, high-speed sensor and wide colour capture. With each generation the iPhone camera has improved. This time’s upgrade is a leap and will floor the users.

The new home button isn’t a button — it uses Apple’s ‘taptic engine’ to uniquely click back at users. Messages, texts etc will have different buzzes.

Things to know: Water and dust resistant, they also come with a longer battery life. On average, the iPhone 7 should last two more hours than the iPhone 6S. The stereo speakers are a great addition to the system. For those interested in the look and feel,  they will ship in five colours —  jet black, black, gold, rose gold and silver. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will run on A10 64-bit quad-core CPU with updated storage options of 32GB, 128GB, 256GB.

Verve notes

1. The AirPods are the first thing on most peoples’ mind! Far too many have been complaining about not having a headphone jack. A wireless future is imminent and let’s not forget Apple was the first to get rid of the CD holder in their Macs and lot of people weren’t comfortable with that back then too. As long you don’t lose them on the first day, they should work just fine.

2. Like every iPhone upgrade in the past, this is definitely the most powerful iPhone of the lot and these new features are great additions. However, if you’ve recently upgraded, or if you were looking forward to being wowed by a new iPhone’s refreshed looks — you have to wait until 2017.

3. The fine print at the bottom of Apple’s iPhone 7 page says the high-gloss finish of the jet black iPhone 7 may be prone to more scratches compared to other iPhone colours.

4. One distinct difference in the dimensions of the new iPhone is the camera size, which means your current favourite bling iPhone case may not be usable on the new handset.

India launch: October 7th, 2016.

Should Apple’s updates be ‘path-breaking’? Read more here.

Apple Watch Series 2

What’s hot: During the keynote, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that in 18 months of shipping, Apple Watch ranked second on the watch line by revenue, behind Rolex. Apple has now refocused its Watch towards fitness. There’s also a special Nike edition that will be available in October.

Things to know: With 50% speed improvement, it is also waterproof down to 50 metres- with a speaker that ejects water. The screen brightness has improved by 50% along with a doubled graphic performance. There is an in-built GPS system and you have an option of buying it in ceramic, which is four times harder than stainless steel.

Verve notes

1. The Watch now has in-built GPS but still doesn’t have a cellular connection (to avoid straining the battery). Thus your Apple Watch will be able to guide you on a run or a hike. However, without your phone, you won’t be able to receive calls or notifications.

2. This is a fitness and health accessory that is a step up from the standard fitness bands available. However, seems unlikely that CEOs will switch their Patek Philippe’s for Apple’s square shaped watch.

Extras

1. Nintendo shares rise with new App Store announcements

Tim Cook invited Shigeru Miyamoto — the man behind some of the most iconic games — to announce Super Mario Run’s upcoming launch in the App Store. It looks like a lot of fun with worldwide competing and can be played with only one hand. No, really!

The second announcement was an update to Pokémon Go (the augmented reality app that had more daily active users in a month, than Tinder). The game will be integrated into the Apple Watch with a calorie counter and the display will assist users in finding hard-to-catch, rare Pokémon. Will we be seeing more teenagers walking around Pokéstops at temples?

Verve notes

Nintendo has generally been a traditionalist company and this Apple-Nintendo partnership could turn out to be great for Nintendo fans in terms of catching up to the current technology. However, many fear that Nintendo could go the Sega way and pull out of the hardware ecosystem.

2. iOS 10, coming September 13th

Siri has received an update to be more efficient. Apple is opening up Siri to developers — she will now be able to WhatsApp your friends and order your pizza.

The entire operating system has been overhauled. You’ll now be able to copy-paste between your phone and Mac with ease, reducing dependability on third-party apps.

“Raise to wake” —  the new feature lets you lift the phone from a desk and see your notifications at a glance.

The lock screen is being opened up to widgets and you’ll be able to interact with apps and notifications via 3D touch, without unlocking your phone and launching the app.

The biggest updates come to Apple’s in-built apps with Phone, Photos, Maps, Apple Music and iMessages getting a breath of fresh air. iMessage gets the biggest overhaul with enlarged emojis, animations, and you can now draw on pictures that you send to friends. For the first time, developers will be able to integrate apps into native messaging.

Apple has designed Music from the ground up in this new version of iOS. With a new UI the app will also have built-in lyrics.

There’s also going to be a new Home app which will allow you to control compatible smart home devices.

P.S. The update is available for iPhone 5 and higher, and to iPads of a similar generation.

Verve notes

You know all the Android users will tell you that they’ve had most of these features forever. But, better late than never, right?

3. iWork and real time collaboration

Apple is extending real time editing and collaboration to its entire suite of software. Google and Microsoft has had this for years. Apple emphasised on this new update just to make things easier in the classroom.

Farrhad Acidwalla is a media and technology entrepreneur, investor and motivational speaker.