A year of new Apple

Last week, Apple announced all their new product launches happening in the coming year. Take a look at some of the highlights.

September 12th, 2017, marked Apple’s annual keynote releasing all the new products for the coming year. The event, which occurs each year, is always chock full of exciting new softwares, phone models, watches etc. This year was no different. The event started out with the introduction of the Apple Park, recently opened to employees in Cupertino, California. The new location is a 175-acre green space that was built from a “sea of asphalt,” and connects all of its employees and visitors with the beautiful California landscape. Not only did they literally turn asphalt into a functioning, architecturally stunning workspace, but it’s run entirely off of renewable energy. Yes, you heard it, 100% renewable energy. Opening later this year will be a visitor center that is welcome to anyone who wants to come visit and will give visitors the chance to experience augmented reality as well as a brand new retail store.

At this point in the keynote, presenters introduced the newest idea from Apple to reinvent their store fronts. Stores will now be called “Town Squares” and will be created to give customers a more calm atmosphere and a community feel. Over the next year, stores all over the world will be both reinvented and new ones built to display this new concept. Developers wanted to create a place where people can go not to just buy a new product, but to truly learn to use it.

Among the new products being released this coming year is the newest Apple Watch. Sales on Apple Watches grew 50% with the release of the Watch Series 2 and it was announced at the keynote, that the Apple Watch is now the #1 in the world. The Series 3 watch, slated to come out later this month, will revolutionize health and fitness with new workout apps for HIIT workouts, running, walking, even swimming. Its heart rate monitor will provide all new information including resting heart rate and recovery heart rate as part of the “Apple Heart Study” which will be a study conducted using purely Apple Watches and anyone can take part in the study through an app that will be announced later this year. The Watch will have new updates for music, Siri, new bands and watch-face colors to choose from, and will introduce cellular in a watch for the first time.

The most highly anticipated reveal at the keynote was, of course, the iPhone 8. It will come in silver, space gray, and gold models with glass plates both sides. It will also be microscopically sealed for protection from water and dust. It sounds downright dreamy. Presenters went on to talk about all the attributes of the new phone that will appeal to customers. This includes a speaker system that is 25% louder than the iPhone 7 and the A11 bionic chip which is reportedly the most powerful and smartest ever to be in a smart phone. The amazing camera will also move forward with the iPhone 8 and 8 plus. They will both have a 12 megapixel sensor and produce 83% more light in photos for the best yet photographs shot on an iPhone. Keynote speakers also introduced a new mode called “portrait light effect” which allows the phone to take into consideration background to change what lighting you want for the photo. You can black out the whole background for a true portrait shot, or brighten up the background to enhance the already present sunlight. Apple described a truly revolutionary set of specs for the iPhone 8 and the anticipation for the release of the new model on September 22nd begins.

But wait, they weren’t done. Apple also announced the iPhone X at the keynote on September 12th. The iPhone X’s display will go edge to edge with no home button and glass on the back and front and will be made from surgical grade, stainless steel. It will come in just two colors: space gray and silver with the all new Super Retina Display which is 5.8” diagonally. iPhone X will have HDR video, 3D touch, true tone photos, and the biggest reveal, for the first time ever on a smart phone, was Face ID. Users will simply tap the home screen to wake the phone and hold it up to scan their face to unlock. The phone learns every inch of its user’s face so that when a user changes the hair, outfit, ages etc. the phone will still know it’s them. This technology has never been used before and is truly revolutionary. Face ID has now become the most secure option to protecting the iPhone with a one in one million chance that a random person could get into the phone. Team members worked with the all-new A11 Bionic neural engine that processes facial recognition to make it the best facial recognition software ever on a phone.

The keynote on September 12th in Cupertino at the all new Apple Mark “Steve Jobs Theater” did not disappoint and fans of the technology empire can look forward to all new products coming through before the end of 2017.