Apple’s Epic Keynote: Part 1

Today was Apple’s September event. It is not surprising that Apple has announced some new devices. What is surprising, is the number of items that Apple has announced. For this article, we will only cover the first two, Apple Watch and iPad. Let us look at each one of these.

Apple Watch

Apple did not announce a new watch, but reiterated some of the features of watchOS 2. Some of the features of watchOS 2 includes new watch faces, third party complications, and time travel. One of the features of watchOS is the ability to have native applications. Apple highlighted some of the companies whom will be bringing applications to the Apple Watch. These include Facebook, Go Pro, iTranslate, and Airstrip.

Hermes Collection

One of the ways of grouping watches is by collections. Apple has announced a new collection called the Hermes collection. This collection features a stainless steel Apple watch paired with different bands. These bands are all leather. The watch faces for the Hermes collection uses the same design as their traditional watches.

The leather bands that are part of the the Hermes collection are one of three styles. Cuff, Tour, or Double Tour. The Cuff band only comes in the 42mm size. The Cuff has been customized to allow the heart rate sensors to remain in contact with the skin. The Cuff will cost $1500.

The Tour band comes in both 38mm and 42mm varieties. The Single Tour comes in three colors. The first is a brown leather. The second is a Noir leather. The Noir leather is black in color. The last color is only available in 38mm and is the Cupcake Leather band. It’s a bright red band. The single Tour has a double-clasp and looks similar to a classic leather band.

Similarly, the Double Tour comes in a variety of colors, but only in the 38mm variety. The four bands are Fauve Barenia Leather, Etain Leather, Capucine Leather, and Bleau Jean leather. These four colors are brown, gray, red, and blue. The difference between a Single Tour and a Double Tour is that the Double Tour is designed to wrap around a wrist twice, with part of the band being off to one side as to not obstruct the heart rate sensor.

The Single Tour will begin at $1100 and the Double Tour will begin at $1250. All of the Hermes collection will be available in October 2015.

The collection is not the only addition to the Apple Watch family. Apple also added a couple of new colors. The colors Rose Gold and Yellow gold. These are both aluminum, but have a new finish. The availability of these is today, starting at $349 for the 38mm and $399 for the 42mm.

The last change that Apple made is to add some additional band colors. The new sports band are lavender, antique white, stone and midnight blue, as well as new (PRODUCT)Red sports band. The Apple Watch Sport silver aluminum is also now available with new orange or blue Sport Bands.

The stainless steel Apple Watch also received a new option, the Black model can now be ordered with a black sports band.

A new Apple Watch Edition was also introduced, an 18-karat rose gold with a midnight blue Classic Buckle.

The addition of the Rose Gold and Yellow Gold aluminum Apple Watches are a nice change. The addition of a new collection may just be signaling the beginning of how Apple will expand its Apple Watch to appeal to more individuals.

iPad

One of the things that Apple has done over the last five and a half years since the introduction of the original iPad in 2010 has been have a new release of an iPad just about every year. The original iPad had a 9.7-inch screen, and Apple introduced a new screen size, a 7.9-inch when they introduced the iPad Mini in October of 2012. Well, today Apple has introduced a third screen size for the iPad, 12.9-inches. This screen is on the iPad Pro.

iPad Pro

The iPad Pro, as stated sports a 12.9-inch display that is 2732 pixels by 2048 pixels. The 2048 pixels is the same size as the landscape orientation of the iPad Air 2. The iPad Pro also comes with an A9X processor that has a built-in M9 motion co-processor. The iPad Pro has dual microphones, which is also the same on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Yet, the iPad Pro has one feature that is not available on other iOS devices, four speakers. Sound coming out of the four speakers will automatically change based upon the orientation of the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro also comes with a Touch ID Sensor, up and down volume control and even a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is a new connector for the iPad Pro, the Smart Connector. The Smart Connector does not replace the lighting adapter but is a new connector that allows bi-directional data and power to any compatible devices. The Smart Connector will allow 3rd party devices.

There are a couple of accessories specifically for the iPad Pro. The first one adds some benefits of the device. The accessory is a stylus, called the Apple Pencil.

Apple Pencil

Many people would think that a stylus would not be needed, and they do not have to purchase it. The Apple Pencil is a $99 option. The Apple Pencil is designed to be paired with the iPad Pro. The Apple Pencil allows a user to choose how much pressure they wish to apply. The more pressure applied, the thicker the line will be. The Apple Pencil can get down to a single pixel, if that is what is desired. One of the most interesting aspects of the Apple Pencil is that if a user wants to put some shading effects onto a drawing, they can simply tilt the Pencil and the proper amount of shading will be applied. The Apple Pencil does require some charging, however, the connector is a Lightning connector. The Apple Pencil can charge from the iPad Pro and can get a 30-second charge in 15 seconds. So you can quickly charge the Apple Pencil and get back to work.

Smart Keyboard

The iPad Pro also has another accessory, the Smart Keyboard. The Smart Keyboard is a keyboard and cover. The Smart Keyboard will allow someone to plug their iPad Pro in to the cover. The Smart Keyboard works well with the Smart Connector to provide power and data to the the keyboard. The Smart Keyboard will cost you $169 when it is available.

The iPad Pro comes in three models, 32GB Wi-Fi only, 128GB Wi-Fi only, and 128GB LTE model. The prices for these three models are $799, $949, and $1079 respectively. The iPad Pro will be available for pre-order in October and will be available in November.

iPad Mini

There was another iPad that received an update, the iPad Mini 4. The iPad Mini 4 received a slight upgrade to an A8 Processor, and the M8 co-processor. The capacities have remained the same at 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB. The iPad Mini 4 comes in the same colors as before, Silver, Gold, and Space Grey.

There has been no change to the 9.7-inch iPad Air line. It remains the same as it was before the keynote.

The prices of the iPad line has changed. The complete line up of the iPads is now iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 4, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, and iPad Pro. The prices start at $269, $399, $399, $499, and $799 respectively. The iPad Mini 4 is available for order today. The iPad lineup is now all A7 or newer, but all of the iPads have Retina-level graphics.

Apple made a couple other product releases that Apple has done today. Given how long the keynote was the remaining updates will be covered in another story tomorrow.