iPhone7 Day Is Over! Here’s All That Tim Cooked For This Year

As Cook quoted last year, it was the biggest event in Apple since Apple, they had the biggest news in iPad since iPad, and the future of TV is Apps. What do they have in their pocket this time with a new iPhone? The launch event has just got over, and here’s all that Tim cooked for us this year at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

Apple CEO Tim Cook arrived on the stage after singing some karaoke wearing same shades and same shirt. With a Carpool Karaoke bang, Tim Cook said, Apple Music has 17 million subscribers, I guess a lot of the new users have been added in India. “Premier destination for new artists,” says Cook. It’s the first place to hear over 70 new releases.

And to make Google a tad worry, 140 billion apps downloaded from the App Store with twice the revenue of Play Store, with an impactful growth rate of 106% in last two months. The service story is getting better. And that’s a big deal if you consider iOS devices are much less compared to Android in the world.

The success of App Store has made the iPhones and iPads most popular gaming devices out there with half a million gaming titles to choose from.

The crowd went in joy with applauds with an update that Super Mario is coming to the app store. The one-handed play comes to Mario for the first time through iPhone with Super Mario stickers coming on iOS 10. Apple surely thinks that Mario is a big deal! With that, if Pokemon GO strikes your mind, there’s a big update below.

To encourage young generation, Tim Cook had a word about initiatives in the field of education and why not add technology to it. Everyone can code will be driven by Swift Playground. Coding has never been this easy that it’s an app all kids must try.

Susan Prescott announced iWork gets real-time collaboration. This is a big counter to Google Docs and MS Office too. Moving ahead, the time comes for the Apple Watch.

Apple Watch is now second only to Rolex in sales revenue. Top smartwatch too, says Cook. Apple Watch has changed what people expect from a watch, he added. Some of the new iMessage features also come to the Apple Watch.

Hold on, Pokemon GO is on the watch. This is a new level of crazy!

Pokemon GO is the AR game that has gone viral and been downloaded more than 500 million times across the world but it has not yet officially come to India. So even Apple Watch gets it before we do, if that’s a question. And now, it’s on the watch, so a new level of obsession has just got unlocked.

Some specifications about the watch: Apple Watch (Series 2) has been re-engineered. It is swim proof and water resistant for up to 50m. And another innovation is it has a redesigned speaker system that can actually eject the water if it gets inside the watch. 1000 nits, that is brighter than most smartphones screens. So you won’t have any issues under the sun too. Built-in GPS is there, as was rumoured earlier. There will be a ceramic version of the Watch this time, and the S2 processor is two times faster than the earlier version. Get the hands on is now the only thing left to say.

And here comes a genius example of marketing, Apple partners with Nike to introduce Apple Watch Nike+.

The Nike version of the Apple Watch will come in four color variants that received a lot of cheers from the crowd. Trevor Edwards of Nike on stage, said more people are running but staying motivated is tough. The Apple Watch Nike+ has a shortcut to start a run, just tell Siri. All relevant data flashes on the screen.

Apple Watch Series 2 will be priced $369 and older version Series 1 will get a dual core at $269.

With Tim Cook coming back on stage, said 1 billion devices sold so far, and iOS 10 is the biggest release ever. Look for works with Apple Homekit on devices, says Cook. However, we are still a few years away in India when it comes to this technology.

And it’s now that over, the grand launch has now come in, it’s iPhone 7, and it looks all new and different with the high gloss black finish. The new jet black finish is fascinating for sure, and then there are also black, gold, silver, and rose gold color variants. And the prices start $649, no surprises there!

There is a dual camera on the new iPhone. The ‘re-engineered’ Home button is now pressure touch-sensitive and is complemented by a new Taptic Engine and can be programmed by third-party applications. New feelings and applications, says Phil Schiller.

The new iPhones will also be water and dust resistant. And Apple’s USP is when they say it, they actually mean it, unlike Sony Xperia which is now slowly pulling out of the market.

Let’s talk about its Camera: iPhone 7 has only one camera but gets OIS. Bigger 12MP sensor and four-LED flash. Flicker sensor can compensate for artificial lighting. More powerful sensor, says Phil. It can shoot in RAW and the front camera now is in its better version too.

The iPhone 7 Plus has a dual camera setup at the back. Both are 12 MP modules, with one being wide-angle and another telephoto. There’s an enhanced 10x software zoom onboard. Though Optical zoom is till 2X, rest is the digital zoom. Another good news is the front camera is now 7MP for those FaceTimes – in HD.

The two lenses help create a depth map and blur the background. There is a new Portrait mode too. Incredible breakthrough, says Phil. The depth of field effect will come via a software update on iOS.

It’s not over yet, the event has been full of surprises though rumours tried to ruin some of them but didn’t do much. Yes, the 3.5mm jack is real dead. How does that sound to you? Apple will connect with lightning connectors from now onward.

Apple is taking on another challenge and is announcing the AirPods, wireless headphones. This is now the future of audio with both top smartphone makers (other is Icon X from Samsung) are believing into this. It’s compatible of five hours of listening on one charge and there is a charging pod too. Battery and charging capability are built into the Apple AirPods case directly, for 24 hours of wireless listening. The W1 is Apple’s first wireless chip.

The best is left for the last: Performance of the iPhone 7 on the show! The A10 Fusion chip is 64bit, quad core processor — two high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores that use the lesser battery. Performance controller devices which cores are used for what. Better graphics too, 240x faster than the first iPhone.

Console level gaming now possible, says Phil, calls it a breakthrough. Photo apps will love this new processor too. But it could be the dual camera that really uses this chip to its best.

The battery life will be better. The all new A10 processor helps the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus deliver ‘the longest battery life in an iPhone’. For an idea, two more hours from last versions.

Best phone we have ever made, Phil says in his last mention.

Last time they had the One Republic, this time it’s Sia on the stage and performed her hit single ‘The Greatest’. With this, Tim Cook wrapped up the event!

With no doubt, Apple has taken a key from some of its rivals here, though the dual cameras, wireless headphones all made their debut with Android. What all we have been waiting since the first launch of iPhone in 2007 has now arrived. This is that event that will worry the key players in the market while Play Store is hitting back in the mind again and again since he said that the revenue from App Store is 2X that of Play Store.

Signing off! Wake me up, the next September.

(Cover image is sourced from Twitter/TOI).