Apple Announces New Apple Watch Sport Bands and Gold and Rose Gold Finishes
At today’s media event in San Francisco, Apple confirmed two previous rumors by announcing a new line of Apple Watch Sport band colors alongside a new array of metal finishes for the Sport line. Although they were touched on briefly, the new Sport bands were said to be part of a “Fall collection” and will portray softer and darker colors than the bright, neon line of Sport bands Apple put out in the Spring.
These were also announced alongside two new finishes in anodized aluminum — gold and rose gold — for the sport version of the Apple Watch that will allow customers the option of a less-expensive gold finish, when in comparison to the Apple Watch Edition. There’s also a brand new Space black stainless finish, and a new classic leather band with a two-tone look. The (Product) Red sport band was confirmed earlier today.
This story is developing. Refresh for the latest updates from Apple’s September 2015 media event or follow our live blog.
Apple to Partner With Hermes For New Apple Watch Bands and Watch Faces
Today at its “Hey Siri” event, Apple announced a partnership with Hermes to create a special Apple Watch collection called Apple Watch Hermes. The new collection will feature three brand new bands and watch faces.
The three leather bands come in three different styles: a leather double loop that wraps around the wrist twice, a buckle and a simple and more classic-looking watch band. The three watch faces reflect Hermes’ branding. Apple Watch Hermes will launch in October. It’s currently unknown how much Apple Watch Hermes will retail for.
Apple Launching A9X-Based 12.9″ iPad Pro in November for $799+
Apple today announced the iPad Pro at its “Hey Siri” media event in San Francisco. The 12.9-inch tablet has a resolution of 2732×2048, which is 5.6 million pixels — more than any iOS device and even the MacBook Pro with Retina display.
iPad Pro compared side by side with iPad Air 2
The iPad Pro has a 64-bit A9X processor that delivers up to 1.6 times faster performance over the iPad Air 2, with up to twice as fast graphics. Apple also says the tablet has 80% faster performance and 90% faster graphics over portable PCs, allowing users to run apps such as iMovie with desktop-class performance.
The iPad Pro measures 6.9mm thick and weighs 1.57 pounds. The tablet features a four-speaker audio system — two speakers on each side — that balance frequencies and put out up to three times the audio level of the iPad Air 2.
Apple introduced two accessories for the iPad Pro. The first is a Microsoft Surface-like Smart Keyboard, which is built into a Smart Cover accessory and connects magnetically to the iPad Pro’s new three-dot Smart Connector. The second is Apple Pencil, a stylus built using technology that can detect position, tilt and force.
Apple Pencil also calculate angle and orientation to produce both broad or shaded strokes. The Pencil also enables precision that allows artists to touch a single pixel. Apple says the Pencil’s battery lasts for hours and that it can charge by connecting to the iPad Pro’s lighting charger.
Apple Pencil will retail for $99 while the Smart Keyboard will retail for $169. Both will be available alongside the new iPad Pro.
iPad Pro launches in November in silver, space gray and gold, starting at $799 for a 32GB Wi-Fi only model. A 128GB Wi-Fi only model will cost $949 and a Wi-Fi + LTE 128GB model will cost $1,079.
This story is developing. Refresh for the latest updates from Apple’s September 2015 media event or follow our live blog.
Apple Announces Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil for New iPad Pro
Today at its “Hey Siri” special event, Apple announced two brand new accessories for its newly-announced iPad Pro. The Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil both allow iPad Pro users to have more tactile experiences for more heavy-duty work that a touch-screen alone can’t sustain.
The Smart Keyboard comes built into a Smart Cover and uses the Smart Dome Switch from the MacBook, which means that the keys click down evenly from wherever you hit them. The keys are covered by an Apple-woven fabric. The Keyboard connects to the iPad Pro via a new magnetic connector called the Smart Connector, which can transmit both data and power at the same time.
The Apple Pencil is built using technology that can detect position, tilt and force. It can also calculate angle and orientation to produce both broad or shaded strokes. The Pencil also enables precision that allows artists to touch a single pixel. Apple says the Pencil’s battery lasts for hours and that it can charge by connecting to the iPad Pro’s lighting charger.
The Apple Pencil will retail for $99 while the Smart Keyboard will retail for $169. Both will be available in November alongside the new iPad Pro.
This story is developing. Refresh for the latest updates from Apple’s September 2015 media event or follow our live blog.
Apple Announces iPad Mini 4 for $399, Lowers iPad Mini 2 Price to $269
Apple today announced the iPad mini 4 at its “Hey Siri” media event in San Francisco. The tablet is virtually a 7.9-inch version of the iPad Air 2 and will retail for $399. Apple has dropped the iPad mini 3 from its lineup, while the iPad mini 2 is available for $269.
This story is developing. Refresh for the latest updates from Apple’s September 2015 media event or follow our live blog.
Apple Introduces Cooperative Play for ‘Crossy Road’ Among Other Games for Apple TV
At Apple’s media event in San Francisco today, Apple announced an App Store for the new Apple TV that plans to bring unique gaming experiences into a user’s living room. The first experience the company showcased was a co-op Crossy Road experience that lets one player use the new Apple TV remote and another to use an iPhone or iPad to control various characters in the game.
Apple also showcased a new game from Harmonix, the studio behind Rock Band and Dance Central, called “Beats Sports” which takes a “Wii Sports” angle on the music rythm game genre. Harmonix confirmed that up to four players will be able to play the game simultaneously with the use of an iPhone or an iPod Touch, similar to Crossy Road’s co-operative play.
This story is developing. Refresh for the latest updates from Apple’s September 2015 media event or follow our live blog.
Apple Announces New Apple TV With Siri, App Store, New User Interface and Remote
Apple today announced the fourth-generation Apple TV at its “Hey Siri” media event in San Francisco. Tim Cook says the new Apple TV was built on a foundation that includes powerful hardware, a modern OS, a new user experience, developer tools and an App Store.
The new Apple TV comes with a brand new user interface and remote. The remote comes with a glass-touch surface on the top over a set of buttons, allowing users to easily glide across the user interface. The remote also comes with a button for Siri, which allows the user to ask Siri for content to watch. For instance, users can ask Siri for comedies starring a certain actor. Siri searches across multiple content apps, allowing users to see all their options without opening individual apps like Netflix or HBO.
The Touch pad on the new remote includes gestures like a quick swipe that allows a user to quickly get to the end of a column or row. Users can also circle their thumb on the pad to make icons and posters “dance.” Touch can also be used to easily scrub through a TV show or movie. If a user doesn’t want to use the Touch pad to scrub through, they can ask Siri “skip ahead 7 minutes.” Siri can also be asked “what did she say?”, which causes her to rewind 15 seconds.
Like its other incarnations, Siri can be asked for suggestions. A user can simply ask something like “what are some good movies for kids?” and Siri will present a list of options. Siri can also be asked information during playback, like “who stars in this?” Additionally, users can ask things that aren’t related to the content they’re watching. For instance, if a user is wondering about a sports score, they can ask Siri, whose answers are shown at the bottom of the screen and do not distract from the content playing.
The new Apple TV also comes with brand new screen savers featuring high definition footage shot by Apple. The screen savers show off cities in slow motion video and will showcase footage based on the time of day.
tvOS, the new operating system that powers Apple TV, is based off of iOS and makes it easy to build apps. The OS uses familiar development tools like Xcode and includes access to technologies like Metal, GameKit and UIKit. Apple has select developers access to tvOS and showed off several apps that have taken advantage of the early access. Netflix, HBONow and Hulu are some of the content providers who have developed all-new interfaces for the new Apple TV. Game developers like Disney Interactive and Activision will also be bringing console-quality games like “Disney Infinity 3.0” and “Guitar Hero” to the new Apple TV, which will be playable with the new remote.
This story is developing. Refresh for the latest updates from Apple’s September 2015 media event or follow our live blog.
Tinder adds a third swipe option called ‘Super Like’
Tinder is a dating app known for its simplistic swiping system: Swipe right if you’re into someone’s profile and swipe left if you’re not feeling it. But, love isn’t that simple. It requires at least one more swipe. Today, Tinder is rolling out the option to swipe up and “Super Like” someone’s profile — it’ll be available first in Australia, with a global release scheduled for later this year. Users are granted a limited number of Super Likes, and people who receive an upward swipe will be notified by “the presence of a blue footer on a given profile,” Tinder explains. Instead of swiping, users can also just tap the new blue star icon to Super Like someone’s profile.Slideshow-318368
“Because they’re so limited in number, a Super Like, or a ‘swipe up’, sends a more powerful signal, conveying an especially high level of interest,” Tinder CEO Sean Rad says. “People like to know that someone finds them special, and we think this will lead to even better matches.”
A Super Like doesn’t force the receiver to respond to the swiper, but it can “influence that decision,” Tinder warns. Er, says. Tinder says.
Filed under:
Misc, Handhelds, Software
Tags: australia, dating, OnlineDating, superlike, swipeup, tinder
Live from Apple’s iPhone event!
It’s early September and Apple’s invited us to one of its famous keynote addresses out in California, and that can only mean one thing: a new iPhone. (Or two, even, if you ask nicely.) And if the rumor mill is to be believed, we may see way more than just a new handset: anything from a refreshed, pricier Apple TV to a supersized iPad Pro. Of course, the rumor mill has steered us wrong in the past, so we don’t really know if there’ll be an Apple TV, new iPads or a new 4K iMac. But if nothing else, we know this for sure: There will be iPhones. Bookmark this liveblog link and come back today at 1pm ET for the full blow-by-blow.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Misc, Home Entertainment, Laptops, Tablets, HD, Mobile, Apple
Tags: apple, hdpostcross, iphone2015, liveblog, mobilepostcross, uk-feature
Apple’s first major Watch update arrives September 16
The iPhone 6s might be what most people are waiting for (or that iPad Pro), but that doesn’t mean Apple Watch owners aren’t getting any attention. As expected, Cupertino just confirmed the first (significant) software update for the wearable will arrive this week — September 16th.
The big talking point when we first heard about watchOS 2, was the ability for third-party (non-Apple) apps to run directly on the watch, and not rely on the phone. Two we saw on stage at the event included a dedicated Facebook Messenger app, and a GoPro viewfinder from the action-cam maker. These apps, made for the new watchOS shouldn’t suffer any lag, and, more importantly be able to take advantage of all the unique hardware the Watch has — the Crown and health sensors, for example. One example demoed on stage with a medical app called AirStrip.
Other goodies in the update include new watch face options, like using one of your photos, and include widgets (or “complications as Apple calls them) from those aforementioned third-party apps. There’s also a nightstand mode that adds alarm-clock functions (snooze etc,), plus the ability to use store cards and points with Apple Pay and access to more Siri features. There’s even more going on that we won’t comb over here, but be sure we’ll have a full rundown soon. But, for now, the waiting game is (nearly) over.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Wearables, Mobile, Apple
Tags: apple, applewatch, cupertino, iphone2015, iphone6s, mobilepostcross, watchos, watchos2
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