MacBook Pro fans and professionals alike are raving about the lack of “Pro” inside of the new Apple MacBook Pro. The complaints range from a lack of ports to use of old CPU architecture and even too little RAM. Additionally, Apple has worked in conjunction with LG to create new beautiful 5K displays that are sold at a remarkable price. Let’s all be honest here, Apple would be selling these SAME displays for $300-500 more — you should be happy — but you aren’t because you want an Apple logo on it.
Too bad!!
This is one of the first times that after an Apple event there has been this amount of backlash from the core supporters. The interesting thing is that there are other machines on the market, without an Apple logo (gasp), that can get good work done, have all the RAM you want and have more input ports that you could ask for. Apple is transitioning itself and essentially showing the world that it is the iPhone company — all of their latest feats and improvements have been geared toward the mobile space. Of course, we hope that they haven’t forgotten about the professional segment; however, while releasing new laptops that only feature USB type C input makes many wonder. Additionally, those who edit photo or video could easily put 16GB of RAM into a chokehold.
Late 2016 MacBook Pro Touchbar.
Move on. It is time. Apple makes excellent hardware, but fortunately for us — there are other OEMs out there that cater to your needs. Other companies like Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, HP and more are creating machines that have great displays, lots of RAM and (you guessed it) more than just USB type C. If you feel shut out because of the latest release from Apple, vote with your dollars and do not buy the hardware. Simple. Don’t be the person who spends $2500 on a spec’d out MacBook Pro and be dissatisfied with many things and have to carry dongle after dongle to get work done. That isn’t an “it just works mentality”.
“Hello Again” it’s happy time again in Cupertino with another event from Apple all about their infamous Mac product line. We’ve been expecting a lot, hearing a little through the rumor mill and more — but what did we actually get?
General Updates
Let’s start with a review of what’s been happening in the world of Apple. iPhone is doing extremely well with adoption of iOS 10 already at 60%. Recent updates have enabled portrait mode on the iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Pay in Japan. Additionally, on October 28th a new Nike branded Apple Watch (announced in September) will be available. Apple TV now has 8000 apps available to it’s userbase with the popular game, Minecraft, coming to the big screen soon. New features that are slated to hit boxes before the end of the year are Twitter integration into NFL and NBA coverage, which features a picture in picture styled approached that delivers rich Twitter content regarding the event that’s happening on the large portion of your screen. A new app called “TV”, which will be coming to the Apple TV, iPhone and iPad seeks to bring into focus all things that you are watching across all of your apps so that you have a centralized “hub” for your media content and new ways to discover content that you may be unaware of.
But you want to hear about shiny new MacBooks, huh? Well you’ve drug it out of me…
MacBook Updates
The new 2016 MacBook Pro will come in two sizes, 13″ and 15″ featuring a beautiful aluminum unibody design in silver and space gray color options. As with other items in the Apple lineup, the screen will feature a wide color gamut resulting in a more vibrant and accurate display. Important to note is that these are some of the thinnest and lightest laptops ever made by Apple with the 13″ MacBook Pro weighing 3 pounds and the 15″ weighing 4 pounds respectively while shaving up to 3 mm of the thickness with the lid closed.
Specs of Late 2016 MacBook Pro lineup as of October, 2016.
With new internals that match the sophisticated look, there is also a new feature called “Touch Bar”, which replaces the standard function keys on the two top-end models of the MacBook Pro. The new notebooks will utilize AMD’s Radeon Pro graphics architecture (15″ model) , which is built to improve upon performance achieved by the last generation MacBook Pro line. With all of these new features squeezed into a smaller more lightweight body, battery life will not be sacrificed as users can still expect to get 10 hours on the device. Prices of all MacBook Pro models are shown below.
Prices of Late 2016 MacBook lineup as of October, 2016.
Touch Bar
Touch Bar is a new spin on the standard row of function keys that we’ve been used to for years — and this spin isn’t a bad one (or at least not awful).
MacBook Pro Touch Bar.
Touch Bar acts as functions keys; however, it is dynamic and shifts to help you control whatever app you are currently in. If you are editing clips using Final Cut Pro, Touch Bar can allow you to trim clips, scrub the timeline and more. For those who love to work in Adobe Photoshop, Touch Bar can apply filters, navigate between layers and scrub through all recent changes to your project. Additionally, for the deejays out there, Touch Bar can completely change the workflow of mixing and take your abilities to a new and different level. In addition, built into the bar is TouchID, which can be used for Apple Pay. Finally, for all of the power users, Touch Bar can be completely (yes, completely) customized to your liking by simply dragging a new icon onto the bar from the screen of the MacBook using the trackpad.
Product Video (Source: Apple, Youtube)
Bottom line: This is a solid update for the MacBook line. Some are left wondering where are updates to the iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro — yes, I am part of that group. I wonder if the Touchbar wouldn’t be more useful at the bottom of the keyboard so that the user doesn’t have to constantly reach to the top of the keyboard.
Tim Cook, Pharrell Williams and James Corden appear in a car singing their favorite tunes along with small talk about the new iPhone. They arrive at a door and Tim gets out and walks onto stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium — and it begins.
Stats from Tim
Apple Music
Apple’s music service is noted to have reached 17 million total subscriptions and features numerous exclusives from various artists such as Drake and Frank Ocean.
App Store
Since it’s inception there have been 140 billion app downloads. The catalog contains approximately 500,000 games, making up the largest category on the App Store. This incredible figure makes the iPhone/iPad combination the largest gaming platform. Due to these feats by the iOS devices, Mario — that’s right — Mario, our favorite plumber will be gracing iOS with a new game entitled Super Mario Run!
Super Mario Run
This is the first time that a Mario game has been pushed officially by Nintendo to a mobile operating system and I’d easily say that they made the right choice by pushing it to the App Store. It is created with one-handed gaming in mind and features competitive features in the mode “Toad Rally”.
Education
ConnectED is a national initiative to bring technology to underserved students. With this Apple is working to donate iPads to 50K students. Additionally, we’ve seen updates to iWork with improvements in collaboration similar to other applications like Google Docs where the user can see additions made by other collaborators.
New Products
Apple Watch
The Apple Watch was second only to Rolex in the world for sales revenue in the year 2015 and is the top selling smartwatch overall.
Introducing Apple Watch Series 2.
With these impressive stats Apple has worked to produce Apple Watch Series 2 that is completely redesigned on the inside to provide water resistance. Additionally, the new wearable will be touting the Apple S2 processor, which garners faster app speeds on the device. This new mobile processor will also make it’s way to the first-generation Apple Watch, which will still be sold by the company. Furthermore, with the advent of the new Apple S2 processor, comes the new GPU that is 2x faster than the previous generation.
The display has been updated to be 2x brighter, blasting out pixel at 1000 nits (really bright, this is the brightest display that Apple has even put inside of one of it’s devices). With new processors built for speed the new drove of Apple Watch devices are poised to be great for new adopters.
Sport and fitness have been some of the highlight features of the Apple Watch and these alone have made it be one of the premier fitness trackers in the industry and with the introduction of GPS things are only going to get better (if the GPS feature is not something that you long for, opting for Series One is still a good idea or even the first-generation without the new processor if you can handle a device that is a tad slower). GPS tracking is a crucial feature for runners, cyclists and more who want a precise recap of the exact route that they followed. Apple has also partnered with Nike to create the Apple Watch Nike+. This specific model is similar to the Hermes Apple Watch that comes with a different band and a new watchface. The Nike+ watchface will provide a sporty interface in addition the watch will remind the user to run and get active.
The Series 2 device with an additional finish of ceramic will start at $369 and the updated Series 1 (first-generation Apple Watch) will be sold at $269.
iPhone
The Apple iPhone is the best selling product of it’s kind in the history of the world and has sold 1 billion units. Changes coming to iOS 10 include a newly redesigned Maps app that includes the ability to book rides and more directly from the app, changes to HomeKit, which is supported by virtually every major home automation product manufacturer, that are throughout the Home app that truly integrates home automation unlike any portal integrated into any mobile OS, changes to iMessage for more expression and tweaks and improvements that make this the fastest and best version of iOS to date. But with it has to come new hardware, right?
Introducing iPhone 7.
The iPhone 7 is coming to us with a slew of new features, which are detailed below:
All new jet black and black colors (Apple notes that the Jet Black color option may scratch easily and promote the use of a case)
Home button is changed from a physical button to a Force-touch button, similar to the trackpad on the MacBook and MacBook Pro line that works based off of the patented Taptic engine (see below, the removal of the headphone jack allows for this innovation)
Apple home button Taptic engine placement.
Water and dust resistant (IP67 certified) with gaskets throughout the housing
Camera features OIS on both 7 and 7 Plus models (additional camera features below)
F 1.8 aperture
6 element lens
12 MP sensor that is 60% faster than the previous model
Quad-LED true tone flash
Wide color gamut photos
RAW image capture
7 MP facetime HD camera
7 Plus features two 12 MP cameras, one wide-angle and another is telephoto so that the focal length can be manipulated and achieve the bokeh effect — these features will come as an update to iPhone 7 Plus users
iPhone 7 camera details.
Stereo speakers (one on top another on bottom)
Improvements to the Retina HD display that make it 25% brighter and support for a wide color gamut
No headphone jack, lightning ear pods are included (additionally a lightning to 3.5mm adapater comes with every iPhone 7 device)
Wireless AirPods, which feature the Apple W1 chip, are wireless buds that require one time setup and sync across all devices through iCloud
Apple’s new AirPods, starting at $159
Apple Pay support in Japan
Performance improvements through the newly design A10 Fusion chip, which is a 4 core 64-bit CPU that contains 2 high performance and 2 high efficiency cores (these can help save battery life when doing less intense tasks such as Email, calculator, light web-browsing and more)
A10 Fusion chip details.
All of these features for the same price as the previous generation, with the addition of more storage. So, starting at $649 you will get the iPhone 7 models that come in either 32, 128 or 256GB configurations with these options replicating down to the existing iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. The iPhone 7 will be available for preorder on 9/9 and will ship on 9/16.
iPhone Storage Configurations
Bottom line and takeaways: This is a very solid announcement for Apple and a leap forward for the iPhone and Watch lines. The camera is certainly the biggest selling feature on this device and with pictures becoming more and more important in our lives — it should be a focalpoint. The removal of the headphone jack may make some upset, but it’s 2016 — get over it and use wireless devices. Why tether yourself to a device that is meant to be mobile? One note is that the AirPods are absolutely disgraceful — they are hideous, if you don’t get the point. One of the newly released pairs of Beats wireless headphones seem to be a better choice here. Additionally, revamping the home button is something much needed as that is the primary button on the device and it is known for collecting dust and sometimes becoming inoperable on older devices — this is huge.
Apple Watch Series 2 simply builds on the great foundation that was laid out by the first-generation device. Now with better waterproofing, a new ceramic case and a faster processor — these updates bring it into 2016 with a bang.
Of course with any update, this is the best iPhone to date, with better storage options, same pricing scheme, snappy A10 Fusion chip — what more could we ask for?
Let’s end with a quick hands on of the newly announced iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 devices below, Enjoy.
We’ve been waiting for an announcement that we knew was coming and it is now confirmed since the invites are out. The question is, is the cat out of the bag or does Apple have something up it’s sleeve at this point?
iPhone 7/7Plus
The iPhone has been a staple device in the lives on many for nearly 10 years and this year is no different. With subtle changes expected to be coming to the exterior and a new A10 chip powering it to make iOS even faster, this is surely going to be a spectacular decice. Additionally, rumors suggest that the iPhone 7 Plus model will contain a dual camera setup to be able to capture depth information similar to that of modern DSLR cameras — this is a big deal. A very big deal. Lastly, let’s talk about the elephant in the room….the lack of a headphone jack. Sorry kids, this is nothing to write home about. Supposedly the device is shipping with wireless “air pods” instead of the cabled mess that you’d normally receive.
I will not miss the 3.5mm jack.
Preview iOS 10 here:
Mac
The bustle has been “new MacBook Pros, new MacBook Pros” since Apple’s WWDC event where they were not released to the surprise of many. According to many sources, Apple was waiting on the Kaby Lake processors from Intel. There should be large changes to the MacBook Pro line with faster processors and a new macOS Sierra to power them.
Preview macOS Sierra here:
Watch
Apple Watch 2 is the buzz. Thinner, lighter and a bigger battery should power watchOS 3. Take a look at highlights of watchOS 3 here here (Source: iMore).
Google’s newest messaging and video chat platforms, Allo and Duo respectively are poised to potentially fail — hard.
Google has Hangouts already, which is almost a complete product;yet, they’ve invested time, development dollars and more on two new separate apps (that are end-to-end encrypted, by the the way). The company is also touting the fact that these apps are “specialized” with the fact that they do one thing. Certainly an interesting notion.
The real issue here is that Google is confusing consumers, they don’t know if they should use Messaging, Hangouts or the new combination of Allo and Duo. Furthermore, we certainly do not know what OEMs will include on the devices that they ship once these apps are live. Will they include the apps made my Google or will they make their own terrible emulations of them (cue Samsung)? THAT is the issue. We need clear direction of where Google and Android want to take messaging as it has been a mess for years with many consumers simply sticking to whatever app is thrown on their device.
With the rollout officially underway, download these from the Play Store or App Store when they are available and give them a try.
Bottom line: Google, make your intentions clear!
Tech for the masses, meant to empower, educate and inform by Dexter Johnson.
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