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Apple’s Hey Siri Event Roundup

Apple’s much anticipated event for announcing their late 2015 products was Wednesday and more than exceeded expectations. The invitation to the event included the tagline “Hey Siri, give us a hint!” Actually asking Siri to give a hint would illicit a playful and humorous response. Now that the event is over, you may be wondering what really happened at Apple’s Hey Siri event.

iPhone 6s and 6s Plus

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As expected, Apple introduced the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus on Wednesday. Though they look the same as last year’s phones, they come packed with new features. The most prominent one is the new 3D Touch Display, which allows the phone to distinguish between a light tap, a press, and a deep press. 3D Touch enables new shortcuts, called peeks. Peeks that were demonstrated at the Apple event included looking at a web page before opening Safari and viewing a map location without actually entering Apple Maps. 3D Touch can also be used to see shortcut menus on the home screen. For example, this enables a user to open the camera app directly to the front camera. The updated phones also include a new 12mp iSight camera and 5mp FaceTime camera for improved image quality. All of this new technology is powered by the A9 chip, which is Apple’s 3rd generation 64 bit custom SoC that boasts a 70% CPU performance increase and 90% GPU performance increase.

 

iPad Pro

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Apple also debuted the iPad Pro. As its name suggests, the iPad Pro is a supercharged version of the iPad. It comes complete with 4 stereo speakers and an even faster version of the A9 chip, the A9X. The iPad Pro works with Apple Pencil, a pressure and tilt sensor enabled stylus that allows iPad Pro to determine if light or heavy stokes should be drawn on screen. Additionally, the new smart keyboard can also be used with iPad Pro to allow for increased user productivity. When the keyboard connects, iPad Pro automatically switches off the software keyboard and enables many keyboard related shortcuts, like command-c for copy and command-v for paste.
 

Apple TVapple_tv.png

Perhaps the biggest introduction on Wednesday was the improved Apple TV. A completely new remote combined with an overhauled UI has made the Apple TV one of the main talking points of Apple’s event. tvOS, the new the software that runs Apple TV, has been built as a more capable OS able to support third party apps. Universal search now allows a user to search from anywhere within tvOS, even while something is already playing, to find the movies, TV shows, and apps they want. Supported 3rd party apps can be of any genre, from games to productivity. All of this comes packaged in brand new hardware that supports 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0

Apple’s Hey Siri event did not disappoint. From new state-of-the art iPhones and iPads to accessories like the Apple Pencil, Apple is continuously improving their hardware and push the bounds of user expectations. Metova is particularly excited to see what applications are born that take advantage of the new Apple Pencil or Apple TV.

 

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Drew Pitchford
Drew Pitchford