The Big Apple
Tuesday marked Apple’s iPhone 6 event, where the tech company unveiled the latest model of its top selling mobile device. And a few other things. The very lengthy presentation was available to everyone for the first time through a livestream hosted on Apple’s website. Well, anyone who was able to access Apple’s native browser, Safari. Many who didn’t have a supported browser or device were left in the dark.
So, if you missed today’s event or simply fell asleep after hour one, we’ve got a quick and dirty recap of what Apple presented today.
iPhone(s)
That’s right plural. As in, there’s two of them.
Size: The iPhone 6 has a big brother, the iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 6 measures at 4.7 inches and the iPhone 6 Plus measures at 5.5 inches. To put things in perspective the iPhone 5 and 5s both measure at 4.8 inches. Apple touts both devices as super thin with a 6.9mm thickness on the iPhone 6, and 7.1mm on the iPhone 6 Plus.
Display: Both of the iPhone 6’s feature a new generation of Retina HD display.
4.7 inches of 1334 x750 resolution with a pixel density of 289 ppi for the iPhone 6. 5.5 inches of 1920 x 1080 resolution leading to a pixel-density of 401 ppi for the iPhone 6 Plus. The devices also include a new polarizer in the glass that should offer better bright sunlight readability. The backlight is also thinner.
Battery: The iPhone 6 has 14 hours of talk time and the Plus has up to 24 hours of 3G talk time.
Processor: The new Apple A8 processor is 64-bit built with 20-nanometer technology and is reportedly 50 times faster than the original iPhone.
The new motion coprocessor, called M8, is useful for fitness applications. It can tell when you’re cycling, running, walking, and it has the ability to estimate distance.
Camera: Both versions of the iPhone 6 have an 8 megapixel camera with True Tone flash, a 2.2 aperture, and an all new sensor. The panorama mode can now do 43 megapixel panoramas. Slow motion videos are now capable at 240 fps, up from 120 fps with the iPhone 5S. It also has built-in cinematic video stabilization.
New Features: The Messages app now has a new horizontal view. Another new feature is called Reachability. If you double tap the TouchID button, the whole display slides down so you can reach anything at the top.
Colors: Gold, space gray, and silver.
Price and Release Date: The iPhone 6 starts at $199 for 16GB, $299 for 64GB, and $399 for 128GB, with contract. The iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 for 16GB, $399 for 64GB, and $499 for 128GB, with contract. Preordering for both start Friday September 12th and the devices will hit stores September 19th.
Apple Pay
What is it?: Apple Pay, while not a new idea, is basically your wallet on your phone. It uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to enable users to make payments in stores by swiping their phones.
How it works: Apple Pay works by letting users scan their credit cards, from MasterCard, Visa or American Express, and then upload that information into the Passbook app. Instead of using the traditional 16-digit credit card number, a digital token that is unique to each device and can only be used with that device is sent to the shopper to use for the transaction.
In addition to the tokenization plan, Apple's execs also noted that the user can cancel payments from their iPhone if the device is lost or stolen. The hope is that these features can improve security by limiting the customer's exposure.
Merchants supported: Apple Pay will work at more than 200,000 merchants, including big name stores like Disney. The system will also integrate into apps from Target, Groupon, and OpenTable.
Apple Watch
Perhaps the scene stealer of the event was the unveiling of Apple’s first product in wearable tech, the Apple Watch. Starting at $349, the Apple Watch comes in two sizes (38 mm and 42 mm) with six different straps (made of leather, metal, and plastic) and a mechanism that makes them interchangeable. It comes in chic alloys of stainless steel, aluminum and 18-karat gold.