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The Apple Event

September 13, 2018 • Product Reviews

Put down your pumpkin spiced latte, friend, lest you do a spit take. The Apple Event was yesterday, and they announced the launch of not one new fall iPhone, but three!

You can pick up your pumpkin spiced latte again, because it really isn’t that exciting – these are mostly just size and software upgrades. Sure, the upgraded cameras are “better than ever before”, but we’ve heard that before. And analysts have been reporting the prices as “higher than expected”, so you be the judge whether these updates are worth it.

(note: I really have no particular issue with Apple. I do get annoyed with the hyperbolic bravado with which they unveil updates).

Both phones – the Apple XS and XS MAX – have important upgrades to their processors, which means they are about 15% faster than previous versions. Portrait Mode – a camera feature that allows you to play with depth of field and background blurring – has been updated as well (though isn’t quite as big of a breakthrough as Apple wants you to believe, since some Android phones have had the technology for 2 years.) Nonetheless, it is fun technology if you like to add interest to your photos without adding a funny hat.

Only the richest country in the world could call this low-end

The big news in iPhones, though, was the introduction of the new “lower-end” (everyone laugh with me). The iPhone XR, which will retail for $749USD is actually lower than most analysts expected, to be fair. It has a 6.1-inch LCD screen and foregoes the home button for a swipe up feature. The 12 pixel wide-angle camera has the same portrait feature as its more expensive brethren, so you get to play with fuzzy backgrounds like your richer friends! It actually stacks up pretty well compared to it’s similarly priced competitors. Plus, it comes in so many fun colours!

Your SmartWatch can now warn you of heart disease!

There was also an update to the 3-year old smartwatch, with a larger display screen and a significantly faster processor. And if you had trouble with reliable reception on your smartwatch before, apparently this has been fixed. It also features the first FDA-approved, over-the-counter EKG sensor to help diagnose heart disease. Which is kind of neat! It is available for preorder tomorrow for $399USD.

GiveBack your old iPhone

For me, though, one of the most important things highlighted at the Apple Event was the GiveBack program. If you have an Apple product that is in good condition – i.e. you didn’t drop it down 6 flights of cement stairs and then kick it into traffic, a thing I totally never did – the company will buy them back. If they have been dropped down 6 flights of cement stairs and then kicked into traffic, they will recycle the phone for you, using clean energy.

That’s about it. Long gone are the days of big reveals, but all told, some solid updates.


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