John is MacStories' Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015, and today, runs the site alongside Federico.
John also co-hosts four MacStories podcasts: AppStories, which covers the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, which explores the fun differences between American and Italian culture and recommends media to listeners, Ruminate, a show about the weird web and unusual snacks, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about the games we take with us.
Today’s Wonderlust event was packed with facts, figures, and statistics throughout the presentation and elsewhere. We’ve pulled together the highlights from the event that was at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California.
The New iPhones
Source: Apple.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are 19 grams lighter than their predecessors
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus can reach a peak HDR brightness of 1600 nits, which can reach 2000 nits in bright sunlight, which is 2x the iPhone 14’s brightness
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus come in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage capacities
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus have 3 ‘optical-quality’ zoom levels: 0.5x, 1x, and 2x
We hoped for Thunderbolt 4, but we got USB 3 as the new connector on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, but it’s still 20x faster than before at 10Gbps
iPhones now support Wi-Fi 6E
Source: Apple.
The A17 Pro SoC that powers the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max is built using a 3-nanometer process with 19 billion transistors
The A17’s Neural Engine can handle 35 trillion operations per second, has 16 cores, and is up to 2x faster than before
The A17 Pro’s GPU is capable of 4x faster ray tracing and is up to 20% faster
The iPhone 15 Pro features an improved 48MP sensor that takes 24MP images by default with 24 mm, 28 mm, and 35 mm focal lengths
The iPhone 15 Pro Max features a 5x Telephoto lens thanks to the lens’ tetraprism design
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max can shoot ProRes video in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second
The image stabilization of the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s camera is capable of 10,000 microadjustments per second
The iPhone 15 Pro is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities.
The New Apple Watches
Source: Apple.
The Apple Watch Series 9 can go from 1 nit to 2000 nits of brightness
The S9 chip that powers the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra 2 has a 2x faster Neural Engine with 4 cores and a 30% faster GPU
The Neural Engine allows for dictation that’s up to 25 percent more accurate
The Apple Watch Series 9 is 100% carbon neutral
Source: Apple.
The Apple Watch Ultra has a 3000 nits brightness, which is 50% greater than the original Ultra
The Series 9 gets 18 hours of normal battery life and 36 in low-power mode
The Ultra 2 gets 36 hours of normal battery life and 72 hours in low-power mode
Services
New 6TB and 12TB iCloud+ storage options were introduced by Apple
Today, Apple introduced four new iPhone models: the iPhone 15, the iPhone 15 Plus, the iPhone 15 Pro, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The new iPhones pack a wide array of new features to cover, so let’s dig in.
iPhone 15 and 15 Plus
Source: Apple.
As in the past, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus come in a greater array of colors than the iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, with pink, yellow, green, blue, and black options this year. The design on the new iPhone 15 and 15 Plus is similar to last year’s models but with a new contoured edge and a glass back that embeds the iPhones’ color throughout the glass that’s etched for a matte finish.
The keynote video can be streamed here and on the Apple TV using the TV app. A high-quality version will also be available through Apple Podcasts as a video and audio podcast. An American Sign Language version of the event keynote is available on the Apple Events page too.
Product videos from today’s event are available after the break.
Thunderbolt 5 will deliver 80 gigabits per second (Gbps) of bi-directional bandwidth, and with Bandwidth Boost it will provide up to 120 Gbps for the best display experience. These improvements will provide up to three times more bandwidth than the best existing connectivity solution, providing outstanding display and data connections. Thunderbolt 5 will meet the high bandwidth needs of content creators and gamers. Built on industry standards – including USB4 V2 – Thunderbolt 5 will be broadly compatible with previous versions of Thunderbolt and USB.
Thunderbolt 5 can also deliver 240W of power, a big jump from Thunderbolt 4’s 100W power delivery. Intel says computers and accessories that use Thunderbolt 5 are expected to ship in 2024.
It’s a safe bet that Thunderbolt 5 will find its way into Macs at some point, although perhaps not in the first M3 models. The new connector would allow Macs to drive more and higher-resolution displays and mean faster file transfers, but what I really want to see is a return of Mac eGPU support. Apple’s integrated graphics are great for many tasks, but it’s hard to imagine the Mac ever competing with Windows-based gaming without a boost from an eGPU, and Thunderbolt 5 looks like it would be perfect for that.
The Flipper Zero, the self-described multi-tool for geeks, is one of those gadgets that’s got a lot of prank (and hacking) potential. This week, TechCrunch’s Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reported on how the device can be used to spam iPhones with Bluetooth connection alerts in a DDOS-like attack. (Link) ZSA launched a futuristic split mechanical keyboard called...
Matter Podcasts have arrived in the iPhone and iPad read-later app Matter, and the feature is really well done, with support for major podcast players like Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Castro, and Pocket Casts. To get started, use the share sheet in your podcast player to share an episode to Matter using its share extension. Matter...
Dillon, who is a Club member, announced the beta of a tamagotchi-style pet game that takes advantage of iOS 17’s widget interactivity. Chris Z spotted an avatar in the HeartWatch app that bears a striking resemblance to our Editor-in-Chief. Jonathan posted the latest...
You don’t have to be a social media manager for a living to want your photos and videos to look nice online. The trouble is, it’s hard to find good apps in this category because there are so many, and most of them aren’t very good. So, when I stumble upon one that looks interesting,...
This week on MacStories Unwind, Federico explains his UVC device journey that naturally ended with using a Game Boy Camera as an iPad webcam, and I embrace the South by cooking grits, and I recommend Plane, a 2023 action-thriller movie.
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