Apple Highlights Arcade Titles in New Video

Today on its YouTube channel, Apple published a new video highlighting some of the titles coming to Apple Arcade once it launches next Thursday alongside iOS 13.

The video spends nearly two minutes providing quick glimpses at a lot of Arcade titles, while lingering for extended periods over a handful of titles that haven’t been seen much before, such as Earth Night, Hot Lava, Skate City, and more.

The demos Apple shared on-stage at its September event received mixed responses, but I would expect a much more enthusiastic response to greet this video. Everything showcased looks fantastic, offering interesting stories, gameplay mechanics, and visuals. If Apple really does have 100+ games like this at or near launch, Arcade is going to quickly become a very compelling service.

New HomePod Details Emerge→

The HomePod was conspicuously absent from yesterday’s Apple keynote. However, the company has quietly updated the HomePod’s product page with new details, as spotted by Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac.

According to Mayo,

Firstly, the radio stations feature is launching on HomePod on September 30. However, the previously-announced multi-user support and the music handoff features are not coming in September. Apple simply says ‘later this fall’. They also teased a new white noise mode that they hadn’t talked about before…

The new Ambient Sounds feature will allow users to play sounds including “ocean waves, forest birds, rainstorms, and more.”

Although Apple doesn’t say so, the September 30th timing for radio station support suggests that the feature is dependent on the release of iOS and iPadOS 13.1, which is due for release that same day. The company’s OS release schedule is far more complicated this year than in the recent past. For those interested in all the product launch and OS update release dates, we’ve collected a complete list of all dates on MacStories.

Permalink

New iPhone Cases Join a New Lineup of Apple Watch Bands

The new iPhones and Apple Watch Series 5 won’t arrive on your doorstep for a little while yet, but you can order iPhone cases today for delivery September 13th and admire them until your new hardware arrives. Many Watch bands will be available on September 20th, but some of the pricier models won’t be in Apple Stores or delivered until sometime in October. Note too, that some of the Hermès bands don’t come in both Watch sizes.

To make comparing colors easier, we’ve created a gallery of every available case and band after the break; all 58 of them.

Read more

Apple Asks Developers to Submit iOS 13 Apps for Review

Ahead of the upcoming public releases of iOS 13 on September 19th, Apple has told developers via its developer website that App Store submissions are open.

On its developer news site Apple highlights the advantages of iOS 13:

With iOS 13, your app can take advantage of Dark Mode, a dramatic new look for iPhone, Sign in with Apple, the fast, easy way to sign in to apps, and the latest advances in ARKit 3, Core ML 3, and Siri. Build your apps using Xcode 11 GM seed, test them on iOS devices running the latest GM seeds, and submit them for review.

Apple also took the opportunity in its post to remind developers that:

Starting April 2020, all new apps and app updates will need to be built with the iOS 13 SDK and support the all-screen design of iPhone XS Max or later.

Apple has added many features to its operating systems that developers can take advantage of to improve existing apps and create all-new ones that were impossible before the new APIs were introduced.

You can follow all of our Apple event coverage through our September 10, 2019 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated September 10, 2019 RSS feed.

Apple Watch Series 5: The MacStories Overview

This morning at Apple’s special event at the Steve Jobs theater in Cupertino, Stan Ng took the stage to announce the Apple Watch Series 5. The new device features an always-on display for the first time ever, the same 18-hour battery life that every Apple Watch has had, and a built-in compass. The Series 5 is also the first Apple Watch to be available in titanium (alongside the standard aluminum, stainless steel, and ceramic).

Read more

Apple’s September 10 Keynote By The Numbers

As usual, Apple sprinkled facts, figures, and statistics throughout the keynote today. Here are highlights of some of those metrics from the event, which was held at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California.

iPhone 11

  • Updated 12MP TrueDepth 26 mm, f/1.8 wide camera with 6 elements that can take 4K video at 60 fps and 120 fps slow motion video
  • A new wide camera sensor with 100% Focus Pixels and 3x faster autofocus in low light
  • All-new 12 MP 13 mm, f/2.4, 5-element ultra wide camera with a 120 degree field of view
  • 36% brighter True Tone flash
  • 12MP front-facing camera, which enables landscape selfies, and supports 4K video

iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max

  • IP68 rating for water resistance up to 4 meters for 30 minutes
  • The Super Retina XDR screen plays HDR video with up to 1,200 nits of brightness and a 2 million to 1 contrast ration
  • The A13 Bionic chip (also in the iPhone 11) has 2 performance cores that are 20% faster and 30% lower power than the A12 and 4 efficiency cores that are 20% faster and 40% more efficient than the A12, has 8.5 billion transistors, and can handle 1 trillion operations per second
  • 15% more energy efficient True Tone display with 458 pixels per inch
  • New 12MP, 26mm, f/1.8 wide camera with 100% Focus Pixels
  • New 12MP, 52mm, f/2.0, 6-element telephoto camera that allows the sensor to capture 40 percent more light than the iPhone XS
  • New 12MP, 13mm, f/2.4, 5-element ultra-wide camera with a 120 degree field of view
  • Apple’s Deep Fusion camera technology combines 9 images into one high dynamic range photo

7th Generation iPad

  • 60% of buyers are first-time iPad owners
  • The Retina display has almost 2.5 million pixels

You can follow all of our Apple event coverage through our September 10, 2019 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated September 10, 2019 RSS feed.

iPhone 11 and 11 Pro: The MacStories Overview

Today Apple hosted its annual September event at Apple Park in Cupertino, unveiling new hardware for the fall and the launch details of its latest services. New iPhones were a large focus of the event, as always, with Apple debuting three flagship models: the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. All new models will be available for pre-order this Friday, September 13 starting at 5AM PDT, and will ship the following Friday, September 20.

The iPhone 11 is the successor to last year’s iPhone XR model, with a 6.1-inch LCD display, while the two Pro models succeed the iPhone XS and XS Max, retaining their 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch sizes in newly upgraded OLED screens. These names represent a shift in how Apple is positioning its different iPhone models. 2018’s iPhone XR model was presented by Apple as the lower cost sibling of the XS and XS Max flagships. The device’s high level of feature parity with the XS line meant it was actually the best option for the masses, but Apple’s naming and marketing failed to communicate that well. This year there’s no question: the iPhone 11 is the flagship iPhone, while the Pro and Pro Max exist as higher end options for customers who value the specific advantages they offer. Ultimately, however, all new models share far more similarities than differences.

Each new iPhone comes with a variety of improvements, such as the upgraded A13 Bionic chip, which enables significant battery improvements, plus there’s faster and easier to use Face ID, increased water resistance, spatial audio, and more. Over and above all these things, however, the clear emphasis for Apple this year was on cameras. Though the 11 Pro and Pro Max offer the greatest improvements, the standard 11 likewise seems poised to offer significant leaps forward in photo and video capabilities.

Read more

Apple Introduces Larger Screen 7th Generation iPad with Smart Connector

Today, at the keynote event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, Apple announced a replacement to the sixth generation, 9.7-inch iPad. The new 7th generation version of the device extends the diagonal measurement of the Retina display by one-half inch to 10.2 inches. The new iPad also adds a Smart Connector, which makes it compatible with Apple’s Smart Keyboard, another first.

Other than that however, the iPad’s specs remain the same. The iPad features an A10 Fusion chip, 8MP rear-facing camera with f/2.4 aperture, records video at 1080p and 30fps, 1.2MP front-facing camera with f/2.2 aperture, and stereo speakers. The pricing is also the same too, starting at $329 ($299 for educational buyers). The Smart Keyboard costs $159.

Perhaps most interesting is how close the 7th generation iPad is to the existing iPad Air, which has a 10.5-inch Retina screen and Smart Connector too, but starts at $499. For the extra price what you get is an iPad with a little bigger screen that’s slightly lighter and thinner, has a fully-laminated, True Tone display, better front-facing camera, higher frame rate slow motion video, and faster A12 Bionic chip. Those are meaningful differences, but ones that may be hard for consumers to understand looking at the two iPad’s next to each other in an Apple Store. Still, it’s nice to see Apple fit a bigger screen in an iPad body that’s only modestly larger than prior models.

You can follow all of our Apple event coverage through our September 10, 2019 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated September 10, 2019 RSS feed.

Replay Apple’s September 10, 2019 Keynote and New Product Videos

If you didn’t follow the live stream or announcements as they unfolded at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino today, you can replay it on Apple’s Events site and catch all the the product videos on YouTube.

The keynote video can be streamed here and on the Apple TV using the Apple Events app. A higher quality version should be made available soon through iTunes on the Apple Keynotes podcast.

Apple also posted new videos, including its product-reveals for the new iPhones and Apple Watch Series 4 and a two-minute speed run version of the event on its YouTube channel. You can find all those videos below after the break.

Read more