Apple Pencil

Summary: Apple Event September 2015

Well it’s September again, we’re a few months on from the developer conference back in June and the internet is awash with rumours.

So what was announced today?

1. Apple Watch

Apple were proud to report a 97% Customer Satisfaction with this device.

Big news for Health, using Airstrip a large data platform within the US Healthcare system, doctors are now able to view:

• Upcoming appointments along with medical data
• Alerts and emergencies including full medical information
• Live heart monitors
• Live vital monitors
• Secure messaging from Doctors to internal hospital staff
• Secure messaging to patients

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Image courtesy of The Verge.

Airstrip has been used to monitor over 3 million pregnant women.

Apple watch basically allows Doctors to perform remote analysis on patients, requesting home tests without requiring patients to come to the hospital.

On a style front Apple have now partnered with Hermes to provide new straps and a custom watch face.

More combinations and more products, the rose gold is now available at a lower price point as an anodised aluminium.

All of these Watches are available from Today with Apple Watch OS 2 available 16th September.

2. iPad

The biggest news in iPad since the iPad.

Moving from a magic piece of glass you hold and access anything & having partnered with IBM and Cisco to provide enterprise solutions, how could they take the iPad even further?

Well the answer, make it bigger.

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Featuring a 12.9 inch screen.

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5.6 Million Pixels.

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&

• Variable refresh rate
• 10 hour battery life
• 4 Speaker audio system
• Faster than 80% of the portable PC’s shipped in the past 12 months
• Capable of editing 4k video
• 6.9mm thin
• Magnetic smart connector

The most advanced display Apple has ever made.

With this new size and the features within iOS9 you’re now able to run 2 full screen apps side by side.

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Expanding up to even running Microsoft Word and Excel next to each other, just one of the many day to day tasks the iPad has previously fallen short on.

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& with the new apple smart keyboard, the iPad pro will truly be a laptop replacement.

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And for graphic designers the new Apple Pencil,

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Detecting, position, force and even tilt, with an accuracy to touch a single pixel (remember there are over 5 million on the new iPad Pro)

Furthermore it even features a lightning connector so you can recharge it from your iPad.

With new apps from Adobe, layout for magazine can be made in minutes while you sit on the couch.

The iPad Pro will be available from November.

3. iPad Mini 4

A new mini version of the iPad Air 2, largely glanced over by Apple but this is now one of the most powerful 7inch tablets.

4. Apple TV

FINALLY, after 3 long years Apple are finally updating their TV.

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The future of TV is apps, we’ve already seen this trend, more people watching TV shows through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime etc and most of these are consumed in Apps on mobile devices.

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This means the new Apple TV need:

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With voice control, an app store, Siri based intelligent search (really really intelligent search), motion control remote (and totally new design featuring a glass top), HD screen savers, Apple Music and with an app store comes GAMES!!!!!!

Like guitar hero.

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Siri will now search across multiple content apps and give you all your viewing options on a single screen.

You will of course still be able to control the Apple TV with your iOS devices, but why when you can just tell Siri what you want to watch, or ask it what about the latest news, weather or sports scores whilst still watching your favourite TV show.

Apps will be able to show stats, split screen viewing with other channels or sporting events within the app.

Fingers crossed for BBC iPlayer will become natively available soon.

Now there are some striking similarities between the new Apple TV games and those of the original Nintendo Wii, so it will be interesting to see if Apple can succeed where Nintendo have failed to hold their ground. But with purchases being shared from iOS devices, people who’ve bought the latest version of Angry Birds will have it and the in-app purchases available automatically on the TV.

If all of this wasn’t enough e-commerce apps are being brought to your living room.

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Apple TV will ship late October.

TVos is available today.

5. iPhone

A very much expected move with the release of the S model of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+.

Featuring new hardware with the same aesthetic.

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Now available in 4 colours

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3D Touch

An extension of Force Touch taken from the Apple Watch, this allows for contextual menus allowing more options to be accessible without cluttering the screen with large menus.

This could be interesting but with no limits as to how developers use these, we could start seeing important features being hidden in these contextual menus causing confusion in users. But this is just another reason user experience is becoming the most important part of design.

Haptic feedback will change the way we are notified of actions on the device and maybe take the device past a small piece of glass we just can’t put down.

4k Video

We hoped it was coming, but long term this will have big ramifications for social media and who knows maybe film makers.

In Summary

There is no doubt this was a big day for Apple.

There are even more reasons to own an Apple Watch and by tapping into the health market you could almost see them required for patients requiring ongoing outpatient care.

The iPad Pro shows how important it is to have a responsive site, not just something mobile friendly, the flexibility it offers with dual apps, screen in screen, your website could be displayed at any number of sizes and resolutions.

The Apple TV remains a great way to perform presentations but it could really be the thing that pushes internet TV and cord cutting into the mainstream. Furthermore It could help draw eyes from phones and have households engage together in apps and games on the biggest screen in your home.

The big one here for businesses though is shopping on Apple TV, with most online purchases being made from mobile devices, a smart TV that facilitates the same could be a huge game changer.

Or hell just have a beautiful piece of art playing as a HD screen saver in your office, shop or reception.

With 11 million developers there is no doubt that the Apple TV will become a huge platform and if you have the apps, you have the audience.

Could your next business solution be running in somebody’s front room?

Oh and Siri got more sass.

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