That long-awaited, super-hyped Apple launch: Watches, iPads... and one more thing. Oh, actually that's it The tagline for today’s Apple product launch event was “time flies.” How ironic given 2020 feels like it's been a decade long. Expectations were inevitably raised. And what did we get for our patience? New watches, a refreshed iPad and iPad Air, and… that’s about it. Watch this space Apple’s third-quarter successes were …
To the downvoter: seriously, would you? When they can't even get something as simple as DST right? I'm not just Apple-bashing; I'd be suspicious of anything that needs a microprocessor to perform such a simple task. I'd take a decent analogue dial over anything requiring coding if it could be the difference between adrenaline rush and person pancake...
> To be honest, I don't think I'd be relying on the altitude reading from an iDevice to tell me when to open my parachute...
Yes, but it's so robustly made that just one second after impact it will tell you that your altitude is "minus one feet" and 14 seconds after that it will tell you that your blood oxygen level is 0%.
I'd like to see Touch ID come back, at least as an option.
Note that I do actually like Face ID, and the apparently much reveled notch on my iPhone XS Max really doesn't bother me, but with the current need for masks, and bearing in mind that I think mask wearing is something that isn't going to go away. for a long time, I think all mobile companies need to re-evaluate the use of face recognition., with a view to possibly going back to the Fingerprint recognition.
Fingerprint authentication is so horribly broken - the guys at Talos tried it: https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2020/04/fingerprint-research.html
TL;DR version: All fingerprint systems can be bypassed with simple techniques. Two exceptions: Samsung's A70 cannot recognize any fingerprints, even valid ones. And the MS Windows implementation seems to work just fine.
"We also saw the same repetitions of Apple’s purported eco-friendliness, which will be put into practice by removing the USB charge cables from its Apple Watch line-up."
Maybe it's just because I don't have one, but I was under the impression that most smartwatches, including Apple's, use a nonstandard connector so they can be more waterproof, smaller, and give their manufacturers an extra income stream from sale of chargers. Even if Apple's watches have always used the same connector, anyone who hasn't purchased one before won't have one and anyone purchasing one now probably got rid of the last cable when they gave it to the same person they gave the old watch to. It seems to me to be the cable least likely already to be available to users. Lightning cables, however, would already be available to anyone who has previously purchased Apple gear (and are more easily purchased at shops), USB-C cables are becoming more common and may soon start to accumulate, and Micro USB cables can be found in quantities of five to ten in any closet in my home (or my family's homes). Am I just wrong about Apple's watches using a cable type specific to that unit and they're more common than I thought? If not, what are they thinking?
"I was under the impression that most smartwatches, including Apple's, use a nonstandard connector"
Apple's watches charge wirelessly, the current charger is magnetic and the watch locates itself on the charger. i use a night stand i got from amazon for ~£15 a few years back that charges both my watch & phone wirelessly (induction?)
an example of what can be had for not a lot, ok more than £15 but.......
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/FDGAO-Wireless-Charger-Charging-Station/dp/B087LY8CDJ?ref_=ast_sto_dp
"As a mid-ranger, it comes with a slightly more powerful processor, along with a marginally larger screen than Cupertino’s entry-level iPad. And that’s about it."
the A14 is billed as significantly more capable than its predecessor and an indication of whats to come in the iphone 12 & next ipad pro.
The A12 is pretty snappy in its own right.
Arguably if your after an 11" ipad pro you'd be better off just getting this air as spec wise, other than the camera, its equivalent but a few hundred cheaper.
the ipad is for the children, the air for mum & dad & the pro for those that don't want to lug a laptop but wait for the next pro don't buy a current one as the new air is as good if not better than this gen 2 pro.
will be interesting to see the cpu scores when this hardware is available.
>>the ipad is for the children, the air for mum & dad
It's the kids who want to play games so they should get the higher-spec one. Mummy doesn't need extra CPU for mumsnet and Netflix.
The bog standard iPad remains so bloody good that I cannot see any point.
I bought the Air, at Christmas. It had more memory than the basic, so once I'd upgraded that the price difference would have been smaller. Crucially though, it's thinner and lighter. Which in something I now hold for at least an hour a day is worth the extra money alone.
The slightly bigger screen is also nice. It has the option to use the pencil 1 - but I've not been willing to blow £120 on one until I'm convinced that Apple now properly support handwriting in apps like email. I seem to remember that the next version of iOS might do this - but have lost track.
I also use my iPad for games, so being faster was also nicer. I couldn't justify the extra money for the 13" Pro though, but was tempting.
I can read on the iPad by zooming in - which means I don't need my reading glasses. So for me, even a marginally bigger screen is a bonus - but I'd suspect for most people that the downsides of the extra size outweigh the benefits of the bigger screen.
The slightly bigger screen is also nice. It has the option to use the pencil 1 - but I've not been willing to blow £120 on one until I'm convinced that Apple now properly support handwriting in apps like email. I seem to remember that the next version of iOS might do this - but have lost track.
You don’t have to spar £120 to get pencil goodness, there’s a Logitech Crayon which can be had for £59.95 from Curry’s and works as well if you don’t want some of the more esoteric pressure/angle functionality, i.e. just for notes and stuff.
I believe handwriting works everywhere but can conform once my IPP gets the iPad OS 14 upgrade later today...
In the words of Apple, "battery life varies by use." ie: here's a number, maybe it's what you'll experience.
In short, according to Apple, the Watch Series 6 has an 18-hour battery life; the 8th-gen iPad has an "all-day" battery life; and the iPad Air has an "all-day" battery life.
C.
Would have been great for an explanation as to how marginal an increase this is over the a13.
Anandtech did an interesting dive into it.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16088/apple-announces-5nm-a14-soc-meagre-upgrades-or-less-power-hungry
No doubt this air has a smaller battery, likely to offset cost and weight. Price did get a bump too.
and an altimeter that’s constantly measuring readings.
You know, for those of us that are worried that all the hot air in our heads is making us float off the ground.
I'd be happy with knowing that I can buy that little coupler dingus for the gen 1 Pencil without having to either a) grovel to Applecare, b) grovel to someone at their genius bar, or c) buy one of the 84713 knock off clones on amazon. (or, for that matter, a new cap.)
I imagine an altimeter is more useful for a cyclist in California than for, well, most people in Norfolk. Hey, chill out, that was a observation about geography, not genetics, so don't drop a dead cow on me alright?!
[For the benefit of American cousins, Norfolk is a part of the UK that is fairly flat, which may be why the car chase scenes from Bullitt were not filmed there. The practice of dropping a dead cow on prejudiced television presenters could worthy of adoption]
> It’s hard to take [ Apple's environmental efforts] seriously, though, given Apple’s computer line up... ...is largely designed to be impossible to repair and maintain.
You can't analyse the environmental impact of a product range based upon how difficult it is (for an amateur to) repair alone - you would need consider reliability figures before you could arrive at any worthwhile conclusion.
Your impact assessment should also include end-of-life issues, such as ease of dismantling for recycling, and the materials it is made from. This is much easier (read cheaper, therefore economically viable) if the device is glued rather than screwed, because glued devices can be passed through an oven and dismantled quickly. Lots of units of the same model also increases ease of recycling - like mass production in reverse.
There are also other factors that I have no doubt neglected, such as repair by the manufacturer / vendor, ease of access to vendor's repair network, useful life of a fully functional product, etc etc.
I don't have the necessary figures to make a meaningful assessment, so I won't try. But then neither does the author of this article.
I'm an old luddite, and have never even considered an apple watch, nor anything similar. What I have bought recently, for about the same price, is a mechanical watch which (a) winds itself up using the movement of my arm - technology invented in 1780, (b) has a five year guarantee, and (c) can reasonably be expected to work, given necessary servicing every now and then, for the rest of my life... and probably my grandkid's life as well (my grandfather's watch still works from before WW1).
Of course, all it does is tell me the time. But I am not wedded to my phone and for me the benefits of a smart watch simply don't register. I do appreciate that for many they do, but not for me...
Clocks (or time displays) are everywhere. Watches need a new role.
I can't read those without binocculars. Watches are easier to carry...
I can't read my oven timer from the kitchen table 3 feet away - so I admit I'm a bit of a special case...
On t'other hand, when running for a train - you are correct that there is a clock on the platform. But not on the bridge to get over the line, or on the street outside - so I don't know if I need to run, walk or jog. I can get the phone out of my pocket, but then I might be dragging a case behind me or carrying a bag.
Because I can't read them, that also means my house tragically lacks wall clocks. Thus my friends also require a watch. Well actually they complain that I haven't set the oven clock right - which I don't because I can't read it. So I'm forced to keep it correct...
My friend's 11 year old: : What's a watch?
Me : You wear it on your wrist and it tells you the time
My friend's 11 year old : Why?
I genuinely have no answer either. I haven't worn a watch since I was 15, and that was 34 years ago.
I think I might be interested in an Apple watch though but only if it didn't function as a source of skin infections.
I was given an iWatch as a gift, would never have considered it before.
It’s actually become the most useful Apple thing I have. I use it mainly as a wallet (tap and go pay), but it also allows me to read and send short messages, make quick calls, listen to music when exercising or in the car. It’s actually bloody useful and I find I don’t take my phone or physical wallet with me, or out of the backpack very often at all now.
Yes, I was surprised.
The health stuff (data) is interesting too, was quite surprised how my heart rate increases (doubles) with alcohol regardless of exertion or the multitude of heart meds I’m on.
My fully mechanical watch will also tell me the date and has a built-in stopwatch. More expensive models can add further features if required.
I still tend to wear my 'smart' watch instead. I like the way it tells me my heart rate at each point of a long walk, tracks my pace and plots all of this visually in my web browser when I get home.
If you ONLY want the time then may I suggest the Citizen Skyhawk AT rather than a mechanical watch. Charges it’s self via a built-in solar panel, checks against long wave atomic clock signals for accuracy (and can handle the switch to/from daylight savings time automatically because of that), needs little to no servicing and is cheaper than a good mechanical chronograph.
Having said that, i find myself using the Apple Watch most of the time because of all the extra things it can do that a normal watch can’t. Pay for items or mass transit. Tell me the weather forecast (am I going to get rained on). Control the music I’m listening to. Tell me who’s calling my phone (and even answer or make calls if needed) without having to fish the phone out of my pocket etc. It’s surprising just how much you end up using it.
Not well known, but if you are a consumer Apple (and anyone else who sells electrical do-dads) has to warranty their products for six years in England + Wales and five years in Scotland. All of them will, of course, tell you that the warranty is only one year.
Show them this. https://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/
This is until BJ and co do away with 'Red Tape' in UK consumer law to please their friends in rich places.
> which (a) winds itself up using the movement of my arm
I bought one of those and only afterwards discovered that it has a hidden health function: I walk so little it ran down overnight! Unfortunately that particular manufacturer didn't have a normal windup version so I either had to buy a watch-winder or undertake "a 5km fun run" each morning.
"You can't analyse the environmental impact of a product range based upon how difficult it is (for an amateur to) repair alone"
Whilst reliability indeed comes into it, if a device cannot be easily (cheaply) repaired, then it is going to become electronic waste. When the battery in a pair of AirPod Pros fails, if it cannot be replaced for significantly less than the £250 cost of the headphones (remember, Apple used alcohol-resistant glue), then people will just buy new ones and throw them out. If they can't be repaired by "the shop in the high street", then the chance of it getting repaired at all drop, as most manufacturers charge a lot for repairs. The same is of course true of washing machines (call-out charge is half the value of a new machine), printers (set of ink tanks cost more than the printer), etc.
You can't analyse the environmental impact of a product range based upon how difficult it is (for an amateur to) repair alone - you would need consider reliability figures before you could arrive at any worthwhile conclusion.
As the previous poster [ AC ] suggests, the most environmental device is that with as long, durable, life.
Apple's environmental efforts have not been greatly admired, and grudging giving in to pressure, mostly from the EU, doesn't show heart and soul in best practices.
In 2006, Apple announced it would end shipments to Europe of certain products, including the eMac desktop computer and the AirPort wireless access point, as non-compliant with the European Union Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (ROHS).[177]
In 2007, Apple's Board of Directors recommended shareholders vote against proposals for adopting stronger environmental policies, like eliminating persistent and bioaccumulative toxic chemicals, assessing the phase-out of toxic chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and adopting a stronger e-waste "take-back" and recycling program.
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Apple_Inc.
Why no new shiny iPhone 11xs 11xPro etc? Come on Apple, all you had to do was to rebrand the iPhone 11, rebrand it and whip your Foxconn slaves harder to produce more.
I hear the distinct sound of the rending of clothing and screams of dismay from the ranks of the fanbois.
Anyone else spot the weasel words used in this presentation.
Comparisons like best selling equivalent price windows laptops etc etc.
I’m in no doubt these iPads are equal or superior for their price. I’m really eager to see what’s next.
The iPad Air is like a iPad Pro 11”. I’m gonna guess the pro 11” will disappear and the 13” will have a price cut.
Really looking forward to the cpu scores and ifixit tear down.
Apple have noticed the EU.
Several months ago.
EU. Standard connectors and no chargers please.
Apple: Waahhhhh have to make a special EU edition....more cost....consumers kose out...wahhhh (feet stamping)
Roll on several months
Apple: Look how eco and consumer friendly we are....no wasteful chargers and consumer friendly USB-C. Aren't we great.
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