Apple did something unprecedented at this year's September event.
They added a button to the iPhone. They never had buttons.
I still remember when they removed the home button from the iPhone and iPad seven years ago.
But look, below the side button resides a brand new button
designed to turn the new 16 and 16 Pro iPhones more
into the cameras we've come to treat them as. There is, of course, more, a lot more,
so let's just get into it. With the release of the iPhone 4S,
the volume up button functioned as the shutter release on the camera app.
It was handy, but felt unnatural as the camera would end up being on the bottom right.
The new camera control fixes that, plus more.
It's a physical button that can be lightly or firmly pushed.
It has a capacitive sensor that can register swipes
and the functions pop in from the side of the screen.
It looks like it'll be handy and it might get more people to take landscape photos and video more often.
The camera control can also access Apple intelligence's vision
to give you information about what you're looking at and even add event posters straight to your calendar.
But here's the big miss. There's no touch ID. We've been waiting for touch ID
to be brought back to the iPhone and this button looks like it could just be the thing.
It isn't, though, at least not in this year's model.
After a couple of lackluster years, I'm pleased to see the non-Pro iPhone 16 catch up
to the Pro phone in a substantial way. It really feels like a compelling iPhone option
in the lineup even next to the Pro's improvements.
Regular iPhone 16 users will appreciate that the ultra-wide camera now supports autofocus,
enabling the cool macro shots Pro users have been getting since the 13.
One thing that I'm a little confused about is that they are dubbing the main camera,
a 48 megapixel fusion camera, despite the fact that on paper,
the specs are identical to last year's. However, the Pro iPhones get upgrades
to the cameras across the board. 5X Zoom is now available on the smaller model
and there's a 48 megapixel ultra-wide camera too.
Videographers can shoot at 4K 120 now, which I don't care about, do you?
Let me know in the comments. As for the processors, the non-Pro gets a win there too.
It no longer has a chip that's a generation behind. Both new iPhones have an A18.
That said, the iPhone Pro's chip is an A18 Pro
that gets one more GPU and a larger cache. The A18 is on both phones to enable
the Apple Intelligence features they re-announced throughout today's presentation.
And it also should mean that the mainstream iPhone should have the same eight gigabytes of memory
found on a base Mac these days, which sounds wrong.
Apple Intelligence is coming next month to Americans,
coming in December to us Canadians. They need some time to add the U to color.
And these colors are more vibrant. Apple replaced their ink cartridges.
I'm excited to see Teal, and the Pro gets a new Desert Titanium.
While the new phone is pretty great, what I'm most excited about are the AirPods 4.
As someone who finds silicone tips annoying, I prefer the third gen AirPods to the AirPods Pro.
These look even more compelling as the price has dropped down to $130.
And now for $50 more, you can get them with a wireless charging case
and active noise cancellation. I'll be curious to hear how that works
because the lack of silicone tips means getting a proper seal is challenging.
Though they did talk a lot about how hard they work to get the right ear shape.
My guess is that they won't cancel as much as the pros, but it's nice to have the option
as active noise canceling is trickling down to even inexpensive wireless headphones these days.
But what about expensive headphones? Well, AirPods Max get USB-C, 70s colors,
and nothing else. Please remember these exist.
They did kind of make it sound like there were new AirPods Pro,
but there are none either. Rather, a new software update to the Pro
meant to protect your hearing. When it gets rolled out, you'll be able to conduct a hearing test
to see what sort of hearing loss life has incurred for you.
To avoid that, the pros will also act as hearing protection,
suppressing damaging noises in loud settings. Does this mean that I didn't need to splurge
on special earplugs and a headset for my motorcycle helmet?
It's too late, I already did. I am impressed and interested
with what Apple's VP of Health, Dr. Sumil Ahmed Desai,
is trying to do with Apple's hardware. Up until now, it's been advised
to not use AirPods Pro as hearing protection, but it looks like they've done the studies
to get it to work. And if you have sustained any hearing loss,
the AirPods Pro can be your hearing aid. The Biden administration's FDA enabled hearing aids
to now be sold over the counter. It uses the results of your hearing test
to enhance the frequencies you're struggling to hear. It seems like the technology in the AirPods Pro
was always primed for this capability. What is a hearing aid,
but a tailored and louder form of transparency mode?
Sumil also announced that the new Apple Watch Series 10
will be able to detect if you might have sleep apnea. I'm very much pro sleep
and love how the Apple Watch has been tracking my good and bad sleeps.
But sleep apnea is no joke, and the sooner one is able to get diagnosed and treated,
the better their life will be. Though, what if the Apple Watch tells me
that I have sleep apnea? Oh no, that'll mean I've had bad sleeps this whole time.
If you look closely, you'll see that the new Apple Watch Series 10
is a complete redesign. Yep, we were all laughing in the office
as Apple showed off a watch that looks exactly like the old one.
But that doesn't mean it's the same. The new watch is thinner and the display even bigger.
They made hay about the display being a wide angle OLED, but I never thought that the viewing angles
on the old displays were a problem. Also, the always on display will now show
the second hand, pretty nifty. They also devoted a whole section to the Apple Watch Ultra.
But the only thing actually new for that model is the satin black colorway and some bands.
Many of the workout features the executive talked about are available on the regular old Apple Watch
in the next update, which contributes to my feeling that this event was messy.
There was something to the writing in the organization that felt confusing.
They went from talking about the camera to the gaming, to the 911 video messages,
to the bigger battery, all at the end of the iPhone 16 section.
I can understand the desire to hold the reveal of the iPhone Pro hardware till the end,
but like, I wonder if it might be easier to follow if they simply devoted a section to cameras.
For instance, they talked about the next generation photographic styles in the Pro camera section,
even though it appears in the news release that it's available on the mainstream phone.
I hate how I keep repeating this, but they need to go back to the live stage show.
Live brings a different energy to things, and it means the executives will have to be more focused
on what they want to talk about. I'm gonna bang this drum after every event
until they demolish Steve Jobs Theater, which they're clearly not using anymore.
Thanks for repeating the features in this Mac Address. I'm curious in the comments below
what devices you're most excited about from this announcement. And if you wanna watch another video we've done,
you might as well watch last year's event coverage. I mean, sure it's old news, but what's a view?