You might be surprised by this, but look, here in the kingdom of the gaming PC,
a quiet stillness emerges during any Apple event, like today's Apple Watch and iPhone
announcement. And that's because my colleagues will stop what they're doing and watch.
So if they're all watching the event anyways, why am I the only one sharing my thoughts on it?
You know what? I'm going to ask them what they think, because this year they're going to be
especially interested in one major change that Apple's brought.
Today was the big day. Today was the big day. And what they brought us is USB-C. Yes, the iPhone and AirPods Pro have ditched
lightning. Since starting this job, I can't tell you how many people have told me they'd
switch to the iPhone if it supported the universal plug. Is it enough for you to actually upgrade from
your 13 mini? I think so, personally. USB-C on the iPhone is a big deal. It enables display ports, so you should be able to use
the same hubs that you have with your laptop. But there are caveats.
Vanilla 15s only support the USB-2 spec, while the Pros support USB-3 and its faster 10 Gbps.
You have a 14 Pro. Have you had to take photos or videos off it through lightning,
or do you just do the cloud? Not cloud. You just do the cloud.
Would you get a new iPhone for USB-C? No. Okay, they've got a nice little pastel line
going on, but I still like who picks a colored iPhone, seriously.
I do. What color would you go for? I would go for green.
Green's a good color. But they're very baby colors. Yeah. There's a new 48 megapixel camera in the 15, which is great.
What's notable this time around is that it and the larger sensor Pro offer an improved pixel
binning mode for less than ideal lighting conditions. Instead of simply processing
four pixels into one and outputting a 12 megapixel image like the 14 Pro did,
these use the Photonic Engine Pipeline to output 24 megapixel images.
If I'm picking a phone, I'm not using it for the camera specifically. It's like I'd rather just
use a camera at that point. Oh, the camera's better, but I'm still never impressed by iPhone cameras.
With the USB-C port, inclusion of the Dynamic Island, update to an A16 chip, and 48 megapixel
camera, the iPhone 15 looks really compelling. But I can't shake the gross feeling that the
reason it does is because last year's iPhone 14 was so lackluster. But the Pro wasn't. So how
does this new one top it? Oh, the titanium. On the iPhone 15 Pro. On the iPhone 15 Pro.
That was interesting. I mean, it's a whole new material change, but no new design.
So it's a stronger, lighter material. The ring silent switch is gone. There's an action button
with haptic feedback that you can use for ring and silent, but also for other things.
Okay. There's a new A17 Pro 3nm chip with a Pro-class GPU that supports ray tracing
and will enable Resident Evil Village in 4 and Assassin's Creed to be released
on the iPhone 15 Pro. Makes no sense, but right. I really don't game on that phone, like.
I know me neither. I'm sure my Orange Channel colleagues will have more to say about the A17
Pro chip, but this further makes my point about the Pros pushing ahead. Will a basic iPhone get an
A17 non-Pro chip next year? And will it support ray tracing like the Pros do now? Pro Max gets a
special camera bump apart from the Pro, which is a 5x zoom. Yeah, that's cool. Do you care about a
big zoom? No. What I'm most upset about is that the iPhone mini has been completely dropped from
the lineup. I was hoping that a $500 13 mini would make for an affordable option between the
aged SE and mid-sized 13, but alas, it doesn't. The only reasonable explanation I will accept
is the SE is going to get the mini form factor in the near future. I'm not a huge fan of the
larger phones. The mini is completely gone. I would just have to buy a 15 and deal with it,
like a 15 normal. What did you think about the whole environmental thing? I think it's good.
I like the fact that they are not using leather as well anymore. I love leather cases. No, but
we need happy cows. No leather watch bands, no leather iPhone cases. And then obviously packaging
is going to be completely paper as well. Where does manufacturing stand in all of that? Did you
like that scene with Mother Nature? At the beginning it was kind of weird and funny, and then it was
like, okay, it's good. The Apple Watch receives the smallest incremental updates of the company's
entire lineup, but after three generations of Sips systems in a package running the same CPU,
we finally got a major upgrade with the new S9. It's much faster and gets a neural engine that
enables on-device Siri processing and hand gestures. So this double tap gesture, so if you
do this, you can answer and end a phone call. Didn't they already have something like that?
That's what I thought. Gestures on the Apple Watch aren't new. Sarah tried them out when she
unboxed a Series 7 two years ago, so it's weird they're making a big deal about this today.
I think, however, the neural processing on the S9 has helped make them reliable enough
to put on by default. Would you use a gesture like that? I think so. Really? Okay. I feel like
it's handy. Well, if it works. Do I think that's interesting? No, I don't think that's, I don't
use the gestures that already exist on the phone. I like the gesture thing, but I don't think it's
like super worth it, despite it being just because of that. Brighter screens are also the story of
this event. The Series 9 and even iPhone 15 now can punch up to 2,000 nits outdoor brightness,
which is impressive. However, they're both totally outdone by the 3,000 nits the Apple Watch Ultra
2 can emit. That's always nice. How will that affect battery life? They save the same. I wasn't
expecting the Ultra to get upgrades, but for the $800 asking price, it's probably for the best,
because the people who own them really like them. My husband loves it. Your husband? Really?
He says he's the best Apple product. What? Really? Yes. Sorry, I'm just a little shook here.
Yeah, I'm an Apple Watch Ultra fan. I'm wearing it right now. I mean, it feels like mine,
just a tiny bit better. I just like the fact that it has a big screen. There you go. Well,
it's even brighter now, big and bright. This year's September event ran almost an hour and a half,
and I don't think it needed to be that long. I'm personally getting a little tired of these
infomercials and would like the return to the good old days of the live stage event.
So how would you rate this Apple event? Out of 10? 10 or something. I haven't finished the
entire thing yet. Okay, all right. But like from the things you mentioned and what did I watch,
let's say like a six? Okay. Do you miss the live stage events? Yes. You prefer them over these
infomercials? Yes. Me too. They've built the Steve Jobs Theater for a reason, right? Maybe they'll
use it for the iPhone 16 event. Thanks for holding back last year's Mac Address to make this one seem
even better. If you're excited about the new iPhone 15 and 15 Pro, give this video a like. And if
you're a big Apple Watch user, then you might as well subscribe. I'm curious below what features
or devices or things that were announced in Apple's event that I didn't quite touch on. You're
most excited about.