Today, Apple hit the stage to announce the new iPhone 7, which features a fancy new camera and a water resistant enclosure. They also made a bunch of other announcements, from a new Apple Watch to the death of the headphone jack. If you didn’t feel like wasting hours watching their press conference, here’s everything you need to know.
The iPhone 7 Is Water Resistant, Finally Ups to the Base Storage, and Ships on September 16
The new iPhone 7 sports a slightly new look and comes in two new colors, a matte black and a glossy black. The new enclosure makes the iPhone 7 water and dust resistant. It also gives the iPhone 7 space for stereo speakers, one on the top and another on the bottom. The speakers include an increased dynamic range, which should help improve the sound.
Aside from the overall look, the home button gets its first major redesign too. The home button will support force-touch like gestures due to the “Taptic engine.” Apple didn’t go into much detail about what you’d do with this, so we’ll have to wait and see what the impact of a new home button will actually be.
As you’d expect, the processor in the iPhone 7 was also updated. It’s called A10 Fusion, which promises to be faster than the 6s. More importantly, it’s a four-core processor that features two low-power cores that should help improve battery life. Apple’s promising the longest battery life of any iPhone, claiming it’s about 2 hours longer than the iPhone 6s.
The iPhone 7 ups the storage to 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB, and the pricing remains the same as previous models, starting at $649 for the 32GB. The iPhone 7 Plus starts at $769 for the 32GB. Preorders start September 9th.
Apple Wants to Kill the Headphone Jack
The new design comes with one massive change though. The rumors about Apple ditching the 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack are true. The iPhone 7 only has a lightning port with no headphone jack. This means new lighting-based Apple EarPods will come packed in the box alongside an adapter so you can awkwardly use your old 1/8" headphones. Whether other smartphone manufacturers follow suit is yet to be seen.
The iPhone’s Camera Gets a 12 Megapixel Upgrade, Includes Image Stabilization, and a Wider Color Gamut
The camera in the iPhone 7 got a big bump. This includes optical image stabilization, a wide f/1.8 aperture lens that lets in 50 percent more light than the iPhone 6s, a 12MP camera, and a high-speed processor that’s faster than previous versions. Apple suggests this improves low-light photos, adds a wider color gamut, and improves live photos. The front camera gets a boost to 7MP and includes the image same stabilization as the front.
The iPhone 7 Plus adds a second camera to the mix. The second camera is a telephoto lens meant to improve zoom. That includes a 2x optical zoom and up to 10x digital zoom. The iPhone 7 Plus also gets a new depth of field shooting capability that uses both cameras alongside advanced machine learning on the camera chip itself to create a bokeh effect on portraits, though it won’t be available at launch. There’s a lot of hype behind what the iPhone 7 Plus camera can do, but we’ll have to see how it actually works in the real world after launch.
Apple AirPods Are $160 Wireless Headphones You Will Absolutely Lose, or Have to Charge Regularly
Apple announced its new wireless headphones, called Apple AirPods. These wireless headphones look a lot like Apple EarPods, but, well, without wires. They feature a five-hour battery life, accelerometers, microphones, Siri integration, and are supposedly easy to connect to the iPhone 7. Whether they’re iPhone-specific or will use Bluetooth to connect remains to be seen. They’ll launch in October for the premium price of $160.
iOS 10 Launches Tuesday, September 13
iOS 10, which packs a ton of new features, including a brand new lock screen and a bunch of little tweaks to the Messages app, will arrive next Tuesday, September 13.
The Apple Watch Series 2 Launches September 16, Adds GPS, Is Water Resistant Up to 50 Meters
The Apple Watch is getting its first hardware update, dubbed the Apple Watch Series 2. This version’s big feature is a waterproof rating that makes it possible to take your watch for a swim.
The hardware gets an update too. Now it includes a dual-core processor, a faster GPU, a new display, and the feature people have been asking for since launch: built-in GPS. This makes it so you can use it as a fitness watch without connecting it to your phone. Speaking of which, there’s also now a special version of the watch that’s a collaboration with Nike meant specifically for runners. The Apple Watch Series 2 will launch at $369 on September 16th. The original Apple Watch drops to $269 and gets the same dual-core processor, but still doesn’t have the GPS inside.
Most importantly, Niantic took the stage to announce that Pokémon Go will arrive on the Apple Watch at some point before the end of the year, and will connect to your iPhone to show you when eggs hatch, Pokémon are nearby, PokéStops are close (and let you spin them), and more.
iWork Gets Real-Time Collaboration
iWork will roll out updates to its desktop and mobile apps that allows for real-time collaborative editing. This brings it in line features that have been in Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365 for a quite a while.
There’s a Mario Game Coming to iPhone This Fall
Finally, Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo came out on stage to announce a new Mario game, an endless runner called Super Mario Run, specifically for the iPhone. It’ll be released this fall, with pricing details to be announced soon, but the assurance that it’ll be a one-time purchase with no in-app transactions. Kotaku has details.