So boys and girls Apple went and announced 2 new iPhones. A 4.7 iPhone 6 and 5.5 iPhone 6 Plus inch screened iPhone. The 5.5 inch iPhone has optical image stabilisation, whereas the 4.7 inch version does not. Apart from that they are meant to be identical. It is still a 8mp camera which is most disappointing when other competitors are releasing better cameras.
The Apple Watch was announced and unlike Apple it is not available until early 2015, starting at $349. In fact Apple seemed to have created 3 different ranges each with a selection of cool changeable straps and also Apple announced the Apple Watch will be available in two sizes. Apple will have over 36 different configuration options for the Apple Watch. The user interface with the digital crown was a stroke of genius. I was not sold on the watch style, but with the straps it did make a compelling watch. I hate to think how expensive this can go too.
The iPod Classic is no longer being offered for sale after 13 years.
Apple launched Apple Pay, a contact payments solution that uses Touch ID, Passbook and the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus NFC chip. This replaces all your credit cards and was a cool secure solution.
Apart from Apple Pay, the new iPhones will have IOS 8 installed which has a host of new features and functions. Reachability will make tapping the top of a larger display a breeze simply by double tapping the Touch ID button.
The Live Stream of the Keynote was a joke. It was in 2 languages, Chinese and American English and kept stop starting or failing altogether.
Apple has also released U2’s new album for free on iTunes.
So what are my views.
The 2 new iPhones were somewhat disappointing. From a hardware point of view my LG G3 is better in every way. iOS 8 software might swing the balance towards the iPhone, but who knows. It is good to have a 128gb version but at £799 sim free that is so expensive. Also the 5.5 inch model is huge. Worth checking the 4.7 first!
The Apple Watch is not available til next year. Makes me wonder if battery life is shocking. Was hoping for a slimmer design. but that’s next year!
Will I buy one. No. What about yourself?
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 
Will I buy one……. Well first let’s look at the whole shebang of things.
Streaming of the event whilst the centre was filling up was well done ~ it was quiet low background music with equally low lighting! all very atmospheric…. At this point I was eagerly looking forward to the next hour and some.
Then just as the show was about to start Safari decided to quit and threw me back to the iPads Home screen.
This went on and on repeating itself and when I finally did get a connection again with a stream it lasted all for at best a minute before either repeating itself or quitting again and again.
Then there was the issue with the Chinese translation right bang in the middle of the keynote session, over talking the speaker beyond annoyance.
So, I next tried my iMac ~ That lasted all of 3 minutes….. Again the level of the Chinese interpreter continued to over talk the speaker (so I now knew it wasn’t something on the iPad and Safari that was causing it.
Next I tried AppleTV ~ at this point I gave up trying to watch either live or play back the last session. For me it just was not working.
Boy I was so looking forward to watching this event as well. I had cleared everything from interrupting me for the next two hours… What a waste!
Of the items on the show I did manage to get the information later and have to confess I was sorely disappointed.
The two phones may look a step up in better design and have a few internal core improvements but I’m very disappointed in the camera specs, especially when the smaller is less equipped.
Makes no sense to me ~ All these years Apple refused to go big in their phones, yet the first occasion they bring out two at different sizes the one that they pack with better features is the larger model!
Then there’s the iOS 8 to drive these two ~ pretty it may look in use but it’s still an icon based system! albeit landscape now on the larger models.
I’ll wait and see how it performs on my current iPad before passing any verdict.
As to the costs ~ They are having a laugh!
So, will I be buying one ~ Not presently.
Re the Watch and Pay ~ I’ll leave that til another time. I’m not impressed at the moment which is bad, seeing as I was considering expanding my Apple products.
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If you don’t already have at least an iPhone 5 you’ll need to buy a new phone if you want the watch so could cost around £900!
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