Apple Event, September 2019
Due to a last minute scheduling conflict, this was the first Apple announcement in six yeas that I wasn’t able to watch live. However, it wasn’t a terrible one to miss—most of the upgrades this year were rather modest. Even still, I was fairly impressed by a few things they announced.
Apple Arcade:
I originally thought this service was destined to fail, but I’m a little more hopeful now. The games they demoed weren’t very exciting but with 100+ games, there are likely to be a few good ones, and $5 is cheaper than I think anyone expected, and cheap enough to get people to try it.
Apple TV+:
Apple TV+ is another service I was unsure about, but I think the way they’re choosing to roll it out will help them gain a lot of traction. $5 is way cheaper than anyone expected, and you get. a whole year free if you buy a new Apple device. Combine that with the star studded casts of their shows, and they’re definitely going to get people watching.
iPad:
This was a modest update, but its always nice to see the entry level iPad getting some love. $329 is just an incredibly accessible price point.
Apple Watch Series 5:
A few things to note here:
There are very few new features. The always on display is nice, but I honestly didn’t realize that it didn’t already have a compass. That’s hardly a tentpole feature, but its being dressed up as one.
There were rumors of sleep tracking capabilities, but those were apparently just rumors. Too bad.
The new Edition models are cool. I’ve been saying that a titanium case would be nice, but I was disappointed to see that it’s kinda dull and ugly. (UPDATE: 9/30/19, 20:30; after seeing one of the titanium watches in person, they’re actually pretty sleek. The photos don’t do it justice.)
I’m glad they’re finally letting you pair any watch case with any band.
There are finally some good improvements with the bands. There are now at least a few options of nice bands with black hardware, rather than all silver like in the past. The leather loops and Milanese loops now only cost $99, which is much more reasonable. Year after year, we’ve seen the bands get cheaper: first the link bracelets, then the modern buckles, and now the leather loops and Milanese loops. Hopefully next year the prices for the sport bands will drop by ten or twenty bucks — I think they’d sell a lot more of them if they were just a little bit cheaper.
All in all, the best watch to buy right now would be a series 4 on clearance, if you can find one.
iPhone 11:
People often ask me for advice on which new phone they should get, and the iPhone 11 is the perfect upgrade for almost anyone. It has all the nice features from the iPhone XR, and it’s $50 less expensive. The only people for whom this phone isn’t the ideal choice are those who are already on an annual upgrade plan (like Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program), or those who are willing to pay a couple hundred extra bucks to stay on the absolute cutting edge of technology.
The Face ID improvements are great, and the new chip seems to be blazing fast. The improved water resistance is nice. The UWB location technology will be an absolute game changer, I just hope they’ve done their due diligence to keep it from being abused by apps like Facebook.
The new camera features are awesome. Night Mode looks spectacular.
iPhone 11 Pro:
The biggest news here was the new midnight green color. It’s rare that Apple is actually able to keep a secret like that, but it was a delightful surprise. The triple-camera setup on the back isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing design, but I appreciate their commitment to solid camera improvements, year after year. The 18w fast charger in the box is a nice touch, as is the further improved water resistance.
There’s actually some bad news here, though, and that is that they’re ditching 3D Touch, one of the tentpole features introduced with the iPhone 6s, in favor of Haptic Touch. I was a big fan of 3D Touch, and I thought it had a lot of potential, but it was poorly implemented so people didn’t generally know when or exactly how to invoke it. getting rid of it means that some features will take slightly longer to access, like adding a song to your up next due or previewing links. The only way I was going to be okay with this change was if removing a component of the display allowed the display to be noticeably thinner, thereby making the device thinner and lighter. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The iPhone 11 Pro is 6% heavier and 5% thicker than the iPhone XS. If you’re looking for more than just my preliminary thoughts, check out my review of the iPhone 11 Pro.
All in all, this keynote was a mixed bag. A couple of disappointments for power users, but a solid step forward for those who are due for upgrades but don’t necessarily care about being on the cutting edge.