Live from the Steve Jobs theater, 9/12/2018
September 12, 2018 by Steven M. Peters
Typing as fast as I can. The wi-fi has slowed to a crawl.
9:15 Seated, with Steve Levy immediately to my left and Mark Gurman two to my right. Hope they can’t read my screen.
10:00 If Tim Cook comes onstage and there is no wi-fi, does he make any news?
10:04 Throat clearing with pictures of new stores. About to ship 2 billionth iOS device. How the world has changed, the moments of our lives, etc.
10:06 Starting with Apple watch. Big applause from the Apple staffers. Jeff Williams takes stage, rather than the guy from Microsoft. Rundown of what the watch already does, focus on health.
10:10 Watch is as 9ti5Mac leaked it. 30% larger screen area. New watch face can handle 8 complications.
10:14 VERY low energy so far. The only excitement coming from the fake applause by staffers in the front.
10:17 Watch can now detect falls, based on unusual wrist trajectory and impact detection. Will send emergency call if it detects no movement for a few minutes. Cool.
10:19 New heart health features: Rate too low, irregular rhythm, electrocardiogram. Some genuine excitement for the last one.
10:22 Support by the AMA represented by its president, Ivor Benjamin. Cleared by the FDA. A “de nova” clearance, that is, the first of its kind. Very trippy graphics in this version of WatchOS. De rigor pitch for Apple-standard privacy protection. Feature wrap-up.
10:29 Cue the Jony Ive video. His volume is too loud; the design is nice on the eyes, but he’s hurting my ears.
10:31 Pitching the finishes. Top of the line seems to be the gold stainless with Milanese loop. Hermes stuff. Tepid applause. Starts at $399, $499 with cellular. Series 3 $279. Pre-order Friday, available Sept. 21. Watch OS 5 available 9/17
10:34 Tim could not be more excited, he says. Video too loud.
10:35 Now, iPhone. Taking iPhone X to the next level. The most advanced iPhone we have ever created. (They can say that every year; they better.) Shows the images we have already seen. iPhone Xs.
10:38 Phil Schiller takes the stage. Most beautiful iPhone we have ever made. (tepid applause). Most durable glass (tepid applause). Two sizes. 5.8, 6.5 inch, as leaked. Rattles off the specs.
10:41 iPhone 10x Max, as predicted. Lots of talk about game play. Music videos.
10:43 FaceID backgrounder. Cool tech, but we got this last year. What’s new: Faster algorithms, faster secure enclave. Claims most secure facial ID ever in a smartphone.
10:55 A12 bionic. Industry first 7 nm chip (that’s a huge breakthrough) 6.9 billion transistors. Goes through the specs core by core. This is actually a big part of Apple’s advantage over its competitors. 5 trillion operations per second. Woman engineer out front to show what you can do with the A12 bionic.
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