Apple unveils newest devices

CEO of Apple Tim Cook announced the iPhone 11 at Tuesday’s Keynote. Photo courtesy Apple.com

Apple, the world’s most valuable company for the ninth straight year, looks like it is on the verge of extending that streak with the unveiling of some new products at the company’s annual keynote on Tuesday.

Viewers tuning into the live-streamed event got to experience new products set to be released at the end of the month.

“We have a huge morning planned for you,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple introduced the new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, the newest iPad, and the latest installment in the Apple Watch series.

The newest iPad, the seventh generation, has 10.2 retina display powered by a new A10 Fusion chip with the material being 100 percent aluminum and recyclable. Priced at a surprisingly cheap $329, It is available for pre-order now and ships Sept. 30.

After the unveiling of the iPad and the recent health studies coming to the Apple Watch, Cook revealed the latest version of the world’s most popular smart watch, Apple Watch Series 5.

Photo courtesy Apple.com

The Apple Watch Series 5 will feature “always on retina display,” a new ambient light sensor and power chip while boasting “an always on 18-hour battery life.” Other additions like a built-in compass and various color-ways are also implemented into the watch while a new titanium, ceramic and Nike version will be released eventually.

The new Apple Watch will be sold at price points between $399 (GPS) and $499 (cellular) and will be available in stores Sept. 20 with pre-orders starting now. The series 3 Apple Watch will stay in stores and start at a new, cheaper price at $199.

Apple’s flagship product, the iPhone, coming off a 99 percent customer satisfaction rating on the previous models released last year, will be debuting three new iPhones to the marketplace: the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

All iPhones this year emphasized the camera by crafting some of the strongest, cleanest and most creative cameras to date in a cellular device.

The iPhone 11, starting at $699, features an aluminum and glass design with the glass around the camera donning a custom 3D geometry.

The new phone has: a 6.1-inch LCD screen, dual camera lens with the capability to switch between wide and ultra-wide camera lenses, even faster FaceID, an hour longer battery life, and a 12MP TrueDepth camera installed in the front-facing lens allowing slow motion selfies, called slofies.

Both phones will feature spatial audio for better all-around sound quality and the new A13 Bionic processor making it the fastest CPU and GPU in a phone, leapfrogging Android’s Snapdragon 855 processor.

Along with the iPhone 11, two more iPhones were announced and were labeled as “pro.” It’s said to be designed for “professionals, or people who aren’t professionals but want the best,” said Cook.

“This is the first phone we’ve called pro,” said Phil Schiller, the senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Apple.

The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, priced at $999 and $1,099 respectively, are made in a new surgical grade stainless steel with a glass back. The new phones are available in four different colors: the beloved space gray and silver, while presenting a new midnight green and gold finish.

The Pro models will feature a brighter screen Apple is calling Super Retina XDR at a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, an even longer battery life where you’ll receive an additional four more hours compared to the iPhone XS and five more hours when you compare the Pro to the older iPhone XS Max.

Unlike any other iPhone, the Pro models will have three powerful camera lenses: the 12MP wide, telephoto, and ultra-wide displayed on the rear.

Other releases include Apple TV+ which will have exclusive Apple content and television. Apple Arcade, the world’s first game subscription service for tablets, television and phones. You won’t find these games on any other subscription service. Both services cost $4.99.

When asked about the keynote and what stood out the most to him, Dexter Lindsay, a senior informational technology major at FAMU, said Apple is complacent but that it has gained the right to be that way.

“The Apple Watch is a very minor upgrade similar hardware with the only notable software improvements being the always on display feature. While not anything new to the tech world, the refresh rate addition to the concept is actually very refreshing for Apple.

“The iPhone 11 Pro and [Pro] Max are essentially what you expect Apple to do every year. Same phone, better processor with camera improvements. It’s like their formula. Although the camera improvements this year are surprisingly very significant and might put the iPhone camera back on top this year,” he added.