While rumors swirled about Apple removing the headphone jack and going all-wireless in the sound department for the iPhone 7, we got the first real look at the new phone today, plus the next version of the Apple Watch.
The wireless headphones are indeed coming bundled with the iPhone 7, which also sports stereo speakers. Instead of plugging in like the common Apple headphones, the wireless earbuds will dock with a charging station, which itself can attach to the phone with a Lightning connector.
Other not-unexpected changes: the home button has been redesigned to allow for Taptic feedback and some customization, but looks essentially the same. The phone is also water-resistant, finally giving it the same kind of dust and water resistance Samsung phones already had.
There are now two rear-facing cameras, one telephoto and one with a wide-angle lens, to allow for longer zoom and to go after the DSLR market.
“We are not saying to throw out your DSLR or that iPhones will replace DSLRs … for many of the customers who have it, it’ll probably be the best camera they’ve ever owned to date,” Senior Marketing VP Phil Schiller said.
The event’s commitment to paring the phone down to “a very few, very precisely engineered parts” speak to Apple’s determination to continue to simplify the design, but it doesn’t really work out like that in practice. The new wireless earbuds, called Airpods, include the charger and an adapter to go between the Lightning jack and a standard headphone jack. Bought separately from the phone, they’ll be a startling $159.
The reasoning comes down to simplicity, Schiller said.
“Our smartphones are packed with technology and we all want more… and it’s all fighting for space within that same enclosure. To maintain an ancient, analog, single-use connector in that space doesn’t make sense.”
The Airpods run on a new proprietary Apple W1 chip – Apple’s first wireless chip. They can detect when they are in your ear to determine when to play, and microphones on the bottom allow conversation using Siri. They have five hours of charge, or 24 hours of battery life using the charging port. Setup is done through iCloud and pairs devices, including iPhone and Apple Watch, automatically.
The phone also has a new chip, the proprietary, A10 Fusion, with 64-bit four-core processors that make it 240 times faster than the original iPhone.
The second big hardware announcement was the next-gen Apple Watch Series 2, which also gets the waterproof treatment. With “swim proofing,” it’s water resistant for 50 meters. That requires sealing the ports, and, in the case of the speaker, adding a mechanism that pushes out any water that gets in. The screen is also brighter – the brightest Apple has shipped with any product.
The Apple Watch is still geared very much toward fitness applications, especially running, and seems to be more in competition with FitBit and other similar companies instead of with the very concept of a cell phone.
And of course, even though the hype has died down, you can now play Pokemon Go on the Apple Watch.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 7, which launches on Sept. 16, start today.
