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Ben Halpern
Ben Halpern

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Apple Event tl;dr for Developers

From a developer's perspective, this event was pretty lame. A few new features and upgraded chips for better performance. This is nice, and the new camera seems cool, but nothing major to report on for us makers of stuff. There are a lot of new things to think about with iOS 10, but those had been discussed at a previous event.

As the smartphone landscape progresses, generations will fragment more and more. New phones that support greater graphics and performance are only part of the landscape, and I would urge developers (or their bosses) to think in terms of progressive enhancement when exploring new graphic and processing capabilities.

Apple's wireless headphones apparently use a "Bluetooth-like technology", but not actual Bluetooth. This is noteworthy.

Here are my notes from the event

  • Apple created Everyone Can Code initiative that works with Swift Playgrounds
  • A few random Apple Watch features. Plus Pokemon Go. I'm kind of sick of Pokemon Go, personally.

Next generation of Apple Watch, "Series 2"

  • Dual Core Processor, 50% faster
  • New GPU for better graphics/render perf
  • Brighter, better display
  • "Swim proof"
  • Built-in GPS
  • watchOS 3
  • No mention of battery life

iPhone 7

  • iOS 10
    • Siri capability with apps
    • HomeKit: "Everybody supports HomeKit"
    • More funky iMessage.
    • Rich notifications
  • "taptic engine" home button with API for apps
  • Upgraded camera hardware + software
    • API access to more info and features of photos like live photos
    • iPhone 7 Plus has two cameras for optical zoom.
      • Depth of field
  • Brighter display
  • Stereo Speakers, 2x the volume, more range
  • Lightning port for audio: ships with adapter
  • Apple wireless earphones: "Airpods"
  • Apple Pay to be released in Japan, which has different NFC protocol
  • New chip: "A10 Fusion"
    • 4 cores: 2 main, 2 "high efficiency"
    • 6 core graphics chip
  • Improved battery life
  • Storage capacity doubled to 32GB/128GB/256GB

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