Apple held their September 2015 Keynote Wednesday at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco to unveil the iPhone 6S, 4th Generation Apple TV, iPad Pro, and iPad mini 4.
Apple Watch
Apple began the keynote talking about the Apple Watch. Customer satisfaction rates were introduced and announced to be at an incredible 97%.
They announced that there are over 10,000 apps available for the Watch and highlighted a few apps, including iTranslate, which allows you to immediately translate speech and the GoPro app, which turns your Watch into a viewfinder for your GoPro. They also announced the Facebook Messenger app, which is coming soon.
They went on to reveal that they are working with Hermes for new watch bands that will be available in October. They also revealed that they are making the Apple Watch Sport available in Gold and Rose Gold. Additionally, they will be adding a Product Red band and a few extra bands for the watch.
The new watch colors and bands will be available immediately.
iPad
New models of iPads were also announced, beginning with the all-new iPad Pro.
iPad Pro
The 12.9-inch tablet comes at a stunning 6.9mm thin and runs on the A9X chip. The 64-bit chip has 2x the memory bandwidth and storage performance of the A8X chip.
The screen features a 2732 x 2048 pixel display, making for a 5.6 million pixel display. The tablet also features a 10-hour battery life and a four-speaker audio system.
Introduced alongside the iPad Pro is the Smart Keyboard, which connects via the Smart Connector, a magnetic connector that is on the side of the iPad.
Also introduced with the Pro is the Apple Pencil, Apple's first stylus. The Pencil, which charges via a lightning connector located at the top of it that plugs into the iPad, has sensors within it that work with the iPad to detect position, force and tilt. It introduces Force Data that detects force to produce thick or thin strokes. With Multi-Touch, you can use it at the same time as your finger. The tip is precise enough to touch a single pixel.
The iPad Pro is available in a 32GB WiFi model for $799, a 128GB WiFi model for $999, and a 128GB WiFi + Cellular model for $1079.
The Apple Pencil costs $99, and the Smart Keyboard costs $169.
iPad mini
The iPad mini 4 was also introduced. The new mini will feature the same internals as the iPad Air 2 which was not updated at Wednesday's event.
The mini starts at $399 and goes up to $599.
Both new iPads will be available in November.
Apple TV 4th Generation
The new Apple TV features a new user interface that features a white background rather than a black background, making it visually similar to the upcoming iOS 9. It also features a new remote that includes a glass touchpad, a button for Siri voice control, and volume buttons, an input changer, an accelerometer, gyroscope, Bluetooth capabilities, and a remote that will last up to 3 months on a single charge. It is charged via a lightning connector on the bottom.
Siri will search across multiple content apps to find content for you, including Neftlix, Hulu, HBO, Showtime, and iTunes. This will make it so you can find TV shows or movies without having to search each individual app for content.
Siri also makes it possible to make specific searches such as "Show me that Modern Family episode with Edward Norton" or "Skip ahead seven minutes". Demonstrated was a function where the user was watching TV and said "What did she say?". The show then jumped back 15 seconds and temporarily turned on captions.
You can ask Siri about weather, sports scores, and more. The info will pop up on the bottom half of the screen and content will continue playing. Simply swipe up to get more details.
Also added was the App Store, which will make it possible to add apps to your Apple TV, including games. Simply turn the remote sideways to use it as a gaming controller. Games can be played multiplayer with any iOS device. Also demostrated was a shopping app that brings the store to the living room.
iPhone
The new iPhone 6S comes in four colors: Silver, Gold, Space Grey, and the new Rose Gold. It also comes in the 4.7-inch standard model or the 5.5-inch Plus model.
Added was 3D Touch, the newest generation of Force Touch. It allows you to press at three different levels of pressure to get many different shortcuts, especially on the home screen. Deep press an app icon on the home screen to bring up several different shortcuts. For example, deep press the Camera app to reveal a "take selfie" shortcut, or press harder on the Phone app to reveal a list of favorites to call without opening the app.
Also added was always-on "Hey Siri," which allows you to access Siri by simply saying "Hey Siri."
Another additon is the second-generation Touch ID sensor, which is up to 2x faster than its predecessor.
The iSight camera saw a 50% increase in megapixels, being boosted to 12mp. This is less impressive when compared to similar smartphones on the market, but Apple tends to impress with camera upgrades. Similar to other phones on the market, the camera does, however, feature 4K video recording.
Pricing for the standard 6S starts at $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 64GB model, and $399 for the 128GB model. As for the 6S Plus, it starts at $299 for the 16GB model, $399 for the 64GB model, and $499 for the 128GB model.
The iPhone can be pre-ordered beginning September 12th, and it will be available on September 25th.
Can't afford to upgrade every year? That's no longer an issue! Apple has new financing plans that makes it possible to upgrade annually to the newest GSM-unlocked model for as low as $32/mo. There are also 6-month and 18-month plans.
Follow @VAVEL_Tech on Twitter for more on what Apple unveiled on Wednesday.
Jack Griffin is an editor for the Technology and Music sections of VAVEL USA. Follow him on Twitter at @jacksonlgriffin.
