Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/17563/the-apple-2022-fall-iphone-event-live-blog-10am-pt-1700-utc
The Apple 2022 Fall iPhone Event Live Blog 10am PT (17:00 UTC)
by Ryan Smith on September 7, 2022 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Apple
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- iPhone 14
- Apple A16
12:56PM EDT - It's that time of the year again - Apple's fall iPhone event, where we expect the Cupertino company to unveil its newest generation family of iPhones - what should be the iPhone 14 series
12:57PM EDT - With Apple seemingly satisfied with its current industrial design as embodied by the iPhone 13 lineup, it will be interesting to see what the company does to iterate on its flagship phones this year – especially the high-end Pro designs. In which case, this year may be all about the guts, and what Apple does to update things like the cameras and displays
12:57PM EDT - Meanwhile, it's all but assured that Apple will introduce a new generation processor in the form of the A16. Apple's latest iterations of SoC silicon have been ground-breaking and industry leading, and we expect the new chip to once again push the envelope in performance and efficiency, as Apple is wont to do
12:58PM EDT - This year's event is also Apple's first in-person event since before the COVID pandemic began, so it will be interesting to see how this presentation unfolds
12:58PM EDT - In the absence of audiences, Apple has become a master of highly-produced, previously-recorded presentations that move at a blistering pace and include shots at lots of different locales
01:00PM EDT - In this case we're covering the event virtually (too many other things to do), but it'll be interesting to see if Apple walks things back for a live audience, or if the bulk of the presentation is still going to be pre-recorded
01:00PM EDT - Alright, here we go
01:01PM EDT - Pre-recorded it is
01:01PM EDT - Starting as always with Tim Cook
01:02PM EDT - Today Apple will be talking about three products: iPhone, Air Pods, Apple Watch
01:02PM EDT - Cook is starting by talking about the synergy between all of these products
01:03PM EDT - This is something only Apple can do
01:03PM EDT - First up: Apple Watch
01:04PM EDT - Now rolling a video talking about the virtues of the Apple Watch
01:04PM EDT - This appears to be a testamonial video
01:07PM EDT - And back to Tim
01:07PM EDT - "This year we're introducing our best Apple Watch lineup yet"
01:07PM EDT - And now over to Jeff Williams
01:07PM EDT - #1 smartwatch for 7 years running
01:07PM EDT - (Not that there's much in the way of serious competition)
01:08PM EDT - Introducing the Apple Watch Series 8
01:08PM EDT - Swim proof, dust proof, crack resistant
01:08PM EDT - Now to Deidre Caldbeck
01:09PM EDT - Fitness tracking, vitality sensors, connectivity, etc
01:09PM EDT - New feature: temperature sensor
01:10PM EDT - Apple is pitching it as a women's health feature for cycle tracking
01:10PM EDT - "Privacy is at the core"
01:10PM EDT - Two sensor design: one on the back-crystal near the skin, the other near the display
01:11PM EDT - 0.1C sensitivity, samples temperature every 5 minutes
01:12PM EDT - Automatic retroactive ovulation estimates
01:12PM EDT - Apple really is going all-in on this health thing
01:13PM EDT - Health app data uploaded to iCloud is end-to-end encrypted
01:13PM EDT - On to safety features
01:14PM EDT - New feature: crash detection
01:14PM EDT - Series 8 can detect a car crash and automatically call emergency services
01:14PM EDT - Two new motion sensors: improved 3-axis gyroscope, and a high G-force accelerometer
01:15PM EDT - And a new algorithm to detect crashes
01:15PM EDT - Also uses data from the barometer, mic, and GPS receiver
01:16PM EDT - Crash detection only runs while the user is driving
01:16PM EDT - New feature: low power mode
01:16PM EDT - Can reach up to 36 hours on a single full charge
01:16PM EDT - Disables features like the always-on display and automatic workout detection
01:17PM EDT - Available on Series 4 watches and later
01:17PM EDT - Meanwhile Series 8 cellular models will support international roaming
01:18PM EDT - Lots of new watch bands for this year as well
01:18PM EDT - And that's Apple Watch Series 8
01:19PM EDT - Starting at $399 for GPS, $499 for the cellular model
01:19PM EDT - Available September 16th
01:19PM EDT - Now rolling a promo video about the Watch
01:21PM EDT - Now on to Apple Watch SE
01:21PM EDT - Apple is releasing a new Apple Watch SE as well
01:21PM EDT - Completely redesigned the back case to be made of nylon composites
01:22PM EDT - The SE 2 includes the same motion sesnors as the Watch 8 - so it supports features like crash detection
01:22PM EDT - And it uses the same SoC as the Watch 8
01:23PM EDT - Apparently the SoC is being called the "SiP 8"
01:23PM EDT - Available September 16th
01:24PM EDT - $249 for the GPS mode, $299 for the cellular model
01:25PM EDT - Now running another promo video
01:25PM EDT - New model: Apple Watch Ultra
01:25PM EDT - New design that expands the ways to use the watch
01:26PM EDT - Most rugged watch yet
01:26PM EDT - 49mm titanium case to protect the watch
01:26PM EDT - And their brightest display yet
01:26PM EDT - New button: action button. It's orange
01:26PM EDT - Designed so that all of these buttons and the crown can be used with gloves
01:27PM EDT - And a second speaker to make the watch louder
01:27PM EDT - And cellular connectivity is a base feature
01:27PM EDT - Up to 36 hours of battery life on a single charge
01:27PM EDT - 60 hours in a "new battery optimization setting" that's coming this fall
01:27PM EDT - New watch face to go with Ultra: wayfinder
01:27PM EDT - Wayfinder also has a night mode
01:30PM EDT - At a high level, the Ultra is designed to be the ultimate sports watch, creaing a level of distinction between the basic watch models that are more focused on fitness tracking, and a more durable outdoor watch
01:31PM EDT - Adding a new feature later this year to automatically detect when you arrive at a running track
01:32PM EDT - The Ultra also has a built-in 86dB siren for emergencies
01:33PM EDT - Water resistance has been doubled to WR100
01:33PM EDT - Can even be used as a dive computer down to 40 meters
01:35PM EDT - Talking further about using it as a dive computer
01:36PM EDT - Oceanic+ app
01:36PM EDT - And that's Apple Watch Ultra
01:36PM EDT - Display goes up to 2000 nits
01:37PM EDT - $799, available September 23rd
01:37PM EDT - And now the obligatory promo video
01:40PM EDT - (That's still cheaper than the 18k gold Apple Watch Edition)
01:40PM EDT - And that's the Apple Watch lineup for the fall
01:40PM EDT - Now on to Air Pods
01:41PM EDT - "Most popular headphones in the world"
01:41PM EDT - Introducing the next generation of AirPods Pro
01:41PM EDT - Starting with a promo video
01:42PM EDT - New chip: H2
01:42PM EDT - "High bandwidth connectivity"
01:43PM EDT - And a new low distortion audio driver
01:43PM EDT - (I have no clue who these artists are. Man, I'm old)
01:43PM EDT - New feature: personalized spatial audio
01:44PM EDT - Apple is pulling an X-Fi Super by using ear mapping to tune the HRTF algorithms to produce a better outcome
01:44PM EDT - Noise cancelation performance has been doubled
01:45PM EDT - New extra small ear tip for the smallest ears
01:45PM EDT - "Adaptive transparency": reduces loud outside noises such as construction
01:46PM EDT - New feature: touch control to adjust the volume by swiping up and down
01:46PM EDT - Battery life is now up to 6 hours on a single charge
01:46PM EDT - And the charging case carries enough power for 4 full charges
01:47PM EDT - And the AirPods Pro case can now be tracked/located
01:47PM EDT - Apple has also put a speaker on the bottom of the case for location finding purposes
01:48PM EDT - $249
01:48PM EDT - Now back to Tim and for the main course of the morning: the iPhone
01:48PM EDT - Starting things off with a promo video for the new iPhone
01:49PM EDT - "Going big with iPhone 14, and even bigger with iPhone 14 Plus"
01:49PM EDT - 14: 6.1-inch. 14 Plus: 6.7-inch
01:50PM EDT - Talking up the virtues of a larger display
01:50PM EDT - iPhone 14 has an updated thermal design
01:50PM EDT - 1200 nits peak brightness on the OLED display
01:51PM EDT - Aluminum body, ceramic shield front glass
01:51PM EDT - "All day battery life" for the 14, and the "best battery life ever in an iPhone" for the 14 Plus
01:52PM EDT - Apple is reusing the A15 for the iPhone 14. No new SoC this year for these phones (Pro excluded)
01:52PM EDT - So the same 6 core CPU and 5 core GPU
01:52PM EDT - "Amazing new camera system"
01:53PM EDT - New Main camera: 12MP, 1.9 micron, f/1.5 aperature, larger sensor
01:54PM EDT - 49% improvement in low-light capture
01:54PM EDT - Night mode exposures are twice as fast
01:54PM EDT - Front-facing camera is new as well: 12MP with auto focus and true depth capabilities
01:55PM EDT - (The ultrawide camera has not been mentioned as being changed/improved at all)
01:56PM EDT - Apple is updating their image processing pipeline to apply deep fusion earlier in the process
01:56PM EDT - Apple is calling this enhanced image processing pipeline "photonic engine"
01:57PM EDT - New, more advanced stabilization mode for video
01:57PM EDT - "Action mode"
01:57PM EDT - Supports Dolby Vision HDR
01:57PM EDT - On to connectivity
01:58PM EDT - Talking up the virtues of eSIM
01:58PM EDT - Can store multiple eSIMs on a single phone
01:58PM EDT - (It's not clear if there's anything actually new here with eSIM support)
01:59PM EDT - Aha. All US iPhone models are doing away with the SIM tray entirely!
01:59PM EDT - So US iPhones are eSIM-only
01:59PM EDT - iPhone 14 is also getting crash detection
01:59PM EDT - Using a new gyroscope and accelerometer
02:00PM EDT - And Apple Watch and iPhone will work together for crash detection
02:00PM EDT - Rolling another promo video for a new connectivity feature
02:01PM EDT - The rumors have panned out: satellite connectivity
02:01PM EDT - "Emergency SOS via satellite"
02:02PM EDT - Talking about the challenges of connecting to satellites in LEO, as opposed to cellular towers which are much closer
02:02PM EDT - LEO satellites move. Very quickly.
02:02PM EDT - Built "custom components" to connect to satellites
02:03PM EDT - But the phone needs to be pointed at a satellite
02:03PM EDT - With the phone directing the user on how to keep the phone pointed at a satellite
02:04PM EDT - Using custom text compression to further reduce the amount of data transferred (data rates are, understandably, going to be incredibly low)
02:04PM EDT - As little as 15 seconds in the clear, longer if there are obstructions like foliage
02:05PM EDT - (Beam forming and phased array antennas are insane)
02:05PM EDT - 2 years of free service will be coming with the iPhone 14
02:05PM EDT - Service available in November
02:05PM EDT - No mention of whose satellite network Apple is using
02:06PM EDT - Now talking about iPhone recycling
02:07PM EDT - And that's iPhone 14
02:07PM EDT - Starting at $799 for the 14, $899 for the 14 Plus
02:07PM EDT - Pre-orders start September 9th
02:07PM EDT - 14 will be available on September 16th, 14 Plus on October 7th
02:08PM EDT - Now rolling an iPhone 14 promo video
02:08PM EDT - So same SoC and body as the 13, new cameras, satellite connectivity, and the sensors needed for crash detection
02:09PM EDT - And back to Tim
02:09PM EDT - Now on to the iPhone Pro models
02:10PM EDT - "Our most innovative Pro lineup yet"
02:10PM EDT - Rolling another promo video, this time for the Pro models
02:11PM EDT - Recapping basics of the Pro family
02:11PM EDT - New front screen design; the notch is gone
02:12PM EDT - In its place is a smaller pill box to hold the cameras and other front sensors
02:12PM EDT - "Dynamic island"
02:13PM EDT - Apple is using the pill box as design feature, placing information around it to hide that it's a dead area in the screen, making it look intentional
02:13PM EDT - And the dynamic island expands to provide more detailed controls
02:14PM EDT - Dynamic island "enables an entirely new iPhone experience"
02:15PM EDT - New display: peak HDR brightness of 1600 nits
02:15PM EDT - The same level as the ProDisplay XDR
02:15PM EDT - Peak outdoor brightness of 2000 nits
02:15PM EDT - 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch phones
02:15PM EDT - Introducing always-on display
02:16PM EDT - Essential information is always visible
02:16PM EDT - New display has a low-power model that can operate at as low as 1Hz
02:16PM EDT - Co-processors can refresh the display with minimal power
02:16PM EDT - And the display is of course dimmed to further minimize power consumption
02:16PM EDT - "New Super Retina XDR"
02:17PM EDT - New Apple A16 Bionic SoC
02:17PM EDT - Focusing on power efficiency, display, and camera
02:17PM EDT - 16B transistors, the largest number yet
02:17PM EDT - Built on a 4nm process (TSMC's, no doubt)
02:17PM EDT - 6 core CPU
02:18PM EDT - 2 high-perf cores, 4 high-eff cores
02:18PM EDT - High-perf cores are faster and use 20% less power than the A15
02:18PM EDT - Efficiency cores use "one-third the power of the competition"
02:18PM EDT - New 16 core neural engine, 17 trillion operations per second
02:18PM EDT - 5 core GPU
02:18PM EDT - 50% more memory bandwidth
02:18PM EDT - And the new display engine driving the always-on display
02:19PM EDT - Updated ISP as well to support Apple's latest cameras
02:19PM EDT - New camera: 48MP camera with a quad-pixel sensor
02:20PM EDT - 65% larger sensor than on the iPhone 13 Pro
02:20PM EDT - 100% focus pixels
02:20PM EDT - 2.44 micron pixel side
02:20PM EDT - New sensor groups every 4 pixels into one large quad pixel
02:20PM EDT - So oversampling, resulting in 12MP photos
02:21PM EDT - Now showing some examples of photos taken with the new camera
02:22PM EDT - New 2x telephoto camera as well
02:22PM EDT - 12MP, 1.22 micron pixel size
02:23PM EDT - Can now shoot ProRAW photos at 48MP resolution (using every pixel individually)
02:23PM EDT - New machine learning models to go with the changed pixel pattern
02:24PM EDT - New 12MP ultra wide camera. 1.4 micron pixels. 6 element lens
02:24PM EDT - Redesigned flash, using 9 LED array
02:25PM EDT - Up to twice as bright and 3x uniformity
02:25PM EDT - And improved low-light performance for all of the phone's camera due to image processing improvements
02:25PM EDT - "Our most powerful pro camera system ever"
02:26PM EDT - The 14 Pros also get action mode
02:26PM EDT - "All-day battery life"
02:27PM EDT - And that's iPhone 14 Pro
02:27PM EDT - Now rolling another promo video for the iPhone 14 Pro
02:31PM EDT - 14 Pro starts at $999, and 14 Pro Max at $1099
02:31PM EDT - Storage options up to 1TB
02:31PM EDT - Pre-orders start September 9th, available September 16th
02:32PM EDT - And back to Tim
02:32PM EDT - Tim's recapping today's announcements
02:33PM EDT - (RIP iPhone mini; small phones rock!)
02:34PM EDT - These products seamlessly work together "in a way only Apple can deliver"
02:34PM EDT - And that's a wrap! Thanks for joining us