
September 13, 2019 BY John Herrington in Articles
Apple 2019 Launch

iPhone 11
Taking the main stage was the anticipated iPhone 11 Pro. The Pro and Pro Max introduce a triple camera system promising an expanded field of view covering four times more scene than the XR. Each camera is calibrated individually for color and sensitivity, and then paired together resulting in ultra crisp wide-angle and ultra-wide angle images.
Apple’s mid-range offering, the iPhone 11 starts at $699, and also gets an extra camera, up from its predecessor the XR. The new wide camera sensor on the iPhone 11 and iPhone Pro are designed to make the color on low light images stay natural looking, remove blur and adjust contrast, resulting in beautiful, detailed images true to time and place.
Despite having the “brightest, sharpest, iPhone display ever”: Super Retina XDR Display, and the “fastest chip ever” in a smartphone: the A13 Bionic, the new iPhone still gets 5 more hours of battery life than its predecessor, which is amazing considering all the upgrades.
The iPhone 11 comes in 6 colors: purple, green, yellow, black, white and red, and the Pro and Pro Max are available in midnight green, space gray, silver and gold.
🔥Take: I don’t see what all the fuss is over the green. It’s not that bad, right? I was a bit surprised that the Pro Max doesn’t come in white, but a similar “silver.” We snagged ours this morning, so we’ll report back in a couple weeks on what we think.
Apple Watch Series 5
The Apple Watch 5 introduces the Always On Retina Display, which keeps the time and your watch face on whether or not you are actively using it. It comes in 4 finishes, aluminum, stainless steel, titanium and ceramic. The Apple Watch 5 shines with its integrated Health Apps: with the EKG app, you can check your heart rhythm, and get a read on your heart rate. The new Noise app tells you when your surroundings are too loud and can impact your hearing. The Workout app integrates even more exercise types and metrics. With cellular, you can make and answer calls, and listen to Apple Music and podcasts on the go, and use Apple Pay all without your iPhone.
🔥Take: Honestly, they had me at “Always On.” Yeah, I’m an Apple Fanboy, but there’s almost nothing I hate more than trying to sneak a peek during a meeting and someone saying “I’ll try to wrap this up” because they got the visual cue. I’m still a bit skeptical about the Apple Watch being able to save my life, but those videos they put together made the room extremely dusty for me. This will be my third Apple Watch over the years, but this one feels like Apple is trying to adapt to our behaviors versus forcing us to adjust our behaviors for technology.
The new iPad
The new iPad has 10.2 inch retina display and now supports the full size Smart Keyboard. Apple’s new operating system for the iPad – iPadOS, includes an improved Files app that will make files easier to manage once they’re on the tablet. If you want to transfer it onward from the device, then iCloud has been updated with support for folder sharing. The most anticipated feature about the new iPad though is native support for plugging in external drives directly into your iPad. This change and the improved Files app bring the iPad closer to the ranks of the Microsoft Surface as a portable laptop, and not just a super cool tablet.
🔥Take: I don’t see enough of an improvement to upgrade this round. Will be curious what my iPad only friends think of this.
Subscriptions
The A10 fusion chip delivers great performance and can be paired with the xBox wireless controller to act as a portable gaming console. For $4.99 a month, an Apple Arcade subscription gives you access to over 100 games, so this feature comes in particularly handy.
Speaking of subscriptions, for $4.99 a month, you can get access to Apple TV +, Apple’s new streaming service. All the shows here will be exclusively Apple Originals. They have a great (few) shows already up, featuring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, even Oprah and Prince Harry have something in the works here. The price point and the fact that you get Apple TV+ free for a year with the purchase of a new Apple device, means that in a couple of months, you will definitely be hearing a lot more about Apple TV+ as it takes it’s rank among the top streaming services.
🔥Take: The $5/month pricing is a loss-leader, land-grab for Apple to try and compete with Hulu, Netflix, HBO, Disney, etc.