Apple’s ‘Time Flies’ event: rumors, news and announcements – The Verge

Apple developers are scrambling over accelerated iOS 14 release

2020-09-16T12:25:23-04:00

Apple angered many in the iPhone and iPad developer community yesterday when it announced that iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 would be available to consumers today. A single day's notice is a big departure from the company's usual approach, where developers are given about a week's notice to put the finishing touches on their apps ahead of the major operating system release.

The surprise comes as some iOS developers are already exasperated with the way Apple is exerting control over its App Store. Ben Thompson, Kara Swisher, and John Gruber all reported earlier this year that many are terrified about speaking up about policies they think are unfair. …

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Apple Watch’s blood oxygen monitor is for ‘wellness,’ not medicine

2020-09-16T09:15:00-04:00

The new Apple Watch Series 6 includes a sensor that allows the watch to measure blood oxygen levels. The device is a long-awaited addition to Apple's suite of health tools, but it tracks oxygen levels at the wrist, which can be less accurate than measurements typically gathered at the fingertip.

Most oxygen sensors, including Apple's, measure the amount of oxygen in your blood using light. These devices are called pulse oximeters, and they typically clip on to your fingertip. A standard version sends both red and infrared light through the finger, where there's lots of blood close to the surface. A protein in the blood absorbs more infrared …

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The new Apple Watch SE and iPad Air are better ‘better’ options

2020-09-16T07:00:00-04:00

Even though Apple didn't announce new iPhones yesterday, the event was a jam-packed hour. Apple announced four new hardware products, a major new service, and a new bundle. By any objective standard, that's a big day. As I'll note below, the most important products might not be the hardware, but Fitness Plus and the ability to make an Apple Watch a kid tracker.

Besides those announcements, the main thing that struck me is that Apple seems to be making a subtle but important shift in its product strategy this year. You may have heard of the "Good, Better, Best" pricing strategy - it's been applied to Apple a bunch. I think what Apple is doin …

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Apple posts ASL interpretation of its ‘Time Flies’ event

2020-09-15T20:56:03-04:00

Apple made an American Sign Language interpretation of its "Time Flies" event available on its website on Tuesday (via AppleInsider). There are two screens in the ASL-interpreted event replay - the left one shows the event video, while the one on the right shows someone interpreted what's being said in ASL.

Apple is already well-known for its accessibility features in its products. iOS 14, the company's next major iPhone update, gives users some significant improvements. It can alert you when your iPhone picks up certain sounds such as a dog's bark, for example. Another new feature lets you double- or triple-tap the back of your phone to pe …

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The new iPad Air makes Apple’s tablet lineup messier by outshining the iPad Pro

2020-09-15T17:15:16-04:00

Apple favors simplicity, and nowhere is that more apparent - other than product design - than in the company's product lineups. But the newly announced iPad Air, which now features a screen designed like that of the pricier Pro with the added benefit of being the only device so far to carry the new A14 Bionic processor, is further complicating what was once the company's most elegant product lineup.

The iPad lineup used to be simple: you wanted the big one or the little one, and then you had to choose how much storage and maybe pick a color. But starting with the introduction of the Smart Keyboard and the ill-fated 9.7-inch iPad Pro in 2016 …

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Apple quietly reveals the Watch Series 6 will be the first with U1 locator chip

2020-09-15T16:14:00-04:00

In September 2019, Apple added a new feature to the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro without saying a single word onstage - and it did it again today with the Apple Watch Series 6.

The feature is Apple's U1 ultra-wideband locator chip, which could let these devices find each other, find other gadgets equipped with similar tech, and even securely unlock your car and your door without ever pulling an iPhone out of your pocket.

The feature flashed by for a brief moment during today's presentation, buried in this slide that we just barely managed to screencap:

And perusing the official Apple Watch specs comparison page, we can see that it's only t …

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How to preorder the eighth-generation 10.2-inch iPad

2020-09-15T14:32:49-04:00

Apple announced a new iteration of its popular baseline iPad, now in its eighth generation. It's $329 and ships with the A12 Bionic processor. You can preorder that model today, and it will ship this Friday, September 18th.

In terms of spec upgrades, the bump from the A10 with last year's model to the A12 Bionic is a significant leap in speed. If you held out from buying the seventh-gen version, this new iPad seems fast considering its $329 price tag. It still ships with a minuscule 32GB of storage, and for $100 more, you can increase it to 128GB.

You might also want to preorder the new Apple iPad Air. The one that looks more like an iPad …

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How to preorder the Apple Watch Series 6 and SE

2020-09-15T14:32:34-04:00

Apple announced two new Apple Watch models at its "Time Flies" online event today: the high-end $399 Series 6 and the more affordable $279 Apple Watch SE, which serves a step up from the $199 Series 3. Both will release this Friday, September 18th, and if you're interested in buying one of them, you can place a preorder starting today.

The Series 6 comes in a few new colorways and finishes, and it has more power with its S6 processor and an improved always-on display. Apple noted that this Watch is 20 percent faster than the Series 5 Watch, and it has more sensors than previous models. Notably, it can detect the blood oxygen levels in your …

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Apple has sold more than 500 million iPads over the last decade

2020-09-15T14:04:54-04:00

Apple revealed that it has sold more than 500 million iPads over the last 10 years. The announcement was made by CEO Tim Cook during Apple's "Time Flies" live stream event, in which the company revealed a pair of new Apple Watch devices and an updated base model iPad and new iPad Air.

This is the first time Apple has disclosed how many iPads it's sold after the company said in November 2018 it would no longer reveal unit sales of iPhones, iPads, and Macs in its quarterly earnings reports.

The new eight-generation base model iPad announced today sports a 10.2-inch screen and an A12 chipset, first seen in the iPad Air and iPad mini models re …

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Apple will release iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 on September 16th

2020-09-15T14:02:05-04:00

Apple's next major software upgrades for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV are almost ready. At today's "Time Flies" event, the company announced that iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, along with the latest watchOS and tvOS updates, will start rolling out on Wednesday, September 16th. As of today's event, app developers hadn't yet received the completed golden master (GM) builds of these updates, so Apple's software release schedule seems oddly rushed. But hey, new features are coming.

iOS 14 brings widgets to the iPhone home screen for the first time, gathers all of your apps into a new App Library, and adds picture-in-picture mode (which ha …

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