Tech News Today for September 7, 2016
Tech News for September 7, 2016
The big story today was the new iPhone. It's officially called the iPhone 7 and of course there's a larger version called the iPhone 7 Plus. Everyone's talking about the loss of the headphone jack and the fancy new camera, but here are some of the basics: The device has the longest battery life of any iPhone. It also has 25 percent more brightness and gone is the mechanical home button. It's been replaced with touch feedback from its taptic engine, like the new MacBook trackpads. It's also water and dust resistant. Read more at theverge.com
Then there was the that all-too-ubiquitous headphone jack, and sure enough, Apple has decided to go the non-traditional route by removing it entirely in a move Apple Senior VP Phil SChiller called “courageous.” In place of that headphone jack will be the Lightning port, pushing the lightning standard for audio, and hinging on the W1 chip (Apple’s first wireless chip) within iOS devices. Read more at bbc.com
Taking advance of the new wireless chip, Apple unveiled the AirPods earbuds: chordless in-ear headphones that receive audio wirelessly from the device and support five hours of playtime. Read more at arstechnica.com
The camera is the real reason that Apple thinks you'll forget that there's no headphone jack. As we surmised, the new iPhone has a dual camera set-up. It has optic image stabilization, a wider lens to let in more light, true tone flash, and an image signal processor. And for your selfies there's a 7 megapixel FaceTime HD camera. If you're willing to shell out for the iPhone 7 plus, you'll get two cameras with two lenses. 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. Read more at techcrunch.com
The next Apple Watch is upon us, the Apple Watch Series 2. Many things about its design haven’t changed: still square, single day battery life, and the digital crown on the side. But now, the Series 2 is water-resistant which means you can take it with you in the pool. There is also a GPS chip inside for on-board mapping without a phone. Read more at theverge.com
The event started with a few announcements that hadn't been beaten to a pulp by the rumor mill before we heard them. The first was an appearance by Shigeru Miyamoto, chief game designer at Nintendo, who took to the state to announce, partly through an interpreter that Super Mario was coming to the iPhone. The game will be Super Mario Run and no pricing has been released, but they promised that it would be one price and not include in-app purchases. Nintendo's shares jumped 29 percent on this OK looking game. Read more at venturebeat.com
Niantic CEO John Hanke also appeared at the event to tell those still playing Pokemon Go that it would be coming to the Apple Watch, and will be be integrated into the Watch's Activity App. That integration is supposed to be available later this year, as is the Pokemon Go wristband. I'm imagining the latter will be quite a bit cheaper. Read more at techcrunch.com
And for a bit of miscellany: First, Apple didn’t leave the iPad out in the cold. The iPad lineup too was refreshed, albeit slightly to match storage levels of the iPhone 7 (32/128/256GB tiers). Read more at 9to5mac.com
Second, iOS 10 is going to release for existing supported devices on September 13th for free. Read more at theverge.com
And finally, macOS Sierra will get it’s official release on September 20, completely free to owners of compatible Macs. Read more at 9to5mac.com
While Apple was soaking up all the attention at its event, Sony fired off its own PlayStation focused event. First, there's the PlayStation 4 Pro, which will support 4K games. Read more at engadget.com
Then there’s the PS4 Slim, another of Sony’s worst kept secrets. This console is functionally identical to the current PlayStation 4, but has a slimmer design and slightly updated DualShock controller. Read more at theverge.com
Lastly, a new firmware update coming soon will add HDR capabilities to all PlayStation 4 consoles. Read more at engadget.com.
Megan Morrone and Jason Howell are joined today by Allison Sheridan of Nosillacast to talk about iPhone 7, and Jessica Conditt of Engadget to talk about the PlayStation 4 news. Tech News Today streams live weekdays at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. Subscribe to the show and get it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.