Apple fans across the world who expected that the tech giant will launch iPhone 12 at its ‘Time Flies’ event will have to probably wait till October.
The tech giant launched a range of new products in its September event but surprisingly, it did release a new iPhone-iPhone 12. The iPhone 12 is expected to be the company’s first 5G device and will be launched at an event in October, according to several reports.
At its just concluded September event, new Apple Watches (Apple Watch 6 and Apple Watch SE) were unveiled, as was the updated version of watchOS, and iPad.
The Apple Watch 6 new feature is a pulse oximeter which allows the wearable to detect blood-oxygen levels by using red and infrared light to measure the color of wearers’ blood. This will be used with researchers in three studies focusing on respiratory diseases, including asthma and COVID-19.
The Apple Watch 6 will be available for $488 from 18 September, while the high-end version with GPS and cellular capabilities costs $612.
Apple also announced the launch of a cheaper device, the Apple Watch SE, which will be available from $346 with just GPS, or $411 with GPS and cellular capabilities.
As part of the company’s move to generate revenue from services as well as its hardware devices, it announced a new Fitness+ service allowing Apple Watch users to take part in programmed workouts with world-leading fitness experts, with performance measured by the Apple Watch.
Access to Fitness+ and other services are now available in a bundle called Apple One. This will be priced at $38.60 per month in a premier version which can be shared among family members, or for $19.27 per month on a limited subscription with fewer services.
The company also introduced its most powerful ever chip, the A14 Bionic, which will be available in the new iPad Air 4, available from $746.31. The iPad Air 4 is three times faster than the top-selling Android tablet, and six times faster than the top-selling Chromebook.
The chip was described as “by far the most advanced we’ve ever made” with transistors so small they “challenge the laws of physics” with about 11.8 billion packed into a single chip.
It’s also the first iPad that comes in a wide variety of colors: There are green and blue models, in addition to existing space gray, silver and rose gold options.
Also, for the first time on iPad, the A12 Bionic chip introduces the Neural Engine for next-level machine learning capabilities, including people occlusion and motion tracking in augmented reality (AR) apps, enhanced photo editing, Siri performance, and more.
