Apple pulled out all the surprises at this year’s 2 hour iPhone 6S event today. Most leaked rumours remain solid, with a few odd surprises. So let’s recap on what was announced…
Apple Watch Colours & Watch OS 2.0
New straps and coloured cases were revealed for the Apple Watch line, with the next-generation WatchOS 2.0 releasing on September 16th.
New straps and coloured watches go on sale from today, with some more fashionable straps releasing in October.
A New 12.9″ iPad Pro & iPad Mini 4 Gets An Upgrade
Apple announced the much rumoured iPad Pro, a 12.9″ iPad, weighing in at a similar weight as the original iPad, yet just a bit as thick as the iPad Air 2. It packs a new A9X chip, which boost near desktop-like performance, four powerful audio speakers, a 10-hour battery life, and it will come with an optional stylus, named the Apple Pencil, and a smartcover keyboard, similar to the keyboard covers found on a Windows Surface.
The new iPad Mini 4 also gets the guts from the iPad Air 2 in its much smaller form factor.
The new iPad Pro will release in November, alongside iOS 9.1, which is now available to developers.
A New Apple TV & App Store
Apple’s ‘hobby’ project finally gets some update love in the form of a brand new Apple TV system. Growing a little higher in stature, the new TV device packs new tech (similar to an iPad Air 2) inside, a new touch and gesture featured Siri Remote, and an App Store, which will see many developers bring TV friendly applications and games to your living room display.
The new Apple TV will release world wide in late October, coming in two additional flavours 32GB for $149 and 64GB for $199.
A Beefed-Up iPhone 6S
The meat and veg of the event was the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. The new phone’s key feature is 3D Touch, a way in which you can apply pressure to the device’s screen to receive alternative functions in iOS 9. On top of a new rose gold colour option, all the internals have also been upgraded; featuring a much faster A9 chip, a 12 megapixel back facing camera, a 5 megapixel front facing ‘selfie’ camera, 4K video recording and a 2x faster Touch ID sensor.
Priced at the same cost as current iPhone 6 range, the new iPhone 6S range will go on sale September 25th.
iOS 9 Release Date & iCloud Storage Changes
Alongside the many new features of the iPhone 6S, Apple announced the release date of the new iOS 9, which releases worldwide on September 16th.
Anyone on a paid iCloud Storage plan will also get a boost with 20GB increasing to 50GB (or $0.99 per month), 200GB for $2.99 per month or 1TB for $9.99 per month. It seems their 500GB option will either be upgraded to 1TB or removed for new purchases.
No Mention of CarPlay!!
The sad news for us here at CarPlay Life is that there were no new mention of Apple’s CarPlay platform, more specifically Wireless CarPlay. It seems Apple’s newest platform has taken the backseat for now. It feels like it has replaced the Apple TV as Apple’s ‘hobby’ project, which didn’t receive updates for many years, yet I hope it will not be the case with CarPlay though.
Let’s hope Apple has left the ball in the OEM’s and aftermarket maker’s court, and that these guys don’t delay in bringing new hardware into cars before Apple decided to update the platform with new features and improvements.
So What Next?
With the number of announcements made today, it seems highly likely that we won’t get the usual October iPad event this year, and that it might be until next year until we hear more about Apple’s CarPlay at CES 2016 in January, before Apple says anything during their usual February event slot.
We are also due an iOS 9 update (iOS 9.1) some time in November, alongside the iPad Pro, so we may see some CarPlay improvements then, after their final release of iOS 9, much sooner, on September 16th.
Stay tuned to CarPlay Life for more news updates as soon as we get them.
