iPhones! iPads! Apple TV! Huzzah!
That’s right, this past week has been all about new Apple products thanks to Apple’s “Hey, Siri” event held on September 9. As business people, we know you always like to be aware of what new gadgets are available. So in case you missed last week’s live Apple stream, we’re going to hit you with the highlights from the event in an easily digestible series of round-ups here on
#TechTuesdays.
Apple had a monster product announcement slate, so let’s cut the small talk and start with the iPhone this week.
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus
Apple’s new generation of their wildly popular smartphones — the 4.7-inch iPhone 6S and 5.5-inch iPhone 6S Plus — are getting the usual processing boosts thanks to a new A9 chip and M9 coprocessor, which will make the phones
70% quicker at CPU tasks and 90% better at GPU (graphics) tasks. That spiffy M9 coprocessor also allows for always-on “Hey, Siri” voice commands, meaning that you can be entirely hands-free with your iPhone 6s and 6s Plus at all times when using Siri.
That’s all well and good, but it’s also to be expected. So, what else does the new iPhone 6s bring? As we delve into the key features below, keep in mind that each time we reference “iPhone 6s,” we’re are speaking of both the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models.
iPhone 6s 3D Touch
If you’re familiar with the Apple Watch, you’ll have heard of
Force Touch, which is Apple’s way of allowing for additional options and lists to be accessed via the small screen on their smartwatch. Force Touch goes beyond normal multi-touch sensors in today’s smartphones and smartwatches and also measures
pressure.
3D Touch on the iPhone 6s is billed by Apple as “next-generation” Force Touch technology. It can sense multiple levels of pressure. This allows for various shortcuts built into iOS 9 specifically for the iPhone 6s that Apple calls “Peek” and “Pop.” Instead of simply touching the smartphone’s glass, you can choose to press harder in certain situations in order to open up submenus immediately and without having to enter an app, or to preview the full contents of an email without actually having to jump into that email and then back out, for example. It’s essentially a combination of quick-preview and “jump to” shortcuts that hearken directly to at-a-glance views and “right-click” functionality found on desktops.
Additionally, just like the Apple Watch, there is a new haptic feedback engine (Apple’s
Taptic Engine) that provides subtle feedback whenever you correctly perform a 3D Touch task. This feedback is not to be confused with the feedback from a phone’s vibration motor, which is far more primitive.
iPhone 6s Second-Generation Touch ID
While 3D Touch may be the headlining feature for the iPhone 6S, there are a number of additional technologies making their way into the phones.
Among these is Touch ID. If you have an iPhone already, you’ll recognize that Touch ID is the fingerprint authentication system for the phone. It debuted with iPhone 5S, and the iPhone 6 featured a tweaked, slightly improved version. Now, Apple is including a “second-generation” implementation of Touch ID for the iPhone 6S that promises to carry with it a renewed response time that is up to 2x faster.
iPhone 6s 7000 Series Aluminum
If you read tech news, you’ll be familiar with the “bendgate” surrounding iPhone 6. Some individuals had some issues with their phones bending under certain conditions, due to thinness. Aside from reinforcing the interior of the phone, the new iPhone 6s features 7000 series aluminum, an upgrade over the old aluminum used in previous iPhones. This new aluminum is considerably sturdier.
In addition, Apple is saying they’ve reinforced the glass on the front of the iPhone 6s, too, which should come in handy with all this 3D Touch force pressing that will be going on.
iPhone 6s 12-Megapixel Camera
Apple’s proudly featured an 8-megapixel camera in their smartphones for years now, claiming (rather correctly) that megapixels aren’t the end-all-be-all and that sensors and image processing are extremely critical to picture quality, noise reduction, and low-light performance. Apple’s put their efforts there in the past, and accordingly the iPhone has long been among the top smartphones in camera performance.
However, they’re ready to make a move this time around. The new iPhone 6s comes with a 12-megapixel shooter that will allow for larger, higher-resolution pictures than previously possible. Thanks to an image signal processor that’s also seen upgrades, the overall quality of these larger photos will not be compromised with the switch to the 12-megapixel solution.
Other camera improvements: 4K video recording on the rear iSight camera and a 5-megapixel front Facetime camera with software-based flash (up from 1.2-megapixels previously). So, if you love selfies, ooo boy, you’ll look better than ever.
Well, maybe. Apple’s not promising that, and neither are we. (Let’s just move on, shall we?)
Wrap-Up
There are a few other improvements (faster Wi-Fi speeds, etc.), but that pretty much sums up all the iPhone 6s additions. Oh, you can now get it in Rose Gold, too. Spiffy!
There’s actually a lot more to cover from last week’s event, though. Next week on #TechTuesdays we’ll cover the iPad Pro announcement and the Apple TV, so be sure to check back!
