Apple Springs Forward

2015 Product Previews

By Anca Gagiuc on Mar 16, 2015 in Technology

Clocks sprung forward announcing spring and so did Apple one week ago in San Francisco, where the latest devices and services were announced. Some of them were expected, having been announced in late 2014, some of them were surprises which kicked up international conversation.

A brief review of the company’s numbers reminded the audience why Apple is one of the top companies of the world – 453 retail stores worldwide were visited by 120 million people during the last quarter alone. 700 million iPhones have been sold so far, making the iPhone the top selling device in the world.

Apple TV, shy until now, seems to have found a way to outgrow the 25 million units sold so far. HBO Now will launch in early April at $14.99 per month with Apple as exclusive partner. For the event, Apple has lowered the price of its device from $99 to $69.

Apple Pay has seen a positive trajectory, too. From the initial six banks that originally supported the initiative, it now has reached over 2,500 banks and won’t be stopping there. Tim Cook announced that soon vending machines will work with Apple Pay.

CarPlay is also working its way up; over 40 models of cars will offer it by the end of this year. Perhaps even more interesting is the announcement that every “major” auto manufacturer has committed to using it. CarPlay’s mission is to increase safety while driving by making major phone features easier and safer to use, such as text-to-speech and voice recognition.

Apple decided to step up and help health innovation with the new iOS software framework ResearchKit. It was built after close collaboration with 12 research institutions, among which are the University of Oxford and Stanford. This new app lets people volunteer to join medical research studies and also take tests to detect walking in line, vocal variations, or tapping in rhythm to test for Parkinson’s disease. Users decide how to share their data, and can decline to share it with Apple if they wish. ResearchKit will be open source, available next month, but with the first five tests built with it are already available. These help people participate in tests for Parkinson’s, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and breast cancer.

A new MacBook entered the scene; it completely stole the spotlight, thought to be reserved this spring for the Apple Watch. For many years now, Apple hasn’t made any changes in MacBook Air’s core design, the top of the line thin-and-light laptop.

One port to connect them all

The new 12-inch MacBook device is the result of a complete revamp that dumps virtually every conventional port – Thunderbolt, SD card slot, power connector – in favor of a pair: a single USB Type-C connection and an audio jack. The USB-C connector supports power, DisplayPort, VGA, data, and HDMI. Apple focused on wireless connectivity using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; the company will sell VGA and HDMI adapters separately, meaning that only DisplayPort, charging, and USB 3.1 connectivity is supported natively through the single port. This advance helped turn the 12-inch MacBook into the slimmest, lightest MacBook ever; and a very silent one, too.

The new MacBook doesn’t make a sound as it flaunts a fanless design, a feature that required a complete makeover. Under the hood it sports a new energy-efficient Core M Intel processor that sits in a logic board 67 percent smaller than Apple’s previous best. It runs at 1.1GHz that can Turbo Boost to 2.9GHz, consuming a mere 5 watts of power. Intel HD Graphics 5300, 8GB memory and 256GB SSD complete the logic board.

The keyboard lies from edge-to-edge with closer together keys than its counterparts. The real novelty is in the engineering effort to create a new keyboard switch that replaces the scissor switches that power most laptop keyboards: the “Butterfly mechanism.” The new mechanism uses a single assembly with a stainless steel dome, 40 percent thinner, but four times as stable as scissor switches, for a better, “much more precise” typing experience. Each key is individually lit by a LED light, helping to make the device thinner.

The 12-inch screen joins Apple’s Retina display family with a 2304 x 1440 resolution that consumes 30 percent less power than previous displays. It reaches edge-to-edge with barely any bezel. The touchpad has also been upgraded: it is also covered in glass, the clicking sound is no longer there; instead it has been replaced with four force sensors, one in each corner, while the “click feel” is managed by software. This means that the MacBook has pressure sensitivity which led to Force Click, replacement for the right-click: the notebook registers a new type of deep clicks used to automatically open certain programs, depending on where you click. Force clicking on date opens a calendar entry, and clicking on a word in Safari opens a Wikipedia entry for it.

Around the tiny logic board and the Force Touch trackpad, Apple loaded the MacBook with batteries. It used a new layered, terraced battery design that enabled the engineers to use all available space inside the unibody chassis. This gives the 12-inch MacBook 9 hours battery life of web surfing or 10 hours of video playback.

MacBook’s color palette matches the iPhone’s: silver, space gray, and “stunning gold”. The starting price is $1,299 and shipping starts on April 10^th. Phil Schiller ended the presentation of the MacBook with the remark that the new MacBook is “the world’s most energy-efficient notebook”, according to data from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, he announced that Apple has also updated the rest of its MacBooks – Pro and Air.

Tim Cook’s next big thing has finally started ticking out loud; the Apple Watch, first presented in September 2014, will be available for purchase starting April 24. The iOS8.2 watch is a playmate for the iPhone, and not a cheap one: its price will range from $350 for the sport model to $17,000 for the gold edition. The price tries to justify the workmanship and the components involved; for instance, the all-metal link bracelet has 100 components that require 9 hours to cut.

Another important thing not presented at the September launch event was the watch’s battery life. This got addressed in San Francisco where Tim Cook promised 18 hours of a typical day, so technically it can be worn all day and charged overnight. The battery size is still unknown quantity and will probably be so until April. However, the recharging method has been made known: the Watch’s ceramic cover with sapphire lenses on its back holds a magnetic inductive wireless charging solution, similar to the MagSafe technology with inductive charging. It’s a completely sealed system, free of exposed contacts and by the look of things, Apple just created another trend with the popular Qi wireless charging method.