Far from the “boring” launch predicted by haters and relentless Apple rumormongers, Wednesday’s iPhone 7 event delivered plenty of big surprises.
Along with our first legitimate looks at the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and the new Apple Watch Series 2, we got a promising peek inside Apple’s increasingly powerful and polished ecosystem. Here’s what you need to know about Apple’s iPhone 7 event.
Photo: Apple
iPhone 7 is a beautiful monster
We’ll be getting not one but two new black iPhones, including a jet black model that looks like it would perfectly match Darth Vader’s headgear (who cares if it might launch “Scuffgate“?). And while those and the silver, gold and rose gold iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus might look similar to last year’s models, the similarities stop there.
A newly customizable Home button gains loads of additional functionality. Rough-housers will appreciate new water- and dust-resistant features, while shutterbugs will love the powerful new camera (especially the dueling 12MP lenses on the iPhone 7 Plus).
The Retina HD display is 25 percent sharper, while the new stereo speakers crank up two times louder with increased dynamic range. iPhone 7 models will come with EarPods as well as an audio-to-Lightning dongle (hey, it’s ugly but it’s free) to make up for the missing headphone jack.
But the really big improvement is the new Apple-designed A10 Fusion chip, which Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, called a “rocket ship.” Look for gigantic performance improvements (it’s 40 percent faster than the A9 inside the iPhone 6s) as well as better battery life.
Preorders start at 12:01 a.m. Pacific this Friday, Sept. 9, with iPhone 7 starting at $649 and iPhone 7 Plus starting at $769. Shipping starts ship Sept. 16.
Read more: iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus arrive with new colors and cameras
Photo: Apple
Apple Watch goes deep and wide
Updates and expansions to Apple’s wearable computer line go far beyond the slimmer/better device (and the watchOS 3 improvements) the world expected. The “completely reengineered” Apple Watch Series 2 comes with a second-gen Apple-designed SiP that packs a “crazy amount of performance,” according to Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer.
The new display is twice as bright. Built-in GPS offers new potential to apps for running and hiking. And the whole thing is built into a “swim-proof” case that’s water-resistant to 50 meters, with speakers that eject water after a dunking.
A partnership with Nike is yielding a running-centric Apple Watch Nike+, while an $1,149 Hermès model will fill the fashion niche. And there’s even a ceramic Edition model that will start at $1,249.
As with iPhone 7, preorders for new Apple Watch models start at 12:01 a.m. Pacific this Friday, Sept. 9. Apple Watch Series 1 models, largely similar to the original Apple wearable but with a new dual-core processor, start at $269. The further upgraded Apple Watch Series 2 starts at $369.
Read more: Apple Watch Series 2 is faster, brighter, ‘swim-proof’ — and ceramic
Photo: Apple
Apple does care about games
Mario is coming to the iPhone for the first time, thanks to a surprise partnership with Nintendo. The new game, called Super Mario Run, sparked immediate enthusiasm among casual gamers everywhere.
Apple also sewed up another big deal, this time with Niantic Labs. That’s right, Pokémon Go is coming to Apple Watch (even if the formerly white-hot game is already fading a bit from the public eye).
Read more: Super Mario Run is coming to iPhone this year
Photo: Apple
Apple’s future is wireless
Calling its controversial move to kill the headphone jack “courageous,” Schiller sang the praises of Apple’s new AirPods, which will ship in late October for $159. “Our team at Apple has worked so hard to create something new that delivers on the opportunity of how good a wireless experience can be,” he said.
Schiller promised to deliver us from the “joys” of Bluetooth with the AirPods, which he called a “technical tour de force” based on Apple’s new W1 chip. The tiny earbuds deliver five hours of listening, connect seamlessly to Apple devices, and switch automatically between them depending on what you’re listening to. They also come in a wireless charging case that gives you 24 hours of listening, all in a form factor smaller than the EarPods cases we’re all so used to seeing.
New Beats headphones will also use the W1 chip.
Read more: New AirPods show Apple’s embrace of fantastic ‘wireless future’
Photo: Apple
The leaks never stop, but they are never enough
We probably knew more about the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch than ever before about an upcoming Apple product. And the leaks didn’t stop: Amazon and even Apple itself leaked info confirming the new phone’s name just before and during Wednesday’s iPhone 7 event.
We were expecting the inevitable performance boosts — and the death of the headphone jack, and even a glossy black iPhone with a better camera — but the number of truly surprising revelations seemed shocking. Perhaps even more so to a bunch of Apple rumor hounds like us here at Cult of Mac.
A ceramic Apple Watch? Super Mario Run on iOS and Pokémon Go on Apple Watch? Real-time collaboration in iWork? A gigantic post-show price cut on iPad Pro? It’s good to know Apple can still surprise us (in a good way).
Photo: Apple
Apple is at the top of its game
The iPhone 7 keynote came at a critical juncture for Apple. iPhone sales continue to slide. Apple is embroiled in a fierce and expensive European tax battle. And a series of modest, slow-building successes like the Apple Watch and Apple Music haven’t done much to quell the post-Steve Jobs chatter about an innovation drought in Cupertino.
But Wednesday’s exceptionally strong presentation of the latest, greatest Apple hardware and software should give pause to Cupertino skeptics.
Throughout the iPhone 7 event, Cook and the other Apple execs looked relaxed, focused and poised to usher us into the shiny future we’ve all been anticipating. Just for a moment, the Irish tax nightmare, Touch IC Disease and other Apple problems disappeared in a wave of cheery execs, bubbly celebrities, slick and compelling videos, and the lineup of sleek new products.
“We’re just at the beginning of a truly wireless future we’ve been working toward for many years,” said the disembodied voice of Apple design chief Jony Ive during one of his probably patented industrial design porn videos.
While Schiller called Apple “courageous,” there’s another word that springs to mind: confident.
For Apple, the future looks more than just wireless. It looks simple, and elegant, and packed with the kind of legitimate innovation — sometimes incremental, sometimes mind-blowing — that can make our lives better almost without us even noticing.
It’s truly a good time to be swimming in the Apple ecosystem (especially once you get that new waterproof Apple Watch). And just wait until tomorrow …
Lewis Wallace is the managing editor of Cult of Mac and author of our weekly newsletter, The Weekender.
He’s a San Francisco-based writer and editor specializing in technology and culture. He loves his iPhone, hates Siri, and appreciates any hardware that combines form and function.
Prior to Cult of Mac, he juggled words and ideas as culture editor at Wired.com, homepage editor at TechTV, news product manager at NBCi, copy editor at PC World, reporter at The (Hayward) Daily Review and editor in chief of EveryBody’s News in Cincinnati.
He earned a bachelor of general studies degree with a journalism certificate from the University of Cincinnati. While in school, he worked as the entertainment editor of The News Record and as editor in chief of Clifton Magazine.
He’s also a bass player, who’s recorded and performed around the United States with Those Darn Accordions, The Electric Boogie Dawgz and The Mad Maggies. When not writing, editing or laying down bass lines, he plays darts and serves on the board of the San Francisco Darts League.
62 responses to “You call that boring? Apple’s iPhone 7 event delivers big surprises”
WOW….it’s amazing. It looks like a 6……but we call it 7. And it doesn’t have a mic jack. But that’s AMAZING.
Getting very dull now compared to what’s out there.
Not only blind but the dog keep convincing himself that there is a single thing out there that can best Apple. Oh wait, he meant everything COMBINED out there.
Ohhhh fanboys. I own an iPhone 6 and THIS PHONE made me go back to Samsung. Both systems have their strengths and weaknesses, but WOW what an improvement in design, right! You have to charge your headphones (that will probably die before the end of the day) and worry about people plucking them right from your ears, and then you get to buy a new pair for whatever Apple chooses to charge! Oh boy!
Enjoy!
Have your Samsung exploded in your face yet? They might be able to give you voucher for plastic surgery in Korea.
Korea. Ha!
Oh Samung fanboy.
Digest this:
If you were stupid enough to buy the iPhone 7 (which isn’t as stupid as buying a Samsung), you would not get these chargeable wireless headphones. They are a standalone product.
Apple ships with the standard earbuds. Ones that don’t need charging and are likely not to be stolen from your ears.
Unfortunately this truth makes your whole comment redundant.
#EQUALITYadvocateFAIL
You going to camp out for one?
Because looks are everything…
Hence seeing a Korean plastic surgeon.
A mic Jack?
Sounds like you’re not a purebred.
A mongrel perhaps?
Yeah… this was an awesome fucking event. If it doesn’t work for you, then you really aren’t ready for… THE FUTURE!
The future of buying proprietary hardware for the rest of your dedicated consumer life!
lol, the future is already here. In fact it’s been here for years already.
There’s nothing in this iPhone that hasn’t been available since 2011.
Lol. The iPhone 7 is as relevant as jOn Garrett.
I like how you swore in your post. It spoke of conviction.
Might keep this in mind the next time I want to try and come across as hip, cool and tough.
Or you just lack COURAGE!!
That’s funny. I see what you did there.
It was NOT that amazing, pretty much everything was already leaked, either by Apple or by those who know whats going on in the supply chain. So an iPhone 6/6S with some updates. If anyone else did this after 3 years they OEM would be trashed, and in fact they get trashed. Its time to stop comparing how iOS runs vs Samsung Android runs, its not Samsungs OS it’s Google’s OS. Perhaps we should see how Android runs on an iPhone and how iOS would run on a Snapdragon processor to get a real comparison.
Milliseconds are not a big issue when you are reading email, or playing a game or web browsing. Is anything truly cranking on their iPhone the way they do on the 2015 MBP doing Final Cut, no they aren’t.
Neither Pro Android, NOR, Pro iOS I just use what works.
The leak did not even cover 10% of the news. Put down your Apple hate mongering for a second and listen. IT IS AMAZING! Oh wait, you are not capable of doing that, are you.
So you use neither then.
A Nokia 1600 perhaps.
The first thing I thought when I saw the Airpods, and continue to think . . . . EASILY LOST!
Yup. Try jogging with those babies.
I’m assuming you have done so. Yup.
I’ve read several accounts (e.g. Susie Ochs from the far superior Macworld) who disagree with you.
They’ve all said that after trying to get the pods (which you don’t have to buy) to fall out through violet head shakes and running – they failed. What you say? Yup.
Well seeing how they are shaped exactly like Apples current EarPods, which fall out of my ears left and right so badly I haven’t opened the case up from the last four iPhones I’ve bought, I expect the same from these suckers.
Btw, several other tech sites all said the same thing regarding how easy they fall out and will probably get lost, so your precious Macworld would seem to be in the minority.
You’ve brought four iPhones?
What a dick.
3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 6 and 6S to be precise. I sell my phone every year for the new model because they usually fetch 100-150 less than what I paid for them brand new. I haven’t touched the packed-in accessories since the 4S, so that’s four sets of earpods that are still in the original wrap because they suck. I’ve tried every trick in the book, from swapping right for left to flipping them upside down and running the cords over and behind my ears, but they still manage to pop out of my ears because they are complete trash.
Bit harsh on your ears there boyfriend.
Don’t call them trash, they might hear you.
Tell you what girlfriend, you collate your list of reviewers who said they fell out of their ears, I’ll get my secretary to collate my list and we will compare notes.
Again, you do realise Cook isn’t holding a gun to your head and saying you must use these pods? Why would any idiot spend $159 usd on them?
There will be better, cheaper options in the future. So when you buy your 5th + phone / iPod (what a fan boy), you will have alternatives.
They look ridiculous so losing them might be a good thing.
You do realise you DON’T need to have these buds to use the phone? Don’t you?
So why waste your money buying a seperate, stand alone product, that you think looks ridiculous?
Only an idiot would do that.
They look like tampons and I have zero interest in them.
I can’t wait to start seeing people looking ridiculous work them hanging out of their ears.
They look like tampons? You serious?
You know what a tampon looks like? No offence, but if tampons looked like that then there’d be a bigger uproar about things not staying in a human cavity then there is with outr existence apple buds and our ears.
Maybe mini hair dryers. But tampons. Whatever sister.
You would never misplace those glasses.
How much did Apple pay you to write this rubbish? I’m a long time Mac user (own 5) and iPhone user and watch owner, but my god, what a pile of shit this is…
You’re the idiot that owns 5 macs. Long time user .
You brought the first iWatch?
I’d be ashamed to admit that. Helpfully you didn’t camp out for days waiting to get it.
I use the Macs for commercial purposes, they work very well and are the right tool for the right job (video production) and i couldn’t run my business without them. So how exactly does that make me an idiot? I bought my Apple Watch (whats an iWatch??) second hand and frankly like it a lot more than i thought i would, the battery easily last a day and i tried Pebble which failed to provide reliable notifications. It was a pile of shit, but still more useful than this shitty ‘promotional’ article or the crap Apple launched yesterday. Yep, a pile of shit.
Well aren’t you the expert then.
You can tell that the phone 7 and watch series 2 are crap without even seeing them in the flesh.
Then again you obviously thought the original watch was crap, hence you didn’t buy it new initially, and then was surprised by how good it was once you did.
That would suggest you don’t know crap whe you see it.
I can tell crap journalism when i read it. I can also tell a post from attention seeking fanboy troll when see one. Happy trolling…
Thanks Robbie. Glad you’re discerning enough to note I’m a troll. Just between you and me, I’m guessing it’s the 20+ comments I’ve posted on here that gave it away? You can tell me.
Enjoy your pre-Series 1 Apple Watch. Take care.
I am a fanboy.
I love 950XL. My weapon of choice. It’s like MS took the worse features of every phone ever made and rolled it out it out into 1. That’s genius.
Long time iPhone user, IOS developer and iPhone early adopter here… get a Samsung. Seriously.
And a very average songwriter. Christmas gay. Seriously.
Thanks for listening! What’s wrong with gay, btw?
Only got to the first chorus. Wouldn’t call it a listen. You’re the one with the enunciation problems. Or an average 4 track setup. Gray = gay.
Nothing wrong with gay. I’m gay 90% of the time.
See, here’s the thing…. you’re spending way more time on me than I am with you, so I win this thread, regardless of whatever next post you make.
Happy for you to win.
I concede.
Didn’t realise it was a game so, I’m sorry I didn’t put in 100%.
Regardless, I look forward to your Ep. Keep on strumming bro.
Thanks. You seem pretty focused on my music, I like that.
“customizable Home button gains loads of additional functionality”? They just replaced how it works, they didn’t add any functionality.
I only have the iPhone 6s (not by choice), but my home button doesn’t allow me to interact with quick actions, messages, notifications etc.
So the home button does have addictional functionality.
Sit down for a while and digest that.
A mic Jack?
Sounds like you’re not a pure bred.
Future is here now. Get the 950xl.
You will be disappointed.
The screen is 25% brighter not sharper. The resolution is still FULL HD, which makes it not that great for VR.
So what surprises were there, Lewis? Did Apple announce anything that wasn’t already leaked well in advance? No. No they did not. Is was a snooze fest, or as The Verge put it, “this put the snore in snorelax.” 30 minutes on Pokémon Go and Mario? Seriously? No one does disappointment as filler like Tim Cook.
This entire article is laughable. A novella length apology for those who can’t admit Apple dropped the ball today almost as bad as Sony. All in all, a disappointing day in tech.
Apple drop the ball today?!?!
That would suggest they had it in their hands to drop in the first place.
News for you dickwad, they dropped it years ago and haven’t even attempted to stooped down to get it back.
A disappointing day in tech. What a pretentious comment. It’s just a friggin phone and a watch. We’re not talking about important stuff anyway.
Not boring? At what point in the presentation were you not bored? How about that new color “Jet Black” did they call it? wow marketing gold. Maybe with a little more effort they’ll come up with Sky Blue next.
The biggest news was that their irrational crusade to make the iPhone more wafer like has officially progressed from anorexic to bulimic. They’re actually puking out components now. What’s next after the audio jack? How about getting rid of the battery and selling it back to us as an innovative external battery dongle?
You talk shit. A lot of shit.
You sir are a legend! Stuff the article, couldn’t wait to read your next salvo.
No headphone jack. There never was a Mic jack. Tell me what’s out there that can do what the iPhone 7 can do other than catch fire. Yea, that’s what I thought. NOTHING!!
Perhaps ask your women then what the airpods look like. Give her 2 options:
– Tampons
– Mini hair dryers
No offense, you’ve found 2 links where computer IT geeks have said they look like tampons.
Being the nerds they are, there’s every possibility these socially awkward journos haven’t seen one before either.
Dude I’m just messing with you, they do look like hair dryers.
Apple’s future is wireless. That has been my present and past for years.
Ohhh I forgot this was cult of Mac, the display is 25% brighter not sharper. It’s boring and 5 hours of listening time is very little for music listeners plus that price…. Apple only killed the headphone jack to boost revenue by the accessories meant to cover the headphone jack vacuum