Apple made a few key announcements yesterday at a special event held at their Cupertino headquarters, such as the introduction of Carekit, advancements to the open source ResearchKit framework, but the unveiling of the iPhone SE and 9.7 iPad Pro was the main spectacle, even though we knew about them before hand.
The iPhone SE takes a previous design and reinvents it from the inside out, giving customers a powerful, full-featured iPhone no matter which model they choose. The 64-bit A9 chip, introduced in iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, offers iPhone SE customers two times faster CPU and three times faster GPU performance compared to iPhone 5s, all with gains in energy efficiency for improved battery life. M9, Apple’s next-generation motion coprocessor, is integrated into A9 allowing more features to run all the time at lower power, including “Hey Siri” without having to pick up your iPhone, and a range of fitness tracking capabilities like measuring your steps and distance. iPhone SE users can also browse, download and stream content even faster with Wi-Fi up to three times the speed of the iPhone 5s with LTE up to 50 percent faster. With an easy-to-use interface, amazing features, and security at its core, iOS 9 is the foundation of iPhone SE and brings powerful built-in apps like Messages, Photos, Music and Maps to iPhone users. iOS 9 also brings more intelligence to iPhone SE with proactive assistance, powerful search, improved Siri features, and a new Night Shift feature that uses your iPhone SE’s clock and geolocation to automatically adjust the colours in the display to the warmer end of the spectrum after dark and may even help you get a better night’s sleep.
“iPhone SE is an exciting new idea — we started with a beloved, iconic design and reinvented it from the inside out. The result is the most beautiful and powerful phone with a four-inch display in the world. iPhone SE is packed with a stunning four-inch Retina display, advanced 64-bit A9 chip with M9 motion co-processor, longer battery life, 12-megapixel iSight camera with True Tone flash, Live Photos, 4K video, faster LTE and Wi-Fi, and Touch ID with Apple Pay. Everyone who wants a smaller phone is going to love iPhone SE.”
– Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing.
When it comes to camera improvements, the iPhone SE is able to shoot 4K video at 3840 x 2160, has Retina Flash, which momentarily makes the display three times brighter with True Tone lighting technology and can take up to 63-megapixel panorama photos, video capture up to 60fps for 1080p video and 240fps for slo-mo, time-lapse with video stabilisation and cinematic video stabilisation.
The iPhone SE will available in space grey, silver, gold and rose gold metallic finishes in 16GB and 64GB models. They will be available for purchase in the UAE in early April for AED 1,649.
Apple also introduced the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro which weighs in at less than a pound, yet packs a punch. It features a new pro Retina display with greater brightness, wider colour gamut, lower reflectivity, Night Shift mode and introduces new True Tone display technology which uses four channel sensors to dynamically adjust white balance. The new iPad Pro delivers incredible performance with the 64-bit A9X chip that rivals most portable PCs, along with a four-speaker audio system that is twice as powerful, new 12-megapixel iSight camera for shooting Live Photos and 4K video, 5-megapixel Front HD camera, and faster wireless technologies. Furthermore, it also includes support for the Apple Pencil and a new Smart Keyboard cover designed to fit the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro.
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro comes in silver, space grey, gold and a new rose gold metallic finish, and starts at AED 2,299 for the 32GB with Wi-Fi model and AED 2,799 for the 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Both iPad Pro sizes are available in offerings of 32GB, 128GB and a new 256GB capacity. It will be available for sale in the UAE in early April.
But iPhones and iPads weren’t the only things announced at Apple’s event yesterday. Apple also announced advancements to the ResearchKit framework, which turns iPhone into a powerful tool for medical research by helping doctors, scientists and other researchers gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants anywhere in the world using iPhone apps.
Also announced for the individual user is Carekit, a new software framework which is designed to help developers enable people to actively manage their own medical conditions. iPhone apps using CareKit make it easier for individuals to keep track of care plans and monitor symptoms and medication; providing insights that help people better understand their own health.
