Apple launches 4-inch iPhone SE, 9.7-inch iPad Pro
Apple has launched an updated 4-inch iPhone SE, a smaller iPad Pro and new Apple Watch bands.
The rumours were right. Apple today announced an updated 4-inch iPhone, a smaller iPad Pro and new Apple Watch bands in what was the last Apple keynote at its campus Town Hall.
In future campus events will take place at its new flying saucer-like building where Apple is due to move to next year.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook opened the event by saying the company was grateful for the outpouring over its resistance to a court order that the company hack an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
He said he didn’t envisage Apple being at odds with the US government but Apple owed it to its customers to fight on. He didn’t make more of it than that. Apple is due back in court tomorrow.
However, in a stunning disclosure, in a court filing after the launch event, the FBI said that it may have found a way to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters that could make Apple’s forced co-operation unnecessary.
But the event’s focus was gadgets and true to expectations, Apple announced iPhone SE, an iPhone with the same 4-inch sized screen as iPhone 5s, but with specs similar to iPhone 6s.
It spruiked a smaller 9.7-inch version of the iPad Pro which launched last year, announced a cut in the entry level price of Apple Watch, and said its upgraded mobile operating system, iOS 9.3, would be available for download from today.
In Australia, iPhone orders will open on March 24 and the phone will be shipped in 100 countries including Australia from March 31. The phone will be available in space grey, silver, gold and rose gold metallic finishes in 16GB and 64GB models starting at A$679.
This gives Apple a range of iPhones with three different sizes: the smaller 4-inch iPhone SE, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s as the medium-sized flagship and the larger 5.5-inch sized iPhone 6s plus.
Apple says the smaller 4-inch model still is a hot item. Last year the company sold more than 30 million of them. It took Apple two and a half years to sell that number originally.
The iPhone SE features the latest Apple A9 chip set, an M9 co-processor for activity monitoring, a 12 megapixel camera, live photos, a front-facing camera with flash provided by the screen flashing at three times its normal brightness.
The new phone can capture 4K video, offers LTE mobile data speeds of up to 150 megabits per second, high speed Wi-Fi, and Apple Pay through a built-in NFC chip and secure element.
The ability to transact on Apple Pay is thought to be a major reason why Apple would want to update its smaller form factor phone. In Australia its use has been limited todate with American Express the only credit card aboard to date.
Apple vice president Phil Schiller then introduced a new 9.7-inch sized smaller version of iPad Pro. He said its display was made from the same materials as last year’s 12.9-inch iPad Pro screen.
The display was 40pc less reflective than iPad Air 2, 25pc brighter than iPad Air 2 with 500 nits of light, supported a wider colour gamut, with 25pc increased colour saturation.
It had a four-speaker audio system, an A9X processor, third generation 64-bit chip 12 core graphics that was more powerful than Xbox 360, and supported multi-tasking.
Apps could be displayed side-by-side as with the larger iPad Pro.
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro also featured an M9 co-processor, and supported the “Hey Siri” feature.
You could use voice to open mail, or go to a website and open a web page.
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro had a smart connector that would support a smart keyboard, and used the same Apple Pencil as the larger model.
In addition to 32GB and 128GB of storage, Apple had introduced 256GB of storage as an option for both iPad Pro models.
In Australia the new 9.7-inch iPad would start at A$899 for the 32GB with Wi-Fi model and A$1,099 for the 32GB Wi-Fi + cellular model. Orders will begin on March 24 and it will be available in stores in Australia from March 31.
Mr Schiller also announced two new adaptors — an SD card reader and a fast USB camera adaptor.
With an adaptor it was now possible to plug in an ethernet capable and use your corporate network, he said.
The new iPad Pro had a 12mp iSight camera, 2 tone flash, a panorama mode that took up to 63 mp images, and 4K video shooting. It had a 5 megapixel front facing camera.
The upgraded operating system iOS 9.3 could be downloaded from today and featured Night Shift which at night adjusted the colour of the display to the warmer end of the spectrum to help users sleep.
Notes could be password protected, the health app had been rejigged and Apple News now featured top stories and an editor’s pick. In education iOS 9.3 offered new software capabilities for the classroom.
Apple introduced new bands for Apple Watch, including a woven nylon band, and said Apple Watch would start cheaper — in the US it would now cost $US50 less for an entry level model.
In Australia that translates to $429 instead of $499 for Apple Watch Sport (38mm) and $499 instead of $579 for Apple Watch Sport (42mm).
Siri’s capabilities with Apple TV had been extended. You could now use your voice to enter passwords when firing up Apple TV apps.
Mr Cook began the launch by saying that Apple would be 40 years old on April 1. “It reminds us of the time Apple changes the world.” There were now more than 1 billion Apple devices around the world.
Apple also spruiked proudly of its record in preserving the environment. Ninety-three per cent of the company ran on renewable energy globally.
When it came to recycling phone parts, Apple now had a robot called Liam that could dissemble an iPhone and recycle individual parts. For example foil from the motherboard could be used to make solar panels. Users could recycle old iPhones by taking them into Apple stores, or printing an address label found at apple.com/recycling.
Building on its ResearchKit ecosystem, Apple also launched CareKit, an environment for building applications for fighting diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Mr Cook said ResearchKit had triggered the largest Parkinson’s disease study in history in 24 hours.
ResearchKit had found triggers for asthma in all 50 US states, and had identified subtypes of Diabetes 2.
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