Apple held its usual September event tonight, and it unveiled three major new products: a new Apple TV, the iPad Pro, and the iPhone 6S/6S Plus. The new Apple TV is effectively the old Apple TV, but with Siri, applications, and a funny-looking remote. It looks fun to use, but it’s nothing revolutionary and most likely won’t change the TV landscape as much as Apple wants it to.
Apple also made a big fuss about gaming on the new Apple TV, but since applications cannot be larger than 200 MB, don’t expect much from this. Then again, Apple showed off a 100% Wii Sports rip-off as the big new thing in gaming, so I’m betting on Apple still not really having a clue about gaming.
The iPad Pro, on the other hand, is literally Surface. Like, there are no ifs and buts – it’s literally an iPad Surface. It’s got a 12.9″ display, a crazy-fast processor and graphics chip, a foldable, Surface-like keyboard cover, and a stylus/pen for ink. It, of course, makes great use of the new Aero Snap and Windows 8.x multiwindow features introduced with iOS 9. The base model is fairly cheap, but much like the Surface, once you add the keyboard cover and pen, prices go up substantially.
Speaking of the pen, Apple drapes it in all sorts of annoying Apple-isms, but it does actually look fairly advanced – closer to top-of-the-line Wacom stuff; this isn’t the stylus that came with your Palm device. It’ll be great for artists, but much like the Surface’s pen, I just don’t see a use for it any other application.
Lastly, Apple unveiled the iPhone 6S and the 6S Plus, and it’s got some really, really cool stuff. The Force Touch and Taptic engine stuff from Apple’s latest trackpads and the Apple Watch is built right in, now dubbed 3D Touch (…eh), and it’s used to add a number of new interactions into iOS on the 6S. You can gently press on, say, an e-mail, and it’ll show you a quick preview, or press a bit harder and open it fully. This also works for application icons, where it’ll open a menu with often-used actions for that application.
Think of it as Quick Look for applications. It will be open to developers, so you can expect all kinds of cross-application functionality, which is really welcome on a mobile platforms so heavily focussed on apps-as-islands. I really like this new feature, and I can’t wait to start using it (I’m buying the iPhone 6S early October).
And, unimportant to most but I just want to mention it: it comes in an awesome new colour that I’m totally going for. And, as always, it’ll have a faster processor, a better camera, and so on – all the usual things you can expect from a new flagship.
And how can you be sure that by that time the new 6S will be available in The Netherlands, Thom?
Edited 2015-09-09 20:26 UTC
Because it has been available in October/November of every year so far?
It’s a “Professional” iPad, crippled by an unprofessional OS. If you can’t write iOS software on an iOS device, then it’s not a computer, it’s a glorified TV.
Seems like an arbitrary measure. There are many professions other than software development and this device will allow many users in a variety of professions to do a lot more, more easily and more efficiently.
There exist a number of code editors for iOS, so clearly you can develop software on an iPad. It might not be the optimal device for doing so, though.
I expect that the iPad Pro will prove successful with the group of people that already use the iPad professionally.
Ah, but you can’t. You can’t write iOS software on it. Can I write an app on iOS and submit it to the oh-so-precious App Store? I think not.
Codea. Any game you write can be compiled to run as an app. You do need a desktop with SDK to prepare the submission though.
This. Absolutely this. There’s nothing “pro” about it. I’m sure people will come up with yet more post-pc blah blah blah crap, but so long as I need a “real computer” just to write software for the thing it will never be a professional device. Plus, all the other iOS-style restrictions on file management and the like pretty much rule out any chance of this being anything professional. It might look like a Surface and have some Surface-esc features, but it runs a toy operating system.
This is what I’m talking about; if it can’t be a true replacement for a laptop, then all Apple are doing is raising the cost of development for everybody by requiring you to cart about a real laptop^1, and an iPad (that’ll be $1700 please) — what for? So that developers can go insolvent over selling 99cent apps because _nobody_ will even buy your precious app if it isn’t ‘free’; so you fill it with unblockable iAds… Only Apple profits here.
Apple are _destroying_ the software market.
[1] http://www.osnews.com/story/24489/What_Apple_Mean_by_Post-PC_
Edited 2015-09-10 09:58 UTC
Codea? http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/
I can write Android apps on my phone, but it’s suboptimal.
But, you are thinking of the wrong professionals. This is geared towards creative, digital artists, managers and such like. Not Coders. People who take notes. People like that.
Interesting… Unprofessional? I. Disagree. I really like iOS, i got over the whole need for infinite customizability after spending months customizing Linux, FreeBSD, windows. I guess I’ve outgrown it..
Just because you can’t develop on it (actually you can’t build on it) doesn’t mean you cannot be very productive on it.
As an embedded developer I’m use to developing on systems different then you execute on. I’ll be getting one of the new iPad pros in the next few months to replace my current 2nd gen iPad and perhaps my laptop.
Just because it does not fit your seemingly arbitrary requirements doesn’t meant it doesn’t great for others.
Edited 2015-09-09 22:46 UTC
Just because it does not fit your seemingly arbitrary requirements doesn’t meant it doesn’t fit somebody else’s seemingly arbitrary requirements.
There, fixed it.
A self-hosting OS (being able to build the OS from within itself) has been the standard measure of “not a toy OS” for decades. Coincidentally this is why classic MacOS, Win9x, and pretty much every prior home microcomputer were considered toys by users of Unix and VMS.
Whose standard? Developers? Users? Or more likely, yours? Please cite a source for this claim.
Regarding mobile OSes, BlackBerry OS 7 and older was well regarded as “not a toy OS” given its ubiquitous nature among governments and enterprise for nearly a decade. Its strong encryption, enterprise features, and thorough email support made it anything but an entertainment OS. Yet, it wasn’t a “self-hosting OS”.
Kinda blows your claim out of the water, eh?
No, Blackberry was very much a toy OS.
Again, your definition. I can say the sky is green but it doesn’t make it true. It’s fine to have an opinion, but don’t try to pass it off as a fact unless you can back it up, lest you risk looking like a fool.
It is an iPad Plus, not an iPad Pro. It is bigger (so plus) but you can’t actually run any other software on it. Apple just calls it Pro because Plus means +100 dollar and Pro means +500 dollar
Now that we got that out of the way, I do think this kind of device will make more Pro use possible in the future, but currently every app is optimized for single user, 1 app full screen display. It will take a few iterations before the software will catch up with this hardware and make actual Pro use possible. The hardware also needs some more love for that keyboard because it doesn’t seem very adjustable. And for Pro use I also need multimonitor, USB-Disks and some other connectibility (your needs may vary)
I like the “if you cannot write iOS software on it it isn’t Pro” definition. For me this feels like a much improved version of the 1st Surface RT.
Now let’s hope for an even bigger Surface Pro 4 with fingerprint/realsense login, keyboard cover included and penstorage internal
iPad Pro might be useless for us as developers/IT people that’s for sure. But It could be super useful for doctors, lawyers, designers, artists ecc. Not only tech people are “professionals”.
And If you want to develop for iOS so badly, Apple sells a product for that: it’s called the Macintosh you know. xD
Any OS you can’t develop for on itself is unequivocally crap.
Does this principle apply to Android too?
Mostly. You can hack an Android SDK onto an Android device if you root it and install a proper GNU/Linux system in a chroot.
The “professionals” they are speaking of are artists and musicians. Not developers. Although I really want this for sketching and mockups. I’m still disappointed there are no good touch-based mockup tools out there given that it should be perfect on an iPad, and even better on the iPad pro.
OK, I’ll bite…
Musicians, what pro-grade recording software does it run? Can it connect to pro gear? How to record to physical media? 5.1 and 7.1 sound editing? Is the ipad app even comparable to Apple’s own ProLogic X software?
Artists, exactly what pro-grade photo or drawing software will install on this? How can you even connect to a camera for uploading image files; does it have an SD slot and USB port? Camera control for professional Nikon and Canon cameras? RAW conversion? Actually view the RAW files, not just the embedded jpeg image, for editing? Can the screens be color-calibrated?
My initial investigation reveals that new iPad is really nothing more than a supercharged iPad. Not just a toy, but a toy that’s useless without iCloud, Apple Store, and installing iTunes on every other computer in the company or house. Ugh.
Meanwhile in reality, there are millions of professionals of all stripes already using the iPad as is for their work, in medical, aviation, business, construction, etc etc etc. The iPad pro just opens that up to more uses due to more power and screen space. But sure, keep believing that IBM and Cisco are putting millions into optimizing their solutions for iOS when the iPad is only a toy. After all it’s well known that these companies are in the business of writing software for toys.
More or less,
People who buy iPad want something small and convenient to browse, play games and catch up on email as well as its Phone derived App’s. iPad Pro seems to be a bulky iPad.
Surface Pro on the other hand is in large tablet format because Windows and it desktop derived Application’s call for it.
I find it fascinating that Apple is expanding the product lines as much as they are. There are now 6 iPad types; it feels a little bit like Apple is trying to make the category work but isn’t sure of the right direction ( which is very unlike Apple ).
iPad Pro – this really is an Apple Surface but of course Apple is banking on the fact that it will be much more popular then the surface because it’s part of the Apple ecosystem; the fact that Microsoft is on board from day 1 is curious because they must surely recognize the iPad Pro will be much more popular then the Surface and with Office support it will be that much more attractive in a business context; one thing Surface has that is better is the fact that it has a trackpad for those of us who, you know, want to keep our hands near the keyboard at all times
iPhone – the main benefit I see of the iPhone/3D touch is really the maturity of iOS with it’s ability to show context menus, quickly access commonly used functions, split screen and so on; the future of Mac OS X is iOS, there is no doubt; the camera additions are also likely to draw a big audience
TV – disagree with Thom on this one; Apple TV is already the biggest selling set top box and Apple will use it’s marketing might to really expand it’s footprint in this space; I personally think this will be the biggest selling Apple devices after the iPhone this Christmas; it’s biggest feature is not gaming, it’s deep linking combined with Siri: a person will be able to ask for a film and get options on Netflix, Hulu, iTunes or ask for a sporting event and get references from apps: that’s huge! Gaming will also be huge: Apple may not get it but that doesn’t matter because successful gaming companies do!
Office has always been one of the most lucrative parts of Microsoft, and for instance always supported Macs because making money on Office was more important than making money on Windows (Because Office earnings are bigger than Windows earnings).
Microsoft being on board does not indicate that they believe that it will be more popular than the surface, all it indicates is that they think it will be popular.
Oh, and that porting office to it was less than trivial, as it was already written for the ipad.
https://products.office.com/en-us/mobile/office-ipad
What do you mean? It was less than easy? Was it harder than easy? Was it easier than easy?
easy and trivial are different things. If you need definitions, feel free to google those words. If you need help with reading comprehension, please find a grade 5 reader.
I looked it up and I still didn’t understand. I have only ever seen trivial used in non-trivial which meant difficult.
But it is okay you don’t have to be clear. I just find it weird that the time put in your sarcasm could have been put in clarifying your comment.
Because i don’t think it needs clarification. It seems very clear to me.
another nice picture
https://www.overclockers.at/files/11986403_2477340938987809_39099029…
Yeah you could do that with almost everything Apple is doing these days.
3,5 inch is the sweetspot for phones
having one model instead of models for every pricepoint imaginable
Thom, it would literally be Surface if it ran Windows… Different OS different device, isn’t it? Or you just take HW in consideration?
I got a bit confused reading the Ars articles, i thought they were going to describe new Apple products, but it felt more like a Samsung presentation.
3d touch, while not light/heavy touches as such i got a finger hover on my S4, was fun to play with but is really just annoying. Sure apple is better than Samsung at software but their implementation looks annoying too.
That live photo thing, didn’t realize anyone actually wanted that, doesn’t most android devices have that? Some older Nokias too?
Nice with 4k recording and a better camera where you now actually might be able to crop your image a bit, just funny to pair this with a 16gb model.
Demoing using the display as a flash… seriously?!?
Having a stylus for a tablet is actually pretty neat for some applications, i really like the digitizer in the Samsung note 10, but $99 and having to store it outside the tablet… too expensive with all the extras i would have to buy because i would keep losing it 🙂
All in all i guess i think the upgrades are ok, but their overexcited show seems a bit silly when the increments are so very small these days.
At least they didn’t start curving a perfectly fine flat display for no apparant reason like some other company.
Maybe I’m just an old grump, but it doesn’t seem like this 3D Touch is really going to make the devices easier to use. Quite the opposite in fact, especially for those with less than optimal motor control. Seems like an unnecessary whiz-bang feature that won’t really add anything of value. Why, for example, would I want to pull up a preview of a message by hovering when I’ll probably just need to reply to the damned thing anyway?
I would appreciate it very much if someone could explain:
* What is the difference between Force Touch and 3D Touch? Am I right to say that 3D Touch only has 2 levels of sensitivity and Force Touch has more?
* What is special about sensing the amount of pressure anyway? Don’t all synaptic touchpads do that allready since….Windows 95?
* What can be done with Force/3D Touch that cannot be done with a Press/Long-Press?
Long press is by definition a long operation. That defeats the purpose of getting a “quick” look at something. Long presses are for things that are less commonly used (for example, editing icons on the home screen is done using a long press). 3D touch is used for quick access, there is no time delay you just press harder.
Thanks for the explanation, but “it’s on a screen, not a touchpad” is correct for the iPhone but not for the MacBook and some MacBook Pros that got Force Touch. I just don’t understand why “sensing pressure levels” is anything new. Acting on those different pressure levels has always been possible but never got popular because it is difficult and akward to perform. Just have a look at all the demo’s and you can see that they are actually longpressing with different pressurelevels.
I like the theoretical advantage of using pressure levels but I don’t think it is going to be anything that most users can handle well. It seems that Apple is reaching the limits of what they can do with simple controls that they got so famous for on the iPod and first iPhones. Now they are adding digital crowns, force/3D Touch on TouchPads and screens, Styli and Keyboards for iPad. Some of these will benefit (power)users, others will turn out to be too complicated to use. I think Force/3D Touch is going to be in the latter category
In the TvOS APIs lies proof that they are smarter than you would imagine.
Philosophically, in most Smart TV UIs you had to do the following:
TV -> Apps Menu -> Login -> Bullshit App Home Screen -> TV Shows -> Genres or search with crappy on screen keyboard -> My TV Show -> Current Season -> Latest Episode -> Play
Apparently, on the new Apple TV, you can install your own HBO Go or whatever, but the applications can publish new releases of (presumably watched) items straight to the Carrousel part of the main UI.
I’m not sure until I play a bit with it, but it might be possible that they overlay the iTunes media library with the Voyo, Hulu, Netflix, HBO or whatever you have libraries on equal footing which would make the Apple TV the best device to watch your media from your NAS (as soon as Synology writes a DS Video for the Apple TV). I’ve tried OpenElec, and various Kodi distributions and derivatives and they are all either shit or slow as fuck on a Raspberry PI. The Apple TV (2 and 3), while also using a single core 32-bit Arm chip at a few hundred MHz was thousands of times faster than XBMC style apps. Unfortunately, the only way to use it with your media was to use PlexConnect (which implied Plex, another unnecessary bloatware).
In my particular case I already have 12TB of Films and TV Shows sorted properly, without DRM (Requiem) and in MP4 with tags and artwork. Since I don’t download MKVs Plex and other such apps are unnecessarily complex and slow.
I basically always wanted an iTunes Server that works with the Apple TV that runs on my 8x4TB Synology NAS and to be able to watch anything on it from any device (iPad, iPhone, PS3, Apple TV, plain TV, etc.)
And before you even think about mentioning DLNA try watching S02E76 of any TV show using any TV DLNA UI and count the number of clicks on the remote.
It always boils down to the number of button pushes until you reach your favourite movie file and most devices take about 45 seconds and 30 pushes (incl scrolling) to get there and they still get the subtitles wrong in most cases. Here’s to hoping that the Apple TV gets it right.
Hi, I am more or less in a similar position. My media library is huge. I use Kodi as frontend to a Samba server. While Kodi is feature rich, I think the interface is a bit outdated, or at least not really suited to my use case. Plex is a disaster and even worse for a UI.
Do you use a program that works better than the 2 above? Would love to hear.
I was actually getting interested in the Apple TV until I just read “Will only come with Siri in 8 countries” (source: https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/tvos/documentation/Ge…)
So in my country I couldn’t even change the language to English and then use Siri (like it is possible on iOS)
That basically makes the new AppleTV worthless because the whole benefit of the software was quickly giving voice commands. I cannot imagine “typing” those commands with that remote letter by letter
I am sure that Siri will eventually become available here on tvOS as well, but until then I better get myself a random TV-Box with Windows 10 that doesn’t dictate my language based solely on a country.
Something like this is half the price and would be way more functional: http://www.geekbuying.com/item/PIPO-X8-Windows8-1-Android4-4-Dual-B…
So you are using Kodi too? Maybe someone should create an plugin for Kodi to allow (local!) voice commands! The dogs bollocks! No more surfing 5 levels deep through folders (I don’t use the library feature, it is too slow).
That PIPO computer is interesting but how are you going to use it? If it serves up the media you don’t need the screen and it is a bit underpowered and potentially lacks optical out. If you use it as the remote control, you don’t really need the graphics power.
Edited 2015-09-10 10:56 UTC
No, I use a ChromeCast for online content and a file-based system for my own content at my own place. Sometimes I use Media Center but not much anymore.
I would use the PiPo as a mediadevice for my parents. ChromeCast would be too unstable for them but they currently have no way to play their local files or online videos on their tv. They would put this next to the tv connected with an HDMI cable, start a video once per evening on the touchscreen and just watch that video entirely before shutting it down and going to bed. Simple needs, simple tools
iPhone 6s;
Most of it’s to be expected. 3D Touch seems gimmicky and useful at the same time. Does anyone know if the new touch APIs are made available to third party app devs? Being able to tap and preview my emails would be nice, but I’ve got no intention of using the iOS default Mail app. New colour is a non-starter for me, since I don’t like white faced iPhones.
iPad Pro;
I’d take this over a Surface Pro any day, but that’s only because I’d rather get kicked in the nuts with a barbed boot than use Windows. Whether it becomes a true “Pro” device is in the hands of developers though. I personally would love a full featured version of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop or equivalent for iOS. When I say full featured, I mean applications you can produce sell-able work without ever touching a desktop – TL;DR not a “companion app” like Adobe’s current iOS offerings. Till that happens, it’ll just be an iPad Plus in my eyes.
Apple TV;
No idea. I don’t even have a TV anymore.
Conclusion;
Not in the market for any of these. My current 6 runs fine. The iPad Pro I’ll only consider if it gets true pro apps for my field. New iCloud pricing is kind of attractive though, but I don’t trust Apple with cloud services enough. Frankly, all I want is for the new iOS 9 update to not brick any of my current devices.
Edited 2015-09-09 23:26 UTC
Case in point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin
My first impression:
Traditional iPad buyers will certainly love this, not because of the “pro” title, but because its the Apple brand. It is the packaging that matters here, not that the pro matters anymore. The “pro” thingy is all secondary. iPad is not a pro in the sense that nobody yet created a professional software on it to be used professionally, such as for heavy Photoshop users. You still can’t replace your desktop computer “Pro” for professional usage. And the fact that you will still need desktop AND it needs to be the Apple PC just to use and develop apps for this so-called “pro” device, is a sign of UN-professionalism on the part of the vendor, a contradiction of the “pro” image of this expensive brick.
Just like the first generation of iPhone buyers, the “smart” in the iPhone is nothing more smarter when people rarely install apps to add functionality. If you buy this iPad and use it traditionally as the same with 1st,2nd,3rd generation of iPads, then there is nothing professional of your work and you are only wasting money.
Edited 2015-09-09 23:41 UTC
My take on this is that Apple perfected how to generate money.
Where Microsoft goes about and wants to create the “new” tablet/computer/workhorse like the Surface, Apple recognized it can make more money if it creates different hardware for different purposes.
Microsoft sells two products (the Windows Phone and the Surface) and hopes to fulfill as many needs as possible.
Apple wants to sell even more devices to the same customer: iPhone, iPad, Macbook, Mac and the Watch.
Apple just needed to make all units work together in order to give it a pleasant experience.
If you look at it that way, Apple generates more $$$ per customers.
Ingenious!
The reason why tablet PCs never picked up was because they ran essentially normal windows with handwriting recognition. Jack of all trades master of none. It just wasn’t good in a tablet form factor. Apple were the first to realize that the tablet needed a mobile OS to work for most people.
The idea of one OS across desktop and mobile is always appealing, but so far it has completely failed to take off. Maybe windows 10 will change that, maybe not. They certainly aren’t off to a great start with the privacy problems and Windows phone seems to be as dead as always.
Maybe I’m not smart enough, but what I don’t get is why another OS…
Don’t have the $69 AppleTV (never have) so bear with me if my information is wrong, but my assumption was that the current AppleTV (the $69 model) has some sort of iOS on it and some users hacked Safari and other iOS apps onto it to make it more flexible.
Now the new AppleTV versions come with tvOS, which is incompatible with iOS (assuming tvOS cannot run iOS apps…).
Why this? Why having another different OS?
Maintaining three OS (OS X, iOS and watchOS) already cost a lot of resources, but now with tvOS they have to keep four OS up to date…
Also if they would have opted for iOS they could have gazillions of iOS apps working on it overnight.
Now they have to build-up another app-store and wait until developers catch up…
And this because they don’t want anyone having an internet client running on it or what?
The AppleTV developer page https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/tvos/documentation/Ge… describes how it is supposed to work.
In any case, it doesn’t make any sense to me, but… like I said earlier, maybe I’m not smart enough.
Hopefully someone can enlighten me.
Thanks for reading.
It’s not. tvOS is iOS with some new frontend libraries.
OK, thanks.
Now I assume that watchOS is done the same way…
But wait!
If iOS apps don’t run on AppleTV, or cannot be offered on the tvOS app store, it’s like having a new OS, no matter what the underlying technology is.
What I’ve read is it’s 90% iOS. However I think it doesn’t make sense for the TV to support iOS apps. It’s a totally different interaction paradigm. Running touch apps on the TV would be a disaster of usability. Better to make it easy to port but still require porting so people actually think about the UI instead of just jamming their iOS apps onto a platform where they will be borderline unusable.
I was hoping to see the release of a 4K iPad Pro sporting an OLED display, but it seems that Apple has been focusing more on stylus functionality. Keeping the same aspect ratio on all iPads might also have played a part. Still, this is only the 1st generation of “Pro” iPads.
Even though, iOS is a crippled OS in many ways, it is still very much ahead compared to the unfortunate conveyance trainwreck that is Windows 10 OS (i.e. Operating Spyware, not Operating System). You may very well be able to ‘do’ more on an Surface, but I have simply grown sick and tired of the incompetence of Microsoft – the years waiting for refinement and improvements.
Apple Watch and Apple TV news? Meh. The watch is still ugly. Even the best straps simply cannot compensate for this. On a superficial note, the Apple TV remote is also ugly. I guess that Apple is keeping production costs down. Jonathan Ive seems to have dropped the ball on the remote.
iPhone 6s is a really nice upgrade. Great camera. Enhaced photos and 3D touch? Meh. Again, OLED display would have been nice.
The release of iOS 9 on Septemer 16th is great. I cannot wait until it is jailbreaked ;-P
OS X El Capitan will be release on September 30. Yay!
The tagline “doesnt come with a stillborn OS”　would be enough. Yeah it is a surface RT in the body of a surface 3, but at least it doesn t come with windows RT.
So seeing you all next year when all iProduct will be compatible with the stylus.
Funny, I read that tagline and thought you were suggesting a new marketing angle for MS for the Surface Pro.
Yeah they certainly should have but then some early buyers might have felt betrayed, backstabbed, stolen And open Microsoft for a lawsuit for selling a knowingly defective product.
The stylus being sold separately, costing 99 dollars, only lasting a few hours on battery and not having any place to store it?
The keyboard being sold separately, costing 169 dollars, not having a touchpad, only allowing 1 position?
No USB-C anywhere?
No NFC on iPads?
Retina Flash? Really? Marketing IS going way too far on that term.
5K displays….but still 720p cameras?
No mentioning of the amount of memory (RAM) anywhere: http://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/
Living pictures being a unique and new Apple invention? My Lumias like to say “liar liar”
No mentioning of iPhone prices without a contract?
4K recording on 16GB of storage?
No 4K playback on the TV?
Why is it even called TV when it has no screen?
Desktop-class CPU/GPU that is faster than 80/90 percent of currently sold machines? Must be nice for Apple that so many machines are sold at the 400 dollar pricepoint with Atom/Celeron and builtin graphics
I was blown away by the baby-app on the watch though, until I realised that no mother can operate that app while holding an actual baby. A phone or tablet would work much nicer for that.
The only really impressive things for me where the software on the AppleTV, the progress in CPU/GPU and the resolution on the iPad Plus (uhm Pro).
The most underwhelming part was the lack of consistency. Diverging OS-ses for no apparent reason, some 4K but not all, no standardisation on USB-C but still Lightning, no 3D Touch on iPads, no NFC on iPads
They are all iOS. tvOS is mostly branding.
I don’t think tvOS and WatchOS is mostly branding. It would be much stronger if they could say “and it runs your trusted and beloved iOS”. However that would imply that when there is an update for iOS that the AppleTV and Apple Watch would get updates as well.
Of course they are based on iOS which itself is based on osX, but they all run different apps and are on different update-schedules. Quite remarkable when you see Google trying to merge Android and ChromeOS and Microsoft putting so much emphasis on their shared cores and apps.
Running different apps is a good thing. Shoehorning touch apps onto a TV interface would be really crappy. Requiring ports but making it easy to port is a sensible option.
That is Apples way and it works quite nicely for them. It does mean that AppleTV starts with an empty eco-system and that developers have another appstore headache to worry about. I prefer to give users the choice to install apps that they want to use and let them remove them if they don’t like them. Many current apps would work quite nicely but will never be put on the AppleTV because the developer will not go through the trouble. Don’t forget the remote has a touch surface (gaming!)
Yes. In fact, I’d have loved to see something more like Airdrop with an open spec, including mandatory encryption as Airdrop does. I’ve not had much luck with NFC either for tap to share or for BT pairing, in fact it’s been more of a pain to use NFC for the latter case that I end up breaking down and pairing the damned headset manually. As for tap to share… well, let’s just say I’ve ended up cursing that functionality more than using it, and to have to tap devices together is just a pain in the first place. With Airdrop, for anyone who has it, I can let them know that’s what I’m going to do and then just do it. With NFC we have to tap our phones together and hope, just hope, that the damned thing works and it has to be our mobile devices. Meanwhile I can Airdrop to anyone’s Apple device that supports it, not just someone’s phone (including laptop, desktop, tablet, iPod or iPhone), and it’s damned reliable. It’s particularly helpful now that they’ve integrated Mac and iOS Airdrop as should have been done from the beginning.
With regard to the comparison with Wacom gear – Wacom pens have pressure (pen tip and eraser tip), tilt, orientation, and two buttons. What the pens don’t have, however, are batteries, or a need to recharge. Much higher tech, IMHO.
The Apple Pencil page mentions lag is almost imperceptible with the Apple Pencil – I’ve only recently started using a Wacom, but there is no perceptible lag as far as I can tell. (I’m using an Intuos 4 that somebody gave me. The pen cost me $60.)
It’s a shame that Microsoft went with non-Wacom tech for the Surface Pro 2 and 3, but they switched in order to make the glass thinner over the screen (and the tablet as a whole)
As for whether or not there’s a need for this outside of art, well, maybe not the pressure sensitivity, but there are a ton of LoB software that uses pen input. Windows has been in this market for 15 years+
….and yet iOS is easily the biggest mobile gaming platform and mobile gaming is expected to overtake consoles as the biggest gaming market this year.
So within the next year or two it is quite possible that Apple’s iOS combined with TVOS (in terms of SDK they are more less the same) will be the biggest gaming platform by revenue.
Nor bad for a company that doesn’t get gaming
Supermarkets are the biggest sellers of food, but they don’t understand cooking
I personally wouldn’t say that Apple doesn’t understand gaming. Just the fact that Mantle exists and that their ARM CPU/GPU keeps evolving so quickly, yet people still play games on their “ancient” iPad2 and enjoy them.
but most importantly: in game purchases were basically pioneered on FaceBook and now dominate iOS revenue
My supermarkets understand cooking. Heck they even have cooking lessons at the store.
Apparently OSNews readers don’t like facts.
Nintendo were the first to really break into the casual games market with their Wii. Now mobile devices have taken over from that. Hence the casual games which are wildly popular and that’s what Apple is focusing on.
Check out this web comic from 2012.
https://plus.google.com/110558071969009568835/posts/iXuCDwwpdKv?pid=…
Love it! They were eerily accurate! Predicting WWDC2015 is only a couple months off!
try clicking on the “is literally Surface”-link of this news-article
Hmm… I don’t always click on every link, but when I don’t I tend to post the contents of the link as a comment.
Regarding 200Mb limitation for tvOS apps;
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/tvos/documentation/Fi…
On-demand resources are app contents that are hosted on the App Store and are separate from the related app bundle that you download. They enable smaller app bundles, faster downloads, and richer app content. The app requests sets of on-demand resources, and the operating system manages downloading and storage. The app uses the resources, and then releases the request. After downloading, the resources may stay on the device through multiple launch cycles, making access even faster.
The resources can be of any type supported by bundles except for executable code. Table 1-1 shows supported on-demand resource types and indicates whether those types are included in the target as a file or in an asset catalog.
And by “it,” I mean that they’ve done yet another complete 180-reversal on a previous stance & pulled the rug out from under one of their fanboys’ favorite talking points.
Remember this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=4YY3MSaUqMg
Or this?
I really can’t wait to see the tortured rationalizations & mental gymnastics, and various excuses that iFanboys will come up with to explain how that somehow doesn’t apply to the iPencil.
See the thing about different devices is… well they’re different. For example, a physical keyboard makes perfect sense for a laptop, but not a lot of sense on a smartphone.
I assume you realize there is a difference between a phone and a giant iPad? They are designed for completely different use-cases. Sure enough Apple was completely correct that people don’t want to use a stylus on a phone. 95% of people in fact don’t use a stylus on a smartphone. A larger device is a tottally different ballgame.
Yes, thank you for demonstrating your ability to state the painfully-obvious. Now, perhaps you could make an actual point and explain how any of that means that Jobs’ “styli are obsolete” posturing doesn’t apply to the iPencil. I’m sure you’ll get around to that any day now… (waiting).
Exactly – and guess what: You don’t need the pencil for the iPad Pro.
It comes even without it!
In the pre-iPhone era you needed a pen – no gestures, no multitouch and so on.
Here you finally can have both even at the same time.
Finally…on an Apple device? No, not even finally here because styli were sold for iPad as well.
And of course it has been possible on Surface Pro and Samsung Note…since a few years and I am pretty sure that if you read a bit more you will see that there is nothing special about this now.
Normally I don’t care about these sticks that different groups have to use against each other, but this is such a famous clip that Apple deserves to get slack from it
Why? Well, from the video:
1) Who wants a stylus? You have to get them and put them away and you loose them…Yhagg. Nobody wants a stylus. So lets not use a stylus
2) We are going to use the best pointing device in the world. We are going to use a pointing device we are all born with. We are born with ten of them. We are going to use our fingers
3) And we have invented a new technology called multitouch
1) So you still have to get them, put them away and Apple did nothing to prevent losing this one with the iPad Pro. At least the Surface Pro 3 provides a loop and has a magnetic area and a paperclip-like attachment. And the Note stores it nicely internally.
2) A finger is indeed a great POINTING device, but we are not only pointing at screens are we? Styli have always been useful for accuracy. The great thing about the iPhone was that you didn’t need to be accurate because of the quality of multitouch but also because of the big “hotboxes” on touchtargets. For drawing or other precise touching a stylus is much better than a finger
3) This one sentence irritates me the most and Apple does this way too often. Actually going on stage and lying to the world about inventing things. There is a famous demo from years before where multitouch was demoed, even including the pinch-to-zoom and several other gestures: http://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_han_demos_his_breakthrough_touchscree…
Coincidentally there was another moment like this 3rd point during this keynote when Apple invented “live photos” (HTC Zoé and Windows Phone and probably many others already have this). They even make a point that “it is not a video, it is just a picture”…yet it takes twice the storage of the picture, has a keyframe and several delta frames before and after and it has audio! (Yes, that is right. As soon as you open the camera app your camera is always recording everything it hears and sees so it can provide this functionality. Of course that only remains in the application cache and memory of the OS so there is no privacy issue here although in the US this WOULD technically be forbidden)
So, in other words, iPads are now almost as useful for visual artists as the old XP-based tablets. Noted.
..in comparing the iPad “Pro” to directly to the Surface you neglected the Surface Pro
It’s fair to compare with the Surface/Surface RT as they are both touch only (or rather Post-PC only devices) without access to proper Desktop Class applications – and by that I mean lack of directly user installable apps, outside of the walled gardens – as much as I mean a lack of apps that have access to the more traditional (/conservative?) desktop APIs.
For direct comparison to the Surface family to be true – this iPad Pro needed to come with a x86 variant CPU (or else needed one as a co-processor) and to run a touch friendly twist of Mac OS X alongside iOS.
So – yes – Plus not Pro !
I have almost no doubts that if Apple made such a “Pro” iPad -i.e. with a battery extending iOS/Arm A9X side and -either dual boot or via a VM, a power-app/desktop-app mobile-OSX/x86 mode — that it would be a big success. Not necessarily bigger than this “Plus” iPad but they could add another $400-500 on
They can’t help but be the Controlling Party in the relationship can they. Well, I don’t fancy be £^%$ed by them this time round.
Pencil looks OK though.
As does the TV’s Siri remote.
Hopefully some lovely hacker type can get the pencil working with the Chromebook Pixel 2, and the Siri remote with the Raspberry Pi 2 running Rasplex.. 😉
Presuming you have second running PMS, Sickrage, Couchpotato etc..
The iPad Pro, on the other hand, is literally Surface.
So Apple sues everyone else for doing what it does, did Apple patent “IP reuse from everyone else” first?
Edited 2015-09-14 03:16 UTC
iPad Pro is far from what apple could be as a pride. Many of the versions of them have been seend around these years, you can’t tell whatever end it would be. Some say we are ready for CW to comply. Only Allah would tell what is the step to take. It is hell to understand that the pen is surrounded by far more criticism than it is. Things are written somewhere for someone. They should understand that we are not going to change a lot with this kind of technology.
Not any of the big marks right here are being peaceful, they all are arguing forcefully, with weapons like patented technology, you can see EU steal money from any technology company in the world. What is the response to that ? We will pay.