Apple revolutionized the tech world once again on Tuesday by announcing two new iPhones and a watch, their first new product line in four years since the iPad. The iPhone 6 will have a bigger 4.7-inch display as well as a new aluminum tapered-off back. Its even-bigger counterpart, the iPhone 6 Plus, will have a 5.5-inch display, making it Apple’s first entry in the “phablet” category of devices currently dominated by Samsung’s Galaxy Note line. The new iPhones look like shrunken iPad Airs, if the Air had plastic bands running through its back. The 6 will run for $199 while the 6 Plus will go for $299. Apple also announced a smartwatch, appropriately named the Apple Watch, with fitness-tracking features and connectivity with iPhones to display glanceable information from users’ emails, texts, and notifications.
The iPhone 6 Plus has a screen that’s a whole inch bigger than its predecessor, yet it doesn’t seem to be making much use of the extra space. The home screen houses 7 rows of icons, only one more row than the 5S’s home screen had, and the same as the smaller iPhone 6. Apple showed the Messages app having two panes in landscape view, but if that’s the best they can offer, it’s not quite apparent how the anticipation for a bigger iPhone has paid off. Certainly users will enjoy having a bigger viewing space for YouTube and Netflix content, but iPhones don’t have things that bigger Android phones feature, like home screen widgets, or styli, to take advantage of the new screen size.
Apple also announced that the new iPhones would be shipping with Apple Pay, their mobile payment solution using near-field communication (NFC) technology. The service works the same way as it has on Android phones for four years with Google Wallet, but with the added layer of security provided by the TouchID fingerprint reader on the home button. Basically, at any store that accepts NFC payments, users will be able to use their iPhone to purchase things rather than their credit card. Hopefully now that Apple is co-signing NFC payments, more retailers will start to support it.
The day’s last announcement, the Apple Watch, is Apple’s entry in the burgeoning space of smartwatches currently dominated by the Samsung Galaxy Gear. It will come early next year at a base price of $349. The display is constructed from the resilient material sapphire, a staple in most high-end watches. The most unusual aspect of the device is the dial on the side of it – what they’re calling the “crown” – that can be used to scroll through contact lists or zoom in on something in an app, depending on the context it’s used in. Apple didn’t have key details like battery life or release date, so there’s not much to judge on at the moment, but design-wise, the Apple Watch appears much thicker and smaller than its competition. You could almost say it looks like a boxy iPhone 3G. It doesn’t appear as striking as the Moto 360, but of course watches are subjective, so that could be to your liking.
Apple’s new product announcements didn’t include a ton of surprises, but if nothing else, the Apple Watch will continue to spur competition in the smartwatch space, and Apple Pay will make mobile payments in retail stores more widely used. Though they claim the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are thinner than the 5S, they don’t account for the camera bump on the back, which would change the measurements. Chances are, if you have an iPhone and you’re happy with it, you won’t find anything to complain about with the new models. If you have an iPhone and you’re not happy with it, well, there’s always the Moto X or the HTC One.
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