Today, Apple finally hosted its Apple Fall 2020 Event presentation. Pre-recorded at Apple Park, this year’s one-hour long virtual conference showcased a variety of gadgets as well as digital services. For those who didn’t have the chance to tune in to the live event, let’s recap what Apple showed off.
Apple Watches Shown at the Apple Fall 2020 Event
This year’s Apple Fall 2020 Event brought us two new Apple Watches. These are the Apple Watch Series 6, and the Apple Watch SE. The Apple Watch Series 6 is available in both a 40mm and a 44mm version, packed with an always-on Retina display and an oximeter sensor to monitor your blood oxygen. If it detects you having a low blood oxygen level, the Apple Watch will trigger a notification to help reduce the risk of respiratory or cardiac arrest. It could also help measure COVID-19 symptoms. The new flagship Apple Watch comes with the new S6 chip, several new colors, and watch faces including a Memoji theme, and will be available in stores starting at $399. Pre-orders start today.
Meanwhile, its more affordable brother, the Apple Watch SE, promises “two times” the power of the Apple Watch 3 thanks to the S5 System in Package (SiP) and dual-core processor. Apple Watch SE will be available this Friday starting at $279 and pre-orders are now open as well.
If you like customizing the looks of your Apple Watch, a new set of watch bands were announced at the Apple Fall 2020 Event. One such band is the new Solo Loop, coming in five different colors and in a smooth or braided version. Unfortunately, though, Apple is going to remove the USB power adapter from Apple Watch boxes. They cited “helping to reduce environmental waste” as their main concern. Whether that statement is true or not is up to you to decide.
Apple Fitness+ Service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8PVuxzuoCA
Fitness+ is a “workout class” subscription service for Apple Watch and iPhone. The service will launch with the most popular workout types including Cycling, Treadmill, Rowing, HIIT, Strength, Yoga, Dance, Core, and Mindful Cooldown. Each one is accompanied by music thoughtfully curated by ‘world-class’ trainers. It starts at $10 per month but a one-month free trial is available for everyone.
Apple One Subscription Bundle
The Apple One subscription ties all of Apple’s services including Apple Arcade, Apple TV Plus, Apple Music, and iCloud together. Apple will offer a one-month free trial for new subscribers while Apple Card users can save 3% on every payment. Here are the subscription plans from the Apple Fall 2020 Event announcement:
- Individual for $14.95 per month: includes Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and 50 GB iCloud storage.
- Family for $19.95 per month: includes Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and 200 GB iCloud storage.
- Premier for $29.95: includes Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple News+, the new Apple Fitness+, and 2 TB iCloud storage.
- To note, the Premier plan will only be available in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US, due to the availability of Apple News+.
iPad 8
Announced at the Apple Fall 2020 Event, the iPad 8 is the eighth-generation version of Apple’s most popular tablet. It’s now powered by an A12 chip as well. By jumping from the previous generation’s A10, Apple promises to offer more than “twice” the performance of the most popular Windows laptop and “six times” faster than the best-selling Android tablet or Chromebook. It will feature the Neural Engine as well. There’s no difference in terms of designs, though. The iPad 8 is available to order right now for $329 for general use and $299 for education.
iPad Air 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_VSll0WLZE
iPad Air 4 is bringing a chic, minimalistic design with an edge-to-edge display coupled with a “huge leap in performance” from the A14 Bionic processor. The CPU runs 40% faster, GPU 30% faster, and the new Neural Engine helps to improve the machine learning performance. It also features a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with P3 wide color gamut, True Tone, anti-reflective coating, USB-C connectivity, a redesigned speaker system, and now the Touch ID is in the power button. Last but not least, iPad Air 4 supports Magic Keyboard and the second-generation Apple Pencil. Starting at $599, the most advanced iPad Air yet will be available this October.
No iPhone 12 At the Apple Fall 2020 Event
Today’s Apple Event didn’t show off the iPhone 12 but don’t worry, since a separate showcase will be held in October. There’s a rumor that the USB power adaptor will also be removed from future iPhone boxes. Despite no iPhone 12 announcement, Apple is releasing iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, and tvOS 14 tomorrow. At least you’ll have that to tide you over. If you do need to watch the whole one hour Apple Fall 2020 Event conference again, here’s the official archive video below.
What do you think of this year’s conference? Disappointed that they didn’t show a new iPhone? Drop by in the comments and let’s discuss it together.
