“See you on the 7th.” – Keynote Thoughts and Predictions

Its that time of the of year again where Apple updates its products in time for the holiday shopping season, but with Apple’s ever expanding product line what should we expect to see updated?

iPhone

The iPhone has already been updated this year … well the 4 inch model has anyway, with the introduction of the iPhone SE in the spring. Even though the iPhone SE has been a great success for Apple, this event will only see the 4.7 inch (iPhone 6S) and 5.5 inch (iPhone 6S Plus) models being updated.

Unfortunately this year’s iPhones seem to be destined to be remembered as the one where Apple got rid of the headphone jack. It will be interesting to see how Apple puts a positive spin on this (water resistance, sound quality etc), but whatever the reasoning I would expect the Keynote to mention the benefits of both Wireless and Lighting Cable headphones. This will also mean that Lightning EarPods will be bundled with the this years iPhone’s, in addition to Apple’s offering its own premium wireless headphones called AirPods alongside the new iPhone.

One less noticeable physical change will be an update to the iPhone’s Home button, so that it has no moving parts and use Taptic feedback, much like the Magic Trackpad.

To ease the pain of the missing headphone jack, Apple will bump the capacities of the iPhone so base model comes with 32GB of storage and introduce a new colour to the lineup.

The iPhones will also be updated to have a True Tone display, that was introduced with the 9.7 inch iPad Pro earlier this year, so those 3x Emojis will look even better.

One of this years major hardware updates will be exclusive to 5.5 inch Plus models, and will be a dual camera system allowing for better depth of field and performance in low light conditions.

Unsurprisingly both the 4.7 and 5.5 inch will be updated to Apple’s A10 processor, which is set to be 50% faster than the current A9.

The new iPhones will be available on either Friday the 16th or 23rd of September.

Apple Watch

Apple Watch was unveiled 2 years ago and has been available for purchase for a year and a half, so it is set to get its first update, focusing on the health aspects of the Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch will gain a GPS chip of its own, meaning that it can accurately track your run without having to take your iPhone with you. The Apple Watch won’t gain any cellular capabilities this year, so what it can do untethered from your iPhone will be limited, but with the extra capabilities made available to apps in both watchOS 2 and watchOS 3, the Apple Watch is now more than capable of undertaking tasks while untethered from its iPhone.

In addition to the GPS the Apple Watch will get a Barometer to help monitor your fitness such all those flights of stairs you go up and down over the course off the day.

The new Apple Watch will be faster, lighter and have better battery life, but I think so insignificantly that the majority of users won’t even notice. The existing sensors such as the heart rate monitor will be updated for increased accuracy and have extra capabilities such as measuring blood oxygen levels.

In addition to updating the Apple Watch, Apple will also take this opportunity to release a new set of seasonal bands that will be compatible with both the 1st and 2nd Generation Watches.

MacBook Pro

The MacBook Pro is set to get its biggest overhaul since it was updated with the unibody enclosure in 2008. Although it will feature a slightly thinner designer than its current incarnation, the major change will be the multitouch function bar including Touch ID. This will allow developers to display contextual virtual keys and information on the function row, while the Touch ID would reduce the friction of using Apple pay on the web as well as giving you a convenient way to unlock your Mac.

The rumours point to this not being announced until later in the year, but anyone who is expecting this to be as thin as the MacBook Air will be disappointed. The updated MacBook Pro will be available in both 13 and 15 inch sizes, and include USB C and Thunderbolt 3 Ports.

iOS, tvOS, watchOS and macOS

All of Apple’s OSs had an update unveiled at WWDC in June, so the only updates you should expect to see (other than the refinements made during the betas) are those related to the new iPhone and Apple Watch hardware. Naturally we will get a run through of all the key features again during the Keynote, but it will be a similar presentation to what we saw at WWDC.