The iPhone XR is the new budget iPhone

Apple just announced a new budget iPhone to along with the iPhone Xs. It brings many of the goodies found on the new and expensive iPhone Xr but for much less and it’s available in a variety of colors.

This phone replaces the iPhone 8 as the least expensive iPhone available. Like the iPhone Xs and the iPhone X before it, the Xr is a full-screen phone minus a notch at the top that houses the phone’s camera and FaceID sensors. Long live the Home Button. It’s no longer available on any iPhone model.

The screen is a 6.1-inch LCD screen, unlike the OLED version found in the iPhone XR, and Apple calls it a liquid retina screen with 1792 x 828 with 326 ppi. Even at a 6.1-inch screen, the phone itself is smaller than the previous iPhone 8 Plus.

The body is made out of 7000 series aerospace grade aluminum that’s more durable glass and comes in white, black, blue, coral and yellow.

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Unlike the iPhone X and iPhone Xs, the iPhone Xr has a single lens camera. It’s a 12mp sensor with a fast 1.8 aperture lens and packs a true tone flash. Even though there’s only one lens, the iPhone Xr can still do portrait mode photos like the iPhone X and iPhone Xs. The iPhone Xr even has adjustable bokah found in the iPhone Xs.

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The iPhone Xs and Xs Max get dual-SIM capability

There are many reasons why dual-SIM capabilities make sense. And that’s why many Android smartphones let you insert two SIM cards. Apple is entering the world of dual-SIM capabilities with a physical SIM tray and an eSIM for most of the world, and two physical SIM cards in China.

You won’t be able to buy a second SIM card at the airport and put it in the phone. Instead, just like on the iPad, you’ll have to subscribe to a plan using your iPhone. Few telecom companies support eSIM just yet. Apple showed the logos of Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Bell, EE, Vodafone, Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Truphone, GigSky and Jio.

Let’s hope that this move is going to convince more telecom carriers to switch to eSIM. Being able to sign into your mobile plan just like you would sign into your Spotify account sounds like a dream.

If you use two SIM cards, you’ll be able to manage two phone numbers, use two plans and more. This is particularly useful if you live in a fragmented region. For instance, many countries have regional telecom companies. So you need to swap your SIM card if you’re traveling back and forth between two cities.

In China, Apple can’t embed an eSIM into its devices. So the company is going to release a special iPhone Xs and Xs Max for China. This model will let you insert two physical SIM cards at once, back-to-back.

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Apple’s new iPhones are powered by the industry’s first 7nm chips

Unsurprisingly, Apple today announced its newest generation of iPhones. And with that, it also announced its new chips: the A12 Bionic.

What makes the A12 Bionic stand out is that it’s built using a 7nm process. While it’s hard to compare these numbers given that every chip manufacturer seems to have its own way of measuring them, 7nm is very much the state of the art. Indeed, Apple claims this is the industry’s first 7nm chip. It features a total of 6.96 billion transistors.

“What the team has done is truly, truly a breakthrough,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing, said in today’s keynote. “The A12 bionic is the industry’s first 7nm chip.”

The A12 Bionic, which was designed by Apple, features a 6-core CPU and a 4-Core GPU, as well as Apple’s Neural Engine for running machine learning workloads. What’s interesting here is that the chip has 2 high-performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. The high-performance cores are up to 15 percent faster and use 40 percent less power than before, while the efficiency cores use up to 50 percent less power.

The GPU, too, got a speed boost and is now almost 50 percent faster. Rejoice, mobile gamers.

The Neural Engine is now an eight-core system that has gotten a speed boost as well as new smarts. Schiller noted that the chip can now figure out what the machine learning workload looks like and then decide whether to run it on the GPU, CPU or the Neural engine.

In total, the A12 Bionic’s Neural Engine can process 5 trillion operations per seconds. That’s up from 600 billion for the A11. I would take those numbers with a grain of salt, though, since Apple didn’t quite detail what operations we are talking about here. Either way, though, it’s a pretty fast chip.

Apple introduces the iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max

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Apple introduces the iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max

Another year, another set of brand spankin’ new iPhones. But this year, little has been left to the imagination as leaks have continued to spring up over the course of the past few months.

Today, however, the new iPhone becomes official. Apple has introduced a new models of the premium iPhone, the iPhone Xs, which comes in three finishes, gold, silver and space grey.

So let’s take a look at the details.

Design

The new iPhone doesn’t look all that different from the iPhone X, but that is always the case with the “S” years. The phones come in gold, silver and space grey and are made with surgical grade steel, as well as a new glass formulation for durability.

The Apple team has also upgraded the dust and water resistance of the iPhone, bumping it to IP68 rated, with water resistance up to 2 meters deep for several minutes. Schiller added that the phone was tested in many liquids, including orange juice, tea, wine and beer.

Display

The new display on the iPhone Xs is a Super Retina OLED display, but it has 60 percent greater dynamic range than the previous generation. Displays come in two sizes — 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch — with 458 pixels per inch.

The bigger phone is called the iPhone Xs Max.

Unfortunately, on both models, that notch is still hanging out at the top of the phone, but not without good reason. Housed in that sliver of bezel is an infrared camera, flood illuminator, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, speaker, microphone, front camera, and dot projector.

Much of this, of course, allows for FaceID to continue on this next gen of the iPhones. It has a faster secure enclave and faster algorithms have improved FaceID in the iPhone Xs, with Phil Schiller saying it’s the most secure facial authentication in a smartphone ever.

Specs

Perhaps the biggest spec upgrade on the iPhone Xs is the new A12 Bionic chip, the industry’s first 7nm chip with 6.9 billion transistors. It has a 6-core CPU, with two high-performance cores that are 15 percent faster and 40 percent lower power than the A11. There’s also a new 4-core GPU in the A12 that’s 50 percent faster with tessellation and multilayer rendering.

Plus, there is a new neural engine with an 8-core dedicated machine learning processor.

So how does that translate to real-world use? Well, the new iPhone Xs is capable of 30 percent faster app opens thanks to that A12 Bionic chip.

As is standard with Apple, the company gave some other examples of how this processor will change the way we operate on our phones, including software upgrades from iOS 12 like AR, Memoji, and Siri shortcuts. Apple also did a demo from Bethesda showing off the A12 powering the new Elder Scrolls Blades game.

In the storage department, the iPhone Xs comes with up to 512GB of storage.

Developing… Please refresh

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Apple Watch Series 4 can detect AFib and perform an ECG

Today at a special event at Apple’s headquarters, Apple’s COO Jeff Williams unveiled the next generation Apple Watch. It’s thinner, faster and has a larger screen than previous generations. But that’s too be expected. The Apple Watch Series 4 is packed with several features that use the built-in heart monitor for medical purposes.

The Apple Watch has always included a built-in heart rate monitor but it has been limited to basic, standard functions of tracking the wearer’s heart rate.

The watch can now perform an ECG, detect atrial fibrillation, and detect when a person’s heart rate is too low. Apple even got the Watch certified by the FDA, a first, Williams said, among such a device as the Apple Watch.

It seems easy to use, too. According to Williams, who gave a demo on stage at the event, a person just needs to open the app, touch a finger to the digital crown, and the Watch performs the test using the electrodes built into the back of the watch. Because a person’s finger is touching the crown, the watch can detect electrical impulses from the heart and process the pulses with an algorithm built into the watch.

The entire process takes just 30 seconds.

Several companies and researchers have been using previous versions of the Apple Watch to detect AFib. The form factor and technical specs of the Apple Watch makes it a great device for such a test. But until now, the ability to detect AFib has been limited to these tests. Apple will soon make it available to all wearers of the Apple Watch 4.

All the health data is encrypted on the device and in the cloud, Williams said. AFib detection and ECG will be available later this year in the U.S. The company will then roll them out to other countries around the world.

The Series 4 starts at $399 for the aluminum version, and $499 for the aluminum version with cellular features. Pre-orders start on Friday and the device will be available on September 21st.

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Apple introduces the iPhone XS

Another year, another set of brand spankin’ new iPhones. But this year, little has been left to the imagination as leaks have continued to spring up over the course of the past few months.

Today, however, the new iPhone becomes official. Apple has introduced a new models of the premium iPhone, the iPhone XS, which comes in three finishes, gold, silver and space grey.

So let’s take a look at the details.

Design

The new iPhone doesn’t look all that different from the iPhone X, but that is always the case with the “S” years. The phones come in gold, silver and space grey and are made with surgical grade steel, as well as a new glass formulation for durability.

The Apple team has also upgraded the dust and water resistance of the iPhone, bumping it to IP68 rated, with water resistance up to 2 meters deep for several minutes. Schiller added that the phone was tested in many liquids, including orange juice, tea, wine and beer.

Developing… Please refresh

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Apple watchOS 5 ships on September 17

Apple today formally introduced the next generation of Apple Watch devices, the Series 4. Alongside the new devices, the company announced the updated watchOS 5 mobile operating system will ship on September 17.

The new version of watchOS was first shown off at this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote, where flagship features like the Walkie-Talkie mode, smart Siri watch face, updated Podcast app, support for Siri shortcuts, and a “Raise to Speak to Siri” feature were highlighted.

The company didn’t really spend time reviewing these features today, as the new devices themselves were the focus.

Series 4 Apple Watch devices will offer 30% more screen space thanks to an edge-to-edge display, as was previously leaked and today confirmed. To take better advantage of that extra room, watchOS 5 will debut a new watch face that lets you pack in a lot more complications.

Now, you can add all kinds of extra complications to your Series 4 watch face – up to 8 on the new device. Among these, you can add photos of loved ones to the screen which you can tap to connect with, or if you’re traveling, you can customize a watch face that tracks different time zones. You could also use the extra space to create the ultimate health and fitness watch face, Apple says.

One of the complication setups makes it easier to connect directly to people from the face, one is a multiple time zone array and one setup is focused on health and fitness.

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The modular face will get an update, too, with more graphical information from apps like stocks, heart rate and activity, and even those from third party developers. Debut developers include MLB At Bat, Qantas, and Life Zone nutrition app.

The Apple Watch Series 4 screens are over 30% larger on each watch, but the case is actually thinner than the last model. There are also redesigns of all of the Watch apps. The face can contain up to 8 complications at a time.

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Other new watch faces designed to take advantage of the Series 4 display include a Breathe face, where the animation is timed around a deep breath, as well as a suite of motion faces (similar to live wallpapers), including Vapor, Liquid Metal, Fire and Water. These react uniquely with the curved edges of the case, Apple says.

WatchOS 5 also becomes a better workout companion with features like automatic workout detection which provides an alert to start a workout while giving retroactive credit, plus new dedicated workout types Yoga and Hiking. Runners will get extended battery life — which is increased to six hours — plus cadence for indoor and outdoor runs, pace alerts for outdoor runs, and rolling mile pace, which shows pace for the immediately preceding mile.

WatchOS 5 offers a ton of features, many of which Apple didn’t highlight today due to time constraints. But lists of new features found in beta builds are readily available, as are videos. They’re also available on Apple’s official watchOS 5 website here.

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