By Shane Maloy
Oh man. Here we go again, yet another Apple release. I’ll go ahead and give you a quick spoiler; It’s another mediocre update – keeping Apple just ahead of the smartphone market. Nothing earth shattering… just a simple upgrade. Of course, that upgrade will cost you.
Today in the Golden State, Apple released it’s two new iPhone models. Naming them the iPhone 6 and iPhone Plus, both having a slew of new things starting with their bigger screens. The iPhone 6 Plus model will have a full 1080 display with over 400DPI, measuring in over 5.5″. If you’re not techie, that means it’s more clear than magazine prints, keeping with the Apple Retina branding in this release. The new iPhones come with A8 chips and the newly released M8 motion coprocessor, which allows Apple to constantly monitor all motion activities from it’s multiple sensors. This will come in handy for what Apple would announce later in the day, Apple Pay.
The new iPhone 6 comes with an improved autofocus feature.
The next thing they upgraded was their camera. With multiple improvements, everything ranging from their aperture to the auto focus features… but the two things that caught my eye are the optical image stabilization and the new video quality. Previously, iPhones could not shoot full 1080p HD video, but now they can! They can shoot 1080p at 60fps which means half speed video is very do-able. If you go down to 720, you can shoot in 240fps for intense slo-mo video. The other improvement is what they call “Optical image stabilization” and it is only available on the iPhone 6 Plus model. This newer technology allows you to take footage from a moving vehicle and still achieve stable and usable footage despite the bumps or interruption to the footage.
Besides these two new phones, 2 other things were released today: The iOS 8 (Which they previously released to developers this Spring) and the Apple Watch. Don’t get me started on this watch. But let me first give you a few reactions I saw on Twitter:
The new Apple Watch, aka the iWatch.
@EmilysMindvomit said “Oh good the iwatch will have a heart rate monitor so Facebook can automatically update my profile when I die”
@JohnDeVore said “does apple watch come with a set of tiny fingers”
@pourmecoffee said “Am hearing the iWatch tells iTime, which is exactly like regular time, only better somehow.”
Now I will give credit to Apple in one regard with this release: They didn’t make the iWatch a simpler version of iOS…but instead, it runs something truly native to the device’s shape and size, which was essential in making this even remotely functional. I won’t go into details on the iWatch tech specs because they are easily found online, however I will give my two reasons I won’t buy one.
It’s almost double the cost of the new iPhone 6 Plus 2. It’s just another reason for me to not be able to get away from technology and ruin my concentration. If you’re like me, you probably can’t live without your phone, so do I really want something that knows so much about me on my wrist and gives me access to anything I could ask for? It sounds like a slippery slope.
So as a long time Apple user, let me recap: Apple released some new products today that will be arguably better than anything that is currently on the market. They will be priced well enough that you’ll rush out and buy it, despite the fact that your iPhone 5S with almost all of the same features works absolutely fine.
You will most likely buy the new phone and you will spend 95% of your time on apps that wouldn’t have changed regardless of the phone you had. But, sadly, that’s how Apple stays in business. #capitalism
Shane Maloy is a social media consultant by day, student and guitarist by night. He is currently studying Business with a specialization in Economics and enjoys photography and video in his free time. Born in Winter Park and raised in Oviedo, Shane is a local native and plans to stay in Central Florida for years to come. You can find more about Shane by following him on Twitter @theShaneMaloy, his instagram @shanemaloy and view his video projects online by visiting shanemaloyfilm.com
