New iPhones! Apple introduced the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s+. They look just like the iPhone 6 and 6+ but there are some significant advances. This is led off by the newly renamed “force touch” to “3D touch”. This is Apple’s proprietary multi-touch and pressure sensitive technology that senses how hard you are pressing on the screen to activate new software features. This is a pretty amazing engineering advancement. It is used with iOS 9 on the new iPhones to access shortcuts, preview content and other “peek and pop” things to dip in and out of your content without losing your place. You press lightly for a peek and deeper to pop into the full content. The new Taptic Engine gives you subtle tactile feedback to let you know when you have pressed enough.

The camera was also updated, now with a 12MP iSight camera and 4k video. This is pretty amazing for the tiny camera in the iPhone 6s. One new feature that I think is pretty cool is Live Photos. Basically, when taking a 12MP photo you are taking a snippet of video before and after the actual photo so that when you use 3D Touch to press on a photo it comes to life with movement. The FaceTime or Selfie camera is 5MP and the iPhone 6s display acts as a flash, too.

It is a faster iPhone, too, with Apple’s new A9 chip with up to 70% faster CPU and 90% faster graphics performance. The latest version of the Touch ID is said to be faster, too. They have improved the aluminum alloy used and introduced a new Rose Gold color.

Apple also revealed some new cases in silicon and leather and iPhone lightning docks in colors that match the iPhone 6s and 6s+. The iPhone 6s starts at $199 with a 2-year carrier contract and the iPhone 6s+ starts at $299. They are available on Sept. 25.

The iPhone 6 and 6+ as well as the iPhone 5s remain in Apple’s line-up, too.

Hope always runs high in the office when an Apple Event is coming. What will be announced? What do you want to see come out? Are you going to get the new ______? As we all know Apple doesn’t tell us or anyone what is coming. Rumor sites continuously post what they believe to be coming out, but even those sites can’t predict everything that will be announced. So the event has happened, new products have been announced, questions have been answered, what do I think?

I won’t go over in detail what came out. Don has handled that, but I will share what I thought of some of the updates and new products. The iPad Pro will be a product unlike anything we’ve seen. Its size, screen resolution and Apple’s take on accessories will be far beyond what we’ve seen so far form previous iPads and accessories from third-party manufacturers. I realize talking about accessories may seem odd in regards to the iPad Pro announcement but as always their accessories, like their main products, are groundbreaking. The smart keyboard case utilizes the same breakthrough key cap design that came with the MacBook. If you have used the MacBook keyboard you know what I’m talking about. They also used similar technology to the MagSafe to power the keyboard through the iPad Pro. For me though, the most exciting piece was the Apple Pencil. It will be the most powerful stylus on the market and it utilizes a Lightning connector to recharge from the iPad Pro. Why do I care about something so simple? Because it’s the first time Apple has used the Lighting connector for such a purpose. The Lighting port carries amazing technology within it, so seeing it used like this hopefully points at what will come with Lightning. Maybe the next Beats Headphones will plug in via Lightning.

Apple TV: All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you. If you’re like me and have cut the cord from cable, you’ve been waiting for something like this. The App store coming to Apple TV is the best thing to happen for us “cord cutters” since Netflix. Add in Siri, gaming capabilities, and a great new remote…yeah it’s amazing! Multiplayer gaming with iOS devices will be a ton of fun with friends and family. Nothing new in the way of games themselves, but groundbreaking since most of us Apple freaks already own the devices needed to play along with friends on the big screen: an iPad or iPhone. The new remote also uses lighting for recharging. As you can tell, I’m liking this trend of the lighting connector appearing on non-iOS devices for the first time. Plus, the remote connects via Bluetooth. Why is that HUGE? Because you can hide the Apple TV in your cabinet now and still use the remote. No more line-of-sight. It may also point at possible Bluetooth audio capabilities of the Apple TV, meaning you may be able to use Bluetooth headphones with the new Apple TV.

iPhone 6S: I can’t even begin to describe how happy I was to see these updates. 3D touch now makes the iPhone even more capable of tasks that we’ve come to use daily on our laptops. Think of it as a right click for the iPhone. You can now access more content on the same screen you’re used to seeing with the same tool you’ve always used, your finger. The Camera! Will that just make the Go Pro obsolete? Ok I won’t be mounting the iPhone 6S on my helmet anytime soon but with 4K and 12 megapixels I’m sure people will be using them in place of GoPro, SLRs and video cameras. Fight over the idea of “s” models with your friends but either way this is a huge update for the iPhone 6. I’ve written several times how much I enjoy having an iPhone because of its camera and this has only exemplified that point.

Overall I was impressed with all the new products. Could some things have been better? Always. I would have preferred Apple’s new USB-C standard on the iPad Pro as it’s a pro device. The customer using it will most likely want to use other pro equipment such as hard drives, networking over ethernet, and pro audio equipment. As I said, the Apple TV update lends endless capabilities to come but would have loved to see more TV networks signing on to the HBO and Showtime philosophy of monthly subscriptions to gain access to their content. To be a nerd, I’m most excited to see how the Lightning connecter is being used. It’s an amazing connector and is underutilized by just recharging your iPhone or iPad. With it now on the Apple Pencil and Apple TV remote I’m excited to see what’s next. Will I soon be plugging my new Beats Studio with Lightning connector into my Apple TV Remote for noise canceling audio while the rest of the house is fast asleep? We’ll see…

Apple announced new finishes on the Apple Watch and some new colors of Sport bands. The new colors in anodized aluminum are gold and rose gold.

Perhaps more significantly, Apple announced that watch OS 2 will be released to the public on September 16. It features native third-party apps, third party complications, new watch faces and the landscape nightstand alarm clock mode. It also allows for activation lock, FaceTime audio calls and and improved Siri.

_Dear Friends,_

We said goodbye to Small Dog’s CDIC (Chief Dog in Charge) as Fantail Shrimp passed away after 15 years of tail wagging. We will miss the little black dog. Dogs are so important to all of us at Small Dog Electronics and it is always hard to see one of our love mirrors pass.

“Hey Siri, give me a hint!” The big Apple reveal happened this week in San Francisco as Tim Cook and the Apple team took the stage to take the wraps off the latest goodies designed to improve our digital lives. There were new iPhones, a new iPad Pro, new AppleTV, new Apple Watch colors and bands, a new iPad mini and a lot of features and accessories displayed. I will go into all the new gear below but I did want to give my overall impressions of the announcements. Of course, Apple stock went down because of unrealistic expectations that every Apple announcement has to be ground breaking and so new that it staggers the imagination. That, ‘one more thing’ expectation is unrealistic as digital devices become such an integral part of our lives. While there may be new remarkable innovations and new categories in the future, the changes that Apple’s engineering and innovation teams have given us are very significant. The products, and perhaps more importantly the software, are significant in the evolution of devices that have become so much a part of our daily lives.

Apple also took an important step in changing the paradigm of cell carrier subsidized phones. It has been the norm for many years that if you wanted a cell phone, be it an iPhone or any other, you went to the carrier of your choice, signed up for a 2-year contract and got the phone at a discounted price. The carrier basically charges you for the phone by folding that cost into the cost of service. Carriers have for the past few years been introducing their own finance plans that separate the cost of the phone from the cost of service but now Apple has taken it one step further. Now you can buy an unlocked iPhone from Apple that can be used on any cell carrier service and pay Apple a monthly payment of something like $30-$40 depending upon model. Once you buy the iPhone you can go to the carrier of your choice to get service, often on a month-to-month basis. Apple sweetened the deal considerably by including AppleCare+ which extends the 1-year Apple warranty and 90-days of tech support to two years and also adds accidental damage coverage at $99 per incident. To make it even better, Apple would like you to have a new iPhone every year so you can opt to reset the clock each year and get a new iPhone annually just by continuing to pay that fee. It is essentially a leasing program. The handwriting is on the wall; the cell carrier subsidized model is on its last legs and this is good news for consumers because cell carriers will now have to compete for your service.

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes special is on a fully loaded MacBook Air 13-inch. This features the Intel i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. This is the same as my super reliable MacBook Air and with the big SSD drive it should serve even the most demanding user. I am bundling a few things with this MacBook Air this week. I highly recommend AppleCare and we will include it as it takes that 1-year Apple warranty and extends it to 3-years but also extends the 90-days of free technical support from Apple to 3-years as well. We will add SafeWare accidental damage coverage for the 3-years, too. Oh, and one more thing…I will bundle a Seagate Backup Plus Slim Portable 1TB drive just because I want your data always to be backed up and safe. So to review you get:

* MacBook Air 13in 1.7GHz i7 8GB/512GB Apple Certified Refurbished
* AppleCare Protection Plan
* Safeware Accidental Damage Coverage
* Seagate 1TB backup drive

“*Normally this bundle is $1879 but for Kibbles & Bytes readers for this week only you can buy this for $150 off at $1729.99!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001944

Apple didn’t talk too much about the new iPad mini 4 that was introduced at the event but I see one in my future. It is thinner and lighter and has the 7.9-inch Retina display, A8 processor, Touch ID and an 8MP iSight camera. Adding 802.11ac wireless gives you wicked fast wireless access on your wi-fi network.

But the big news was the iPad Pro. It features a beautiful 12.9 inch Retina display with 2732 by 2048 resolution with 5.6 million pixels for rich details in photos and incredibly sharp text, too. It features a new A9x chip with 1.8 times the CPU and 2 times the graphics performance of the iPad Air 2 while maintaining a 10-hour battery life. It has 4-speaker audio which is sensitive to whether you are holding the iPad Pro in landscape or portrait mode to play the lower frequencies on the all four speakers while the mid and high frequencies are played on the two top speakers.

It is just 6.9mm thick and weighs in at 1.57 pounds.

Apple showed the Apple Pencil (stylus) which is a very sensitive, pressure and tilt sensitive precise drawing instrument. They also show the Smart Keyboard which is a cover that is also a keyboard. Where have we seen that before? There is a new connector on the iPad Pro called the Smart Connector to exchange data and power so the keyboard does not need its own batteries or Bluetooth.

The iPad Pro will be available in November in 32GB or 128GB at $799 or $949. A cellular version with 128GB storage is available for $1079. They come in Silver, Gold or Space Gray.

The new Apple TV features an all-new interface which in combination with the new Apple TV remote, your touch, your voice and Siri allow you to navigate faster. Siri will help you find shows, play music and you can search across multiple apps at once. Initially, it will search iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, HBO and Showtime with more to come.

There is a new App store for Apple TV, too. This will allow you to download and buy content apps such as Netflix, games, other apps for shopping, etc. Apps are stored on the new Apple TV, hence the storage capacity choices of 32GB and 64GB. I can really see how with some new content apps from major networks and content providers that you can really cut the cable.

The new Apple TV runs a new operating system called tvOS which supports Xcode and key iOS technologies and takes advantage of the new Apple TV user interface and touch capabilities.

The new Apple TV has the same A8 64-bit chip as the iPhone 6 and comes with the new Siri Remote with touch surface for intuitive and contextual control. It has a built-in gyroscope and accelerometer for playing games and a Siri button for voice search. It connects by Bluetooth and also *finally* has the ability to control your TV or receiver via IR or CEC which will give you volume control via IR or volume, on-off, input with CEC.

They have eliminated the digital audio port on the Apple TV which should not impact that many but it could make connecting to headphones somewhat of a challenge. The new Apple TV will be available in late October at $149 for the 32GB model and $199 for the 64GB model. The current Apple TV will remain in the line-up at $69. This should be one of the big holiday gifts this year!