Apple’s Wonderlust occasion on September 12 dished the main points on the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Professional, Apple Watch Sequence 9, and Apple Watch Extremely 2. There have been a couple of different odds and ends in there, like a USB-C improve to the AirPods Professional (2nd gen) cost case.
However we discovered a couple of attention-grabbing little particulars that weren’t talked about within the hour-long presentation. I assume Apple needed to go away room for its five-minute skit with Mom Earth to brag about its carbon impartial merchandise and environmental progress. Listed below are a few of the little issues we’ve discovered that you could have missed.
The iPhone 15 Professional has Wi-Fi 6E and Thread
Apple’s first iPhone to assist Wi-Fi 6E is the iPhone 15 Professional (and Professional Max), and it additionally helps the low-power residence networkinging mesh networking know-how Thread. Neither are an enormous deal—Wi-Fi 6E’s new frequency bands are finest used for point-to-point communications in residence mesh networks and extenders proper now, and Wi-Fi 6 routers already exceed the web bandwith most houses and companies have. And Thread is admittedly what you need on always-plugged-in residence hubs like Apple TV or HomePod, not your “leaves the home typically” iPhone.
However each are good additions. Hopefully Apple received’t be two years late to the Wi-Fi 7 celebration on its flagship merchandise.
That $29 USB-C to Lightning adapter
The change from Lightning to USB-C is nice. It’s lengthy overdue. It’s higher for customers, in the long term. Apple was pressured to do it, beneath protest, by the EU and now proudly proclaims its greatness. And for many customers, who solely use Lightning for charging, it received’t make a distinction–Apple provides you the cable, and the facility adapters switched to USB-C a couple of years in the past.
However when you’ve got some Lightning accent you continue to want to make use of, you possibly can relaxation assured that Apple has an overpriced dongle only for you! How overpriced? How does 30 bucks seize you?
The iPhone 15 Professional Max can zoom as much as 25X
The brand new tetraprism lens on the iPhone 15 Professional Max doubles the iPhone 15 Professional’s optical zoom from 3X to 6X. It can additionally enhance the digital zoom from 15X to 25X to get you an entire lot nearer to your topic.
The iPhone 14 Professional will get a brand new 48MP HEIF Max choice
The iPhone 15 and 15 Professional have the power to make use of their essential 48MP cameras to shoot 24MP photographs, and 48MP in good mild. With the iPhone 14 Professional, taking these 48MP photographs required taking pictures in ProRAW format, which leads to big information.
Because the iPhone 15 doesn’t assist ProRAW (it’s nonetheless unique to Professional iPhones), how does it work? There’s a brand new HEIF Max choice to take these actually massive photographs in HEIF format. Luckily, that’s coming to the iPhone 14 Professional as nicely with the iOS 17 replace.
Foundry
Simply open Settings and go to Digital camera > Codecs > Professional Default and also you’ll be capable of choose between HEIF Max (as much as 48MP), ProRAW 12MP, or ProRAW Max (as much as 48MP). This protects a ton of house, because the HEIF 48MP photographs are round 5MB and the ProRAW photographs are about 75MB.
It doesn’t seem like the iPhone 14 Professional will get the brand new 24MP picture format, although, regardless of having the identical picture sensor and A16 processor because the iPhone 15.
Apple Watch Sequence 9 and Extremely 2 have 64GB of storage
New Apple Watch fashions have had 32GB of storage because the Sequence 5 was launched 4 years in the past. With the brand new S9 chip, Apple is doubling that to 64GB (half of what you get in an iPhone 15 Professional).
The additional storage looks like overkill, but it surely’s useful for many who wish to retailer music, podcasts, audiobooks, or different content material on their watch and go away their iPhone at residence after they go for a run or journey.
MagSafe Duo and MagSafe Battery Pack are discontinued
Two of Apple’s MagSafe merchandise have been discontinued, and are not accessible from the Apple Retailer. The MagSafe Duo isn’t any extra, but it surely was terrible anyway and we at all times beneficial you keep away from it.
Additionally gone is the MagSafe Battery Pack, which was a fairly good product, although third-party battery packs upstaged it.
It’s not clearly why these have been discontinued, however it could have one thing to do with them each that includes Lightning connections, whereas the corporate’s latest merchandise are all transferring to USB-C.
The USC-C AirPods Professional have some new options too
This one is admittedly bizarre. In Apple’s press launch asserting that the 2nd-generation AirPods Professional now embody a USB-C charging case, it has a complete subhead that claims “Introducing Lossless Audio with Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional.”
AirPods Professional (2nd era) with MagSafe Charging Case (USB‑C) will allow Lossless Audio with ultra-low latency when paired with Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. The H2 chip within the newest AirPods Professional and Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, mixed with a groundbreaking wi-fi audio protocol, unlocks highly effective 20-bit, 48 kHz Lossless Audio with an enormous discount in audio latency.
The AirPods Professional 2 have a USB-C case that additionally brings some new options.
Apple
Observe that this solely works with Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, and the 20-bit, 48KHz constancy falls somewhat wanting the 24-bit mark normally used when referring to “hi-res audio.”
The unusual half is that it particularly mentions the brand new USB-C mannequin. But when it’s all concerning the H2 chip, why wouldn’t the 2nd-gen AirPods Professional with Lightning work as nicely?
The Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional advertising and marketing website has been up to date to say Lossless Audio with 2nd-gen AirPods Professional, however does not stipulate that they must be the brand new USB-C mannequin.
Whereas principally an identical, the brand new USB-C model of the 2nd-gen AirPods Professional are certainly up to date. They’ve new mannequin numbers–even the earbuds–and certain require new firmware to handle the charging, together with utilizing your iPhone 15 to cost them up. Additionally they have an improved mud resistance ranking (IP54 vs. IPx4).
Because the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional isn’t going to be launched till subsequent 12 months, we don’t actually know whether or not the 2nd-gen AirPods Professional with Lightning case will assist Lossless Audio with it or not. But it surely’s not value worrying about; the sound high quality provided by these earbuds is truthfully not adequate for Lossless Audio to make a distinction, and it appears unlikely anybody would be capable of truly inform the totally different in a blind listening take a look at.
Re-focusing Portrait photographs
The iPhone 15 line brings two new Portrait mode options. First, it should acknowledge folks, canines, and cats in your picture and save depth data together with the picture, so you possibly can go into Pictures later and allow Portrait mode even should you didn’t take the picture in that mode. Second, within the Pictures app you possibly can select a brand new focal topic for Portrait mode photographs by tapping on the picture when in Edit mode.
With iOS 17, Apple can also be bringing that second characteristic is to prior iPhones, together with iPhone 13 and 14 fashions. You possibly can’t shoot a non-Portrait picture of an individual or pet and select to make it a Portrait shot later, however you can select new focal factors for Portrait photographs at a later time. You used to solely be capable of faucet the viewfinder to select a focus earlier than taking the shot, however as soon as taken that call was closing.
