S3E27: Apple Event 2021

Apple Event 2021

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/09/14/apple-event-live-coverage-september-2021/

See the bottom link to hear the Podcast version of this show or click the YouTube link to see it as it went down live previously.

So every year not long after my birthday Apple comes out and announces a bunch of stuff. They never call me first to see if I am okay with it but okay fine. 

Today Apple announced iPhone 13 and of course 13 PRO AND Pro Max. And if you really need 1TB of storage on your phone, you get it, if you can afford to buy it. Odds are the iPhone 13 Pro Max with 1TB of storage will be the most expensive iPhone ever, The base iPhone 14 Pro Max is $1099 so yeah. And the Pro and Max supposedly have the best battery life ever for an iPhone. And the Pro and Max have a new Cinematic mode when taking video. 

Apple’s line up is interesting. So iPhone SE, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13 will all be available as options with the SE being the value edition for folks who want an iPhone but don’t want to pay too much. The iPhone 11 is a great phone and is a solid phone. If you want a new iPhone and you don’t need it to be the latest and greatest, then iPhone 11 would be the best phone for you. If you live in an area with 5G, the iPhone 13 has 5G and if you have a need for speed, this might be the way to go. Go with less storage and buy an iCloud tier to store your stuff to save you some money.  Though maybe the iPhone 13 mini is also an option if you really want an iPhone 13 but don’t want to pay the most for it.

What else did they announce? Well of course the new iWatch 7 and they have beefed up Apple’s health app Fitness + to track more stuff and to give you fitness classes even. And even allow you to do a group workout. 

So what did Apple NOT announce? Well, where are the new Macbook Pros 14 and 16 inch which supposedly had the M1X chip. I am not in the market for one as well, I have invested in my one M1 Mac for the next couple of years but for those who were looking to get one, well, looks like you are going to have to wait for WWDC in February or maybe as has happened before Apple has a late October announcement cycle and you get them in time for Christmas. The rumor mills say Apple can’t make them very quickly because of the same chip shortages that hurt the industries everywhere including your favorite auto and appliance makers. I am still waiting on Dell servers that were ordered in May and won’t arrive until October. This hurts. 

Those same chip shortages are why you can buy a brand new Series 3 Apple Watch or a brand new Series 7 Apple Watch.

They also announced new iPads with faster processors and a new iPad Mini with retina display. The cameras have been bumped on on these devices and the iPad has USB C instead of lightening. Say what?!? Yeah, so if you have been stockpiling Lightening cables, the time is coming when you will need to go and get USB C cables. 

Go update your phones and your Macs. Apple releases fix for Zero-Day exploit. Pegasus hack.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/09/apple-fixes-imessage-zero-day-exploited-by-pegasus-spyware/

Ray Band Stories? Facebook and Ray Band team up and make Google Goggles sort of.

The glasses can take pictures, short videos, and make phone calls. It also can play audio but your walking buddies will hear the audio as it is open audio. Do we need these?

https://www.axios.com/facebook-ray-ban-wayfarer-stories-5f113bfa-797f-4e2d-b99c-7d65a8726607.html?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email

And a Judge decides Apple is wrong partially and the verdict is strange and doesn’t exactly answer everyone’s questions but it means again Epic will have to take Apple back to court if it really wants to try and win its full case but also maybe just maybe developers may catch some breaks. Maybe.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/13/22671574/epic-apple-app-store-new-rules-meaning-ruling-decision