Apple Event (Followup on What Happened)

One of my favourite services for Getting news is Feedly. For the past week, my Feedly has been dominated by two things; the Canadian Federal election news (which has happened by now) and the results of the Apple Event from last Tuesday. Well, never being one to miss an opportunity, here we go…

I have to say, One of the reasons that I love watching the Apple Events is because I always think back to the last one and wonder if it’s going to be as good as the last one. Typically, It’s not as good. Typically it’s better, and this one didn’t disappoint. I”m not talking about the products discussed or the innovations and the pushing forward of things they have done, although that stuff is super cool. I’m talking about how every time they seem to actually up their presentation style. One of the things that I enjoyed was how they took full advantage of the Californian coastline and the views that you can see of the backgrounds for some of the speakers, and how if people were presenting certain products, they would be standing in front of a virtual screen.

1) The Setup – As I said, I really appreciate Apple’s events for their intros. One of my favourite ones that they’ve done in the past few years was where they had an apple employee run the length of Cupertino to give Tim Cook his clicker for the presentation. This was also a nice little “flex” about their (at the time) new facility. This time around, they took advantage of the big vistas and people playing music and having a lovely time. It was a great and cheerful way to start the Event.

2) New Hardware/Software – It wouldn’t be an Apple event without a new iPhone, right? They launched the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro lines which were all very cool. I have to admit, from what I saw of the features of the new phones, they aren’t that much different from the 12’s. Yes, there is longer battery life, and the cameras are a little better (which they always are), but I upgraded to the 12, and I think I’m good with what I have. They also launched a couple of new iPads; the regular iPad was just an updated version of what they had before. The Mini I do find interesting, though. Honestly, I’ve never used a Mini. While I think having the portability could be super helpful for those who need to have that level of portability (They referenced a pilot who could use the GPS on their lap, which was fantastic), I’m not sure if it would be for me. I’m looking forward to the day when I can use an Apple Pencil on my phone. I like taking little notes, and sometimes I find that doing it on an iPad is too big of a surface for me. Having the ability to take handwritten notes on the phone (think about a server jotting down notes on a small pad of paper) would be amazing. IN the software department, there wasn’t much discussion. They did make a fuss about a program called Centre Stage, and as soon as it comes out (or I figure out how to use it), I will certainly report back.

3) Environmental focus – I know I’m an Apple Fanboy, but I do like their focus on the environment. They have gotten to the point that they can use entirely recycled Aluminum for the cases of all the phones. I like this because they are conscious of the environment. I can only assume that they understand how big of a company they are, and if they were not to do this, the Aluminum consumption would exponentially increase. Recycling older phones makes it so that they are reducing their carbon footprint.

4) “California Streaming” – I have spoken about Streaming Services before, and I have to admit, Apple TV+ has been one of the few services that I have not indulged in. They did a major push of their upcoming content, and I may have to rethink my position. Certainly, there are two TV shows that I’ve looked at which have me changing my mind. One of those is a show called See, in which people are completely blind in a dystopian future, but two children are born into the world who CAN see. The other is a new one coming out soon called Foundation, which appears to be an intricate Science Fiction series. Being a big SciFi nerd, I am helpless when cool-looking shows like this come over the horizon. I may have to check those out as well.

5) Apple Fitness+ – We all know I’m a big Peloton fan. Apple Fitness+ seems to be the same type of thing. The only thing that bugs me about Peloton is that they don’t seem to have a program for doing Tai-Chi. I got involved with my local Tai Chi place when I was younger, and I found it both relaxing and fun. The problem is that most Tai Chi places offering classes do so when I’m supposed to be working (Sorry, when I AM working…sorry my Bosses….), so I’m not able to go out and do it. I would definitely take an online class if I could find one through Peloton or Apple Fitness+. An interesting update to the Apple watch is that they are adding “Tai chi” to their line of workouts that you can track on the Apple Watch. Maybe this means that there will be a Tai Chi class added to Apple Fitness. If this does happen, I will definitely look into that.

Overall, I would say that this Apple Event was a good one. I find that sometimes these events are amazing because they offer cool new products and services. Sometimes, however, like with this one, it was good, but without many thrilling things. This is not a bad thing. You can’t maintain a pace in which EVERYTHING IS THRILLING ALL OF THE TIME!!!! The one thing that I did note was that there was no mention of the Epic Vs. Apple court case at all. I actually like that they didn’t make a thing about it. Possibly it was because they didn’t want to (as I’d previously mentioned) “Spike the football,” or they might not have been able to say anything because of legal reasons. I like to think that because these events are big marketing things, mentioning something that has nothing to do with their products would take away from their products. It’s not that they are different from another product or competitor, the stuff they talk about these events is all about Apple. Nothing else needs to be said.

Did you enjoy the Event?

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