Apple’s “Hello Again” Media Event

Here are the highlight from Apple’s “Hello Again” media event held at their Infinite Loop campus.

Hello Again Opening Remarks by Tim Cook

• Apple is launching a new “accessibility” web site today (see it here), to highlight the features built into Apple’s products.
• Strong customer satisfaction with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
• iOS 10 adoption has already reached 60%. iOS 9 is at 32% and earlier versions account for 8%.  That’s compared to Android 7 (the current version) at less than 1%, Android 6 at 19% and earlier Android versions at 80%.
• Apple Pay and Apple Maps transit directions are now available in Japan.

Hello Again New Product Announcements

Apple TV

• Minecraft for Apple TV coming before the end of the year.
• New Twitter app can show live TV alongside live Tweets.
• Launching a new app called “TV”. Has a Store section with iTunes movies and other video content available from the tvOS App Store.
• Siri on AppleTV is getting an upgrade. Asking what footballs games are on will bring up a list of current games.
• The free TV app will be available in December, starting in the U.S. for Apple TV, iPhone and iPad.

MacBook Pro

• This is the 25^th anniversary of the first Mac notebook. The first PowerBook was introduced October 25, 1991.

• New MacBook Pro available in 13” and 15” in Gold and Space Gray.
• Thinnest and lightest MacBook Pro ever.
  • 9mm thin
  • 17% thinner than previous models
  • Weighs 3 lbs.
• Display is 67% brighter, has 67% higher contrast ratio and 25% more colors.
• New Force Touch trackpad that is 2X larger.
• Butterfly mechanism keyboard with improved second generation design.
• Retina display
• New “Touch Bar” strip above the keyboard where the function keys used to be.
• Application specific and responds to gestures and taps.

• Touch Bar offers Quick Type suggestions like iOS
• Log into your Mac with your fingerprint.
• In Safari, you can now make a purchase with Apple Pay using Touch ID right on the Touch Bar.
• Touch Bar options change for different applications like Photos, iMovie and Mail.
• In Finder, Touch Bar has controls for Quick Look, Share and Tags.
• Touch Bar is customizable by dragging buttons from the screen to the Touch Bar controls.
• Touch Bar lets you quickly switch between user accounts.
• Touch Bar support is coming to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Skype for Business.
• 15” models have an Intel Core i7 quad-core processor, 2133MHz memory. Up to 2.3 times faster than previous models
• New SSD options with up to 2TB of storage
• 13” can be configured with Core i5 or Core i7 processors.
• 13” is up to 103% faster at gaming and up to 57% faster on graphics and video editing.
• Both 13” and 15” have four USB-C ports. USB-C serves as charging port plus Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA video out.
• Up to 10 hours battery life.
• The new MacBook Pro is 6.8 million times faster than the first PowerBook.
• Former MacBook Air is now a 13” MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar.
  • 3” Retina Display
  • 6^th Generation Intel dual-core processor
• Pricing
  • 13” MacBook Pro with Function Key start at $1,499
  • 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar starts at $1,799
  • 15” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar starts at $2,399
• All models available for order starting today.
• 13” MacBook Pro with Function Keys is available today.
• MacBook Pros with Touch Bars will ship in 2 – 3 weeks.

See what Apple’s Chief Design Officer, Jony Ive has to say about the new MacBook pro in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVPRkcczXCY

MacBook Air

• No changes were announced for the MacBook Air.
• Both the 11” and 13” models are still available on the Apple.com site.

MacBook

• No changes were announced for the 12” MacBook.
• The Apple.com site still shows the MacBook available in all colors.

Apple has released a video of the entire “Hello Again” event and you can see it here.

What did you think of today’s announcements?  Are you going to be getting a new Mac?  Why not join the conversation and leave a comment below.

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