Apple TV

The Apple TV 4K /  by Jack Taylor

In what should be my final iCollectApple video post-September-12th-Keynote (until I get my hands on an iPhone X), I'm unboxing the 5th-generation Apple TV, now known as the Apple TV 4K. I've been using this little box for about a week now and my gosh do I love it. Since July 2012 I had been the owner of a 3rd-generation Apple TV, which I did very much enjoy using, but since the release of the 4th-generation model in September 2015, I had been lusting over tvOS and all the new features that it brought to the TV table. I held off for 2 years in the hope of a 4K model revision and I have very much been rewarded.

I'm using it with a 2015 Samsung 55" SUHD TV and a Sonos PLAYBAR and it's a very enjoyable setup. I can control everything from the ever-so-slightly-revised Siri Remote, which is a breath of fresh air in a world where my living room has 500 remote controls (and probably quite a few more down the side of the sofa). 

4K UHD and HDR look awesome, both of which I'm somewhat used to from my PS4 Pro. Last night I watched the first Kingsman movie, which is currently £3.99 on iTunes in 4K HDR and it was fantastic. The amount of 4K content on iTunes is very limited at the moment, but you can stream 4K content (new or past purchases) at no extra cost from their HD counterparts. I'm assuming there's no option to download due to piracy concerns. 

To me, the true potential of Siri might one day be met on the tvOS platform. Asking questions such as, "Siri, what did they say?" will skip back 15 seconds and turn subtitles on up until the point you previously got to. That's just a small example of how Siri becomes genuinely useful on tvOS, bringing an entirely new level of interaction to TV viewing. This is easily the best way I've used Siri to-date, and I'm a veteran user of iOS, macOS and watchOS. Come this December, however, my view on this may change with the HomePod release, but we shall see. 

I have the 64GB model which retails for £199/$199, which is only £20/$20 more than the 32GB model, so I really couldn't see much point in getting the smaller option. My last Apple TV lasted over 5 years, and whilst I don't expect quite the same lifespan out of this one (due to Apple's apparent new-found love for the TV with tvOS), I do believe in future-proofing and an extra £20 seems very much worth it to me as apps inevitably get bigger. 

I have embedded my unboxing video below, and as always, if you want to see more of my videos, be sure to subscribe to iCollectApple on YouTube.

:))

The Pre Pre Show - Episode 9: Much To Do About Apple /  by Jack Taylor

Much To Do About Apple

 

This past Wednesday I was fortunate enough to be invited onto ‘The Pre Pre Show’ Podcast to discuss the announcements made during Apple’s September 2017 keynote.

 

It was a lot of fun and Adam and James are great to work with. Seeing as it was recorded in the aftermath of the announcements we made a few factual errors, but I think we did pretty well. I’ve provided links to the episode below, both for SoundCloud and iTunes - we’d all appreciate if you were to give it a listen.

 

Finally, I highly recommend checking out the back catalogue of The Pre Pre Show, and if you’re into Podcasts, I’m sure the guys would appreciate if you were to subscribe to the show so that you don’t miss out on any future episodes.

 

Episode 9 of The Pre Pre Show on SoundCloud

 

Episode 9 of The Pre Pre Show on iTunes

 

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Apple Announces iPhone X, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, Watch Series 3 and Apple TV 4K /  by Jack Taylor

It's the iPhone Ten

X is 10 for 2017 - the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Let me start by saying the only thing I can fault coming out of this event is the lack of ProMotion on the displays of the new phones. I really, really like how much love the cheaper iPhone 8 and 8 Plus received; internally, they pack pretty much the same amount of grunt as iPhone X. All 3 phones feature a six-core (up from four in the A10 Fusion chip) A11 Bionic chip with support for Metal 2 API acceleration and a custom image-signal processor for photography. As usual, no word on RAM but it's rumoured to be 2GB in iPhone 8 and 3GB in iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. 

The return of Space Grey

iPhone 8 mostly looks like a 7, but with a glass back and aluminium edges. iPhone 8 is available in Space Grey, Silver and a new, previously leaked 'Blush Gold' colour, which Apple simply calls Gold. iPhone X is available Space Grey and Silver - both feature a black front this time around - with black or white backs depending on colour. No 'Blush Gold' for iPhone X which is surprising seeing as it originally leaked as being an option for the X and then became an assumed option for the 8. iPhone X also has a glass back, but with stainless steel edges rather than aluminium.

Super Retina!

iPhone 8 and 8 Plus feature the same 4.7" and 5.5" displays found on their predecessors, with the exception that they now include Apple's True Tone technology - debuted on the 9.7" iPad Pro in 2016. As we all knew, iPhone X features an edge-to-edge display, which Apple is branding as 'Super Retina'. It's a 5.8-inch OLED display, with a resolution of 2,436x1,125 equating to 2.7 million pixels. That's a pixel density of 458ppi. It also supports HDR (both Dolby Vision and HDR10). Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, no ProMotion here. Of course, the Home Button is no more - replaced by swipe gestures. Siri is now invoked via the newly renamed Side Button, as is quick access to Apple Pay. Tap to wake joins raise to wake and Control Centre is now at the top. It remains to be seen how taking a screenshot will be handled.

Touch ID 2013-2017

Face ID has replaced Touch ID, despite persistent, conflicting rumours about the relocation of the fingerprint reader. The A11 Bionic chip features a new neural engine (which is also present on the iPhone 8 for no apparent reason *Update 14/9/17: It's for the Portrait Lighting effects*), and a computer vision array. This allows Face ID to learn your face as it changes. Face data remains in the Secure Enclave just like fingerprints used to. It can be used in lots of different lighting thanks to an IR sensor, and can also be used for apps and Apple Pay just like Touch ID. Apple shared a statistic which revealed about 1 in 50,000 times Touch ID would unlock to the wrong fingerprint. This has improved to 1 in 1,000,000 with Face ID. The new sensor can also be used to create Animoji in iMessage, which are animated Emojis based on your facial expressions.

4K 60 FPS

iPhone X features a new 12MP camera sensor with dual OIS on both the wide angle lens and the telephoto lens, meaning less noise in those zoomed photos. Updates to the Portrait Mode introduced last year on iPhone 7 Plus include 'Portrait Lighting', with preset choices that you can swipe through to get interesting light effects on your subject. Slow-mo video has seen its first update since iPhone 6 in 2014, now recording 240FPS in 1080p HD. Apple made a surprisingly small deal of the fact all three new iPhones can record 4K resolution video at a silky-smooth 60 frames-per-second. This has never been done on a phone before and is usually reserved for pricey cameras. The new selfie camera remains at 7MP but now features Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting. The 8 Plus has the same camera system as the iPhone X, whereas the iPhone 8 is a single-camera version.

AirPower...

Qi wireless charging is available on all the 2017 iPhones thanks to the glass backs. This should finally be a solution for people who still complain about last year's removal of the headphone jack as now you can charge and listen at once. At launch Apple will sell Belkin and Mophie charging pads in their stores and online. However, in 2018 they will be launching AirPower, a branch of Qi that charges iPhone 8/8 Plus, iPhone X, Apple Watch Series 3 and even AirPods via their newly-updated wireless charging case. Charging shouldn't be an issue anyway because Apple claims battery life improvements of an extra two hours over iPhone 7 on iPhone X.

Pricing and release

Pre-orders for iPhone 8 and 8 Plus go live on Friday 15th September, releasing the following week on Friday 22nd September. 

iPhone 8 64GB - £699/$699

iPhone 8 256GB - £849/$849

iPhone 8 Plus 64GB - £799/$799

iPhone 8 Plus 256GB - £949/$949

Pre-orders for iPhone X go live on Friday 27th October, releasing the following week on Friday 3rd November.

iPhone X 64GB - £999/$999

iPhone X 256GB - £1149/$1149

iOS 11 will be released on 19th September.

 

Series 3

Apple's third-generation Watch is here and it has overtaken Rolex to be the most popular watch in the world. Externally, the Watch looks the same and remains the same thickness, crushing rumours of a redesign this year. The big feature this year is cellular support - initially rumoured for Series 2 last year - making the Watch more independent than ever. It features an embedded eSIM that mirrors your phone number and the antenna is built into the display to save space. Cellular models are only supported by certain carriers and to use it your iPhone must be on the same carrier. This isn't great for me as in the UK it will only be supported on EE yet my iPhone is on 3. All cellular models feature a red digital crown to externally differentiate them, and the pricier stainless steel models are only available in the cellular variety.

Performance

Series 3 features an updated S3 dual-core processor for a 70% performance increase over Series 2. They also feature a W2 wireless chip for faster Wi-Fi and of course, cellular. Also included is a Barometric sensor for improved accuracy when measuring elevation gain during workouts. The cellular model has also seen a storage bump to 16GB, up from 8GB previously. 

Pricing and release

Pre-orders for Watch Series 3 go live on Friday 15th September, releasing the following week on Friday 22nd September. 

Cellular models start at £399/$399 and non-cellular models start at £329/$329. 

watchOS 4 will be released on 19th September.

 

Apple TV: Take 5

The 5th-generation Apple TV is finally here with both 4K and HDR support. It also has a new name: Apple TV 4K. It supports both of the current industry HDR standards, Dolby Vision and HDR10. It's an absolute beast - it has the same A10X Fusion chip as the 2017 iPads Pro. Games should run smoothly as will 4K content, which by the way, requires a minimum internet speed of 15mbps to stream. Any HD movies purchased previously from iTunes will receive a free upgrade to 4K/HDR (thank you Apple!). In addition to 4K movies on iTunes, Netflix, and soon Amazon Prime Video will have support for 4K content on Apple TV. The TV app will now feature live sports and news - speaking of which - the TV app will be expanding to seven new countries including Canada and Australia later this month, followed by France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and the UK by the end of 2017.

Apple TV 4K will start at £179/$179 for 32GB, shipping on September 22.

tvOS 11 will be released on 19th September.

Oh and last but not least, macOS 10.13 High Sierra will be released on 25th September.

 

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