Get the lowdown on the Apple Special Media Event!

Today, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Apple held a Special Media Event. The event was thought to largely focus on the imminent release of the Apple Watch, which it did, and announce a new Macbook, which it did. A really, really nice looking new Macbook.

Rumors had them announcing the rebranded Beats Music, which did not happen, but what did happen was the announcement of an Apple Supported HBO streaming service (with an exclusive viewing of a new Game Of Thrones Trailer) and the announcement of Apple’s entry into the Medical research field.

Say what?

You read right – Apple has partnered with a bunch of medical research firms and universities such as Stanford and Oxford to come up with a way that medical research scientists can collect medical data from the millions of iPhone users around the world, creating a much more quantitative, objective and communication-centric way to look at health, disease progression and giving a stronger more effective way of treating and curing diseases and conditions such as Asthma, Cardiovascular disease, and Diabetes.

Very exciting stuff. Before we get too far into that, let’s start off with some more of the lighter features in the event. We’ll be splitting this report into 3 parts, because it’s a lot of information, and…  it’s Monday. We got you!

Tim Cook started off, as he most always does, with giving us some stats about how awesome Apple it is. Here’s a shortened version:

*Apple opened 6 retail stores in China in the past 6 Weeks, making that a total of 21 stores overall so far,  and 453 stores in 16 countries around the world.

*120 million million retail customers in the last quarter

*25 million Apple TV’s sold so far

*700 millionth iPhone recently sold

*99% satisfaction score for customers owning an iPhone 6 or an iPhone 6 Plus.

*Apple Pay has grown massively since it’s launch with a lot more retailers accepting Apple Pay and thousands more banks supporting the payment system

Next,  Tim Cook brings on stage the CEO of HBO, Richard Pepler, to announce a new streaming service HBO Now – initially only available on Apple devices, called HBO Live. Giving you access to the entire HBO catalog. You can access the new service on it’s own dedicated Apple TV channel, or on any Apple Device. The service will begin early April ( in time for the new Game Of Thrones Premier on April 12th) for $14.99 a month, and you’ll get the first month free.

Mr Pepler also debuted an exclusive new trailer of the next Game of Thrones season which you can watch here. 

The next announcements were simple and welcome one – Apple TV is going down in price from $99 to $69, sweet, and every major car brand has committed to delivering Carplay, with more than 40 new models of cars shipping by end of 2015.

Now on to the interesting stuff.  Medical research. Up until now scientists had to rely on relatively small sample sizes and subjective data when it came to research. Apple is making it possible to change that, creating an software developer kit called Research Kit, which will be open source (!), allowing developers to create interactive apps that will make it possible to collect substantive and important data on our health, gauge the effects of disease degeneration and turn our iPhones into diagnostic tools.

The first five apps, released today, are ‘mPower’ for Parkinson’s, ‘Diabetes GlucoSucess’,  ‘MyHeart’ for Cardiovascular disease,  ‘Asthma Health’,  and ‘Breast Cancer – Share the Journey’. 

An important detail to note here – you choose what you participate in, and Apple will never see any of the data. An exciting idea created by Apple here, full of potential to help a lot of people. As long as they can make sure to keep all of the Data out of evil genius bad guys hands, this gets a huge thumbs up from iPhone Antidote.

Next – Part 2. The new Macbook. Ooooh, aaaaaah.

Apple Special Media Event Part 2 – The new MacBook

Today, Tim Cook announced a new Macbook, and it is very, very shiny and pretty and new.

What, you wanted more information? Okay, okay. Here’s what you can expect from the new member of the Apple Family.

* It weight 2 Pounds. That’s less than a 1 liter bottle of soda pop. It’s lighter than our iPhone Antidote Guinea Pig, Papa Nu.  It’s really light.

* It’s the thinnest Macbook, coming in at a anorexic 13.1 mm thick, 24% thinner than the previous skinny-minny, the 11-inch Macbook Air.

*The enclosure is, for the first time, all metal.

* The keyboard is full size, and is actually an entirely new keyboard, with  a butterfly mechanism instead of the usual scissor mechanism, making it 4 times more stable than before. The keys are 40% thinner and 17% larger, and now come with an LED light each. The new Keyboard and the new track pad (see below) apparently will take some getting used to.

* The trackpad has also been redesigned, with 4 force sensors and a new ‘force’ click with a range of different applications, from bringing up the Wiki page for a word you force click, to opening up the calendar for force clicking a date in a message.

*It comes with a new 12-inch edge to edge Retina, 2,304 by 1,440 pixel resolution display that uses 30% less energy.

*It’s the first fanless Macbook. It wasn’t actually explained how the new macbook will keep itself from overheating, but we assume (hope) that detail will be forthcoming.

*The logic board is super tiny, coming in at 67% smaller than previous logic boards.

*They will have the new intel core M with 1.3 ghz and turbo to 2.9 ghz

* The Battery life has improved, thanks to terraced battery contours helping you to get all day battery life.

* The new Macbook will be almost entirely cable-less, with one port to RULE THEM ALL. Or, just one port, really, for Power, USB and video output. The USB cable/port is a new industry standard that we will see more and more of, called USB-C.

Cool, but definitely something that will get some users fired up, as to gain USB compatibility you will need to use an USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adaptor with included HDMI, USB 3.1, and USB-C inputs located on the device. This adaptor, currently unavailable, will come in at a rather large $79 clams.

* The Macbook is the most environmentally friendly and the most efficient Macbook.

* They will come in Silver, Space gray, and Gold option. Is the Gold option a little too flashy? We think maaaaybe. Time will tell. They will come with 8GB memory, and 256 GB storage space.

* Shipping  April 10th, you’re looking at $1299 big ones, or if you have a couple more big ones handy, there’s also a slightly more powerful model for $1,599 with a 1.2GHz processor and 512GB storage space.

See what we mean? Apart from needing another adaptor Apple, this new Macbook sounds like a definite step forward in notebook technology.

Next: Part 3 – Apple Watch in all it’s shiny detail!

Apple Special Media Event Part 3 – Apple Watch

A lot of what we heard today about the Apple watch was just a reiteration of what we’ve heard since the product was announced last year, a practice in upping the anticipation for it’s imminent release. How it’s the most personal Apple product ever, the tech that will become integral in your day to day life, from improving your health to being a full on iPhone impersonator sitting pretty on your wrist.

You will be able to use it for phone calls, look at your photos, use Siri, get and reply to notifications, emails, social media, track your health data, play music, make calendar appointments, use Apple Pay, get an Uber, unlock your hotel room at SPG hotels, open your garage door, etc. All very exciting things. That we already kind of knew. Nice to get a reminder, though, right?

So what new information did we get?

We learnt that Christy Turlington Burns is basically superwoman, and that’s why she was chosen to test out the Apple Watch in a half marathon in Africa, and a full marathon coming up in London. She loved the Apple Watch ( uh, d’uh) and she spoke about the Charity she founded,  ‘Every Mother Counts’,  which aims to improve maternal Health and prevent childbirth and pregnancy related fatalities around the world.

You should definitely check it out. 

Back to the watch! It will have… drum roll please… 18 hours battery life! Yay! Pretty good, Apple, pretty good.

The Apple Watch will come in three collections. Apple Watch sport,  the Stainless Steel Apple Watch and the Apple Watch Edition.

Apple Watch Sport is crafted from Aluminum and will cost you $349 clams for the 38mm model, and $399 clams for the 42mm model.

The Stainless Steel Apple Watch will start at $549 and top out at $1099, depending on the band and buckle combination you choose.

The Apple Watch Edition is crafted out of 18 Karat solid yellow or rose gold and will start at $10,000 and top out at $17,000. Yowza. This model is also limited. Because that’s how you know you’re fancy, if not very many other people have the same fancy thing.

Bands will retail for between $49 and $449, with additional magnetic chargers costing $29 for a 1-meter cable and $39 for a 2-meter cable. A new bands and accessories page on the Apple Online Store lists all of the available add-ons for Apple Watch.

Pre-order starts on April 10th, and you can also go into an Apple Store from that day to try it out. The Watch will be officially released on April 24th, in United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and United Kingdom. Apple Watch will be available for purchase by reservation at Apple Stores, online and at select authorized resellers in China and Japan. 

And that’s a wrap! What an exciting morning. We’re ready for a nap.

Apple Special Media Event

Did you catch the Apple Special media Event today? It just finished up, beginning at 10:00 AM P.S.T this morning at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

The event, hosted by CEO Tim Cook and featuring guest speakers from both within and outside of Apple touched on details of the upcoming Apple Watch, a new Macbook, as well as a couple of other well kept secret surprises such as a new HBO streaming service and Apple’s movement into the medical research field.

We’ll be releasing a detailed rundown of all the relevant information from the event shortly, and you can head on over to the Apple Website to take a look at a replay of the Keynote yourself, also available shortly.