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(Full Transcript Below)
After the dust has settled and the quick triggered Apple purists satisfied their Apple harvest, Tech Abilities takes a patient look at the new Apples in the Orchard. With us having iPhones 7, 8 and 10 running IOS 12, we sit back and chat about the offerings from the Apple Gods themselves.
We talk about the biggest change brought forth by the Apple team during the 2-hour Apple Event, the new Apple Watch 4. New size options, 40 and 44 and just a bit slimmer. With the medical advances and sensors this device is now FDA approved and may be telling your doctors more about you than you even know.
The team then began rolling out the 3 new iPhone offerings. The iPhone XS, XS Max and the iPhone R. The X is pronounced 10.
All of them will be sporting the new processor developed by Apple and the price point for the R remains attainable at $759. While the S and the Max sky rocket to new levels of the stratosphere. Over $1400 for the model packed with 512 gigabytes of storage. And that XS is not far behind with a starting point of $1099 at 64 gigabytes of storage.
All said and done, were talking some serious Apple picking and the fruit is not hanging too low anymore. So, the R model is the lowest hanging fruit on this Apple picking fest, but you will have to decide on what your needs are and if your present iPhone just needs a fresh battery and a shiny new case.
We use to say, get the latest because they are changing so fast. Well, not so fast any more. The iPhone 7 and 8 are reduced in price from Apple and with the $29 charge for a new battery, that old, 2-year old relic will carry you through till next year’s Best Time of the Year – Apple’s Event. And I am sure, just as they said it this year, that the iPhone will be the best ever in the World!
Join Serina, Andy and Jeff in this after the dust settles look at the Apple Event.
You can follow Tech Abilities on Twitter @AbilitiesTech
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Full Transcript:
Tech Abilities: Maxing Out Your Apple Orchard Or Not to Max. It’s Apples to Apples Mr. Cook
Speaker 1:
We introduced the Apple Watch Series 4, we showed you the new iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR. We hope that you love these new products.
Serena Gilbert:
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Tech Abilities Podcast. I’m Serena Gilbert and I’m of course, joined with Jeff Thompson and Andy Munoz. How are you guys doing?
Andy Munoz:
Doing well, doing well.
Serena Gilbert:
Jeff, I hear you’re across the pond.
Jeff Thompson:
Yes I am mates. I’m having a good time in England, Teignmouth, England.
Andy Munoz:
Long swim?
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. I’m tired.
Serena Gilbert:
It’s like four in the morning where you are.
Jeff Thompson:
It is bright and early, got to get up early to keep up with you guys.
Serena Gilbert:
That’s some dedication Jeff right?
Andy Munoz:
Indeed.
Serena Gilbert:
But, that’s because we’re super excited because on September 12th, Apple had their gather around event, cue applause, where they announced all kinds of cool new products. What’d you guys think overall before we dive into each product?
Andy Munoz:
I’m going to be honest.
Serena Gilbert:
Insert crickets.
Andy Munoz:
I’m going to be honest. I really want all that impressed. I love Apple product. There was some good stuff, and actually I think Serena you got your wish. I guess we’ll talk about it a little bit later, but the design.
Serena Gilbert:
They fended out a little bit. I was impressed.
Andy Munoz:
Exactly, yeah. You were the first person I thought of when I heard them say that.
Serena Gilbert:
Thank you Andy. Jeff, what’d you think? First impressions?
Jeff Thompson:
First impression was, this is going to be cool. They started out with the watch and I was like, “Hey wow, this is interesting that they’re really going into the health part of the watch.” It’s going to be like a medical device on your wrist nowadays. That was an exciting. Then when they jumped right into the phones, I was excited because they’re new phones. But I have to admit, other than being faster, sleeker, little more polish to it, it seems like an enhanced or a X on steroids.
Serena Gilbert:
The XS Max.
Jeff Thompson:
I know, yeah. I was wondering where it would fit in to it, but after a few days of letting it digest, I think there’s a place for it. Is it for me? Not yet because my phone’s running really good, but it is exciting just to see all the stuff they were doing. I think more importantly what I was shocked by was the stuff they did not announce such as the wireless charger that we talked about. I was looking for something there.
Serena Gilbert:
Yup, which should’ve come out forever ago.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. I think that’s a problem Apple’s having is, they’ve talked about some things and they’re not coming to fruition with them. They brought it out there and now they just totally ignore it. Crickets right?
Serena Gilbert:
Yup, it was funny because you would’ve thought they would’ve been like, “And coming soon,” but if they stick to their traditional schedule, there will be another event late October where they’re like, “Buy wait, there’s more.”
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah.
Serena Gilbert:
We’ll see if that’s when the second iteration of maybe the AirPods come out and then they’re wireless charging station I guess you would call it.
Jeff Thompson:
They should’ve put a to be continued at the end of that show.
Serena Gilbert:
The show was like two hours long as it was though, my goodness. Kind of a snoozefest, but so many videos that were … Why’d they have to shoe us three different video games?
Andy Munoz:
Yeah, that was the thing I was sitting there thinking. It’s like, for somebody who’s blind or visually impaired, we don’t care about that stuff. It doesn’t do anything for us. Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this thing and call it a day.
Jeff Thompson:
But when you look at the meat and potatoes of this thing, they were in large the image area, they didn’t make the physical form factor bigger, but they made the image area much more wider out to the edges. Now if you grip your phone, is that going to screw up VoiceOver? That’s what I was thinking, “that’s going to be sensitive on the edges now.”
Serena Gilbert:
But you know what, and we’re going to get into all of the models, but just the last comment on that. I do have the iPhone where the screen is edge to edge and I find myself when I’m on a phone where the screen doesn’t go edge to edge, overshooting where I’m trying to tap. Like if I’m trying to just hit the back button in an application, I end up in the status bar, or if I’m trying to go to the status bar, I end up where there’s nothing. U adapt very quickly, you’d be surprised, but let’s talk about all the fancy new iPhones that are coming out.
Serena Gilbert:
Apple announced not one, not two, but three new models of iPhones. There’s the iPhone XR, or XR, whatever you guys prefer, the iPhone XS, and the iPhone XS Max. Lots to describe about each one. The XR is the lowest cost phone model that’s going to be coming out starting at $749 this year. It’s an LCD screen with a diagonal measurement of 6.1 inches, which is kind of interesting because that’s actually a little bit bigger than the iPhone X when you measure the form factor. It actually seems to be a pretty decent phone. It’ll come in lots of different colors. Gosh, there’s like five or six different colors that they listed. Oh man, I think there’s a pink one if that’s what coral is.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, coral is kind of … It’s not really pink. It’s got an orange-ish.
Serena Gilbert:
They’re very bright colors because I remember it’s like, white, yellow, red, very bright. And, it’s going to be aluminum instead of the stainless steel or the glass like the other phones are.
Jeff Thompson:
That’ll help the bend-Gate.
Serena Gilbert:
It’ll just crumble.
Andy Munoz:
Note to self, don’t put it in back pocket.
Serena Gilbert:
But here’s the really odd thing, and maybe it’s cost saving, but one thing that is really odd is … I mean, it’ll still be able to do the portrait pictures and things like that. It won’t have dual cameras, but with the hardware and the software it’ll still be able to mimic that. But, they took away the 3D Touch and replaced it with Haptic Touch and I can’t figure out what the difference is. I’ve tried to look at articles and nobody really seems to know. That’ll be interesting when the phone actually comes out, to see what the difference is as far as that.
Andy Munoz:
I’m thinking that this particular model is like the SE on steroids. If you recall, the SE doesn’t have 3D Touch. It had the same processor as the iPhone success, but it didn’t have the 3D Touch. That’s kind of the same thing is, this one’s got the same processor is the XS and XS Max, but they took away the 3D Touch and the haptic feedback.
Serena Gilbert:
Now that you compare it to the iPhone SE, I think that’s a perfect comparison. It’s just going to be a larger screen real estate because they stretched it out quite a bit, because the iPhone SE was on the iPhone 5 form factor.
Andy Munoz:
Yeah, which kind of leads me to believe that they’re probably not going to do a second gen SE because this one’s got everything that an SE would have, except it’s going to be bigger.
Serena Gilbert:
They have actually removed the iPhone 6S and iPhone SE from their retail stores now.
Andy Munoz:
Gone, gone.
Serena Gilbert:
The only way you can purchase those two particular models is through a third party authorized retailer now. Apple also announced the iPhone XS, which is going to look very close to the iPhone X. It’s going to have that 5.8 inch screen. That one will start at $999, and then they kind of surprised us a little bit with the iPhone XS Max, which is going to have a screen with a whopping 6.5 inches and start at $1,099. All of those models are the 64 gig models.
Jeff Thompson:
I was surprised between these three devices that they’re all using the [A-ionic 00:07:39] 12, the new processor that Apple developed in all of them.
Andy Munoz:
That didn’t surprise me because again like I said with the 6S and the SE, the 6S came out first and then like that following March or April, I forget what month exactly, the SE came out and that was the exact thing as they gave it the same processing chip that the 6S had. Obviously, it was just again, smaller form factor and they took away the 3D Touch on it.
Jeff Thompson:
I always thought that some of those that were coming out, like when they came up with the C, or they came out with the SE, sometimes I thought, “Well, that’s a good way to use up all of the spare parts as they move into another one.”
Serena Gilbert:
That’s a good point.
Jeff Thompson:
This time when they came out, it seems like they’re starting out from scratch. They’ve even; Serena, basically you’re X is now done right?
Serena Gilbert:
They did discontinue the iPhone X, which is really surprising actually. Now their lineup includes, they still have the 7, which really surprised me. I’m wondering if they just wanted to keep … Because, I think the 7 is only going to be like $450?
Andy Munoz:
Like $549, or no, was it? Yeah, $549? I think it was a pretty steep price cut. I think they’ll get some business out of it.
Serena Gilbert:
Well, the weird thing though, and I don’t know if they’re intentionally doing this to have to sales cycles in a way, but if you look at the fine print and things like that-
Jeff Thompson:
Serena, we like to call it the small Braille.
Serena Gilbert:
Yes, sorry
Andy Munoz:
The small Braille.
Serena Gilbert:
It says that the iPhone XR won’t be available for pre-order until October 19th, and then shipping October 26th. But here’s the other funny thing, is their website does say that the iPhone XR and the Apple Watch Series 4 have not been approved by the FCC yet, so they may or not ship with the dates that they announced.
Jeff Thompson:
I thought they said that the, oh okay, the Apple Watch Series 4 was approved by the FDA, so it’s edible. I get it.
Andy Munoz:
Yeah. The other thing to take into consideration is that the XS and XS Max, you can pretty much bet that they’re going to get back ordered. That’s usually the way these things go. Even when they say they’re going to start shipping, if you get it early, yes. But I guarantee you the later in the day you order or the next day or whatever, you’re going to be looking at a couple of weeks to several weeks before you actually get it.
Jeff Thompson:
I saw that some people are going all out and getting the 512 gigabyte Max, wow!
Serena Gilbert:
That’s a $1,400 phone.
Jeff Thompson:
Now add Apple Care to it, Apple Care Plus.
Serena Gilbert:
They have upgraded, it’s Apple Care Plus now, where you can be covered if you lose your phone or if it’s stolen.
Jeff Thompson:
What’s the difference between that?
Serena Gilbert:
I think it’s going to cost a little bit more. Right now if you lose your phone or it’s stolen, there’s nothing that Apple will do for you. For an extra fee, you’ll be able to be covered for that if you completely lose it or if somebody takes it out of your man purse. Let’s talk about the XS and the XS Max. Personally, other than the new chip, what’s different about it from the X? I don’t see much difference personally.
Andy Munoz:
There really wasn’t. Honestly, I still say for the whole keynote if it wasn’t for the fact that you have the update to the Watch Series 4, then add in their price reduction to the iPhone 7, and then also adding in the XR, none of the products that are coming out at this point other than the watch or anything that I really want to jump up, run out and buy. But, I think with the R they made it cost effective as opposed to the other two. I didn’t see anything that really stood out as a huge difference other than the chip.
Jeff Thompson:
I really do like the fact that they are making it better for sighted people to take pictures. They got the dual lens, plus they got the stereo microphones so you’re able to do videos in stereo, and they have stereo speakers now. I’m not impressed with the stereo speakers that I have on my 7, however they say they’re going to be louder. Those minimal type of things for innovation. Honestly, I do think the Apple iPhone has reached its potential in a sense of us being awed and wowed by the new this, “Oh, we can do that.” Now they’re just making it faster, sleeker, slimmer, and I guess still keeping it affordable with the R.
Serena Gilbert:
Before we move on to other announcements that were made around the table, anyone looking to upgrade this year? I know I’m not.
Andy Munoz:
I’m not going to upgrade at this point. My 7 is still pretty trusty. I do need to potentially look at the battery. Other than that, no. I think I’m going to hold off.
Jeff Thompson:
On our last podcast I mentioned that I did bring my phone in and had the battery replaced. I do like the Battery Health beta feature in there so you can tell what potential your battery now has, because it does wear down and it’s only going to reach a certain capacity and mine was down. With that replacement, I’m set to go. I really don’t feel the need to upgrade. Now we all have 12 and it’s supposed to speed up the older phones, so there’s going to be a lot of markets. If you’re going to do a demo for something, you’re going to have to be pretty explicit which phone you’re talking about nowadays.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, there are so many models out now. You’re right, that’s a really good point.
Jeff Thompson:
What is everybody going to call them? I really don’t like their name selection. I just would’ve like to hear the Max. That would’ve been cool.
Serena Gilbert:
So much to say. The iPhone XS Max. Max just sounds cheesy to me, I really do think. Why didn’t they call it the iPhone XS Pro, or stick with the … Because they have the MacBook Pro, the iPad Pro. Why wouldn’t they have that line follow with their iPhones?
Andy Munoz:
I think they’re just running out of ideas. I mean, I get the XS. That would’ve stuck with what they’ve been doing. Even if they would’ve went XS Plus, that would’ve been fine because then again, that would’ve stuck as well. I’m guessing maybe the Max just because it is the largest phone that they’ve ever put out and that just felt appropriate. But yeah, not the best name.
Jeff Thompson:
Where do we go from here?
Andy Munoz:
You know, for the longest time I’ve always thought phones are phones. You can continue to add different things, whether it’s awesome cameras, whether it’s stereo speakers, mics, all those things. Those are all great things because we all in some way, shape or form can benefit or use them. Even if we’re not doing videos or taking photos, there’s other things that we can certainly benefit from those features. But, I think really at this point outside of video gaming, what can you do to make these products stand out with your operating system? There’s got to be something else that could be a wow factor.
Serena Gilbert:
I’ve honestly felt that they’ve been stagnant for years. I can’t think of … Really the last thing that really wowed me, and this goes back forever to the iPhone 4S was Siri. Ever since then, I get everyone loves Face ID, I use it every day, I get that. I like that there’s no home button now, but it’s never been like, “Oh my gosh, that’s really cool. Nobody else is doing that.” Siri was the only thing that was really unique and new at the time.
Jeff Thompson:
To tell you the truth, Siri has been stagnant ever since. There’s been a few growth spurts here and there with it and with all the other devices coming out and just filling the market with all these artificial intelligence they call them, but these virtual assistants or whatever you want to say, I really have seen nothing in the Siri that’s making me go wow. That’s where I think it has to be. Unless inside these new devices, the potential with the new chip, the new processor, all the stuff that they have built in here is going to give the third party people the ability to start to wow us because they’re going to be coming out with the shortcuts, they’re going to be coming out with augmented reality and the gaming and stuff.
Jeff Thompson:
Are we going to find that the fallout from all this is going to improve? What we are looking for is better VoiceOver, better access to other features and stuff. But if you’re going to leave it up to the third party, Apple has a good record but are the third party ones always going to be accessible? We’re in an area right now where they’re building the machine, the foundation where we’ve never seen it before. I’m wondering where it’s going to go from here.
Andy Munoz:
Yeah, like Siri, going back to that for a second, I’ve had friends that are like, “Hey, why can’t Siri close an app? It can sure as heck open one, why can’t it close it?” It doesn’t sound like much, at the same point, I’m sure other virtual assistants are doing those things. I can’t say that for certain. I haven’t used Alexa in a while to tell you what Alexa does and doesn’t do. Apple innovated that. I think it has a whole lot more potential than what it’s being used for.
Jeff Thompson:
Chee Chau, friend of mine from Malaysia, that’s what he brought to my attention. He thinks that the phone has to be recognized. He even brought up Samsung and the other ones. He says we may have reached the potential of the phone as we know it. Serena, you mentioned you used to be wowed by the stuff Apple was coming out with.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, not so much anymore. I honestly thought by now that we would have a foldable phone, you can just fold up, put in your wallet or whatever, or that we would have a phone that unfolded and had dual screens. Just unfold it and it’s ginormous when you want it to be. I thought that we would have phones that could project holograms by now from Apple, but that’s just me dreaming.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, why not? Why not? Because they shocked us so fast and, “Wow, this is where it’s been.” People, it’s been 10 years now. We used to say, “Where are they going to be in five more years?” Well, we said that at five years and now at 10, we’re in this holding pattern. We’re kind of being wowed but it’s like, “Hold on, wait for it, wait for it.”
Andy Munoz:
I will say this, I think one of the cool things that they did do is the dual SIM. I used to talk to a lot of customers that would call in and, “Hey, how do I … What do I do to … I’m going overseas,” so now where they can have the dual SIM, I think that’s cool. But, you can only make a phone so big. With these new phones, I would almost feel like now I’d be holding an iPad up to my ear.
Serena Gilbert:
It’s basically like an iPad Mini, XS Max because it’s 6.5 inches diagonally. I think the iPad Minis are what? Seven?
Andy Munoz:
Yeah, they were like 7.8 or something like that.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, so one inch difference basically.
Jeff Thompson:
Put a wristband on that and you got a super watch I think. When you’re talking about the dual SIMs, that’s something that I would’ve done right away when I got over here, because there’s always stores … Over here you got these mobile stores, and everything’s a SIM card because of the nature of the visa over here, England and Europe. I would’ve done that in a heartbeat. What I had to do is, I had to go through my Verizon company and pay extra per day, and I really don’t get good service let me tell you.
Jeff Thompson:
They’ve even talked about how people are going to have dual lines, like if you want Verizon and you want T or something like that. It’s confusing in a sense like, how are the big providers of cellular looking at this? Apple’s giving people a choice now. It’s almost like unlocking a phone in a sense isn’t it, by having to SIMs?
Serena Gilbert:
Well, what it is, is that you can have two phone numbers on the phone simultaneously. Maybe you have a business phone and a personal phone, that allows for really essentially if a company really wanted to save some money they could say, “Hey, maybe we pay half your bill. Buy a second SIM card,” because it’ll identify which phone number the caller is calling on the caller ID.
Jeff Thompson:
Your fun is over out there in Denver, Colorado, sorry.
Serena Gilbert:
I guess only time will tell next year because next year’s the traditional time when the form factor would change. We’ll see if they do that or if this is just how the phones are going to look for a very long time.
Andy Munoz:
We’ve been talking about some of the stuff like we’re un-wowed a little bit, but it is kind of exciting to see them take off in a new area because $1,000 was the wow factor. And now as you mentioned early, it’s $1,400 when you’re talking about getting the 512 gigabytes. When they hit a terabyte, are they going to call it a phone anymore? I don’t know.
Serena Gilbert:
Apple also announced brand new Apple watches, which we somewhat predicted. I really feel like there weren’t any huge surprises with us, except for a little bit of changes to the form factor. The new Apple Watch Series 4 will start at $399.99, and they’re having slightly larger iterations. That 40 millimeter in the 44 milliliter, whoa, the 44 millimeter and the … Sorry guys.
Andy Munoz:
What you been drinking?
Serena Gilbert:
It’s just water this time; millimeter, meter. They did say surprisingly, which is not like apple, they made sure to tell us that all of the existing watch bands that everyone has had will fit the new Apple Watch Series 4, which is refreshing because normally when they have something new they’re like, “Oh, you got to buy all new accessories, have fun.” What’d you guys think of the new Apple Watch Series 4? What are some of your favorite new features that they talked about?
Andy Munoz:
You know, for me I thought there was a lot that was interesting. I mean, all the medical stuff that they’re implementing into the watch. They’re certainly trying to push the health and fitness aspect of things and I think that’s good. I think we need that, especially in this day and age. We can talk about health on a whole different subject. Some of the different things that were cool was like the fall detection and the studies that they did on that. Obviously, you hope that you never end up in that situation, that if you fall and you can’t get up, we’re not having to do Lifeline or Life alert, whatever that was called.
Andy Munoz:
It’s nice to know that that’s there, and that it can sense if you’re in mobile for at least a minute, that it’s going to send an SOS to your emergency contact, it’s going to contact emergency services. I think that was pretty cool, but I also think that the bigger display, especially for somebody like myself who’s low vision, I think I could certainly benefit from that. The fact that again, it’s a sleeker design. Those are definitely some things that that stood out to me. And obviously, the more information you can pack into a small little display like that, the better.
Jeff Thompson:
I was really excited when I heard that they’re going to actually be able to monitor the heart and more of your health features. The ECG is really interesting-
Serena Gilbert:
Jeff?
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah.
Serena Gilbert:
You got to redo that sentence, EKG.
Andy Munoz:
No, it was ECG.
Serena Gilbert:
ECG? Okay.
Andy Munoz:
It was ECG. He had it right.
Serena Gilbert:
I’m sorry, I interrupted you for no reason. You can smack me.
Jeff Thompson:
I’m really excited about the ECG being able to monitor that and get it to your doctor, or do a past history of stuff, like you go to the doctor and they might be able to have a whole history of even your sleeping patterns, even stuff that you’ve been doing. Your activity, your heart and all that. That’s very important because when you go there, “What you’ve been up to?” “Nothing.” It’s little bit information that’s already there just because you exist wearing the watch and there’ll be able to have it.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s exciting and I agree with you Andy, that is a new era that will be falling into here. No pun on falling or slipping, but it’s going to be interesting how we’re going to utilize that or have other people utilize it, which brings up the other question. Are they going to know more about us than we really want them to? That’s one thing I’m really excited about to watch. It’s going to be louder and that can be interesting.
Serena Gilbert:
They did move the microphone from what I understand on the form factor. It’s on a different spot where apparently Siri would be more responsive, and then most likely dictation and things like that as well.
Andy Munoz:
Yeah, they moved it away from the speaker to prevent echo and stuff like that.
Jeff Thompson:
Typically when a phone happens on my watch … I have the Series 2, so the Series 4 I’m kind of interested in it and Lori wants my old watch, that type of thing. If you guys get a phone call, do you have to hold your wrist up to talk to the person? Do you feel you have to or do you have to?
Serena Gilbert:
I usually hold my wrist up only because I feel like I get a lot of, “What? What?” But, I’ve always found it a little bit difficult to reliably answer the phone on the Apple Watch Series 2, because that’s what I have. I don’t know if it’s maybe I just don’t know the gesture, but flicking around to see who it is, and then trying to find the answer button on the little tiny screen, I usually end up missing the call.
Jeff Thompson:
Exactly, and sometimes when it’s ringing it doesn’t want to read the name. Have you noticed lately that it reads the phone number instead of the name?
Serena Gilbert:
That’s weird. I know sometimes my phone will do that if I haven’t, if it’s requiring my passcode.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that could be.
Serena Gilbert:
I don’t know if it’s a privacy thing, but it will only … It won’t display people’s names then, it’ll just say phone numbers.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, I never thought of that. That makes sense.
Andy Munoz:
Interesting.
Serena Gilbert:
They did also talk about in the presentation how you no longer really have to be around your iPhone anymore with the new Series 4. Did you guys catch that? They were like, “We’re freeing you from your iPhone,” or something like that.
Andy Munoz:
Well, I thought that was supposed to be the case with Series 3. The whole purpose of cellular is that you didn’t have to have your phone, so it should be. I would figure this Series 4 would follow suit with that.
Jeff Thompson:
I’m perplexed about how far we can go with this. I’m excited about Series 4. It seems like there’s more advances right now with more changes in the watch than I notice in the phones other than the speed of the phone is going to be faster. The watch, that was a real update to me.
Serena Gilbert:
There was one more thing that Apple didn’t do in its keynote, but came out in a press release shortly after the event was done and that is my personal favorite. Finally some updates to the HomePod and what it’s going to be able to do. They confirmed that of course with iOS 12, there’s going to be Siri shortcuts, so predictably we’ll probably be able to launch Pandora and Spotify using the shortcuts, assuming that Pandora and Spotify developers chose to add that to their app, which I don’t see why they wouldn’t.
Serena Gilbert:
But, they also added some other features that the HomePod will be able to do that it should’ve already been able to do, but we already beat that horse. One of the things it’ll be able to do is have multiple timers. You’ll also be able to search for music on Apple Music by saying lyrics to the song, which those of us who have Alexa devices know that we’ve already been able to do that there. That’s really nice that Apple’s adding that to the software.
Serena Gilbert:
You’ll also be able to answer phone calls on the HomePod and make phone calls on the HomePod, which again, should’ve already been able to be done, but it’s cool that they’re adding it. I know you guys don’t have HomePods, but would those additions to the software make it a little bit more intriguing to you to purchase one?
Jeff Thompson:
I’m going to have to say what you said last time, wasn’t it already able to do that?
Serena Gilbert:
No sir, it was not.
Jeff Thompson:
When I saw them announce AirPlay 2 and I’m thinking, “Wow! that was three months ago.” That was something other people enjoyed, or waited for already and it goes back to the wireless charging pad or whatever happened to the AirBuds. I think we’re in an area where they’re talking about iOS 12 and things happening and yeah, I’m still waiting. Now I’m really waiting for the fall. They moved it on down the line. It seems like I’ll be waiting but yeah, yeah, yeah.
Serena Gilbert:
But you didn’t say Jeff, do you want a HomePod now?
Jeff Thompson:
You know, there’s so many people. I’m hearing more and more people saying they really like the sound.
Serena Gilbert:
Oh, it’s amazing.
Jeff Thompson:
We’ll see, we’ll see. You know I do. I’m stuck in this Apple orchard, and I like apples. I like everything they do. I’m just in a spot right now where they’ve made such a good 7, or I would have to say the 8s are just as good, or the X’s that people have. I don’t see a lot of people jumping, especially when the cost is at a new level, need just to backup for a second and really fathom what that means to people. Are people going to be spending anywhere from $60 to $70, $80 a month to operate this?
Jeff Thompson:
I just saw the providers, the seller providers like Verizon coming out and they have a deal and it matches pretty much up with what the apple deal is. You got a two year contract with them so it’s a few dollars cheaper, that’s it. I don’t know, I like Apple.
Serena Gilbert:
Jeff, I’ll make a deal with you. I will talk to my bestie Lori about putting a HomePod underneath your Christmas tree, and then you can take the Blind Abilities team to [inaudible].
Jeff Thompson:
I hear you, and I’ll be able to hear a better music to right after Christmas.
Serena Gilbert:
Yup. I’ll make sure that I tell her.
Jeff Thompson:
We may have been talking pretty critical, but it was the best time of the year. It was great. I liked it, and it’s an event. I won’t even tell you guys how I listened to it during the event. I was sitting right in the other room here in Teignmouth, England and a couple we were with, she’s really a techie too. I gave her one of my ear buds, I had one of my ear buds and we listened to the event during dinner.
Serena Gilbert:
Nice.
Jeff Thompson:
Steve actually suggested we do that, “You could just both be listening to it,” so we were covered. It was kind of funny because we were making loud comments about it and stuff, especially one of your favorites Serena. We were saying stuff like innovative, dazzling
Speaker 4:
Absolutely incredible, amazing, amazing, just amazing.
Jeff Thompson:
We were repeating every time they said those words.
Serena Gilbert:
Were you guys on the floor after like, “You’ll have to take that outside.”
Jeff Thompson:
It was kind of funny. It was entertaining to actually listen to it and stuff. I’m sure a lot of people liked it. [inaudible]people really loved it I’m sure, because that image is really something they like and they spent a lot of time on those photographs.
Andy Munoz:
You know, that’s usually par for the course. Anytime that they upgrade the cameras, they certainly want to bring out the wow factor of what these photos look like. Obviously, the first thing out of their mouth is, “These have not been touched or enhanced in any way.” In that respect, yeah. When they come out with new cameras like that, it is great and for us maybe being down on the event, it’s certainly not a reflection on Apple as a whole. I think it’s just that we’re talking about what that means for those of us that are blind or visually impaired. There really wasn’t anything that was a wow factor for us.
Serena Gilbert:
Well, part of it is that number one, Apple hypes this up so much. I mean, they’re so dramatic with even the invitations that they send out. Everyone visually analyzes them to the T like, “Oh my gosh, look at that picture. What does this mean? What does the wording mean? Why does it say gather round?” They say things all throughout to even build up the dramatics even more like, “This is the best iPhone yet. This is the best Apple Watch yet. This is the best camera on any cell phone yet.”
Speaker 5:
It became the number one smartphone in the world. Today, we’re going to take iPhone X to the next level. This is the iPhone XS. It is the most advanced iPhone we’ve ever created.
Serena Gilbert:
You’re just like, “Okay, I get it. You guys think you’re awesome,” and the money is behind it. Believe me, I absolutely love apple but they’re going to have to step it up next year for sure.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. Yo, unless you got $1,400, [inaudible] want to be the new kid on the block with the brand new X or 10, let’s call it the 10. The XS Max with 512 gigabytes, sign away your life.
Andy Munoz:
That’s how uncle Timmy was referring to it was, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.
Serena Gilbert:
Serena wins, Serena wins. No, sorry.
Jeff Thompson:
It’s really interesting because sometimes it says X but when they actually say it, they say the 10, so there you go. I got to give you that one Serena.
Serena Gilbert:
It is interesting though because I’ve read tons of articles on it and I don’t know how Apple wrote it on their website, but when you go to Apple’s website and you’re using VoiceOver, everything specifically says XS, XS Max or XR. I don’t know what they’ve done to make sure that that’s how it pronounces it, but that’s a very small attention to detail I guess that they put into it to make sure that those of us who are using technology like that hear it correctly.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, Siri always spells Apple perfectly. It always spells; it spells a lot of things that is Apple related or when you do is search, it understands you perfect. Almost like Alexa, always. If you say that word purchase, it’ll hear you perfectly.
Serena Gilbert:
For sure. You want me to take your money? Of course.
Andy Munoz:
You know, you’re sitting here Serena-
Serena Gilbert:
Andy!
Andy Munoz:
I don’t know why I do that.
Serena Gilbert:
Jeff calls me Sarah, you call me Sabrina.
Jeff Thompson:
Once.
Andy Munoz:
But, what’s funny is I’m looking at the website, on the website it says iPhone XS, iPhone XR, of course then it has iPhone 8, iPhone 7. So yeah, they did something on the backend because for visually it’s showing as XS and XR.
Serena Gilbert:
Definitely with VoiceOver it is saying 10, so it’s interesting.
Jeff Thompson:
I thank you got a point there because when I’m reading articles sometimes and say the writer uses the XS, it will read it as X. Good for you Apple you’re using VoiceOver, yes.
Serena Gilbert:
Andy, correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t their website a new darker theme right now to you?
Andy Munoz:
Let me take a look.
Serena Gilbert:
On their landing page?
Andy Munoz:
I’ve got it on inverted colors, so let me un-invert.
Jeff Thompson:
Wow, you got them to un-invert.
Andy Munoz:
She did it.
Jeff Thompson:
And coming out now, everyone should be able to get 12 now, and everyone should be able to move into the desert with the new …
Serena Gilbert:
Mojave.
Jeff Thompson:
Yes.
Serena Gilbert:
That comes out the 26th. For some reason it’s delayed, same thing with TVOS.
Jeff Thompson:
Dark theme.
Serena Gilbert:
I will say that iOS 12 as far as bugs and things goes, it’s a pretty smooth operating system. I don’t see any reason why if you’re a VoiceOver user or any other assistive technology to delay in updating this, especially if you’re running on an older phone.
Jeff Thompson:
Right, dive right in. I’ve never seen so many betas come out on an iteration of moving from like 8, 7, 10, whatever one they we’re doing. This one, they’ve done basically 12 beta releases. I don’t know if that’s what they mean by getting it right by just doing more beta tests, but it seems like it’s pretty good.
Andy Munoz:
Yeah, Serena their page is a darker landing page because right now, it’s focused still on the keynote. When you go there that’s the first thing, this big news and it’s talking about the farms and giving you the option to watch the keynote.
Jeff Thompson:
With Mojave coming out with a dark theme-
Serena Gilbert:
I think they might’ve just called it dark mode or something like that. It’s not night mode because the Night Shift is something different, it takes the blues out.
Jeff Thompson:
You being low vision, that’s probably something that you would probably check out right away.
Andy Munoz:
Not necessarily. I mean, I’m pretty simple with what I do. I pretty much will just jump straight to invert colors and usually that handles everything that I need.
Jeff Thompson:
And you’re using the Mac.
Andy Munoz:
If I’m using the Mac, I would jump to invert colors and use zoom. It’s what I would go to.
Jeff Thompson:
It’d be interesting because with my vision and stuff, I think I might just turn it to dark mode so it’s not bright.
Serena Gilbert:
I just think it’ll look prettier.
Jeff Thompson:
Well of course, there you go.
Serena Gilbert:
Well, I’d imagine it’d probably save some battery life to.
Jeff Thompson:
Actually, I think the colors don’t matter because it just sends a code. Whether it’s sending a cold for white or for black, that’s like when people put it on there. When you go to your screen curtain on your phone, it’s still using just as much energy.
Serena Gilbert:
Not on the iPhone X though. On the iPhone X when you use that smart invert feature, they have done some testing last year when the phones came out that it can save significant battery life because of the way OLED screens work. Because when something is black, it’s not actually lighting up a pixel, it’s just … I don’t know the technology for it. I’m no scientist, but it does save the battery life on the iPhone X. It might be something specifically with the OLED screens.
Andy Munoz:
Yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
Hey Andy, can we have a moment of silence for the silencing of the X? The X’s going away. I think we should just have a moment of silence.
Serena Gilbert:
Nobody cares. It is different though, they’ve never done that before. Normally they keep that one that was out last year and drop it $100. That was interesting.
Andy Munoz:
You know, what’s surprising to me on that is just, that was the next big thing because going back to last year’s keynote, if it hadn’t been for that, for the iPhone X, that would’ve been a wasted year for Apple. Because again, yes the 8 had a faster processor chip, that like this year, there really wasn’t anything different between the 8 and the 7 other than wireless charging. Even that in and of itself, that wouldn’t have been enough for me to upgrade. I’m really surprised though that that was their blockbuster last year, that it’s just already gone.
Jeff Thompson:
I have a question for you guys. Why do you think the R is coming out so much later than the other two?
Serena Gilbert:
I think there’s a couple of reasons. On their website it says that the XR, and then also the Apple Watch Series 4 are technically not approved by the FCC yet. But, I also think it might be this new Liquid Retina display, maybe the manufacturing’s delayed on it, and then … I said two reasons, but now have a third. I’m sitting here thinking about it. I think that they’re trying to mimic, you remember how the iPhone X last year didn’t come out until I think it was like November 2nd?
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Serena Gilbert:
So, this iPhone XR will be available October 26th essentially. I think they’re trying to also have another second round of sales closer to when people maybe have upgraded last year.
Andy Munoz:
I think part of it for me is, it’s a holiday push. Let’s face it, the XS and the S Max, they’re going to be some pretty costly phones. You’re going to have some people that get them, but I think in the way of getting something that’s new and has that same processing chip, I think you’re going to see a lot of those for the holidays. Apple wants their brand to be under the Christmas tree.
Serena Gilbert:
That would explain the new colors as well because a lot of those colors, especially the super bright ones appeal more to maybe something you’d buy like your teenage kids for Christmas, so that makes sense.
Jeff Thompson:
Have any of you ever seen a clear case or have a clear case so it would show the colors? I heard that they are out there.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, I have a clear case. I always buy the clear ones. The ones I always buyer by Luv, L-U-V I believe is how you pronounce it. They’re never very expensive and they’re pretty durable.
Andy Munoz:
That’s when she keeps it on the phone.
Serena Gilbert:
Hey, I did not drop it down the toilet I’m happy to report because I know on our last episode I’m like, “Oh, I’ll probably have dropped it again,” and I’ve kept the case on it since that incident in the laundry room. But yes, I always get the clear ones because I, a dork and I do like how the iPhones look.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great. I’m glad they do have clear ones because that makes more sense for having so many colors. This is the most colors I’ve ever seen them come up with, so they’re making a big push for it. I was thinking that it was delayed because you’re going to have a big brush for that price factor and that they might be coming out with a wireless charging pad eventually. But there was no mention of that, so it’s just one of those things.
Jeff Thompson:
I heard that because they acquired the company that actually, I think it’s or something like that a year ago, that they were having troubles with them overheating. You don’t hear all that news about that stuff, but interesting. I like the idea that FedEx, UPS and all the delivery places will get a little break between the surge of the first two phones and then the third one coming out.
Serena Gilbert:
Well gosh, I read an article that said that Apple is about to ship their two billionth iPhone.
Andy Munoz:
They actually said that in the keynote.
Serena Gilbert:
Just let that sink in for a minute, two billionth iPhone. I’ve personally have like four or five but still, that’s a lot of phones.
Jeff Thompson:
I actually think it’s a new form of currency. I’m over here, we’re using the pound compared to the dollar and I just made a purchase with three iPhones. It does now register in other countries. Over here, a lot of people are shocked a little bit. They’re doing the math, thinking about it and stuff, it’s like, “Wow!” This is England. Chee Chau from Malaysia was saying that a price of the new phone is two month’s wages.
Andy Munoz:
That’s crazy.
Serena Gilbert:
God, that’s a lot of money when you put it in that perspective, holy cow.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, and other people in the United States who were saying, “You’re talking about two month’s rent.”
Serena Gilbert:
Well, that was the jokes last year. Twitter was so funny last year when people were getting their iPhone X’s. They were like, “Since I had to sell my house to buy my iPhone X, I wonder what shipping address I should put.”
Jeff Thompson:
That’s a good one. I like that one.
Serena Gilbert:
But if you think about it, if you really maxed out on, no pun intended, on the iPhone XS Max, $1,499. That’s a mortgage, it’s mortgage payment, a very expensive mortgage payment.
Jeff Thompson:
It is, it is and where’s it going? We don’t know, but it sure is fun. I think it’s a great place to be in, in this Apple orchard of things. And like I said, I listened it to their AirPods, I had my iPhone there listening to it in a different country, everything was working fine.
Andy Munoz:
You can’t beat that.
Jeff Thompson:
I can’t complain. Well, Serena?
Serena Gilbert:
Well, Jeff?
Jeff Thompson:
Andy, it’s been great talking to you from all the way across the pond. I’m on my way back next week. I’m getting on a train tomorrow and traveling. It’s kind of neat over here. This hotel here actually has a lot of people who are visually impaired. It used to be a vision hotel, so it’s really great conversation. They don’t seem as hype about the Apple event as we are. You’re probably happy you’re not here Serena.
Serena Gilbert:
I don’t know what’s wrong with those people over there. Well, I have enjoyed chatting with you guys about this latest Apple event. I hope this leads to our annual tradition of, you know of course, the most wonderful time of the year, at least we’d like to think so. Andy, thanks for joining us once again.
Andy Munoz:
Absolutely.
Serena Gilbert:
Jeff, it’s always nice speaking with you.
Jeff Thompson:
Thank you Serena, it was great.
Serena Gilbert:
We hope to chat with you next time on Tech Abilities. Talk to you later.
Speaker 1:
We introduced the Apple Watch Series 4, we showed you the new iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR. We hope that you love these new products.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter at Blind Abilities. Download our app from the App Store, Blind Abilities. That’s two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.