Apple Watch Series 3 now with cellular is my favorite from today’s new tech

For many years now, I’ve made Apple Events a scheduled interruption to my workday. To make sure I had time for today’s, I was up in my office and clocked in before five. Now, fresh off viewing the show, here are my quick takes.

My pre-event Twitter feed was filled with attendees’ impressions of Apple Park and the new Steve Jobs Theater. John Gruber posted this shot, and as his first commenter mentioned, Apple’s new campus looks like a scene from Arrival:

This year is the 10th anniversary of the iPhone and the first event ever held in the new Steve Jobs Theater, so Apple opened with some audio clips from Steve Jobs along with a tribute video. After that it was time to introduce their new products:

  • Apple Watch Series 3 now has cellular. You can use it to make and receive calls without your iPhone, and it uses the same number as your phone. The cellular capability also means you’ve got access to 40 million songs on your wrist. As John Gruber said:

    “40 million songs on your wrist” makes “1000 songs in your pocket” seem like a long time ago. [@gruber]

  • Within the next month or so, Apple will be launching their Apple Heart Study. Utilizing the heart rate sensor on Apple Watch, Apple Heart will warn you when your heart rate is dangerously elevated, and it will even be able to detect arrhythmias.
  • The new Apple TV 4K will bring cinema quality moving pictures to your new 4K TV.
  • AR (Augmented Reality) Kit for iPhone is going to enable a whole new universe of gaming and real-world applications.
  • If you love Portrait Mode, you’re going to love the new Portrait Lighting mode on iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. It will let you select the lighting on your subject both while you’re shooting and after you’ve taken the shot.
  • One more thing… Apple used their famous stinger tagline to good effect to introduce the new iPhone X (pronounced “ten”). It comes with a gorgeous Super Retina edge-to-edge display and a new technology called Face ID which you use to unlock your phone.

After the event was over, Tim Cook invited attendees to touch and see the new devices in the new demo area attached to Steve Jobs Theater. Once again, I turned to my Twitter feed to see what it looked like from the vantage of those who were there:

https://twitter.com/panzer/status/907679796812857344