On Tuesday, September 9 Apple aired a livestream to
announce their new products for the Keynote Event 2014
Recap Some of the Major Announcements at Apple’s Keynote 2014
There were ‘Technical Difficulties’ with the actual stream
Although I’ve been an Apple fan for many years, this was this first livestream that I’ve watched in it’s entirety. I was referring to Twitter feeds simultaneously because I was having a problem even receiving the feed. Apparently, according to others on Twitter, a similar problem occurred during the 2013 broadcast.
The Apple livestream began at 10:00am Pacific time, and it was streamed through their website to viewers with Apple devices. Initially the technological problems getting the stream going were substantial, and there was a lot of Twitter chatter regarding this. The most significant problems included choppy footage with a difficult to follow audio track because there was, what sounded like, a Chinese overlay running alongside the regular English audio.
As the stream progressed this eventually was eliminated, but when really significant news was announced later on (the Watch announcement) the stream became choppy and jumbled with various different segments interspersed among the regular broadcast.
The iPhone 6 and 6+ Were the First Big Announcements
The introduction to both new devices was the first major item on the agenda. Both new iPhones will gone on sale at Apple’s website on Friday September 12th. They will start sending them out on the 19th. This is also the date they will be available in retail stores.
One aspect that is huge news for Apple fans is the new, much larger storage size for both phones. Apple has listened and finally provided users with a much larger hard drive alternative …essentially doubling the amount of media you can store on you phone. 32GB’s was previously the largest size offered. The two new phones will come in a 128GB version!!!
iPhone 6
iPhone 6+
The Next Announcements Were About ios 8, Apps and Games
I’ll be writing more detail about ios 8 in a second post, and the games section was very choppy so I won’t discuss that here.
The Major Announcement was the iWatch, Officially Called Apple Watch
Rumors surrounding the iWatch have been prevalent for quite some time now. So it was exciting to see that the rumors were true and it will be coming to market in early 2015. The name, iWatch, is actually a misnomer, because Apple is calling it simply the ‘Watch’. I haven’t personally been all that excited for it, and didn’t really get why the massive amount of speculation continued for so long. Well, I’m thrilled to discover I was completely wrong…this watch is truly revolutionary and I want one!
What makes it so unique?
Well the fact that this announcement was actually the main feature of the event, and almost everything else was tied to it in one way or another should give you some clue. The integration of the ‘Watch’ to the Apple ecosystem is spectacular. It will be sort of the ‘missing link’ for many Apple users I think.
Some Watch Details
I made a YouTube a few YouTube videos, which were aren’t great technically, but give you a feel for what occurred.
Link to my YouTube video showing a large portion of the Apple Watch announcement
The Watch is promised to be available in early 2015. There are 3 collections, or categories for the new smartwatch and 2 case (watch face) sizes.
Watch Collection 18 models
Watch Sport Collection 10 models
Watch Edition Collection There are no photos of the Watch Edition but from the description given for Apple’s signature 18 karat gold collection there will be 5 models including, Midnight Blue, Black Sport, Rose Gray, White Sport, and Bright Red Modern.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO Invites U2 on
Stage to Perform a Song from Their New Album
One last exciting event of the livestream was Tim Cook’s inviting U2 to perform a song from their new album ‘Songs of Innocence’. Following their performance, banter ensued between the Apple exec and U2’s exec, leading to Apple’s decision to give away the entire new album for free to anyone who’s an iTunes user.
Link to their banter and instructions for downloading the new album
Overall, it was quite an exciting day for Apple and their huge fan base alike!
vsatips 