Devices

A Smartwatch, iPhone 6 and More: Highlights and Analysis From Apple’s Keynote

Apple on Tuesday announced two new versions of the iPhone, the 6 and the 6 Plus, both with bigger screens than their predecessors. It also introduced a payments system that integrates with its smartphones.

With a nod to the late Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief, Timothy D. Cook, also teased the crowd that one more thing would be coming.

Company executives then announced Apple Watch, a wearable device, which is its first new product under Mr. Cook’s leadership.

See below for highlights and analysis from Apple’s presentation.

3:00 P.M. Cook Wraps Up Event

And Mr. Cook ends the event in a manner that has quickly become familiar: by showing a video.

So that is a wrap. New phones, new payment system, new smartwatch from Apple. Nothing totally unexpected.

What remains unknown, though, is whether these new devices, especially the watch, and the payment service will take off among consumers. No company has yet had a big hit with a smartwatch, and company after company has stumbled with mobile payments.

— Molly Wood

2:59 P.M. Cook Turns to Music and U2

“Now,” says Mr. Cook,” there’s one other thing I would like to talk about, and that is our love for music.”

Mr. Cook says Apple changed how people listen to music a decade ago, with iTunes at the center of that experience. He says an iTunes Festival is happening in London, and a complete band setup is rolling out behind him as he speaks. He says Apple has a deep relationship with the music industry and its artists, and introduces the band U2, which starts to perform on stage. Loudly.

After the performance, Bono of U2 tells Mr. Cook that the band was releasing a new album, called “Songs of Innocence,” and says he wants to get it to as many people as possible.

After some more banter between Bono and Mr. Cook, Mr. Cook announces that Apple was giving the album free to all users of iTunes, the company’s music service.

— Molly Wood

2:43 P.M. Charging Details and Pricing for Apple Watch

Tim Cook is back out to recap the watch and its capabilities. He says there is “so much more” that there isn’t time to cover. He says he uses his to control his TV, and says another employee uses it as a camera viewfinder, while others use it like a walkie-talkie.

He says developers will add “things we can’t even imagine yet.” This means that Apple is betting that developers will create the so-called killer app for a smartwatch, while Apple will provide the interface and usability. It seems like a smart strategy — don’t answer the question of “why” you want the device, just make people want it.

Mr. Cook says that the watch is charged with a wireless charger, attached via magnet. But he gives no word on battery life.

The watch will cost $349, which is expensive compared with other smartwatches, including $100 more than the Moto 360.

Mr. Cook says the watch will be available “early next year.”

Mr. Cook now says Apple Pay will also work with Apple Watch. But he doesn’t say what that means: Does it have an NFC chip? A fingerprint sensor? No details on how that would actually work.

He is recapping the announcements and saying iOS 8 is finding its way into people’s lives with HomeKit, HealthKit and CarPlay, and now Apple Watch.

“It will redefine what people expect from a watch,” he says.

— Molly Wood

2:42 P.M. Cook Turns to Health and Fitness

Tim Cook returns to the stage to talk about health and fitness. “This is a very important area for me and a very important area for Apple,” he says.

Mr. Cook says Apple Watch can help you “live a better day” whether you’re a serious athlete or just want to be more active. There’s a Fitness app and a Workout app, both from Apple. The Workout app lets you set specific goals for activities like cycling or running.

And then a video begins, showing how it all comes together. The goal, the video says, is to help you sit less, move more and get some exercise. A Movement ring measures the calories you burn, and is customized to you. You close it when you hit your calorie goal. The Exercise ring calculates any activity at the level of a brisk walk or above. Close the ring when you hit your 30 minutes of exercise per day — a widely recommended amount. A third ring, called the Stand ring, measures how often you stand up versus sitting.

There’s also a dedicated workout app that provides more detailed measurement. You select your workout and set a goal like time, distance or calories burned. During the workout you can see your progress and elapsed time, and then see a summary of the session when you’re done exercising.

— Molly Wood

2:36 P.M. Tools for Developers

Mr. Lynch says Apple has also been working to let third-party developers create apps for the watch.

He says notifications can just show up, like a friend request from Facebook, which looks very simple. But, he says, developers can extend that even further with WatchKit.

By building apps for the phone, for example, American Airlines will let you check in and track bags; Starwood will let you check into a hotel and even unlock your hotel room door by waving your watch in front of the door. That will be available at all W hotels around the world in the spring, Mr. Lynch says. Other apps add various features: BMW will show you where you parked or how much charge is left in your electric vehicle; Major League Baseball shows scores; Lutron apps show lighting; the Nike app lets you challenge your friends.

— Molly Wood

2:30 P.M. Heartbeats on the Watch

2:30 P.M. More Apple Watch Features Shown

You can see your photo library on the watch, as well; use the crown to zoom in or out of the photo library. Any favorite photos on your phone or Mac will show up on the watch by default.

Mr. Lynch treads into slightly more dangerous territory now: showing off Apple Maps on the watch. You can use the crown to rotate in or out, pan across the map, and press and hold to bring up a search command that can find things by dictation, favorites or recent searches.

If it’s a business, you can view the hours, a phone number and either walking or driving directions. That’s actually nice — the ability to start mapping right on the watch. And the watch will give physical feedback on either the right or left side to show which way to turn — a neat touch.

Mr. Lynch is demonstrating the watch’s ability to deliver live communication. With favorite contacts, you can set up tap codes; let’s say, a triple tap for lunch. It’s basically a visual or tapped version of instant messaging. It’s quite cute, but maybe not as useful as some other things we’ve seen, although I can imagine it being fun to communicate that way — kind of like a modern emoji.

He says it’s “a new form of communication, digital touch.”

— Molly Wood

2:28 P.M. Demonstration of Apple Watch

Tim Cook says, “We’ve been working on Apple Watch for a long time.” He invites Kevin Lynch, a vice president at Apple, to give “the very first demo of Apple Watch.” Mr. Lynch was previously the chief technology officer at Adobe.

Mr. Lynch is demonstrating how you can pan over apps to choose a specific one or use the crown to zoom in or out of the app collection, and how you can customize watch faces with a “force touch” — what is commonly known as a long press.

You can choose a specific watch face or change the color details or functionality of the face — for instance, change part of the display to show calendar information, weather or stocks.

Mr. Lynch demonstrates how the controls on the watch can control playback on your phone. The customization features seem to be the only truly new feature, other than the navigation. Then again, navigation is extremely important.

When you feel a notification come in, you can raise your wrist to see what it is, instead of having it pop up intrusively over the watch face, which is what happens on the Moto 360 with Android Wear. You can, of course, accept, decline or respond to meeting invitations, and you can reply to invitations with quick responses or emoticons or by using your voice to dictate a response.

You can, in an unexpected feature, actually customize a smiley face.

Siri is built into Apple Watch. To get access to it, you press the digital crown and ask questions. Results appear on the watch screen, and you can scroll them with either the crown or your finger.

— Molly Wood

2:22 P.M. Jony Ive Narrates Video of Apple Watch

Jony Ive, Apple’s top designer, narrates a video about the watch.

He says the watch senses that you’re raising your wrist and activates the display. The home screen is a series of bubbles that represent various apps.

“We’ve developed a whole new interface specific to the challenges of a device this small,” he says, and then shows some Siri functionality, smart replies, dictation and call answering, as well as weather, traffic and activity details.

A button below the crown shows pictures of contacts; and there’s a way to share information between watches, like sketches and heartbeat information.

As in some other smartwatches now available, the watch vibrates when you take a photo or when someone’s calling you. The back of the device has lenses that detect pulse rate, and the watch has other sensors, like an accelerometer, meant to give a picture of daily activity.

The device is charged by snapping a charger onto the back.

The video makes it clear that the watch is about personalization — customized watch faces with the ability to add specific capabilities to the interface, six different straps and a way to interchange them that doesn’t involve tiny screwdrivers — as well as durability and interface. But so far, it doesn’t add much in terms of functionality that we haven’t seen in other smartwatches. So the question will be whether the style, comfort and usability are enough of a reason for large numbers of people to buy the device.

There are watch bands ranging from sport bands to classic leather and metal bands, as well as bracelet-style straps with magnetic closures. And the watch comes in two sizes — the smaller one includes matching, smaller straps.

There are three editions: Apple Watch, in stainless steel, is shown with a wide array of bands. Apple Watch Sport is sturdier and made of anodized aluminum. And Apple Watch Edition is made with 18-carat gold that Apple says is up to twice as hard as standard gold.

It’s unclear whether each edition is available in two sizes. But there are a variety of designs, including all the watch bands; it’s really an entire line of smartwatches, instead of just one device.

Mr. Ive says the technology is “warm and truly personal,” and there’s even a new, sketch-looking Apple logo at the end of the video.

2:23 P.M. Apple’s Chance to Makes Its Watch a Hit

2:15 P.M. More Details on Apple Watch

“Because you wear it, we invented new, intimate ways to connect and communicate,” Mr. Cook says about the watch.

He said it was designed to be “a comprehensive health and fitness device” and includes some truly remarkable innovations.

“What we didn’t do was take the iPhone and shrink the user interface and strap it on your wrist,” he said.

Users navigate on the watch by using a dial on the side of the watch, which Apple is calling a crown. Turning the physical dial can zoom in and out on the screen or allow for scrolling. When you press the crown, the watch returns to the home screen.

“We thought not only of the function, but of the way it looked,” he says. The watch will come in multiple colors and bands, but all of the faces are square.

So, will people embrace square watches as a style statement, if this watch turns out to be the best of the bunch? Because the only jarring element of this introduction so far is that square watches simply aren’t as attractive as round watches, or at least haven’t traditionally been seen that way.

— Molly Wood

2:09 P.M. Design at Apple

“Apple has an amazing and rich design story,” Mr. Cook said at Tuesday’s presentation. It’s known for its simplicity, its austerity, an ethic that is passed on to all of its employees.

Teachers in the company’s internal training program sometimes point to a collection of Picasso lithographs to exemplify how to distill objects to their essence.

Read more on Apple’s internal training program, and how Picasso helps to teach the company’s style:

2:00 P.M. Cook Introduces the Apple Watch

Photo

Tim Cook is back on stage. “We’re not quite finished yet,” he says. “We have one more thing.”

This is the first “one more thing” sighting in years. The crowd is going crazy, and Mr. Cook is waving at the rafters.

He says Apple loves to make new products and do things that customers couldn’t imagine. “We’ve been working incredibly hard and for a long time on an entirely new product.”

“And we believe this product will redefine what people expect from its category.”

A video starts, and there it is: a watch.

“Apple Watch” is the most personal device we’ve ever created,” Mr. Cook says.

— Molly Wood

2:00 P.M. Cook Introduces Apple Pay, a Mobile Payment Service

Mr. Cook says he is now introducing an “entirely new category of service. And it’s all about the wallet.”

“Our vision is to replace this,” he says, showing a picture of a stuffed wallet.

“We’re going to start by focusing on payments.”

He says there are $12 billion in daily transactions in the United States every day, 200 million of them.

He says credit cards are a “fairly antiquated payment process.” Then there is a video of a woman digging through her purse for a large wallet, handing over a credit card, being asked for ID, having the ID slowly scanned, swiping the card, having it not work the first time, and then finally signing and leaving with her package. It’s exaggerated, for humorous effect, obviously.

Mr. Cook says we’re dependent on these exposed numbers and the outdated magnetic stripe, and security codes, “which all of us know aren’t so secure.”

Mr. Cook says that lots of people have worked on payments, but they have focused on their own self-interest.

“We love this kind of problem,” he says. “We’ve created an entirely new payment process and we’ve called it Apple Pay.”

It’s based on near-field communications, a widely adopted technology, and a video shows a woman simply holding her phone to a wireless tap-and-pay terminal.

It’s clear that the fingerprint sensor on the phone is what enables the payment.

Eddy Cue, a senior vice president, says Apple Pay is built into every iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and uses NFC, “the standard for all contactless payments.”

“You also have the security and convenience of TouchID,” he said, referring to the fingerprint sensor. All credit cards can be stored in Passbook, a software feature on the phones.

Privacy is also paramount, Mr. Cue says. “We are not in the business of collecting your data.”

Apple doesn’t know what you bought, where you bought it or how much you paid for it, he says. And the cashier can’t see your name, credit card number or security card

“It’s fast, it’s secure, and it’s private,” Mr. Cue says.

He confirms that American Express, MasterCard and Visa have signed up as partners. Users can pay at 220,000 locations that currently have NFC and Apple has teamed up with some of the world’s largest retailers and restaurants, like Macy’s and McDonald’s.

1:58 P.M. Answering Your Questions

1:55 P.M. With New iPhones, Increasingly All-in-One Devices

1:49 P.M. Apple May Be Introducing ApplePay at the Right Time

1:41 P.M. Pricing and Release Date of New iPhones

And finally, pricing details.

The iPhone 6 starts at $199 and goes to $299 and $399. The $299 model is now 64 gigabytes instead of 32, and the $399 model now has 128 gigabytes of storage built in, which is a big jump. The previous maximum was 64.

The iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 with a two-year contract for 16 gigabytes, and is $399 for 64 gigabytes and $499 for 128 gigabytes.

It’s odd that the devices start at a baseline of 16 gigabytes of storage instead of 32 gigabytes. Why start so low?

The devices are available Sept. 19, and can be preordered Sept. 12.

“The team is working hard to make this the fastest rollout ever,” Mr. Schiller says.

And that’s it for iPhones. That was a whirlwind iPhone announcement, which suggests how important they consider the second part of this presentation to be.

Tim Cook has returned to the stage.

— Molly Wood

1:37 P.M. Video Capabilities of New iPhones

Mr. Schiller moves on to discuss video by showing a photo of a now-obsolete camcorder.

With iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the video capabilities are also improved, he says. He says the new devices record high-definition 1080p video at either 30 or 60 frames per second. (The iPhone 5S was 30.)

The phones can both take better slow-motion videos as well, and there is a feature called cinematic video stabilization, for taking smooth video when you’re in motion.

And with iOS 8, there is also time-lapse video built in. Instagram recently introduced a stand-alone app called Hyperlapse that does this, but it now may be obsolete.

The phones have a new FaceTime HD camera as well — this is the front-facing camera. It can do better exposures. There’s no word on the resolution of the front-facing camera, so maybe we can assume it’s unchanged.

— Molly Wood

1:36 P.M. iPhone Details on Wireless Speeds and Cameras

Mr. Schiller keeps the details coming about the new iPhones.

The iPhone 6 has a barometer sensor, he says, that can track elevation. He says Nike is working on a new app that will track your elevation.

The speeds for wireless are faster, too, he says, and it should work in more places.

In addition, Apple has built in Voice over LTE in both models, which is a huge step toward delivering HD calling

There will be support for Voice over LTE or VoLTE in both models. The phone also features faster Wi-Fi. And the phones now support making calls over Wi-Fi, which lets you use your home or work network for making calls and then hands it off to LTE or cellular networks when you leave that location.

Then Mr. Schiller moved on to discussing the camera.

It has a new iSight camera, he says. It’s eight megapixels and has an all-new sensor.

So, the megapixels don’t change, but Apple is promoting “phase-detection autofocus” for faster focusing in photo-taking.

Apple has long produced amazing cameras using better sensor technology instead of high megapixel counts. For example, some competing cameras have 13 megapixels, but the results simply aren’t as good.

There is a difference between the cameras: The iPhone 6 has what is called digital image stabilization, but the iPhone 6 Plus has optical image stabilization, which is a better focusing technology that reduces shake and blur.

Samsung just announced that this technology is built into the Galaxy Note 4 as well. It helps with low-light photos in particular.

— Molly Wood

1:29 P.M. Details About Battery Life in New iPhones

Mr. Schiller says Apple has worked hard to make the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have equal or better battery life in every metric than the iPhone 5S, the last new phone from the company. He said the iPhone 6 battery will withstand 50 hours of audio, 11 of video, 11 of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours of LTE browsing, 10 of 3G browsing or 14 hours of 3G talk. The Plus hours are slightly longer in some cases, he says.

Frankly, that is not wildly impressive battery life. It is impressive given the size of the screens, but most people get less battery out of their iPhones than Apple claims.

— Molly Wood

1:28 P.M. How Computing Has Changed

1:25 More Details on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

Phil Schiller, a senior vice president at Apple, starts to tick off new features of the phones. The devices have higher-resolution screens than Apple’s previous phones, and both are thinner even though they have bigger screens.

Mr. Schiller showed horizontal views and how users can get dedicated keys for cut, copy and paste and a new horizontal home screen display.

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“We’re doing everything possible to take advantage of these huge displays,” he said.

He says Apple introduced new features in iOS 8, the company’s latest version of its mobile operating system, designed to take advantage of the displays and make it easier to use the devices one-handed, like swiping left and right through apps. He also shows apps like CNN’s that take advantage of the new screen.

Mr. Schiller says that the chip in the new phones is smaller but more powerful and efficient. It will be interesting to see if he transitions to talk about battery life, because that has been a major complaint about previous iPhone models, and bigger screens draw a lot more power.

He demonstrates the power of the chip by showing a game called Vainglory.

— Molly Wood

Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Mr. Cook is dispensing with the usual long introductory updates on sales figures and stores, “other than to say, everything is great.”

He jumps straight to the iPhone.

“Today,” he says, “we are launching the biggest advancement in the history of iPhone.”

The lights go down and a video starts showing the new phone, which has a silvery-black color along the sides and very rounded edges and corners. The video shows two new phones, one noticeably larger than the other.

The new phones are called the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. The 6 is 4.7 inches and the Plus is 5.5 inches. Both are bigger than previous versions of the phone.

— Molly Wood

1:01 The Event Begins and Tim Cook Takes the Stage

The event has started with a video showing a stream of words, acknowledging the company’s legacy of not necessarily being first, but of being different and often better.

“Here’s to those who have always seen things differently,” the words read. “The ones who follow a vision, not a path.”

“Where others perceive first as valuable, you value the first thing that actually matters. While others are distracted by the new, you focus on the significance of a whole new take.”

Tim Cook, the company’s chief executive, has now taken the stage to extremely loud applause.

— Molly Wood

12:43 P.M. Gathering for the Main Event

Apple events always tend to draw the attention of the tech industry, but this one in particular seems to have all eyes focused on what the company will reveal today.

12:28 P.M. Celebrity Appearances

11:45 A.M. History of Mobile Payments: Unfulfilled Promise

The new iPhones and a wearable device, widely referred to as the iWatch, that Apple is expected to announce will include hardware and software supporting a technology called near-field communication, or NFC. The technology allows devices to exchange information wirelessly over very short distances. Proponents of NFC say it could make paying for things easier. When you pay for something at one of these terminals, you tap or wave your phone in front of it, enter a PIN, and you’re done.

At the moment, the two major mobile payment systems that use NFC are Google Wallet and Isis — a mobile wallet backed by three major American phone carriers, which was recently renamed Softcard. Neither has managed to catch on.

The research firm Gartner estimated that worldwide, people spent $235.4 billion through mobile payments in 2013, compared with $163.1 billion in 2012. That number is much smaller in North America, where consumers spent about $37 billion through mobile transactions in 2013, up from $24 billion the year before.

In April, we examined the lackluster mobile payments industry:

It remains to be seen whether Apple’s moving more aggressively into mobile payments will significantly change the habits of consumers.

Apple has teamed up with American Express, MasterCard and Visa to support the payment system, according to people involved in the partnerships. Having the major credit card companies on its side, Apple may be able to muscle in the adoption of mobile payments. With the deal, these people said, iPhone owners will be able to use their devices as a sort of digital wallet, improving their ability to pay for items at select partner merchants without handing over cash or a credit card.

— The New York Times

11:30 A.M. Looking Back at the First iPhone

7:58 A.M. The World’s Rush to Big Phones

In smartphone land, the trend is clear: bigger is better. IDC, a research firm, predicts that manufacturers this year will ship more “phablets,” or smartphones with screens measuring at least 5.5 diagonal inches, than laptops. And the firm estimated that one in five smartphones shipped last year in China, the largest smartphone market in the world, were five inches or larger.

Still, even though its competitors like Samsung have introduced bigger phones, Apple has stuck with smaller devices. Until today, when it is expected to release bigger phones.

Why the push to the big screens?

Like it or not, our phones are at the center of our connected lives, and larger screens can help us do more — especially those people who don’t want multiple devices. A phone is always connected and more portable than a tablet. The phone is already the device you’re using for texting, taking pictures and browsing the web. Why not a bigger screen for watching videos and reading email and doing other things that you used to do on a computer?

— The New York Times

7:57 A.M. Behind New Gadgets Sits a Battery

While many people fixate on screen sizes and software updates when new devices come out, developments in some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of a phone or tablet’s performance can make a huge difference in how we use it. Apple, for example, has for a number of years been trying to build a better battery, one that could pull energy from the air or power itself through television, cellular or Wi-Fi signals. It remains unclear what new power technology will be included in the devices announced on Tuesday, or whether it will have any significant effect on how they can be used.

— The New York Times

7:57 A.M. Tim Cook Takes Apple in a New Direction

If Apple announces a new smartwatch on Tuesday, as is widely expected, the product will be the first brand-new device released under Tim Cook’s stewardship of Apple. The last time the company released an entirely new category was four years ago with the iPad, under Steven P. Jobs. As with the so-called iWatch, in early 2010, many wondered if the iPad could be as successful as the iPhone, which helped define the current smartphone market.

In our coverage then, we noted that Mr. Jobs, Apple’s late visionary, saw it as the best kind of device for the way we used smaller computing devices then, including for reading e-books, a not-too-subtle jab at Amazon’s Kindle. From our article on Jan. 27, 2010:

“The iPad ‘is so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone with its gorgeous screen,’ he said in presenting the device to a crowd of journalists and Apple employees here. ‘It’s phenomenal to hold the Internet in your hands.’ ”

One question Apple faced then — as it does now — is whether there is enough room for another device in the cluttered lives of consumers. David Carr, writing before the iPad was announced, suggested that adoption came down to a matter of utility.

He went on to add:

“There hasn’t been this much hype about a tablet since Moses came down from the mountain, but in order for a product to have significant value, it has to solve a problem or be very useful, or both.”

Utility is a main reason that critics of wearables have remained bearish about their ability to succeed. They seem, to many, to be solutions to problems that don’t quite exist.

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Saturday, October 4, 2014