The New iPad

It's becoming almost a tradition now. Anita's birthday followed by Apple announcement. A birthday present for her, followed by a present for me! And this year's announcement did not show anything unexpected although there are three things worth mentioning.

First, the new camera for the iPhone. On the new iPhone 6S, Apple finally caught up with the competitors in terms of photo resolution was concerned. I was never that bothered with megapixels, but to see the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge camera trumping the iPhone hinted that something need to be done.

The new snapper shipped with a 12MP sensor. But it wasn't just the size of the sensors, it's the technology behind it, the Apple secret sauce. Being an avid photographer, I value the mobility and simplicity of the smartphone camera very much. I have toiled with the latest iPhone and Samsung's offerings as well as the Lumia 940 as well as the BlackBerry Z10 which camera was often under appreciated.

So far, the Samsung was on top. Let's see how Apple upped its game.

The second, was the iPad Pro. I have always felt that eventually a desktop-sized tablet would be in the market. Samsung had the 10.9 inch tablet, so was the Nexus series. And there are plenty of use-case scenario, coupled with the dedicated stylus - sorry, Apple Pencil - it could prove very useful in my clinic and for photo editing.

The keyboard was also a welcomed addition as since I had been using a keyboard with my tablet, it had transformed my productivity. Especially useful for attending conference although I doubt that the iPad Pro is mobile. At least it has a built-in LTE chip.

Last point was Apple TV. I had been using it for the last 4 years using a US account. I used it to watch the latest miniseries as well as movies. The latest Apple TV looked at disrupting the console market with many games and a Wii-like controller making playing social games enjoyable. You can also use your iPhone and iPad Touch as controller as well to join in. This is going to be big as you could download games on line from the App Store with close integration with the rest of Apple ecology.

All in all, it was one of those announcements well worth staying up for. I was expecting a new Mac Mini, but the new Apple TV might just beat that. No new standard iPad to replace the Air 2. But Anita had already asked me to get her the new iPad Mini. But before that, let's see how much of an upgrade the new WatchOS was going to be. It would certainly opened up the real potential of the watch.

Updating

So, the iOS 8.2 update was out tonight. And with that, you would be able to connect the iPhone to the upcoming Apple Watch at the tap of a button. And no, I have yet to own the Watch.

Anita on the other hand had been fascinated by the gold MacBook. Looked slick according to her, until I pointed out that the connections in and out of the thing would be tricky and proprietary. But I supposed she only need the port for charging.

As for the update itself, it was rather a big one. Around 2.2GB on my Mac Pro. I used that instead to save time rather than over the air. Thankfully there was no glitch so far as I would be on call tomorrow.

Taking the Plunge

So, the iOS 8 had just been released to the masses this morning. The internet connection at Gombak House had been pretty sluggish, so I had to do the updating from the apartment. Luckily, this being a Thursday, I had some me time.

After I got my patients sorted out, had my breakfast, it was time to take the plunge. Off to the apartment.

The file size for the download was 1.1Gb for the iPhone and 1.3Gb for the iPad. On top of that, you would need around 6Gb of free space n the device for the upgrade. That meant that I had to delete some apps, as well as some unused files, podcasts and audiobooks. Easily done.

The download took less than 10 minutes, but the local parsing of the files on the device took around 20 minutes. Then the download was verified and you were asked if you wanted to update the device then. Of course the answer was yes. Another 15 minutes and I was greeted with the opening screen of the new OS.

Any noticeable difference? Not really. Everything looked very similar to the iOS7. I was bracing myself for some crashes, but hopefully new patches would be provided by the app developers to cope with the new upgrade ….

The Announcement

So, the alarm went off at 1 am, and I straight away jumped off the bed, hit the desktop and started opening the stream. Apple got their big announcement eh!

But the streaming connection was awful. I thought maybe it was the network. Got upstairs, flipped open my iPad and tried both wifi and LTE. Still the streaming was bad, and often connection stopped. On a couple of occasions, I got kicked out of Safari on the iPad.

And one more thing ....

Obviously too many people tuned in, and Apple just couldn't cope with that amount of people on at the same time.

Luckily the stream became steady just at the time Tim Cook announced the iPhone 6 - and obviously the 6 plus. Verdict? Definitely going to get one.

And then, the talk was about the Apple Pay, which I doubt going to hit our shores any time soon. I thought that was the end of that.

And then came the classic "one more thing" moment, a la Steve Jobs.

It was clear that Apple had invested great effort in their new class of products. As when the iPad was initially announced, there was a lot of skepticism. But the products needed to be experienced before one could make any conclusions. It looked promising, but judging from other wearables I have seen so far, it would require a leap of faith. And if any company were to implement such a thing, it could only be Apple.

It looked like I would be putting in an order for both the 6 plus and Apple Watch soon ....

And now, it was time to catch some sleep .... Good morning ....

You Little Teaser

As usual, I would check my email and clear the inbox first thing in the morning. Then came a quick browsing for any breaking news and the like. Then a quick look at Facebook and Flickr before shower. Since the Apple announcement would be tonight, I thought I just have a quick look on apple.com.

Oh you little teaser ...... iOS 8, new iPhone, wearables ...

Would definitely be up tonight watching the keynote. It would start at 1 am local time. Must make sure that the broadband was up to scratch ....