Apple’s event a few of mornings ago revealed a bunch of hardware including the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Pro and Apple TV, but along the way it has made software announcements too, software that run on these devices.
iOS 9
Having the most users, iOS 9 will be the first to roll out on September 16th in the US, or September 17th here. In fact, iOS 9 will be out for the rest of us who have supported iDevices, a little over a week before the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are even out in the US and 11 other markets.
Speaking of supported iDevices, iOS 9 will be available as a free upgrade for: iPad 2, iPad 3rd gen, iPad 4th gen, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPod touch 5th gen.
The exact time of day wasn’t specified, but following history, it should be out at around 10am Pacific Time, or 1am Malaysian Time on September 17th.
iOS 9 was first shown off during WWDC 2015 back in June. Besides new software tricks, the iOS 9 IPSW only requires 1.8GB of free space to be installed, around less than half of what iOS 8 requires. You can read more about its features from our earlier coverage here: http://www.techattack.my/wwdc-15-ios-9/.
OS X El Capitan
Mac OS X El Capitan, or technically labeled as OS X 10.11, is arriving on September 30th 2015, probably also at 10am Pacific Time, or 1am Malaysian Time on September 31st.
It was never actually announced during the event, but instead was dropped as an Easter Egg where it was part of a demo email message from Phil Schiller to Craig Federighi. The same release date can also be found on El Capitan’s Preview site.
OS X El Capitan was also first seen during WWDC 2015, and you can read more about it here: http://www.techattack.my/wwdc-15-mac-os-x-el-capitan/.
tvOS
The Apple TV was actually released before the first iPhone and its software updates has always been labeled as the unimaginative “Software Update”. With the all-new Apple TV now supporting an App Store and third party apps, Apple has decided to officially call its software tvOS. The tvOS is great and all, but unfortunately, it won’t be compatible with existing Apple TVs, and is only available with the new set-top box coming out later.
watchOS 2
The Apple Watch was just released in the US since April, and during WWDC 2015, it has announced watchOS 2 as a free software upgrade. During the Siri event a few days ago, the company has given us a few more updates.
Besides the support for third party complications and third party Time Travel, Apple has also added Transit directions to Apple Maps (not that it’s available here). There are currently 10,000 Watch apps available in the App Store.
On http://www.apple.com/my/watch/, it does say “Available 2015” so we’ll probably get the Apple Watch by the end of this year. By that time, it might as well just ship with watchOS 2, since this software update is coming together with iOS 9 on September 16th.
Apple Watch
Speaking of Apple Watch, it was touted to have a customer satisfaction of 97%. Apple also announced a partnership with Hermès to release three fancy Apple Watch straps that will arrive this October.
Here is where it gets slightly confusing. There were previously three Apple Watch variants — Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch (standard), and Apple Watch Edition — with the Sport variant having an anodized silver aluminum case, the standard one in stainless steel, and the Edition variant with only an 18-carat gold case option (they all come in two sizes though).
Now, in addition to Silver, Apple Watch Sport also has anodized Space Gray Aluminum, Rose Gold Aluminum, and Gold Aluminum cases, that come with a variety of sports bands. The standard Apple Watch now has a Product (RED) edition (only the band’s red; the case remains a stainless steel finish), and a Space Black Stainless Steel Case edition. Apple Watch Edition now comes with a real 18-Carat Rose Gold Case, besides the 18-Carat “Yellow” Gold Case it already had. And we’re not even going into the plethora of straps, bands, buckles, loops, and bracelets. The new models are already shipping in the US with the same pricing structure — from US$349 right up to US$17,000 or more.
New iCloud storage upgrades
If you’re still here, you might want to know about iCloud’s new pricing structure too. Here are the old prices from last year (September 10th 2014 until September 24th 2015):
- 5GB: Free
- 20GB: US$0.99/month
- 200GB: US$3.99/month
- 500GB: US$9.99/month
- 1TB: US$19.99/month
The new plans are believed to be available from September 25th 2015:
- 5GB: Free
- 50GB: US$0.99/month
- 200GB: US$2.99/month
- 1TB: US$9.99/month
The post Apple’s updates: iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, tvOS, watchOS 2, Watch cases and straps, iCloud upgrades appeared first on TechAttack.my.