The Apple March “Let Us Loop You In” Media Event has officially started, and the team already divulged a slew of important information. Considering you’re a very important person (yeah, we know you), we’ve broken down the highlights so you don’t waste your time sitting through the entire stream.
Apple’s online stores around the world are currently down in advance of the event.
Apple March Event 2016:
Apple March Event 2016 Live Stream: How to Watch Online
9:20am: Media and guests are getting registered and taking advantage of Apple’s food and drink selections.
9:40am: Media are now being let into the Town Hall auditorium.
10:01am: Tim Cook is on stage.
We’re getting a textual history of Apple products to a happy beat.
“Normally we don’t spend a lot of time looking back, but yes we are about to celebrate Apple’s 40th birthday on April 1st.” – Tim Cook
Cook is going to talk about encryption. — “We need to decide, as a nation, how much power the government should have over our data and our privacy.” “We owe it to our customers and we owe it to our country… We will not shrink from this responsibility.”
Cook invites Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, on stage. “Our goal is to become 100% renewable in 100% of our operations worldwide. That’s all of our offices. All of our retail stores. And every single one of our data centers.”
Currently, 93% of Apple facilities run on renewable energy. 21 countries around the world using 100% renewable energy.
Apple is also trying to use less paper in its packaging. 99 percent of the paper in its boxes is either recycled or comes from “sustainably managed forests.”
Tim’s back on stage. He is going to talk about health next.
CareKit – it’s a new thing for health data for Apple. CareKit will be available in April. It will also be open source.
There is a new CareKit app for Parkinson’s disease. A bunch of institutions are going to use it with patients to help them individualize their treatments. eg. to track the effectiveness of the drugs or exercise regimen they’re on.
Tim Cook back on stage.
Up next: Apple Watch
It’s the best selling smartwatch in the world, Cook says.
“About a third of our Apple Watch wearers regularly change the bands.”
New woven nylon band and new color for sport and leather bands, and a space-black Milanese loop.
New Apple Watch price: $299.
Up next: Apple TV
5,000 apps on the App Store for Apple TV.
Siri can search more apps than it used to.
Folders are coming the Apple TV interface. Dictation, including user names and passwords.
Update available now.
Up next: iPhone SE
iPhone SE: Full Story, Must-See Features, Photos & Video
“We’re welcoming a new member to the iPhone family.”
As powerful as the iPhone 6S.
It has a 64 bit A9 processor and the M9 motion coprocessor.
It looks almost EXACTLY like an iPhone 5.
New iPhone SE Camera: 12-megapixel, 4K video and can capture live photos too.
iPhone SE orders begin March 24. Shipping March 31. 110 countries by end of May. Starting at $399 for 16GB model.
Up next: iOS
iOS runs on 80 percent of active iOS devices.
New iOS 9.3 feature: Night Shift can remove the blue from your display so it “may help you sleep better.”
You can now password-protect certain notes in the notes app.
Apple is adding “top stories” to Apple News.
9.3 update comes today.
Up next: iPad Pro
iPad Pro: Full Story, Must-See Features, Photos & Video
“We took a giant step” toward the “future of computing” last Fall, Cook says.
9.7 inch display, weights one pound.
There are over one million iPad apps now.
It’s 40 percent less reflective than an iPad Air 2 and 25% brighter than an iPad Air 2. And more colors and better color saturation.
Four speakers. A9X processor.
True Tone Display – measures the color temperature to the ambient light and adjusts the screen to match.
Supports Apple Pencil and has a custom-sized Smart Keyboard.
As a side, iPad Pro, looks very similar to iPad Air 2. Same bezels.
iPad Pro Camera: 12-megapixel. Looks like it’s the same as on the iPhone SE. 4K video, etc etc.
Four metal finishes. Rose Gold is an option.
iPad Pro Pricing: iPad Pro 9.7 . 32gb $599. 128GB is $749. 256GB, $899.
iPad Pro Release Date: Pre-orders March 24. Available March 31.
That’s all folks. Sound off in the comments below. What did you think of the announcements.