Yesterday evening in California the highly anticipated annual event, which is the big reveal of the new Apple products, went down and boy did they outdo themselves once again.
First up to be announced was the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. These will both feature an all glass design, which doesn’t sound like the best news for the more clumsy of iPhone users, but according to Apple the glass type used, named Gorilla Glass 5, is actually renowned for not breaking when dropped. The iPhone 8 also has no home button, with a swipe upwards now being how you access your main screen. There’s a usual camera pixel upgrade and also integrated is the ability for augmented reality meaning a lot more games like Pokemon Go will be for sure in development. Also worth mentioning is the two hours more battery life then the 7. All this as well as the ability for wireless charging does sounds pretty appealing.
However, whilst the iPhone 8 and 8 plus obviously look great, but the showstopper of the evening was the iPhone X, which is truly a major new step for Apple and for our iPhone addicted selves.
Just to set this straight, the iPhone X retails for £999, so it will be quite a while before most of the world own one. But the important thing here is the biggest new feature on the phone which is the facial recognition feature to unlock it. Long gone is the fingerprint access, it’s all about facial scanning to unlock, a development which has led to a whole world of meme’s on instagram on how people in relationships will be plotting to access their partner’s phones now. Awkwardly enough, Apple’s demonstration of the iPhone X facial scan flopped when they tried to show the audience how the feature worked at the event last night, although any problems are sure to be rectified by the time of its November release.
Also very important is the introduction of Animojis, which use facial recognition to make animal characters copy your actions as shown below.
The iPhone X also features the all glass design and top to bottom display, wireless charging and no home button alike the 8. Also previewed last night was the Apple Watch 3 which you can make calls from and use the internet with, all independently from an iPhone for the first time.
All in all the facial recognition feature on the iPhone x (pronounced iPhone 10 by the way if you hadn’t clocked the Latin) stole the evening, the phone in its entirety really is a major breakthrough in the world of smartphones, its tag line being “welcome to the future” which seems right enough. If you want to know when you can get your hands on one, the iPhone 8 ,8 plus and Apple Watch 3 are available to pre-order on September 15th for shipping on September 21st and the iPhone X can be pre-ordered on October 27th for shipping November 3rd.