Just finished following live reports from the big Apple press juggernaut event. Here are the highlights, category by category so far (starting of course with the new Apple TV which we have all anticipated for days ... and since that just wrapped up; the final act will be the iPhone, which I will not cover here):I. APPLE TV
(i) HEADLINE STORY - "The Future of TV is Apps" (Tim Cook)
(ii) Siri -- Apple TV is heavily voice reliant - powerful (and highly specific) voice navigation via a Siri button, which enables navigation across apps (like Netflix, Hulu, Showtime ... even iTunes!) and displays all matches on one screen (intriguing that iTunes doesn't seemingly get any preferential treatment here -- but we need to see that to believe that); also enables easy and extremely powerful viewing control (e.g., "skip ahead 7 minutes into the show") -- if this works as advertised, this indeed will be evolutionary and revolutionary in our TV viewing experiences
(iii) New Remote -- pretty, as expected -- top half of which is touchable glass
(iv) Animated Screen Savers -- that's kind of cool, so that your TV becomes a living, breathing work of art (rather than dead screen) -- I have always wanted that (and it seemed so simple and obvious to do)
(v) Apple Music -- available (and likely featured), of course -- content matters! (Including Apple's own version of content services -- it doesn't just cede anything to anybody ... take note of that for the future on the streaming video side ...)
(vi) New OS -- called tvOS -- and, note, Eddy Cue calls out Hulu specifically as being an initial tvOS consumer "tinkering" with it (intriguing, eh, given my recent speculation about why it could make sense for Apple to buy Hulu to fast-track its own streaming video ambitions? NOTE -- Eddy did not point out any of the other major streaming video players when announcing this)
(vii) Games -- yes, games, as expected, are a headline, including multi-player gaming with the new remote plus another using their iPhone
(viii) Shopping -- features the Gilt app -- why ever leave your couch anymore? "Apple TV is the new shopping mall" (so says TechCrunch in its live coverage)
(ix) Pricing -- $149-$199 (32GB v. 64GB)
(x) Available October
(xi) NO Netflix "Killer" yet (as expected) ... but, stay tuned for the months ahead ... and don't forget the tantalizing Hulu possibility ...
II. IPAD
(i) iPad PRO -- the big news - an entirely new version (and all of the features below are related to the new PRO, which was the entire focus of the iPad show)
(ii) Microsoft? -- yes, 'tis true -- MSFT took the stage to demo the new Office for the Pro
(iii) Screen/Performance -- the biggest iPad screen by far -- 12.9"; and performance is fast fast fast (22X faster than the original iPad's CPU performance)
(iv) 4-speaker audio
(v) Stylus -- called the "Apple Pencil"
(vi) Health -- a demo about simulating surgeries
(vii) iPad PRO Price -- ranging from $799 (32GB) to $1,079 (128GB) -- "Apple Pencil" not included ($100 extra); the high end version is both wifi + cellular
III. APPLE WATCH -- Tim Cook started with this, because perhaps the least impressive:
(i) New Apps -- two of the most intriguing are: (a) GoPro app -- uses the watch as a view finder; and (b) Airstrip - new healthcare app -- enables reading of patient vital signs (including baby monitoring)
(ii) New styles/bands -- apparently Apple is especially proud of its new Hermes line -- so, a focus on fashion
(iii) New Watch OS2 -- available next week, 9/16