Apple unveils watch that measures blood oxygen, new iPads and fitness service

The new iPhones will have to wait.

New iPad

10 years ago, Steve Jobs, a year before his death, unveiled a computer as thin as a pencil. It failed to surpass the iPhone in popularity and did not end the era of laptops, but it did become an iconic device with wide use and 500 million units sold.

Today Apple unveiled the 8th-generation 10.2-inch iPad with the A12 chip.

It is promised to run 40 percent faster than its predecessor, and its graphics will be twice as powerful.

Apple boasted that the new iPad will be twice as fast as Windows laptops (which ones?), three times faster than Android tablets (here you can believe it, there are no good Android tablets), and six times faster than Chromebooks (someone check).

Price: from $329, but for schoolchildren it will cost from $300.

It goes on sale this coming Friday.

iPad Air in a new design

This is a 10.9-inch tablet with the A14 chip — a 5-nanometer super processor.

The edges will be flat rather than rounded, like classic iPhones. iPads have never come in bright colors before, but now pink, green and sky blue will join the familiar white and gray. 

TouchID will be integrated into the top button, which does not look touch-sensitive at all. It will take some getting used to. 

Screen resolution 2360x1650. 7-megapixel front camera, 1080p for video calls. The rear camera has 12 megapixels and can shoot 4K video with stabilization.

The new iPad Air will support USB-C. This will allow connecting various devices, such as a camera, for fast data transfer.

It supports the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard.

Price: from $599.

On sale from next month.

Apple Watch Series 6

The sixth series will be released in four colors — blue, gold, gray and red aluminum cases. They will run on the new S6 processor.

The watch will be able to measure blood oxygen levels. It will work like this: red and infrared light turn on on the bottom of the watch, which rests against the wrist, and then algorithms calculate the O2 level based on the color of the blood. The process takes 15 seconds, but can run in the background.

Family Setup. The mode is designed to allow monitoring children or, for example, elderly relatives. Tracking movement and more.

Price: from $400

Tomorrow the new WatchOS 7 operating system is set to be released. In addition to features announced back in the summer, such as a handwashing timer, there will be a whole series of new watch faces for users to choose from.

There will also be a school time mode (so no one distracts during lessons). Owners of Apple watches without iPhones will also be able to send messages, but only if the watches support cellular networks.

Apple Watch SE

Apple did not disappoint expectations (more precisely, confirmed the leaks) and unveiled a budget version of the Apple Watch, with a name similar to the budget iPhones.

They include an accelerometer, heart rate monitor, gyroscope, motion sensor and fall detection. They can track sleep and are suitable for water workouts. Family Setup is also available.

They run on the S5 processor, twice as fast as the third series. 

Price: from $279

The Series 3 will remain on sale, but its price will drop to $200.

Apple Fitness+ service

The California company has come up with a new paid service — now for workouts. 

Price: $10 per month or $80 per year.

It will not only measure indicators during workouts and activities, which the Activities app on the watch currently does, but also offer video lessons on a wide variety of exercises (competition with Nike Training Club?). Yoga, dance, cycling and everything else.

Fitness+ will be widely available on devices — not only watches and iPhones, but also iPads and TVs (via the Apple TV set-top box). But the geography is not very broad at first: the service will launch only in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

Apple One bundle

It is a set of services (a so-called bundle) that will include: 

• Apple Music music streaming 
• Apple TV+ video streaming
  
• Arcade game subscription service
• iCloud storage of 50GB

Price: $15 — individual plan, $20 — family plan. 

It is unlikely to be available in Ukraine, because it offers no particular benefit. Here the first three services already cost $5 per month each, and 50GB on iCloud — $1 (total — $16). In the US and other wealthy countries it is a completely different story, because the music service costs $10 per month.

The Premier plan will cost $30. The four services listed above will be joined by:

• Apple News media aggregator
• Fitness+
  

Yevgeny Blazhko, TK Media