Apple's Education Event Impressions

Apple had quite a few announcements lined up for the education side of technology today. While we didn't get much on the consumer side, I can understand why a press release might not have done it justice. That being said, I'm not sure how much traction in schools Apple will gain from this. We have a refreshed iPad with Apple Pencil support and A10 Fusion Chip. It costs $299 for schools, and remains at $329 for educators. If you are eligible for Apple's Education Store discount (student, family, or staff of educational institution), this iPad will run $309 for 32 GB. Given the crazy price difference between the iPad and the iPad Pro, I'm fairly confident we will get an "iPhone X style" iPad this WWDC. I also found the Logitech Crayon interesting. A $49 stylus as an alternative to Apple Pencil. I like the naming convention. I'm looking forward to the Apple Space Pen. Aside from this, we got some software updates for iWork. All in all, this event has me more excited for WWDC if anything. The iPad refresh is nice. I actually prefer the 9.7" iPad to the 10.5" iPad. The bezels aren't as thin, which prevents a ton of accidental inputs (especially on video scrubbing). The keyboard is easier to type on for me as well. Just by going off of what we know about it, the new 9.7" iPad looks like a great tablet for the average consumer with excellent value.

iPhone X: First Impressions

The iPhone X was finally released today, and I got my hands on a demo at my local Apple Store. Looking at the picture below, you can see that compared to my iPhone 6s, the screen is way larger than that of my iPhone's, despite having a similar size. Having this extra screen space is an amazing luxury, especially with apps that take advantage of the display. I found this useful with the Calendar app, which gives you just enough extra space to see more of your day or week without scrolling. Both of these phones are at full brightness as well, but you probably see the iPhone X's OLED display shows some whiter whites. The gestures took minimal time for me to get used to, but I'm sure that's different for whoever you ask. The real kicker is the camera. The photo below was taken using an iPhone X, but this doesn't do it much justice. Having a camera this stellar in your pocket is truly amazing. The different lightings that can be taken in portrait mode gives a lot of power to the user when done right. There were no third party apps installed on the demo, so I can't say how many apps are optimized. I made an app in Xcode the other day and found some staggering differences as to how the iPhone X displays some storyboards, so hopefully no existing apps are ruined. This display has a lot of potential, and it gives me much more excitement as to what features Apple will do for this phone in the coming months or for next year's model.

The New MacBook Pro

Today, the new MacBook Pro was announced, and the wait was worth it. Before I go further, this post is an opinion post and not a recap, so I'd recommend watching the keynote or looking at the official site to learn more about the product.

We learned that what we thought was the Magic Toolbar is actually called the Touch Bar. I really like this in that it can be contextual and provide supplemental information, while still providing access to important system functions at anytime, like the mute button. The entire time, I needed to hear them say that developers would have access to this technology, and they did wait a while to say this, but they did. Meaning, this technology can be the gift that keeps on giving as long as developers choose to support it. I also was hoping that Final Cut Pro would be compatible with it on day one. It was. The fact that they even acknowledged Final Cut Pro was crucial. Final Cut Pro has not received an update on the Mac App Store since January of this year. Since discontinuing Aperture, I've had a lingering fear that Apple may soon discontinue all of their pro apps, but this update means that Final Cut (and hopefully Logic Pro) will continue to be supported. The final point I wanted to make was how Apple put emphasis on the "Pro" in MacBook Pro. It was designed to be a top-of-the-line professional computer. It's finally that again, after such a long time without an update. However, it's not for everyone. This Touch Bar is not for everyone. That's why they have the model without the Touch Bar. It's great for more moderate usage, but at a price point that more people can afford. In short, today's presentation wasn't for everyone, but for the people it was for, it was an important step for the MacBook.

iOS 10: First Impressions

Yesterday, I downloaded the golden master of iOS 10, which will likely be the same version of iOS that will be distributed to the public on September 13. When I first saw iOS 10, I was glad to see a feature-heavy major software upgrade to iOS, something we really needed after two years of performance enhancements. When I upgraded, I figured it'd be a decent upgrade, but nothing special. However, iOS 10 was a breath of fresh air for me. For the first time since around iOS 5 or iOS 6, I was pleased and excited by the new features.

The Good

By far, my favorite part of iOS 10 had to be iMessage. I texted a few of my friends who had installed the beta and tried sending some stickers and used some apps. It was a lot of fun for all of us. We shared YouTube videos and watched them without leaving the app, shared our favorite video game songs using Apple Music, and I even got to send some of my custom sticker packs I made in Xcode. Keep in mind, this is before the iMessage App Store has any apps on it, so consider that the icing on the cake when September 13 comes. 

I also liked Memories in the Photos app. It let me give my photos a nice place to be displayed. Each one had a different theme. I gave my trip to Arizona a complementing title font that made it look like a desert.

I'll get to the lock screen later, but I found that Apple may have given a bit of leeway to Touch ID. I found it to be more accepting when I misplaced my thumb, which is a change I'm fine with. Touch ID on my iPhone 6s was fast and accurate, but it was nit-picky if my finger was dirty, sweaty, or misplaced. I'm not expecting anyone with a near identical fingerprint to pick up my phone anytime soon.

The News app had a nice redesign that made me want to use it a lot more. First, I'm glad to see notifications to catch me up on important news I may have missed. I also like the small touch of adding the local weather to the top-right corner of the For You tab. In short, I've finally ditched Flipboard for this.

And because I know people have been asking for this, yes, you can delete built-in apps. Not all of them, but the non-essential ones. You can delete apps like Stocks, Home, Maps, Calendar, Notes, Apple Watch (thank goodness), and more.

The Bad

One of the issues that will plague everyone in iOS 10 will be getting used to what's new. If people didn't like the lock screen in iOS 7, they're gonna hate this lock screen. It's no longer slide to unlock, but instead tap the home button. I got used to this in about a day, but it was a little annoying. Touch ID (as I mentioned earlier) makes up for a lot of this, but if it doesn't work, it gets a bit annoying.

Again with getting used to changes, notifications are a bit wonky at first. I'm still getting used to them. Whether it's from the lock screen or a banner, they're hard to get used to.

This one affects very few people, however in the OS X version of the Photos app, if you tagged people's faces, they don't transfer over to iOS 10 (even though it worked with iOS 9). I'm not sure if this is because I haven't upgraded my computer to macOS Sierra, but it's annoying for sure.

The Pending

A lot of features haven't been available to beta testers. These features rely on apps that utilize APIs announced at WWDC. For example, CallKit doesn't work because apps that support CallKit haven't been released to anyone yet. SiriKit doesn't work either for the same reason. It's not good or bad. It's just the nature of a beta. These features only work if you're a developer. The only part of this I got to try was the custom sticker packs, which require a developer account. I am definitely looking forward to see what stickers, iMessage apps, and Siri commands we'll be able to use in iOS 10. 

iPhone 6s: Speed

With 2 GB of RAM and a better CPU, the iPhone 6s is the fastest iPhone to date. It works fast with iOS 9 and has a consistent fluid experience. One thing I notice about this is that Siri works much faster. I don't typically use Siri because I type faster than Siri dictates on my old iPhone, but I found that she has an immediate response and action ready for me almost instantly. This is useful for me when I need to send out a quick text. The speed of iPhone exemplifies how well software and hardware work together when they're designed together.

iPhone 6s: First Impressions

Today, I tried out an iPhone 6s at an Apple Store. Here are my first impressions. Compared to my iPad Air 2, the iPhone 6s is definitely twice as fast, if not more, than the iPad. 3D Touch is very comparable to Force Touch on the Apple Watch. It does a very light vibration when you do it. Live Photos is nice if you have the right situation. Not good for faster motion, as it only captures 15 fps for Live Photos. However, I found a really good Live Photo taken within the Apple Store (not even a demo picture), so there's a lot of potential. Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to do a more extensive review in the near future. 

First Impressions of iOS 9: Keyboard

A few weeks back, I installed iOS 9 on my dad's old iPhone 4S. While this iPhone isn't capable of everything iOS 9 has to offer, it does show us some new changes to the interface. For example, the keyboard shows lower case characters when in lowercase and vise versa. Also, the keys don't pop out. I find this disorientating, but I could get used to it. I hope they fix the popping key thing. Check out my screenshots below.