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APPLE HAS UNVEILED three new iPhones in a bid to bolster its spot in the premium smartphone market, along with an upgraded smartwatch that takes electrocardiograms and detects falls.
The California tech giant said it would begin selling its 5.8-inch iPhone XS and 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max later this month, keeping the starting price of the company’s top-end model at $999 (€859) but increasing the entry price for the version with the larger screen.
Apple also announced a new iPhone XR starting at $749 (€644), available in October, with a 6.1-inch display to broaden its pool of buyers.
The phones are updates to last year’s iPhone X (“10″), which marks the 10th anniversary of the smartphone — stretching the screen while keeping the overall handset size at or near that of previous models.
“I think Apple did extremely well here,” GlobalData analyst Avi Greengart said after checking out the new offerings at the unveiling at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California yesterday.
“Overall, this is going to be a very good year for Apple.”
The analyst expected the line-up to be a hit, pushing up the average selling price of Apple smartphones.
The new iPhones have more powerful processors and cameras, and a dual-SIM card feature for top-of-the-line devices. Home buttons were replaced with screen swipes, taps and facial recognition capabilities.
“We are going to take iPhone X to the next level,” chief executive Tim Cook said.
While the iPhone has made Apple the world’s most valuable company, worth more than $1 trillion (€860 billion), it has slipped to third place among smartphone makers as Chinese-based Huawei has grabbed the number two spot behind Samsung.
Analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy said Apple had done enough “to keep its smartphone growth going until the competition responds”.
Apple said the XS models would be sold from 21 September and the XR from 26 October.
New smartwatch features
Apple also introduced a fourth generation of the Apple Watch with a major redesign — and a series of features designed to improve its performance as a medical and health device.
The watch, sold in the United States from $399 (€343) and up, will be available in stores on 21 September.
“Apple Watch has become an intelligent guardian for your health,” chief operating officer Jeff Williams said.
The smartwatches are able to detect hard falls, and an electrical heart rate sensor can take an electrocardiogram.
“This is the first ECG product offered over the counter directly to consumers,” Williams said.
Now you can take an ECG any time, anywhere, right from the wrist.
The fall detection upgrade is expected to appeal to worker safety concerns in factories or other industrial settings, as well as to elderly or disabled users.
“Identifying a fall may sound like a straightforward problem, but it requires a lot of data analysis,” Williams said.
If a person falls, and then is motionless, the watch will call emergency services, he added.
Moorhead said the health features for the new devices were notable. “I can see kids buying one for their parents and grandparents,” he said of the smartwatch.
“I believe Series 4 will sell better than all previous models.”
The current version of Apple Watch is the most popular watch in the world, according to Cook.
Apple stressed its devotion to data privacy, saying all health information gathered is encrypted on the smartwatch to be shared only as users see fit.
‘Crossroads’
Research firm CB Insights said Apple is at a “crossroads” a decade after introducing the iPhone.
“Looking for the next wave, Apple is clearly expanding into augmented reality and wearables with the Apple Watch and AirPods wireless headphones,” the firm said.
But the next ‘big one’ — a success and growth driver on the scale of the iPhone — has not yet been determined. Will it be augmented reality, auto, wearables? Or something else entirely?
Apple’s event comes with the global smartphone market at near-peak saturation, and without a major catalyst for sales ahead of a likely rollout of 5G, or fifth generation, wireless networks, expected in 2019.
Research firm IDC expects worldwide smartphone shipments to decline 0.7% in 2018 to 1.455 billion units, with growth likely to resume as 5G devices become available.
Cook said Apple was nearing the two-billion mark for devices with its mobile operating system known as iOS.
“We are about to hit a major milestone. We are about to ship our two billionth iOS device,” he said.
“This is astonishing — iOS has changed the way we live.”
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Why is there no video footage from the front line???
@John Fahy: there is actually a half decent Instagram page called “realnewsnobullshit” with front line footage uploaded daily.
@John Fahy: There is, but you can imagine there won’t be much of it. Some people aren’t stupid enough to stand out holding their phones up when bombs are dropping. They have more important things on their minds.
@John Fahy: Go on to reddit and you’ll see plenty on r/combatfootage but if you want Russian footage then download Telegram and find a group called ‘Intel Slava Z’. There’s so much footage out there and it’s easy to find. I don’t understand why people can’t grasp the concept that a war is happening.
@John Fahy: because war is brutal and footage from it can be quite distressing and disturbing to watch..its not like the movies..if you want to see footage you can easily find it on the likes of twitter and reddit among other sites..however most news agencies won’t be showing any footage for obvious reasons
@John Fahy:
They’re not letting many journalists near the front, not sure if it’s to keep moral high among the people or that there’s too high a risk of journos getting killed or a bit of both. I’m in Dnipro now and it’s very difficult to go anywhere east from here
@John Fahy: go on Telegram. Plenty of videos.
@Dave Walsh: is that not the job of journalists and news crews? I grew up during the Vietnam war and there was video footage on the news every day. Something is very suspicious here
@John Fahy:
The war here is very different to Vietnam for journalists, Russia are pounding and destroying everything in front of them with artillery with better range than the Ukrainians and moving forward, artillery is blind, particularly Russian artillery
@John Fahy: I believe that the Ukrainian Army asked people to stop sharing videos of their attacks on line as it exposed and revealed their positions. Since I read that somewhere (some time ago) I have noticed a significant reduction in videos – it may or may not be the reason – but it makes sense. Still I am surprised by the lack of footage myself.
@Calvin James: Technology exists today to put unmanned cameras in place that transmit footage to a remote location.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh:
This is also true, I got rumbled taking a photo of a mural and had to wait to get questioned by secret police, they informed me that a Turkish ship was docked and took footage of missiles being fired, he shared it and it made MSM in Turkey, Russia destroyed the facility an hour later. As I also explained earlier in the thread it’s an artillery war, you’d be an absolute idiot to be within 15km of the front line with the way the war is being fought
@John Fahy:
Such technology would give away Ukrainian positions
@John Fahy: you will find all you want on VK
@John Fahy: it’s called IPsec
@John Fahy: Goodman John, why don’t you do a bit of freelancing to satisfy your suspicions…
Of course, Ukraine’s future is part of the EU. Well the western part anyway as it’ll likely be absorbed into Poland. The southern and eastern will be unlikely to join as they’ll be part of Russia which probably won’t get EU status anytime soon.
@Seán: wrong Ukraine will get all of its territory back.
@shligo boyzz: You are living in an alternative world if you really believe that the m.upp.et zelensky will get the territory back,they’re part of russia now, and THEY are not going to give them up as easily as zelensky did.
@Darren Murphy: youre a m0ron if you think ukraine is giving up anything easily
@Rian Lynch: I can’t wait till all the pro Russian heads on this app are proved wrong.
@shligo boyzz: Like they took back Crimea? They’re retreating from the Donbass currently so exactly when are they going to start this massive counter-offensive? Winter is coming and that means gas bills, Western governments are going to start caring about their own citizens protesting the cost of living crisis and kicking them out of power and less about delivering arms and defeating Russia. That means the west suing for peace, putting an end to the Ukraine crisis and normalizing ties with Russia to some degree.
@Seán: the big counter offensive has started in the south with Kherson that’s more important than anything in the east atm I’m only a armchair general but Russia is weakening they focused 4 fronts into 1 in the east and all they can get is a tiny bit of land. And I’m in no way underestimating Russia they may be stupid but have a numerically advantage in man and equipment. It will be though but I think eventuality get back the pre feb 24th borders and god knows what will happen after that.
@Seán: who said Crimea is lost. There is already several ukrainian offenses on all though there seems to be no real effort going on to push on with them. Russia has run out of guided weapons and is using inaccurate weapons systems like artillery. They are still making very little progress with some Russian forces turning on their commanders in the dombass region. To say Russia has this won is well wide of the mark. They could win it but on current form it looks like Russian military forces in the east of Ukraine are being destroyed slowly. An analyst I listened to yesterday claimed that the Ukrainian forces are in a position to force Russian forces out of many areas but seem to be holding off. He’s unsure why but thinks the Ukrainians are trying to destroy Russia forces. These places the
@Allora: Russians are gaining are not valuable in relation to military strategic positions. They appear to be political assets. Severodonetsk is a city divided in 2 by a river. It appears the Russians are entering the city to be destroyed by the Ukrainians. Its another stalingrad for Russia.
@Darren Murphy: why are you calling zelensky a muppet? most rational people think he is one of the greatest leaders a country has ever seen. If you’re simply pro-russia and the war, then fair enough, i get it.
@Darren Murphy: Not sure how fighting for 100 days against a massive assault can be stated as “giving them up easily”
@Darren Murphy: No critic of Putin ? … how odd
The Ukrainians are doing fantastic work; holding the invaders back whilst grinding them into the ground to allow the Kherson offensive to get underway.
Russia is finished, thankfully.
@Stephen O’Neill: which Ukrainians are doing fantastic work…… the Nationalists or the Republicans…. if only Zelenskyy had kept his election promises…if only…… none of this would have happened.
@Fergus Quinlan: which election promises ?
@Fergus Quinlan: Which election promise?
Because he didnt make overtures to NATO until AFTER the Russian troop buildup along their border.
NATO military assistance has been ongoing since 2014. Well before Zelensky was elected.
The commies are awake I see
@Fergus Quinlan: Ah Fergus, the man that used an article on the slaughter of 21 kids in Uvalde to push his anti Ukraine/pro Russian agenda (that took some doing I’ll give ya that) ….. a true humanitarian
Every week Zelenski sounds more and more like Comical Ali. “We are beating them back”, “They are losing so many men they cannot continue”, “We are holding our ground and will not retreat”
have your say