New Technology

Within the last week Apple has announced various new products they intend to sell in the near future. Apple has been known for pushing the boundaries of technology since the creation of the company, but will their new products continue to do so? On September 9, 2015 they announced their new line-up which includes their revamped iPad, new iPhones, and a new Apple TV.

The new iPad Pro is a revolutionary new tablet that is bigger than ever before with a 12.9 inch screen. It will nearly double the computing power of Apple's current iPad Air 2. It will come to the shelves accompanied by the Apple Pencil and a keyboard attachment (seems similar to the MS Surface to me). This product will be available for purchase in November of 2015.

Apple is bringing two new phones to the market as well with the iPhone6S and iPhone6+S. These phones are faster than the already available iPhone6. They will have better main cameras and front cameras. They will be able to record video in 4k. But these are not the most important qualities to note. The phones are introducing a new touch technology called 3D Touch. This means that the phones will be able to detect different amounts of pressure. This opens the door for much more functionality. Already available for pre-purchase, these products will be available on September 25th.

The new Apple TV will be shipped out with its own operating system called tvOS. This will allow non-Apple developers to create apps for the Apple TV. It will come with full voice control through the use of Siri and a touchpad remote control. The release date is still unannounced.

Now that we know what the products are, let’s look at how “revolutionary” they actually are. Like I said above the iPad Pro is very similar to a Microsoft product that is already available. It does make some improvements over the MS Surface, but there doesn’t seem to be anything truly revolutionary here. Even when you include the accessories that the iPad Pro will come with, it doesn’t seem like anything that has not been done before. The new iPhones are, again, basically just improvements on Apple’s old products. “But Nick, what about that revolutionary new 3D Touch technology?” Bleh. Before companies (including Apple) mastered touch screen technology, a touch screen relied upon pressure. It was like a big button. This 3D Touch is nothing that hasn’t been done before, but I bet that it will be the best that it’s been done. And as far as the implications of what can be done with it, I really don’t see a huge point to having it.

So Apple has brought us some major evolutions in their own technology, but nothing that is truly revolutionary. In the mean time we wait for this revolutionary technology to emerge, and when it does we will look around the classroom and it will be in everyone’s hands. And then the quest for new technology will start over again, and the new stuff will become dated.

Here is a link to a recording of the event that Apple had on September 9th.