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Apple's 'Time Flies' event in September 2020: Everything announced
Today, there was an Apple event called “Time Flies.” At the event, the company launched several upgrades to two of its biggest products: the iPad and the Apple Watch.
In addition, the company also took the wraps off its long-rumored bundle service known as Apple One. There’s also a brand new service making its debut later this year.
Did you miss the live stream of the Apple event? Don’t worry! We’ve summarized everything below.
Apple Watch Series 6 and Watch SE
The next iteration of the Apple Watch doubles down on health-tracking features. New sensors in the smartwatch introduce blood-oxygen monitoring to the Apple Watch ecosystem. That means you can track your SpO2 levels throughout the day, which could alert you to serious health concerns early on.
Inside, the Apple Watch Series 6 is powered by the new S6 chipset. This is an optimized version of an iPhone chipset. Obviously, this will make the watch faster and more power-efficient.
On the outside, Apple is offering more watch faces for Series 6 and a new colorway: Product Red. This is the first time the Product Red color has made its way to an Apple Watch. There are also new watch bands called Solo Loop. They don’t have clasps or buckles with just one continuous loop that stretches around your wrist.
Apple Watch Series 6 starts at $399. It should be noted that it will not have a power adapter in the box, solidifying the likelihood that the iPhone 12 series will also lack adapters.
Finally, there’s a brand new version of the watch: the Apple Watch SE. It features design elements of the Series 6 but only has an S5 chip and lacks some of the high-end health-tracking sensors, such as the SpO2 sensor. It starts at $279.
New at this Apple event: Fitness Plus
Apple’s new service Fitness Plus works with Apple Watch to enhance your workouts. Using your watch in tandem with your phone, TV, or computer, you can get instructions from trainers throughout various workouts.
As soon as you start the workout, the Apple Watch will automatically start tracking it. There are several popular workouts included, such as yoga, rowing, lifting, etc. Most instructional videos will only require you to have basic equipment, like dumbbells, or, in some cases, no equipment at all.
You can also select your soundtrack for your workouts through Apple Music. If you’re a subscriber to Apple Music, you can even save the playlists used in the Fitness Plus routine to listen to later.
Fitness Plus will cost $9.99 each month or $79.99 for an annual subscription. You can share the service with your family and it will be available by the end of the year. Fitness Plus will be free for three months for Apple Watch Series 6 buyers.
Apple One
Apple now has a bunch of paid services. Big-time Apple fans need to subscribe to each one individually, which can add up fast. Now, though, there’s a new option: Apple One. The all-in-one subscription bundles several Apple services together for a relatively low price.
The first package is for individuals. This iteration of Apple One will offer Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage for $14.95 each month.
The second package is for families. For $19.95 each month, up to six family members can enjoy the same services in the individual package, albeit with 200GB of iCloud storage instead of just 50GB.
Finally, the third package is called Premier. With this package, you get Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple News Plus, the just-announced Apple Fitness Plus, and 2TB of iCloud storage. This costs $29.95 each month and can also be shared with up to six family members.
iPad Air (10.9-inch)
The iPad Air gets a new update this year. It offers a larger 10.9-inch display within the same footprint as the previous iPad Air. Inside, the new A14 chipset (this is the first product with the new chip) makes the iPad even more powerful and energy-efficient.
There are also new colorways available, which you can see above. The Rose Gold, green, and blue colors are brand new, joining the usual black and gray colorways.
Most interestingly, though, the new iPad Air does away with the Lightning connector. In its place is a standard USB-C port. We’ve already seen this on the iPad Pro, but it’s nice to see that Apple is (very) slowly doing away with the Lightning system.
The new iPad Air will start at $599. It will become available in October and ship with iPad OS 14.
iPad 8th Generation (10.2-inch)
At today’s Apple event, the company updated its most popular iPad series, the basic iPad. Now in its eighth generation, the classic iPad is faster, more powerful, and more energy-efficient, all while keeping the old-school design that iPad users already know and understand.
Other than some internal upgrades, the iPad isn’t much different than previous iPads. Of course, it will receive longer upgrades of iPad OS and work better with future Apple accessories. It will also ship with iPad OS 14.
The latest iPad starts at $329 and will be available starting September 18.
Apple event closer: Software
Earlier this year, Apple unveiled the newest iterations of the various operating systems that power its products. Although the company didn’t announce any new updates for those platforms today, it did reveal that the stable rollout of the latest iterations begins tomorrow.
That means iOS 14, iPad OS 14, WatchOS 7, etc. will begin to hit eligible Apple products on September 16. Also, all the new products announced today will ship with the latest versions out-of-the-box.
That’s it for this Apple event! Stay tuned as the latest batch of iPhones will likely launch in October and could be joined by brand new Apple hardware products.