September 7, 2022

So I watched the entire Apple Event while working today. Actually, I didn’t. I tried to, but we lost our Internet connection for about 15 minutes so I missed bits and pieces, but I was able to catch up. If you haven’t seen it, here it is on YouTube.

The iPhone 14 seems pretty incremental in the way of updates from the iPhone 13. The iPhone 14 Pro seems fun with the new ‘Dynamic Island” thing going on around the “pill” that replaces the “notch” at the top of the phone. I’m quite pleased with my iPhone 13 Pro and will not be upgrading this cycle.

One of the things that really struck me about today’s event was the awkwardness of one of the presenters. Ironically, the presenter talking about the awesomeness of the new AirPods Pro 2 had a very awkward cadence to her voice, with very unnatural arm movements, which was all tied together with this weird shouting thing she did. At first I thought she was talking as if the had her new AirPods Pro 2 noise cancellation activated, but I surmised that couldn’t be it. She just had absolutely zero charisma that one would expect of presenters at an Apple Event. I mean, these events are legendary, and there’s huge shoes to fill with these sort of things, so I imagine the pressure is on. But it was pre-recorded, there could have been multiple takes to get it right, and honestly, I could do better with the scant amount of radio performances under my belt from a couple of decades ago. Yes, I’m critical, but this Apple and I don’t want to feel awkward when being convinced to spend money I don’t need to spend. I eventually turned the volume down until she was done talking.

I have loaded the iOS 16 and Watch OS 9 release candidates on my iPhone and Apple Watch and I’m quite impressed with the new functionality in these new operating systems. It’s a shame they were barely mentioned in the event today; it feels like that’s where Apple is really shining this year.