New iPad Air now with more pro features
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
Finally, 5G is here and it will change the way we do tasks with faster download speeds and more bandwidth—both of which can be used to create new technologies and experiences. In the months leading up to the launch, major telecom companies showed commercials about the first 5G networks and the many things that you can do with them.
Last month, Samsung announced the next version of their flagship cellphone with the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G. A few weeks later, Google announced the next version of their flagship cellphone with the Google Pixel 4a; all this means that Apple is likely to announce their next version of the iPhone that includes 5G. Apple did an announcement on September 15—it was pre-taped and happened at their headquarters, just as their previous presentation was.
In the beginning, Tim Cook said that they were going to talk about the Apple Watch and the iPad—but it seemed like there could be a chance that he would do a “just one more thing” moment and announce the new iPhone. With a running time of at least an hour, most of the announcement focused on the next version of the Apple Watch which is called the Apple Watch Series 6. It has a new blood oxygen meter that can measure oxygen levels, a new strap that does not have a belt and buckle (making it look like a wristband), and allows you to put multiple watches in the same iPhone with family setup. It will be available in Canada later this year.
As the watch evolved, the addition of more features allowed users to check on their well-being accurately. Apple showed stories about the Apple Watch helping a lot of people and even saving lives. Another announcement is that the company will be net carbon neutral by 2030. This includes the Apple Watch now being recharged by renewable energy instead of a USB power adapter (and this could expand to the rest of their products). Midway through the announcement, they mentioned another add-on service to Apple Fitness+, their workout app (which competes with another fitness workout product called Peloton).
All of these exciting features are bundled in a new service called Apple One which has all of their other services including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and iCloud Drive in one bundle like Amazon Prime but without the shipping. Ten years after the original iPad was released, Apple has announced the next version of the iPad, which is basically only faster. Then they announced the next version of the iPad Air, which I thought was the regular version.
They incorporated features from the iPad Pro into the iPad Air, including a Liquid Retina display, a 4K camera, Touch ID in the power button, recharging the Apple Pencil in the side of the iPad, and even a USB-C cable instead of a lightning cable.
The announcement ended and they did not announce the next version of the iPhone. Maybe they were going to wait until Samsung did their announcement so that Apple could add more new features to the iPhone to show that they are more innovative. At least the iPad Air has more features that will allow everyone to create things like a pro.
