The Apple 2022 Fall iPhone Event Live Blog 10am PT (17:00 UTC)

12:56PM EDT - It's that time of the year again - Apple's fall iPhone event, where we expect the Cupertino company to unveil its newest generation family of iPhones - what should be the iPhone 14 series

12:57PM EDT - With Apple seemingly satisfied with its current industrial design as embodied by the iPhone 13 lineup, it will be interesting to see what the company does to iterate on its flagship phones this year – especially the high-end Pro designs. In which case, this year may be all about the guts, and what Apple does to update things like the cameras and displays

12:57PM EDT - Meanwhile, it's all but assured that Apple will introduce a new generation processor in the form of the A16. Apple's latest iterations of SoC silicon have been ground-breaking and industry leading, and we expect the new chip to once again push the envelope in performance and efficiency, as Apple is wont to do

12:58PM EDT - This year's event is also Apple's first in-person event since before the COVID pandemic began, so it will be interesting to see how this presentation unfolds

12:58PM EDT - In the absence of audiences, Apple has become a master of highly-produced, previously-recorded presentations that move at a blistering pace and include shots at lots of different locales

01:00PM EDT - In this case we're covering the event virtually (too many other things to do), but it'll be interesting to see if Apple walks things back for a live audience, or if the bulk of the presentation is still going to be pre-recorded

01:00PM EDT - Alright, here we go

01:01PM EDT - Pre-recorded it is

01:01PM EDT - Starting as always with Tim Cook

01:02PM EDT - Today Apple will be talking about three products: iPhone, Air Pods, Apple Watch

01:02PM EDT - Cook is starting by talking about the synergy between all of these products

01:03PM EDT - This is something only Apple can do

01:03PM EDT - First up: Apple Watch

01:04PM EDT - Now rolling a video talking about the virtues of the Apple Watch

01:04PM EDT - This appears to be a testamonial video

01:07PM EDT - And back to Tim

01:07PM EDT - "This year we're introducing our best Apple Watch lineup yet"

01:07PM EDT - And now over to Jeff Williams

01:07PM EDT - #1 smartwatch for 7 years running

01:07PM EDT - (Not that there's much in the way of serious competition)

01:08PM EDT - Introducing the Apple Watch Series 8

01:08PM EDT - Swim proof, dust proof, crack resistant

01:08PM EDT - Now to Deidre Caldbeck

01:09PM EDT - Fitness tracking, vitality sensors, connectivity, etc

01:09PM EDT - New feature: temperature sensor

01:10PM EDT - Apple is pitching it as a women's health feature for cycle tracking

01:10PM EDT - "Privacy is at the core"

01:10PM EDT - Two sensor design: one on the back-crystal near the skin, the other near the display

01:11PM EDT - 0.1C sensitivity, samples temperature every 5 minutes

01:12PM EDT - Automatic retroactive ovulation estimates

01:12PM EDT - Apple really is going all-in on this health thing

01:13PM EDT - Health app data uploaded to iCloud is end-to-end encrypted

01:13PM EDT - On to safety features

01:14PM EDT - New feature: crash detection

01:14PM EDT - Series 8 can detect a car crash and automatically call emergency services

01:14PM EDT - Two new motion sensors: improved 3-axis gyroscope, and a high G-force accelerometer

01:15PM EDT - And a new algorithm to detect crashes

01:15PM EDT - Also uses data from the barometer, mic, and GPS receiver

01:16PM EDT - Crash detection only runs while the user is driving

01:16PM EDT - New feature: low power mode

01:16PM EDT - Can reach up to 36 hours on a single full charge

01:16PM EDT - Disables features like the always-on display and automatic workout detection

01:17PM EDT - Available on Series 4 watches and later

01:17PM EDT - Meanwhile Series 8 cellular models will support international roaming

01:18PM EDT - Lots of new watch bands for this year as well

01:18PM EDT - And that's Apple Watch Series 8

01:19PM EDT - Starting at $399 for GPS, $499 for the cellular model

01:19PM EDT - Available September 16th

01:19PM EDT - Now rolling a promo video about the Watch

01:21PM EDT - Now on to Apple Watch SE

01:21PM EDT - Apple is releasing a new Apple Watch SE as well

01:21PM EDT - Completely redesigned the back case to be made of nylon composites

01:22PM EDT - The SE 2 includes the same motion sesnors as the Watch 8 - so it supports features like crash detection

01:22PM EDT - And it uses the same SoC as the Watch 8

01:23PM EDT - Apparently the SoC is being called the "SiP 8"

01:23PM EDT - Available September 16th

01:24PM EDT - $249 for the GPS mode, $299 for the cellular model

01:25PM EDT - Now running another promo video

01:25PM EDT - New model: Apple Watch Ultra

01:25PM EDT - New design that expands the ways to use the watch

01:26PM EDT - Most rugged watch yet

01:26PM EDT - 49mm titanium case to protect the watch

01:26PM EDT - And their brightest display yet

01:26PM EDT - New button: action button. It's orange

01:26PM EDT - Designed so that all of these buttons and the crown can be used with gloves

01:27PM EDT - And a second speaker to make the watch louder

01:27PM EDT - And cellular connectivity is a base feature

01:27PM EDT - Up to 36 hours of battery life on a single charge

01:27PM EDT - 60 hours in a "new battery optimization setting" that's coming this fall

01:27PM EDT - New watch face to go with Ultra: wayfinder

01:27PM EDT - Wayfinder also has a night mode

01:30PM EDT - At a high level, the Ultra is designed to be the ultimate sports watch, creaing a level of distinction between the basic watch models that are more focused on fitness tracking, and a more durable outdoor watch

01:31PM EDT - Adding a new feature later this year to automatically detect when you arrive at a running track

01:32PM EDT - The Ultra also has a built-in 86dB siren for emergencies

01:33PM EDT - Water resistance has been doubled to WR100

01:33PM EDT - Can even be used as a dive computer down to 40 meters

01:35PM EDT - Talking further about using it as a dive computer

01:36PM EDT - Oceanic+ app

01:36PM EDT - And that's Apple Watch Ultra

01:36PM EDT - Display goes up to 2000 nits

01:37PM EDT - $799, available September 23rd

01:37PM EDT - And now the obligatory promo video

01:40PM EDT - (That's still cheaper than the 18k gold Apple Watch Edition)

01:40PM EDT - And that's the Apple Watch lineup for the fall

01:40PM EDT - Now on to Air Pods

01:41PM EDT - "Most popular headphones in the world"

01:41PM EDT - Introducing the next generation of AirPods Pro

01:41PM EDT - Starting with a promo video

01:42PM EDT - New chip: H2

01:42PM EDT - "High bandwidth connectivity"

01:43PM EDT - And a new low distortion audio driver

01:43PM EDT - (I have no clue who these artists are. Man, I'm old)

01:43PM EDT - New feature: personalized spatial audio

01:44PM EDT - Apple is pulling an X-Fi Super by using ear mapping to tune the HRTF algorithms to produce a better outcome

01:44PM EDT - Noise cancelation performance has been doubled

01:45PM EDT - New extra small ear tip for the smallest ears

01:45PM EDT - "Adaptive transparency": reduces loud outside noises such as construction

01:46PM EDT - New feature: touch control to adjust the volume by swiping up and down

01:46PM EDT - Battery life is now up to 6 hours on a single charge

01:46PM EDT - And the charging case carries enough power for 4 full charges

01:47PM EDT - And the AirPods Pro case can now be tracked/located

01:47PM EDT - Apple has also put a speaker on the bottom of the case for location finding purposes

01:48PM EDT - $249

01:48PM EDT - Now back to Tim and for the main course of the morning: the iPhone

01:48PM EDT - Starting things off with a promo video for the new iPhone

01:49PM EDT - "Going big with iPhone 14, and even bigger with iPhone 14 Plus"

01:49PM EDT - 14: 6.1-inch. 14 Plus: 6.7-inch

01:50PM EDT - Talking up the virtues of a larger display

01:50PM EDT - iPhone 14 has an updated thermal design

01:50PM EDT - 1200 nits peak brightness on the OLED display

01:51PM EDT - Aluminum body, ceramic shield front glass

01:51PM EDT - "All day battery life" for the 14, and the "best battery life ever in an iPhone" for the 14 Plus

01:52PM EDT - Apple is reusing the A15 for the iPhone 14. No new SoC this year for these phones (Pro excluded)

01:52PM EDT - So the same 6 core CPU and 5 core GPU

01:52PM EDT - "Amazing new camera system"

01:53PM EDT - New Main camera: 12MP, 1.9 micron, f/1.5 aperature, larger sensor

01:54PM EDT - 49% improvement in low-light capture

01:54PM EDT - Night mode exposures are twice as fast

01:54PM EDT - Front-facing camera is new as well: 12MP with auto focus and true depth capabilities

01:55PM EDT - (The ultrawide camera has not been mentioned as being changed/improved at all)

01:56PM EDT - Apple is updating their image processing pipeline to apply deep fusion earlier in the process

01:56PM EDT - Apple is calling this enhanced image processing pipeline "photonic engine"

01:57PM EDT - New, more advanced stabilization mode for video

01:57PM EDT - "Action mode"

01:57PM EDT - Supports Dolby Vision HDR

01:57PM EDT - On to connectivity

01:58PM EDT - Talking up the virtues of eSIM

01:58PM EDT - Can store multiple eSIMs on a single phone

01:58PM EDT - (It's not clear if there's anything actually new here with eSIM support)

01:59PM EDT - Aha. All US iPhone models are doing away with the SIM tray entirely!

01:59PM EDT - So US iPhones are eSIM-only

01:59PM EDT - iPhone 14 is also getting crash detection

01:59PM EDT - Using a new gyroscope and accelerometer

02:00PM EDT - And Apple Watch and iPhone will work together for crash detection

02:00PM EDT - Rolling another promo video for a new connectivity feature

02:01PM EDT - The rumors have panned out: satellite connectivity

02:01PM EDT - "Emergency SOS via satellite"

02:02PM EDT - Talking about the challenges of connecting to satellites in LEO, as opposed to cellular towers which are much closer

02:02PM EDT - LEO satellites move. Very quickly.

02:02PM EDT - Built "custom components" to connect to satellites

02:03PM EDT - But the phone needs to be pointed at a satellite

02:03PM EDT - With the phone directing the user on how to keep the phone pointed at a satellite

02:04PM EDT - Using custom text compression to further reduce the amount of data transferred (data rates are, understandably, going to be incredibly low)

02:04PM EDT - As little as 15 seconds in the clear, longer if there are obstructions like foliage

02:05PM EDT - (Beam forming and phased array antennas are insane)

02:05PM EDT - 2 years of free service will be coming with the iPhone 14

02:05PM EDT - Service available in November

02:05PM EDT - No mention of whose satellite network Apple is using

02:06PM EDT - Now talking about iPhone recycling

02:07PM EDT - And that's iPhone 14

02:07PM EDT - Starting at $799 for the 14, $899 for the 14 Plus

02:07PM EDT - Pre-orders start September 9th

02:07PM EDT - 14 will be available on September 16th, 14 Plus on October 7th

02:08PM EDT - Now rolling an iPhone 14 promo video

02:08PM EDT - So same SoC and body as the 13, new cameras, satellite connectivity, and the sensors needed for crash detection

02:09PM EDT - And back to Tim

02:09PM EDT - Now on to the iPhone Pro models

02:10PM EDT - "Our most innovative Pro lineup yet"

02:10PM EDT - Rolling another promo video, this time for the Pro models

02:11PM EDT - Recapping basics of the Pro family

02:11PM EDT - New front screen design; the notch is gone

02:12PM EDT - In its place is a smaller pill box to hold the cameras and other front sensors

02:12PM EDT - "Dynamic island"

02:13PM EDT - Apple is using the pill box as design feature, placing information around it to hide that it's a dead area in the screen, making it look intentional

02:13PM EDT - And the dynamic island expands to provide more detailed controls

02:14PM EDT - Dynamic island "enables an entirely new iPhone experience"

02:15PM EDT - New display: peak HDR brightness of 1600 nits

02:15PM EDT - The same level as the ProDisplay XDR

02:15PM EDT - Peak outdoor brightness of 2000 nits

02:15PM EDT - 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch phones

02:15PM EDT - Introducing always-on display

02:16PM EDT - Essential information is always visible

02:16PM EDT - New display has a low-power model that can operate at as low as 1Hz

02:16PM EDT - Co-processors can refresh the display with minimal power

02:16PM EDT - And the display is of course dimmed to further minimize power consumption

02:16PM EDT - "New Super Retina XDR"

02:17PM EDT - New Apple A16 Bionic SoC

02:17PM EDT - Focusing on power efficiency, display, and camera

02:17PM EDT - 16B transistors, the largest number yet

02:17PM EDT - Built on a 4nm process (TSMC's, no doubt)

02:17PM EDT - 6 core CPU

02:18PM EDT - 2 high-perf cores, 4 high-eff cores

02:18PM EDT - High-perf cores are faster and use 20% less power than the A15

02:18PM EDT - Efficiency cores use "one-third the power of the competition"

02:18PM EDT - New 16 core neural engine, 17 trillion operations per second

02:18PM EDT - 5 core GPU

02:18PM EDT - 50% more memory bandwidth

02:18PM EDT - And the new display engine driving the always-on display

02:19PM EDT - Updated ISP as well to support Apple's latest cameras

02:19PM EDT - New camera: 48MP camera with a quad-pixel sensor

02:20PM EDT - 65% larger sensor than on the iPhone 13 Pro

02:20PM EDT - 100% focus pixels

02:20PM EDT - 2.44 micron pixel side

02:20PM EDT - New sensor groups every 4 pixels into one large quad pixel

02:20PM EDT - So oversampling, resulting in 12MP photos

02:21PM EDT - Now showing some examples of photos taken with the new camera

02:22PM EDT - New 2x telephoto camera as well

02:22PM EDT - 12MP, 1.22 micron pixel size

02:23PM EDT - Can now shoot ProRAW photos at 48MP resolution (using every pixel individually)

02:23PM EDT - New machine learning models to go with the changed pixel pattern

02:24PM EDT - New 12MP ultra wide camera. 1.4 micron pixels. 6 element lens

02:24PM EDT - Redesigned flash, using 9 LED array

02:25PM EDT - Up to twice as bright and 3x uniformity

02:25PM EDT - And improved low-light performance for all of the phone's camera due to image processing improvements

02:25PM EDT - "Our most powerful pro camera system ever"

02:26PM EDT - The 14 Pros also get action mode

02:26PM EDT - "All-day battery life"

02:27PM EDT - And that's iPhone 14 Pro

02:27PM EDT - Now rolling another promo video for the iPhone 14 Pro

02:31PM EDT - 14 Pro starts at $999, and 14 Pro Max at $1099

02:31PM EDT - Storage options up to 1TB

02:31PM EDT - Pre-orders start September 9th, available September 16th

02:32PM EDT - And back to Tim

02:32PM EDT - Tim's recapping today's announcements

02:33PM EDT - (RIP iPhone mini; small phones rock!)

02:34PM EDT - These products seamlessly work together "in a way only Apple can deliver"

02:34PM EDT - And that's a wrap! Thanks for joining us