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It’s That Big
Apple Special Event 「Gather round.」

In the Gather Round event, Apple introduced a few products that are as big as described in the rumours. The first one was the new Apple Watch Series 4. The watch faces have been increased from 38mm and 42mm to 40mm and 44mm respectively, with a more flexible watch face design for user to customer the interface according to personal preferences. The re-engineered crown now features haptic feedback, while the speaker is 50% louder for better audio quality. The dual-core 64-bit S4 chip delivers twice the performance and the updated accelerometer and gyroscope functionality are even more accurate with a new, useful feature. The watch is able to detect that the user has fallen and an emergency call can be easily initiated. If the user remains unresponsive after 60 seconds, the emergency call will be connected automatically. Apple Watch Series 4 is also the first wearable device offering ECG (electrocardiogram) function and user only has to put his finger on the crown for 30 seconds to obtain a reading, which could be a useful reference for the next doctor’s appointment. The watch is available in space gray, silver and gold, with the stainless steel version also offered in a gold shade, all with GPS and 4G options. The watch is open for pre-order on 14 September and delivery begins on the 21 September.

 

Up next were iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, both derived from iPhone X with familiar features such as fullscreen design, glass back, stainless steel band, dual-camera and more, and the difference is mainly on the size. XS looks more similar to X, while XS Max is fitted with the 6.5” Super Retina OLED – the biggest screen on an iPhone to date – for the best visual experience. In terms of specifications, the new XS and XS Max are more water- and dust-resistant with IP68. The A12 Bionic processor is brand new, the 12-megapixel dual camera supports the new “Smart HDR” feature and a more efficient TrueDepth system. Yet these all are just improvements, whereas the dual SIM support is something that people have been truly waiting for on an iPhone. Other than space gray and sliver, the new phones also come in gold and are available with capacity options of 64GB, 256GB and 512GB. Again pre-order starts on 14 September and shipping starts on 21 September.

Rumours had it that three iPhone models would be launched and Apple did bring us the iPhone XR. With a 6.1″ Liquid Retina display and more colour options including white, black, blue, yellow, coral and (PRODUCT) RED, most of the configurations are same as the XS series, with just slightly less advance water- and dust-resistant level at IP67. Pre-order for XR will be later on 19 October and delivery is on 26 October. The XR is available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB.