Apple’s iPhone X To Set You Back By $999 

Media leaks can really spoil the party, as was evident at Apple's keynote. All new announcements had been already leaked a few days ahead of the event. As it turned out, Apple had no surprises for us at all. Here are the key takeaways:

• A new flagship iPhone X was announced featuring an edge-to-edge display and facial recognition for security. And after the headphone jack, this time home was given a miss. The iPhone X starts at $999.

• Two new iPhones, the 8 and the 8 plus were announced. The design is nearly identical to the previous iPhone, but internals have been amped up. The new A11 bionic chip, which is also on the iPhone X, is 70 percent faster and can perform 600 billion operations in a second, Apple said, iPhone 8 starts at $699 while the iPhone 8 Plus starts at $799.
• Apple Watch series 3 was announced with increased focus on health and fitness tracking. The watch now supports LTE, has Siri, and can let you stream songs directly without having to carry an iPhone along. Starts at $399.
• Apple also hopped on to the wireless charging bandwagon. It announced Apple Power, which is essentially a wireless charging mat, for all Apple devices. However, it'll be available only from 2018.
• The Apple TV was upgraded and now will feature 4K and HDR. It can also double up as a gaming platform. Starts at $179

The Cupertino-California based company rechristened its retail stores as Apple Town Square, aiming to make them more airy and open to sunlight. The technology major also provided a sneak peek into their new campus, called the Apple Park. The event was the first at the Steve Jobs Theatre at the new ‘spaceship’ campus.

Interestingly, shares of Apple in the U.S. started to rise as Tim Cook announced the Apple Watch. However, they were trading lower by the end of the event. Investors unimpressed? So were we, but perhaps due to the leaks.

That's a wrap. Goodnight!

Apple shares are trading 0.8 percent lower now following their big reveal of the iPhone X.

Apple has finally unveiled the much rumoured iPhone X, with a 5.8 inch edge-to-edge display, without any bezels or borders. The phone will sport a 'Super Retina Display', which is basically an OLED screen.

It will have a tap-to-wake feature where you touch the screen to wake it up.

As rumoured, the home button has been given a miss. You will have to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go home. Swipe for multitasking, and a side button for Siri.

The iPhone X will have facial recognition that will replace the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The Face ID will learns who you are, works with glasses, works with hats, it even works with beards.

Apple said that there is a one in 50,000 chance that a random user could unlock your phone with TouchID. The chances with Face ID are 1 in 1 million. Face ID will also work with Apple Pay. Scans your face, and authorises payments.

Apple’s Craig Federighi tried unlocking the phone with his face and succeeded only in a second attempt. Oops!

The new A11 bionic chip has a neural engine which can perform 600 BILLION operations per second.

It features a 12 megapixels dual camera with larger, faster sensors and new colour filters. For the first time, both front and rear cameras will have optical image stablisation.

The iPhone X's battery will last two hours more than the iPhone 7.

Wireless charging is coming to Apple phones. The new iPhones will use the Qi open wireless standard. Many stores and cars have these charging hubs already built in.

Apple has announced its own wireless charging mat called AirPower which can charge all of its devices, including the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, AirPods, and Apple Watch. It will be available from 2018.

The newly announced iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 plus will have the same 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch screen as last year's iPhone 7 models.

They'll house the new A11 Bionic chip, which Apple claims is 70 percent faster than their previous A10 processor. The number of cores have been amped up to six from four earlier.

The new phones will feature Apple's first in-house graphics processor, which it claims is 30 percent faster. This is after it ended its relationship with Imagination Technologies last year, which used to build the earlier GPUs for Apple.

Camera will remain at 12 megapixels, but with a new sensor which is claimed to give better color reproduction and less noise in photos. The dual cameras on the Plus model are also upgraded.

Apple says iPhone 8 has the "highest quality of video capture ever in a smartphone". It will also have a new video encoder, allowing for faster frame rates and better quality.

The phones come in silver, space grey and a new gold finish. The front and the back will both have glass.

The new Apple TV now supports 4K and HDR streaming. Titles in 4K from Netflix and Amazon will be coming soon to Apple TV, along with "tons" of local services including live sports.

The live sports feature will be in the Apple TV app along with scores and timing overlays.

Apple has announced a new iteration of the Apple Watch. Tim Cook said that Apple has become the world's number one watch brand, eclipsing Rolex. It has seen a 50 percent growth year-on-year, Cook added.

Smart activity coaching, a redesigned workout app, new features for swimmers and gym kits mean that the Apple Watch will increasingly focus on health. Apple is also conducting a heart study along with Stanford, to improve arrhythmia (irregular heart beats) detection.

The Series 3 Apple Watch will have a dual core processor, nearly 70 percent faster than the existing editions. Siri will be able to talk through the Apple Watch. It will also have cellular connectivity, which means you could double it up as your phone. Streaming music on the watch has been made possible too.

The display of the watch will itself serve as an antenna for LTE connectivity.

The team which has designed Apple's new campus, called the Apple Park, has also designed larger retail stores which will now be called Apple Town Squares.

Apple has also refreshed its iconic store at the Fifth Avenue in New York, which was under renovation lately.

Tim Cook begins his opening address saying “It’s an honour of a lifetime to be the first to speak at the Steve Jobs theatre”.

In June 2007, Steve Jobs launched a device that would lay the foundation of the modern day smartphone and shape the future of Apple as a mobile phone manufacturing giant. “Today we are going to reinvent the phone”, Jobs said as he unveiled the first generation iPhone.

Just over 532 weeks later, the now CEO Tim Cook will take the stage for the first time in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple’s new campus, to perhaps redefine phones once again. Apple plans to unveil, not one, but three new smartphones, including a premium model codenamed iPhone X.

The new trio of iPhones’ most distinctive feature will probably be an edge-to-edge OLED display, with no bezels and no borders. And remember the solitary home button? Apple might give it a miss. Gone is the fingerprint scanner too, as the new iPhones may feature a 3D facial recognition scanner to unlock phones and authenticate payments.

The Cupertino-California based tech giant has already showcased its latest software offering, iOS 11, at the developers’ conference it held in June. The iOS 11 will have a file management app, a redesigned dock, better multitasking, user interface tweaks and wait for it...augmented reality!

A host of leaks and media reports gave much of what is in store for today's event. However, one might still hope for Apple to spring in a surprise.

Also Read: Apple Ranks as Most Valuable Company After iPhone-Fueled Decade