Author: Shaiheim Allen
Last week, some of the biggest companies in tech all hosted announcement events, Apple kicked things of on Monday followed by Google on Tuesday and finally Samsung on Wednesday. A week before last, we wrote briefly about what to expect from the events and today we’re doing a breakdown of the key points of each event.
Apple:
Starting with Apple, their event was about 2 key things; Music & Macs. They announced that their music service, Apple Music will be getting a new subscription plan called the voice plan, starting at $4.99 a month, it allows users to control their entire music collection by using their voice & Siri.
As well as this, they showed new colours for the HomePod Mini which will be available from November and will be priced at £89.
The final thing they announce regarding music was the third generation AirPods, with spatial audio. They have been revamped inside and out so they are sweat and water resistant and increased the battery life so they have around 30 hours of listening time, and just 5 minutes of charge can last up to an hour. The new case also comes with wireless charging. The price of the new AirPods will be starting from £169 and can be pre-ordered now and they are available from next week.
Now for the Macs, Apple has introduced its new 16-inch MacBook Pro, promising an upgrade in both design and performance. Models will be available in silver and space grey next week, with a starting price of £2,399.
The new laptops can be purchased with Apple’s new M1 Pro or M1 Max processors, with eight “high-performance” cores and two “high-efficiency” cores. The M1 Max has double the Pro’s GPU cores (32 to the Pro’s 16) and double the memory bandwidth, as well as 64GB of unified memory (the Pro has 32GB).
Google:
On Tuesday, Google finally gave their Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones an official launch. Both Phones were available to pre-order from Tuesday and will begin shipping on October 28th. The pricing for the Pixel 6 starts at £599 and £899 for the Pro, making them relatively cheaper than other high end smartphones and they come in 3 colours, Stormy Black, Kinda Coral & Sorta Seafoam.
What makes Pixel phones stand out is the focus they put on the cameras to make them so impressive, and this time they have revamped the camera compared to the Pixel 5 and made it even more powerful with wider fields of view and allowing more light into the camera to get sharper focus on pictures. Both phones also shoot video in 4k at 60fps.
The size of this generation of Pixel phones however, is quite large, the regular Pixel 6 is essentially as big as the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and the Pixel Pro is even larger still. The phone will also ship with the latest version of Android OS (Android 12). For a full tech & specs breakdown of the phones or to pre-order, check out the Pixel 6 page on the Google Store.
Samsung:
And finally rounding off the week of tech news, Samsung held and event yesterday (20th October) and as expected, they didn’t announce any major new devices, but instead revamps on existing products.
First of all they announced that they will be rolling out an update for the Galaxy Watch 4, this includes four brand new watch faces which include a basic one and one which is focussed more on weather, below is a screenshot showing the style of the new faces however there are many more colourways to these screens to further the customisation of the device.
New faces aren’t the only updates headed to the new watches; you’ll also be able to use a “knock-knock” motion in the air to launch a preset app or feature. Fall detection has also been improved so that if you’re standing still and you fall, the watch will still detect it.
The update adding the new features will roll out starting Wednesday for Bluetooth versions of the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, while the LTE versions will get it shortly after, Samsung says.
Samsung also announced that they have partnered with the brand Kitsuné to create designer versions of the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Buds 2 and they also have some special design touches that make them stand out from the regular devices.
However, with these special devices, there is only a limited amount so people will have to act fast in order to secure them, the Maison Kitsuné Buds will cost $249 ($100 more than the standard version) while the Galaxy Watch 4 will cost $399.99 ($150 more than the base version of the watch) and both are available to pre order now.
Samsung also announced that they will be letting you design your own Galaxy Z Flip 3, the phone was released in August initially but now with their Bespoke edition of the phone, there are a multitude of colourways for you to pick and choose from in order to customise your phone the way you want, and if you get tired of the colours you picked? Just swap them out for new ones. For a fee you can swap out the colours on the glass back panel of the phone via Samsung’s Bespoke Upgrade Care service, the panel prices will vary but start at around $79 and that the service will start in November. If you’re interested in a Z Flip 3 Bespoke Edition, you’ll be able to make one on Samsung’s website starting Wednesday. You’ll have to pay a premium for the customizability, though, because the Bespoke Edition costs $1,099, which is $100 more than the base model phone.
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