Yesterday’s keynote event at the Steve Jobs Theater featured the debut of new iPhones and the Apple Watch Series 4, but there were a lot of small details revealed outside the keynote. Below is a roundup of some of the most interesting extra details from the day.
iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max
It wasn’t mentioned during the keynote, but the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR can read NFC tags in the background without the aid of an app.
Dual SIM functionality, which includes one physical SIM and one eSIM, won’t be activated until later this year with an update to iOS 12.
The new iPhones still ship with an increasingly inadequate 5W charger.
Apple posted a new Tech Talk dedicated to building apps for the new iPhones.
Split View on the iPhone XS Max means new layout considerations for developers.
Make sure to check your layout on iPhone Xs Max in a landscape orientation. It’s the first time a notch is combined with the split view. pic.twitter.com/YD9s66DO5V
— Arek Holko (@arekholko) September 13, 2018
Each of the default wallpapers on the iPhone XR is customized to match its color and has a unique texture.
They didn’t just hue shift one wallpaper for each phone color. Each one has a unique texture. pic.twitter.com/HX6dbCWXmh
— Brad Ellis (@BradEllis) September 13, 2018
Apple shows off the video capabilities of the new iPhone XS models on YouTube with Shot on iPhone XS - Experiments in 4K, Slo-mo, and Time-lapse.
Apple dropped the price of battery replacements after CPU throttling made many customers unhappy. Beginning on January 1, 2019, those prices will increase from $29 to $49.
All new apps and updates must be built with the iOS 12 SDK and support the iPhone XS Max starting in March 2019. Apple imposed the same deadline for building apps with the watchOS 5 SDK and supporting the Series 4 Watch.
Apple Watch Series 4
Apple posted two new Tech Talks about designing and developing apps for the Apple Watch Series 4.
Some of the new watch faces announced by Apple will be available for the Series 3 and earlier models of Apple Watches.
The Nike+ version of the Apple Watch Series 4 is not launching until October 5, 2018, two weeks after the standard Series 4 model.
Among the films Apple created to show off the new Apple Watch Series 4 is one called Real Stories that details how the Apple Watch has saved lives.
Third-party developers can create large Watch complications with Apple’s ClockKit API.
The new ClockKit APIs allow developers to render (an image) into their large-size modular complication on the Apple Watch face. That’s as close as we’ve got to ‘custom watch face’ in a while. I wonder how often you can refresh it… pic.twitter.com/lGIK8byvgF
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) September 13, 2018
You can also follow all of our Apple event coverage through our September 12, 2018 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated September 12, 2018 RSS feed.
