Crunch down on new products and features
Droves of reporters and Apple employees filed into the new 1,000-seat Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, for the big reveal of the latest in Apple Watch and iPhone technology in September. How do some of the advancements apply to meeting professionals and how can they make your lives a little bit easier? Let’s get to the core.
Apple Watch Series 3
As cellphones gained popularity, fewer people wore watches. That is, until Apple Watch combined the two! You can now leave your phone in your home, hotel room or office. Take only your wearable wristwatch with you to call on the go. “I am thrilled to tell you that the Apple Watch is the No. 1 watch in the world, but what’s most rewarding to us is how much our users love it,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook of the device’s 97 percent customer satisfaction rating. It has an “all-day” battery life of up to 18 hours.
Cellular
Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams introduced the new cellular function that gives wearers the freedom to go anywhere with just their Apple Watch. “This has been our vision from the very beginning,” he said. The phone number remains the same as your iPhone, so you don’t have to give your contacts new digits to reach you. You can make outgoing and incoming calls, text from your wrist and listen with wireless AirPods. This will enable meeting professionals to keep both hands free to shake hands and carry items without reserving a palm just for their mobile. In conjunction with WatchOS 4, cellular also allows users to stream 40 million songs.
Heart Rate Monitor
The age-old saying, “An Apple a day keeps the doctor away,” is truer than ever before. Apple Watch has gotten people out of their seat and on their feet throughout the workday. Executives played a video showing real-life testimonials about how the heart rate monitor has saved lives. Taking note, the tech giant beefed up this feature in the new iteration.
One of the enhancements is it measures resting heart rate to notify users if an elevated heart rate is detected when the user does not appear to be active. This could save users from a potentially fatal irregular heartbeat rhythm, or arrhythmia. A common form is known as atrial fibrillation, which can lead to a stroke. In partnership with Stanford Medicine, data from the watch will be collected for the Apple Heart Study. Williams also announced the watch offers smart activity coaching, adjustments to account for swimming and the ability to sync with some workout equipment.
iPhone
Remember the childhood joke, “Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven ate nine.” Well, there might be something to it. The iPhone skipped from 8 to X (Roman numeral for 10), totally leaping over 9. The two new phone generations that were announced have some fun features worth discussing.
Face ID
Keep your thumbprint to yourself! All you have to do to unlock iPhone X is look at it. Face ID authentication uses advanced technology to accurately map and recognize the phone owner’s face using tens of thousands of infrared dots and TrueDepth camera. It can also be used for Apple Pay and to open secure apps. The company is confident that the tool cannot be fooled by a photograph or a mask, and owners must have their eyes open and look directly at the phone.
Portraits
File your embarrassing Glamour Shots and Sears photos away in your archives. Apple was excited to introduce Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting, which gives users the power to snap studio-quality portraits from iPhone 8 and iPhone X cameras. You can capture flattering portraits with a shallow depth-of-field in five lighting styles. This will come in handy to take pictures for ID badges, event programs, LinkedIn profiles and Smart Moves announcements that will make people proud. iPhone X even offers Portrait mode on the front camera to take the perfect selfie.
AirPower
Remembering to pack a million different chargers and getting tangled up with cords will soon be a thing of the past. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, revealed the AirPower charging surface will be available next year. Your iPhone, Apple Watch and more can all be placed on this pad to power up wirelessly. This will make it super easy for meeting goers to recharge at the conference table without searching for an available outlet or station.
Retail
Are you feeling overwhelmed with learning how to maximize all these new features? Not to worry. Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, announced they’re now calling the company’s stores “town squares.” Locations offer “Today at Apple” classes so trained professionals can teach users how to utilize devices and apps, and learn special skills such as photography, video, music, coding, note-taking and more.
