1. The Event.
While it has been noticed that Tim Cook seemed to feel really comfortable on stage, it was too long. For me it started with a real downer. I don’t care about HBO, as I live in Germany. Then, the MacBook. Leaked before, still exiting. Nice engineering. But why rub the gold in peoples faces from the beginning?
Then the watch. First that model, Apple showing that it cares about the world. Confusing, though: Showing that Apple Watch helps rich white people running in Africa feels like a strange message to me. And that excitement. Oh, that must have been true, as she will have a blog on apple.com. At least there was a woman on stage. Then Kevin “Adobe Flash” Lynch showing off a ton of features. Some useful for wealthy people (Apple Pay, Hotel Room unlock), others creepy (send your heartbeat), others whimsical (Draw your dick a cute message). Pricing. The “Edition”. I would rather buy a car for that money, or a great bicycle.
2. ResearchKit.
After HealthKit, Apple introduced ResearchKit, so that scientists can use all that Data iPhones (and more so that new sensor monster named Apple Watch) can generate for figure out how diseases develop, in order to find cures. That sounds great, and Apple is promising that they will not get the data. Also, they announced that they are going to open source ResearchKit. ((We’ll see about that… remember FaceTime?))
3. MacBook.
The leaked device has become a reality. Is it useful? Maybe, if you have been waiting for a larger iPad without a touchscreen plus a permanently attached keyboard and trackpad running OS X, this is for you. The engineering that went into this is impressing. The screen isn’t as Edge to edge as on the Dell XPS 13. Plus, Core M is said to be not that fast, if you believe previous reviews. ((Which were done on Windows, and honestly, I have managed to get that “this feels slow”-feeling on 4th gen Core i7 + SSD desktop machines running Windows…)) Still this is very portable Computer, and considering that I can also do most of my stuff on the Performance Monster they call Raspberry Pi 2 most people should be totally fine with this new MacBook with Retina Display. In fact it is MacBook Air 2008 all over again, only now it is not the optical drive but all these other connectors. I will not buy this, but I do have to say that I am really waiting for a wide USB 3.1 Type C adoption and that this MacBook is an impressive statement of Apples unique engineering capabilities. ((If I hadn’t just got a used Lenovo X230 Tablet or had more money at hand, I would most likely order the new Chromebook Pixel Google just introduced.))
4. Apple Watch..
Aside from the quirky presentation, the biggest news now aside from a few demoed third party apps, there was pricing. As this is just a commentary, I will just link there. I really don’t know what to make off this fashion accessory full of electronics. The battery life is truly not amazing, especially as you have to carry an extra charging cable everywhere you travel and stay overnight. And that makes it kind of suck already. Also, the number of features they crammed into Apple Watch is so large, that I can’t even sum them up here. Remembering the 2007 iPhone announcement ((iPhone didn’t do much back then, even compared to the other smartphones of that time.)), this seems confusing, and one might see a lack of focus here. That Apple isn’t really sure what its timepiece/wearable should be used. But there is another side to that: They try to open this from the very beginning, so that developers can come up with almost everything the hardware is capable of and make this thing great for the people that will buy it. I won’t. ((Naturally – I don’t even have an iPhone and just preordered a Pebble Time Steel, which is a lot cheaper than the Apple Watch Sport.))
5. General.
Following to the recent developments of the USD/EUR exchange rate, Apple has changed its Euro pricing, so that Euro figures are now higher again than the USD ones. Having watched the US pricing in the keynote, this makes you feel slightly ripped off. Also, the event was another demostration of Apples hardware engineering capabilities. However, the recent Apple criticsm has been on the other side of Apples products: Software quality. And whether they will (be able to) address this issue soon remains to be seen.