Apple has just announced a myriad of new phones and watches. You might have seen mighty coverage of it appear in your feeds, but instead of rehashing the industrial design and tech specs, I wanted to simply give you my thoughts on some of the new features, with an emphasis on safety.
Apple’s latest iPhone and Apple Watch include new safety features that will help protect you in case of an emergency. Emergency SOS via satellite is a new safety service for iPhone 14 users that will allow you to connect with emergency services outside of wi-fi or cell service range. This is tremendously useful for people traveling or in rural areas where network coverage is not guaranteed. You could also be driving alone and have a medical emergency. It will firstly notify your emergency contacts and then call 9/11 and get help.
One of the other features I am very bullish about is Crash Detection. This will be available on iPhone 14 and new Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Ultra users. It builds on Apple’s fall detection that was already available in Apple Watch models. Crash Detection can identify front impact, side impact, rear-end and roll-over collisions in most popular types of vehicles, and the feature only runs when you are driving. In the case of an emergency, Crash Detection will auto connect you with emergency services, provide your location and notify your emergency contacts.
There are a couple of watches Apple has announced, which are fairly similar to the previous generation. The one totally new product is the Apple Watch Ultra. It is large and made of titanium, so it is very light. This is the only Apple watch in this generation that is made of titanium, the Watch 8 only has a aluminum and steel variants. The Ultra has 6 day battery life and a night mode, where you can see the entire watch in a pale red hue. The default watch face has a compass to help orientate you. There is are speakers that emit a 86db loud noise. It can alert people to where you are or scare away animals when hiking. The unique sound signature incorporates two distinct alternating patterns, which can repeat for up to several hours. The first pattern suggests distress, while the second mimics the universally recognized SOS pattern. For multi-day backpacking trips, battery life can be extended to reach up to 60 hours with a low-power setting that includes reduced frequency of GPS and heart rate readings.
Perhaps the best feature on the Apple Ultra is Backtrack. This is a feature that uses GPS data to create a path showing where the user has been, which is useful if they get lost or disoriented and need help retracing their steps. It can also turn on automatically in the background when off the grid.
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro MAX have an interesting feature, the floating island. A terrible name, but the it is cool. Instead of the notch on the top of the screen there is instead a small pill-shaped screen cutout that houses a revamped TrueDepth camera unit for Face ID, selfies and video calls. Rather than ignore the cutout, Apple built a system of moving alerts and notifications called Dynamic Island that utilizes the black space around it. This is where phone call announcements will be, Audible audiobook player, Apple Music and most other notifications. You can think of it as a small area, where a series of new widgets will be displayed. There is also a new 48-megapixel camera with new enhancements for action shots and better nighttime photos.
I am an ardent Apple users. I will likely skip this generation with the new iPhone, since my iPhone 12 Pro Max is still working fine. The only thing I do with my phones is take pictures, listen to audiobooks, music, and read. I might buy the new AirPods Pro 2, since I wear the first generation lots while running or long walks, the new speaker that works with FindMy, will help me find the case if it falls into the couch or forget it in the gym. The Apple Watch Ultra is way too big for me, so I ordered the new Watch 8 aluminum version, since steel would be too heavy, I got the black one, I would have preferred gold, but its only for the steel watch body.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.