As November draws closer, so does the new desirable tech from companies like Xbox, Samsung and the most prevalent, Apple release their new products. During a special apple event called “the Apple Keynote” on September 12th in the Steve Jobs Theatre located in Apple park,  Apple released some of their new products like the apple tv 4K, the Apple Watch series 3, and the new line of iPhones. This event has sparked a lot of interest among Apple users and enthusiasts.

Most people watching the keynote were patiently waiting for the unveiling of the new line of iPhones which Tim Cook, the current CEO of Apple delayed until the last minutes of the keynote. Apple announced three new phones: the iPhone 8, 8 plus and the iPhone x. Similar to the iPhones from previous years, Apple announced a base phone, the iPhone 8 ,and a plus version, but different from past years, they released a “supercharged” phone that is said to be the most powerful phone on the market. The iPhone x is said to change the smartphone industry by taking experimental ideas, perfecting them and putting them into a phone before any other manufacturer. This has occurred before when Apple released the iPhone 5s with touch iD and the iphone 6s with 3D touch, which companies like Samsung and Google implemented later. The iPhone x will feature many new changes like the lack of a home button, an all new OLED display, facial recognition paired with neural technology and a 7 megapixel depth perception camera, as well as a more powerful processing chip.

Neural technology has been experimental for years, and is now being used in tech to provide new features, faster computing and stability. The neural engine in the iPhone x, will use artificial intelligence to map facial features for facial recognition as well as allow a new feature called augmented reality. Using AI smarts the the phone will map the user’s face to allow new types of games, apps,  animated emoticons, other figures. AI technology can also be used to unlock the phone using the user’s facial features. The neural engine will work with face iD to adapt to the users physical changes over time. Facial identification will be replacing touch iD in the iPhone x, due to the lack of a home button. This has sparked debate whether facial identification is as safe as touch iD. IOS security researchers like Stephan Esser say that facial recognition can be easily frauded and should not be implemented into the new iPhone. The AI tech also will work with the newly implemented depth perception camera which maps 50 different muscle movements to mirror your facial expressions and will also project and analyze more than 30,000 artificial dots to create a precise depth map of the user’s face.

The new Apple A11 bionic chip working with the neural engine will be able to run 600 billion operations per second, making it the fastest phone to date. With the chips six cores, the phone will be 70 percent faster than its predecessor the A10 fusion chip in the iPhone 7 and 7 plus. As well as an improved CPU, Apple has upgraded the Graphics by adding a 3 core graphics processing unit (GPU), which will be 30 percent faster than previous phones and will allow developers to create more detailed games and apps that can run faster with more efficiency.

The iPhone x has many physical changes like the surface area of the screen which encompasses practically the whole front face of the phone with an exception of a cut out for the cameras, sensors and the phone speaker. The iPhone x will feature a tempered glass back, similar to the glass back on the iphone 4 and 4s, but much stronger, replacing the aluminum shell found on the back of previous iphones. The removal of the home button was a shock to the Apple world, but so was the removal of the headphone jack last year in the iPhone 7. The home button will be replaced by swipe gestures to navigate the phone.

Apple has introduced a new L-Shaped battery, making more battery surface area without compromising the weight and size of the phone. The new battery is estimated to last around two hours longer than the iPhone 7.

The iPhone x will also feature wireless charging as an alternative to charging your phone with a lighting cable. Although wireless charging isn’t new, Apple says they have perfected the technology to make it faster and more productive. Wireless charging in the new iPhone will make it possible to charge your iPhone on any wireless pad that’s readily available. Apple has also announced the AirPower mat which is Apple’s version of the wireless charging pad. The mat will not be sold with the phone and will need to be bought by itself.

Like every iPhone before it, the iPhone x will have improved cameras. The phone will have stacked dual 12 megapixel wide-angle telephoto cameras on the back capable of optical and digital zoom up to 10 times for photos and 6 times for videos.

The old LCD screens have been but to shame due to the new OLED screen implemented into the new iPhone. According to Apple, the new screen displays cleaner, sharper colors, true blacks, high brightness and a higher contrast ratio. The OLED display will be paired with retina and HDR dynamics to make the user interface sharper.

The iPhone x will be sold unlocked or under wireless plans from the big cellular companies like At&t and Verizon. The iPhone x will come in two finishes: space grey and silver. The phone comes with headphones, lightning charging cable, lightning to 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter for external audio, and a 5 watt power supply. X will be sold in two different storage sizes: 64GB coming in at $999.00 and 256GB coming in at $1,149.00, making it not only the most expensive iPhone to date, depending on the storage size will also be just as expensive and or more expensive than the base model Macbook air which is priced at $999.00.  Although the phone’s price has not been quoted by cellular companies, the initial payment will be cheaper, but with all phones, it will be payed off in a cellular plan. The iPhone will be available for pre-order on October 27th and will officially release on November 3rd.

Since its release in April of 2015, Apple has been hard at work developing new, innovative tech to wear on your wrist. The first to be introduced at Apple’s keynote was the Apple watch series 3 which brought some new changes including the independency from the iPhone with built in cellular and GPS, new ways to track your daily activity and health, new siri interface, and music streaming.

Apple has taken a direction with the watch that no one saw coming. Since the watch has to be a certain size to fit on a wrist, Apple’s lead engineers stated it was a challenge to fit a SIM card into such a small device without compromising the size. They came up with a way to innovate the SIM card by making a much smaller version called a micro SIM, that works just as effectively as a normal SIM. Apple’s goal was to make the watch less dependent on the iPhone, so that when a user is doing something without their phone,  they can effectively use their watch to do some of the same tasks. Users can now make calls, receive texts, stream music, and check apps without being connected to their phone via bluetooth. This does not mean that the watch is completely independent, because the watch still needs the phone to perform tasks like syncing health data, updates and other analytics.

With the introduction to cellular in the watch, Siri has been implemented to make hands-free voice commands to the user’s watch without the use of an iPhone.

Since the size and weight haven’t really changed, the only physical change on the watch is the red navigation wheel which was different on the older models. This change is thought to distinguish the series 3 watch from the previous versions.

The Apple watch series 3 will come in various models including the Nike+ sport edition, as well as the hermés and Apple watch edition. Series 3 comes in three case materials: Aluminum, stainless steel, and ceramic. There is also a wide range of band types like the sport loop, sport, leather, and stainless steel with a range of colors.  The watch can be bought with GPS at around $329 (depending on case material, band type and color) or GPS and cellular at around $400 compatible with most US cellular carriers. The Apple watch is currently available for pre-order and will be released on September 22nd.