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With September under way, we’re looking towards the annual September “iPhone event”. So I’m sure we’ll see more info start to come out before Apple hold their annual event. So keep an eye out for that. With a lot of the year already over, we also start to head into the busy season from now. So hopefully everyone is going well, and ready to start the last 3 months of the year.

A lot more iinet/Westnet and The Messaging Company scam emails seem to be doing the rounds - so be extra careful of those emails!

macOS 15 (Sequoia), iOS18 released

Apple today have just released upgrades to new versions of their systems.

On computers, macOS 15 called Sequoia has been released. You can read more info about it here.

Some features will only work on Apple Silicon based computers, so if using an “older” computer with an Intel chip then some things won’t be available. 

You can read more about it here.

iOS 18 for iPhones has been released. You can read more about it here.

iPadOS 18 for iPad’s has been released. You can read more about it here.

Apple Intelligence is one of the biggest features to all of these releases. You can read more about it here. So features won’t be available until later this year.

MacRumors has some good info and guides about Sequoia here and iOS here and here.

As with all major upgrades like this, it can sometimes be worth waiting a month or so for any new “bugs” to get ironed out. Always ensure also to do a good full backup before installing anything, just to ensure you have a “fall back plan”. 

It also pays to ensure that all hardware, external devices, printers etc you use all work with the new systems as well.

Apple Event - “It’s Glowtime”

Apple just held their annual “iPhone event” on the 9th September (early morning of the 10th for us here in Australia). Following is some of the information of the new products and software updates announced at this event.

The Apple event opened with people and how Apple devices have helped them or saved their lives.

Apple Watch Series 10 gets a new design. Bigger display and smaller design.

Wide Angle OLED Display. Up to 40% brighter. More power efficient. Polished Aluminium case - now available in Jet Black, Rose Gold or Silver. Also Polished Titanium available now as well. - Natural, Gold, or Slate colours.

9.7mm thin. Still 50m water resistant. Faster charging. New S10 SIF chip inside. Series 10 can also now track Sleep Apnea.

Translate App comes direct to the Apple Watch in watchOS11. 

Pricing Starts from $649. 

For more information have a look here.

Apple Watch Ultra 2  - New finish now available in Satin Black. New bands.

Pricing starts from $1399. 

For more information have a look here.

AirPods 4 - Redesigned for better fit. H2 chip. New acoustic architecture for better sound. Personalised Spatial Audio. Voice Isolation removes background noise. Head nod to answer or cancel a call.

USB-C and wireless Charging and added a speaker to case for "Find My". 30 hours battery life. Noise Cancellation,  Transparency modes, and Adaptive Audio available. Two models available. Available for  $219 or $299 with Noise Cancellation.

More information available here.

AirPods Max. New colours - Midnight, Blue, Purple. Orange or Starlight.

Added USB-C. Personalised Spatial Audio. 

Same price at $899.

You can see more about them here.

AirPods Pro 2. New features for audio prevention, Hearing prevention to help with loud noise. Also Hearing Awareness - now includes a hearing test. (Validated with clinical studies to add this feature). Data saved to the Health App. 

Can now be “changed” to a Hearing Aid with the new features. Available later this year via a software update.

Pricing at $399. For more information have a look here.

iPhone 16.

Designed for Apple Intelligence. New rich colours - Ultramarine, Teal, Pink, White or Black. Two sizes - 6.1” and 6.7”. New ceramic shield front glass. - 50% tougher.

Customisable Action button. New camera control on right side below on/off button. New A18 3nm chip. Smaller and more energy effecitent. 6core CPU, 5core GPU. Additional memory bandwidth.

New features coming with Apple Intelligence to help make a lot of “day to day” tasks easier, to “get things done”. Siri is more Natural, relevant and more personal to you. You can now also type to Siri instead.

Apple Intelligence available in Australia in December. New feature - visual intelligence.  Point and click on the camera and a lot more information will then pop up to show you things relating to the image.

You’re always “in control” of the content and what is used and shared.

A lot more camera features moved to the new “Camera Control” button that recognises different “clicks” and taps. 48MP main Camera, 2x Telephoto feature - 48MP “Fusion camera”, Ultra-wide camera. Macro photography. - “equivalent to 4 lenses in your pocket”. You can capture Spatial videos and photos to work with Vision Pro.

Better audio. Better thermal design. Larger battery and better battery life.

Better redesigned Photo’s App with new features in iOS18. Messages via Satellite also coming in iOS18.

The iPhone 16 starts at $1399 and the iPhone 16 Plus starts at $1599.

More information available here.

iPhone 16 Pro.

Designed with Apple Intelligence at its core. New design. Larger display at 6.3” and 6.9”. Thinner borders. ProMotion. Always On. Ceramic Shield front display. 

Grade 5 Titanium - 4 colours - Darker Black, White, Natural and new Desert Titanium. Better thermal chassis. Better battery life.

Same great Apple Intelligence features as iPhone 16. New Apple Silicon A18 Pro 3nm chip. 16core Neural Engine (can handle 35 trillion operations per second!). Better memory bandwidth. 6coreCPU, 6coreGPU. Larger caches. “Fastest CPU in any phone” Advanced media features for ProMotion display support and AlwaysOn display. New video encoder and faster data processing.

New 48MP Fusion Camera. 48MP Ultra-wide Camera. 12MP 5x Telephoto camera with 120mm focal length. 

New features with Camera Control coming later this year via software update for lock focus and exposure with a half press, and more.

New photographic styles to adapt colours and shadows in real time. New “control pad” to adjust colours on the fly. Tap, slide, click and use different pressures on the camera control will access different settings and features.

“Cinematic slow motion" - 4K120 frames per second,  Frame by frame cinematic colour grading in Dolby Vision. 4K120 capture in full HDR and can be used in slo-mo or video mode. You can adjust after capture.

Better audio for sound and sound capture. Spatial Audio Capture while recording. New Audio Mix feature - giving you editing of recordings as if you’re in a recording studio. More features in Voice Memos also, allowing you to add a track on top of existing recordings.

Updates coming to MagSafe ecosystem, with clear and silicone cases, with a sapphire crystal coupled to a conductive layer for the camera control. New 1m and 2m, faster-charging MagSafe charging, plus Qi 2 support.

The iPhone 16 Pro starts at $1799 and the iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $2149.

Information on these models available here.

iPhone range is now iPhone SE, iPhone 14, iPhone 15, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. 

You can also compare the range here.

Most of the new range available to order from Friday 13th and ships September 20th (Approximately).

You can watch the full presentation here if you're interested.

If you're interested in a new phone, or looking to upgrade, please feel free to email me or give me a call - happy to discuss options if I can source it for you.

Have you considered if your computer stops working or could be down for quite a while?

If your computer crashes or is down for a long period time, or even if it’s going to be away for service work for a while, have you considered the down time this could cause to yourself, your work and/or business?

There is a way that an external drive can be set up beforehand where in these sort of circumstances you can still be up and running relatively easy - even if your computer has to go away for days to be repaired.

It’s a relatively cheap and easy process. 

If you would like to find out more about how this can be set up for yourself or your business please feel free to drop me an email or call to discuss.

Be aware of “Fake webpages” advising you need to update.

So there is a bit of a rise on the number of webpages or fake links that will try to trick you into calling a number or clicking a link to “update” some piece of software.

I’ve written a page with a bit more info on it here