iOS Devices

Following the announcement of the new iPhone 6s today, Apple debuted several new accessories for the upcoming smartphone. The company announced that the existing silicone and leather cases will be available in five new colors, while a new line of metal docks will be available in colors matching the phones at $49.99.

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The iPhone Upgrade Program is a new program that gives you a new iPhone every year, with AppleCare+ for just $32 a month for two years. Keeping paying and you keep getting new phones and service coverage. This option is available in US Apple Stores to start with more countries coming soon.

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Apple has announced the new powerful Apple TV will be backed up by a huge app library from the developer community. They have announced many on stage today, and many more will be announced very shortly as the entire community gets onboard.

The new hardware is much more powerful than the previous generation. Coupled with an App Store, it creates a whole new opportunity for developers and all new user experiences for customers on the TV.

Here’s a complete gallery of all Apple TV apps announced so far:

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Apple today officially announced its long anticipated revamped Apple TV set top box, marking one of the biggest jumps forward for a product category the company previously classified as a hobby project. Prior to today’s event we reported extensively on Apple’s development of the new Apple TV and the features it planned for the device and developers.

While proclaiming that “The future of TV is apps,” Tim Cook and team highlighted the key areas of the updated hardware and software: new powerful hardware, a modern OS, an all-new user experience, developer tools, and an App Store.

Head below for all the details…
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iPad mini barely got a mention on stage last year as Apple only added Touch ID and a gold option plus 128GB models to what was in every other respect the same 7.9-inch tablet that it released in 2013. iPad mini with Retina display was renamed iPad mini 2 while the new iPad mini 3 model kept the same exact chip and specs aside from the finger print sensor. Nearly a year later the smaller tablet form factor is back with the more powerful version.

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Apple’s monster iPad Pro is coming, but exactly how much will it cost you? It ranges from $799 to $1079 and will be available in November. Details below:

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Alongside the highly anticipated iPad Pro, Apple also revealed a variety of new accessories designed to be used with the new tablet.

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Years of rumors and speculation met with an iPad market that has faced growth issues in recent quarters has finally led to this: iPad Pro. The long-awaited, larger iPad is here and it’s real.

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9to5Mac has been reporting that Apple was planning some cosmetic updates to the Apple Watch, including new Sport bands and a gold aluminum Apple Watch Sport, for some time. A few hours ahead of Apple’s event, an image has appeared on Twitter depicting what appears to be a Product (RED) Apple Watch Sport band. To date, Apple has offered Apple Watch Sport bands in white, black, green, blue and pink.

Although Apple is supportive of the charity, the Apple Watch notably debuted without any Product (RED) affiliation. This appears to be changing today …

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In the old days, buying and paying for a new iPhone was simple: you typically paid $1-200 up-front, then the rest of the purchase cost was absorbed by carriers into the monthly rates they charged for their contracts. There was no easy way to tell how much of that monthly payment was for calls/texts/data and how much was paying off the balance of the cost of the phone.

Today, things are very different, with carriers being much more transparent about what you pay for your contract – if you choose to have one – and how much you pay for the iPhone itself. The WSJ has put together a simple infographic outlining the main options open to you … 
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As expected, the Apple Store has gone down ahead of Apple’s Hey Siri event later today at 10 AM PST. Although we don’t expect the iPhone, iPad Pro or Apple TV to be available to buy today, the site will return with information about the new products after the presentation is over. There is a chance that Apple’s updates to Apple Watch — new band colors and a new gold Sport watch — may be available immediately.

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9to5Mac has been saying for a while that Apple’s Hey Siri event today will be a product blitz of announcements, with at least three major new products set to be shown off: the new iPhone 6S, the new larger iPad Pro and a revamped Apple TV with a new remote. There’s also likely to be a new iPad mini and some updates for Apple Watch — you can read it all in our roundup.

Some people were confused about why Apple is stuffing so many announcements into one event. Having called a single event “not logical” earlier in the day, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber now agrees with our prior reports: breaking tradition, there won’t be an October event this year.

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In what was a notable change this summer, Apple opted to not remove the dedicated Apple Events channel on Apple TV after WWDC 2015 as it has done several weeks after media events in the past. Instead the Apple Events channel has become a permanent app on the Apple TV, serving as a central spot for viewing prior major product announcements without relying on searching the YouTube channel (which has since been removed from Apple TV 2 boxes).

Ahead of prior events, though, the reappearance of the Apple Events channel has been a bit of a ritual that drums up excitement and signals that Apple is indeed livestreaming its upcoming event. Apple has recently moved to livestreaming every event (in the past it was not guaranteed) and we already knew tomorrow’s iPhone 6S and Apple TV 4 event would be broadcasted live, but there’s still a pre-event change on the Apple Events channel awaiting Apple TV users.

Just hours before the iPhone 6S announcement kicks off in San Francisco, Apple has refreshed the Apple Events channel with a new icon matching the event teaser artwork and more.
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We have reported many times that the new Apple TV is getting an App Store. The new A8-powered box combined with a revamped software interface will enable developers to make apps and games for the new hardware, set to be announced at tomorrow’s iPhone 6S/Apple TV/iPad event. TechCrunch is reporting, via sources, that Periscope, the video live streaming app for iPhone and Android, is working with Apple in advance of the unveiling to create a custom Periscope app for the new Apple TV.

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Following the apparent leak of iPhone 6s Plus packaging last month, an image purporting to show the front of the iPhone 6s box has appeared on Dutch site Techtastic, following the same design theme. Like the iPhone 6s Plus box (shown below), which featured a gold and black fish that looked almost like a flower, the alleged iPhone 6s box shows what appears to be a partially golden fish against an all-white background, matching the gold or rose gold edges of the device. Update: Another image, supposedly showing a black and red fish on a space gray iPhone 6s, has also appeared.

Our reports leading up to the official unveiling of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus noted that Apple plans to add Motion backgrounds to the new iPhones, paralleling a feature introduced on the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch’s Motion backgrounds include timelapse animations of flowers, butterflies flapping their wings, and jellyfish moving against black backgrounds. New backgrounds containing animated fish and colorful bursts of smoke are expected to debut on the iPhones.

Despite the significant similarities in the alleged iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus boxes, however, there are some details that don’t match up exactly, suggesting that one or both are prototypes of the final packaging…

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What would it take to evolve the Apple TV from a plastic $69 puck into a covetable device worth a premium asking price? A design collaboration between designers Martin Hajek and Andrew Ambrosino provides some compelling answers, borrowing Apple Watch and iPhone 6 design cues to re-imagine the Apple TV as a two-tone, metal-clad box with a matching color touchscreen remote. The remote can be used for basic icon-based navigation of the Apple TV’s apps, or flipped over to reveal a basic game controller.

While completely different from the actual fourth-generation Apple TV expected to debut tomorrow at Apple’s special event in San Francisco, Hajek and Ambrosino’s renderings suggest an alternative reality where Apple could convince people to pay $300 for a set top box. Black and silver or white and gold versions are shown in the gallery below, each with interesting button designs…

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Keeping to the ‘Hey Siri’ theme of the event, the day before the big show, Apple has added a new set of reply phrases to Siri teasing the event tomorrow. There’s about a half-dozen new witty responses in addition to those added last week. To hear them, hold-down the Home Button activate Siri and say ‘Hey Siri, give me a hint’.

Obviously, these hints are little more than funny jokes (the binary one spells the word ‘Gotcha’ if decoded) and don’t give away secret product information. If you want details about what Apple is announcing tomorrow, read 9to5Mac’s exclusive roundup of the event, which will feature the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, iPad Pro, new Apple Watch bands and the unveiling of the long-awaited brand new Apple TV.

Check out the full gallery of new hints below and let us know in the comments if you find Siri saying any more hints we haven’t discovered …

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A day before the announcement of the new iPhones, analytics company Localytics has provided a picture of the iPhone market today. It shows that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus between them account for a full 40% of all iPhones in use, with the iPhone 5s trailing behind at 23.7%.

The same data also backs our report that the iPhone 5c is being discontinued, showing that it accounts for just 8.5% of active iPhones, putting it below the iPhone 4S. This can only add to doubts about whether the often rumored and debunked iPhone 6c (beautiful concept images below) could succeed … 
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Alongside the new iPhones, new Apple TV, new Apple Watch bands, and a gold anodized version of the Apple Watch Sport, Apple plans to debut a pair of new iPads on Wednesday: the larger iPad Pro and a new iPad mini. Since our report last week that the iPad Pro would be unveiled at this event, we’ve gathered a few more details about the device from several sources who have either used the iPad Pro or are familiar with the product.

Unlike earlier iPads, which have started at 16GB of capacity and been designed to appeal in both pricing and size to the masses, even the base model iPad Pro will have features fitting its name. We’re also hearing that it’s coming a little later than originally expected, but will still make it out by year’s end…

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