iPhone 7 & 7 Plus and Apple Watch 2 launched: Updates from Apple's keynote event

WRITTEN BY Gwyn D’Mello | Updated: Sep 7, 2016, 10:30 PM IST
latest premium smartphones, Apple September 7 event, iPhonee 7, iPhone 7 Plus, Apple Watch 2, Tim Cook

Check out our coverage for every announcement made at Apple's September 7 event.

The event has ended but you can still catch up on all the latest. Newest updates are at the top so scroll up from the bottom for everything you need to know. In addition, we'll be following all the Apple news tomorrow with more detailed coverage.

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Latest Updates

  • And that's the end of our live coverage. Stick with us for a quick reca0 in a bit and catch all our in depth coverage tomorrow morning! 

  • The AirPods will ship in late October for US $159. Aw hell na. There's no way those unsightly things are worth that much.

  • Pre-orders for iPhone 7 start Friday, September 9. Start shipping September 16.

  • iOS 10 will be available September 13. September 9 preorders for the new iPhone, same as Apple Watch. September 16 availability in 28 regions, 30 more a week after that.

  • The upgrade program for iPhone in the US now expanded to UK and China.

  • iPhone 7 Plus has the same storage options. iPhone 6S and 6S Plus now only available in 32GB and 128GB versions.

  • iPhone 7 starts at US $649, same as the 6S. All storage has been doubled, now at 32GB, 128GB and 256GB.

  • The Jet Black is only available in 128 and 256GB.

  • Apple's demos now show people jumping into the pool with their iPhone 7. That's one for the in hand review.

  • The iPhone 7 Plus meanwhile has the 12MP telephoto and wide angle lens and a 5.5-inch Retina HD display.

  • "iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are the longest battery l)fe ever in an iPhone."

  • 2/3 the power usage compared to the A9.

  • We're now onto a few new iOS  game demos with Phill Schiller.

  • The iPhone 7 is twice aas fast as the iPhone 6 and 6 Pl5s

  • And now for performance, there's a new A10 Fusion chip. 64 bit, 4 core processor.

    2 cores that are high performance. 40 percent faster than A9 chip.

  • You can even route one earphone to Siri or a phone call while the other continues playing music.

  • The AirPods have proximity sensors to intelligently switch between devices. 

  • "Sensors detect when each AirPod is in your ear. only play when you're ready to listen. You can access Siri with a double tap. Accelerometers and beam forming microphones reduce external noise"

  • Purported five hours of listening on a full charge, and the case for the AirPods also charge them for a further 24 hours of life.

  • They're wireless earbuds with an extended shaft stretching downwards, like some weird sort of plastic jewellery.

  • Ok, they're backing it up with the classic "we wanted to make it thinner" excuse. That's really not a priority though.

  • The new official headphones are called Apple AirPod.

  • "Some have asked why we would remove the analog headphone jack from the iPhone. It has been with us a very long time. The reason to move on. I'm going to give you three of them. Comes down to one word. Courage."

    Oh come on Apple really?

  • There's also going to be a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter in the box. Well, at least it's not an added buyabe accessory.

  • "We're taking the headphones in iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to Lightning and we're including them in the box." 

  • And more on the audio, it looks like the rumours were true. EarPods now connect via Lightning port. THERE IS NO HEADPHONE JACK!

  • "This new version of Instagram will be launching later this year.

  • "Speakers we have built into the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are a huge jump forward in audio qualty. For the first time, there's stereo speakers. One is at the bottom, one is at the top."Apple says they put out twice the volume of 6S.

  • Instagram is using the API's for the iPhone 7 Plus camera to create new filters.

  • Ian Spalter, head of design at Instagram is on stage talking about the app and how it uses 3D Touch.

  • The new Retina display is 25 percent brighter than the 6S, and has integrated 3D Touch of course.

  • "We are not saying to throw out your DSLRs. What we are saying is this is the best camera we've ever made in a smartphone."

  • The depth of field update won't be available at launch, there will be a free software update later this year to iPhone 7 Plus users.

  • Another feature, Apple has engineered their ISP to be able to pull off bokeh. It uses machine learning to recognize faces and create a depth map. That keeps the people in the front sharp and applies a blur to objects in the background. That's huge considering people go to great lengths to replicate this effect on their smartphone photos.

  • "One has the wide angle 28mm lens, same as iPhone 7. The other is a telephoto lens."

    The camera works the same as before but there's a new button that says 1X. Tap it to go to 2X, and now you're using the telephoto lens.

  • So looks like the iPhone 7 Plus is the one with the dual 12MP cameras.

  • "If that is the best camera we've ever made in iPhone, what is left for iPhone 7.

  • "In iOS 10 you can now capture RAW files." Wow, that's huge. The question is if Apple has upgraded the phones to actually store all those images.