What did you think of the Apple event/presentation?

Hello,
I honestly have to agree with the OP on this one. The "wow factor" was minimal.
The most intriguing, far-reaching, and beneficial-to-society update came with the Apple Watch Series 4, with its improved heart monitoring hardware and software, and improved sensors for detecting falls and abnormal sudden-motion events, along with immobility reaction software which automatically contacts emergency contacts and services after detection of a fall event, and a minute of no movement.

Fall protection, and ECG measurements in a consumer device will absolutely revolutionize consumer wearables, improve healthcare with constant direct health data monitoring, and most importantly save lives.

As far as the iPhone is concerned, this is where the disappointment truly shines, as brightly as the cameras that they spent hours talking about.

Before I talk about the negatives, I will say that the two positives from the new iPhone releases are the stereo microphones and the gigabit LTE modems.

For perspective, I am a totally blind person from birth.
As much as I find the visual world fascinating, from living people's perspectives, photography and videography have held little interest for me.
I suppose the paradox is derived from the fact that people with sight are able to give me some sort of description, some sort of idea, something relateable, in that I can understand the visual scene that they are describing.
On the other hand, untagged photos, and non-described videos with no audio track that references the visuals are absolutely and completely useless to me and all of those in this world who have zero vision.
***Ahem: Just like nearly three quarters of the videos presented in the Keynote.***

This is my huge issue with the majority of the Apple 2018 Keynote. Two thirds of the three hour presentation dealt with mostly repetative superlative exaggerated exclamations of the absolutely stunning beauty of images and videos from the new cameras being presented.
The other portion was dedicated to visual augmented reality that as far as I can tell, seems to turn a real table into a house, or something like that. Maybe a wall into an expansive building or landscape.
All of these things are useless and meaningless to a totally blind person.

However, just because Apple were just selling to the world of sight, which is 99%, I don't hate them.
The things they are doing really are pushing the boundaries of hardware and software.

I hope this was worth reading to someone. Just my thoughts.

are there any accessibility fixes or new features in IOs 12?

the public beta of ios 12 has seen some voiceover changes. there is more to see in the verbosity settings if you are running the GM or developer build. links now have a sound arstead of the word "link" when you focus on one, far much better as far as i am concerned and i use this all of the time now, than hearing the word "link". also, you can have table rows announced or not. of course, you have the 4 new voices the 2 south african and 2 irish that cannot only be used as siri voices, but also as voiceover as well. i haven't seen anything else to be honest. the XR interests me but i have not seen or used the new swipe only gestures or indeed, face ID, so i feel i'd miss my home button, even though it haptic rather than a physical one, on do iphone 7 i am currently using. hthWill

Hello all,
The watch is what stole the show for me this time. I have a series 3 but I will be getting this one. My dad is also for the first time going to get a watch as well. My dad works for a Doctor and she is really excited about the new features in the watch. I am due for an upgrade on my phone which is now two years old. I will probably go with the XR. From what I have been reading it is nearly identical to the XS versions and its battery lasts longer than even the XS Max.

The event was a YAWN!! Apple is lacking innovation. Their was really nothing worth noting. Nothing was said about Air Power, and they've even erased all mention of it... Does that mean dead, or another Air Pot like delay?
While I have an iPhone 8 which is 5.8. I think killing the SE size was a misstep.

Hello all
Especially the introduction to the watch 4 blew my mind. It is not something I will get, but still that is one awsome device. New iPhones on the market always make me pay special attention. I am totaly blind and the fact that most features are developed for sighted customers do not bother me in the least. The same thing goes when you purchace a new television set. As a blind person you can not see the screen and many programs and movies are complex to follow without sighted eyes. Still blind people pay the same price than sighted buyers. I have an iPhone 8 plus now for two months and that is my third iPhone in 4 years and the very best for me. This babe I plan on using for at least three to four years. To those of you who are going to upgrade to the new devices. I wish you all many happy and satisfied encounters with your new toys.

I'd like to know where Ios. 12 was! I know in years past, they've unvailed it at WWDC., and then went into more detail on the upcoming version, and were usually more definitive on what features we'd get and/or would be getting etc. And I know they've done that with all versions of software for their products whether it be Ios. or Watch OS. for example.

Hi all, Enjoyed Aplevis' event round-up. Thank you. I too, like J.P, was hoping that the rumored new SE phone would come out. I want to upgrade soon but it will be either the seven or eight. I hope that the seven or eight will be on sale since they're not the latest anymore.

I also feel a little disappointed with the announcements, mostly because we've come to expect so much new every year and this year's announcements were more evolutionary then revolutionary.

In some sense I almost feel sorry for developers. Our expectations are that they should be able to deliver exciting new technologies each and every year. But that isn't the way progress is usally made, especially after products have reached a certain maturity level. After all, the big change was to have a phone/computer that one could hold in their hand. After that quantum leap is made advances are mostly about more memory, faster speeds, higher resolution, etc. But completely new ideas and ways of using products are harder to come by.

So, yes, I was a little disappointed, but what else would you like to see in a phone that we don't have now?

My biggest disappointment was that the XR with the LCD screen is so much larger than any phone that we, as blind people, need. Its nice that the XR is so much less expensive than the XS, but the size is really a problem not only for blind folks who don't need larger screens in general, but especially for women who usually have smaller pockets that don't fit these monster phones and whose hands might be smaller and aren't as comfortable handling larger phones.

One more thought on accessibility: Yes, as a blind person I don't relish paying for the extra features like better screens and higher resolution, better cameras, etc. On the other hand, sighted folks don't complain about having to pay for the development costs of the many kinds of accessibility tools that come with every phone since they aren't likely to use any of this. So, it is a trade off.

Also, it is a bit disappointing that, now that the technology is maturing, the price of these phones hasn't dropped but instead has gone up. We have come to expect technology to make our devices less expensive ratehr than more expensive.

Well, it is not a perfect world, but at least we have nice toys to play with and tools to make our lives easier!

--Pete

To the person who says they hope the iphone 7 or 8 will be on sale. They have come down in price. I forget what prices, but you can check the blog entry for this event. Also, if those prices are still too painful for your wallet, I'd check with your cell carrier, because maybe they are having a sale. You never know!

Since I saw apple showing watches I never was impress and did not even consider getting one. It was a nice thing but not need. I know that some will disagree specially those who have it. However if I could get the apple watch 4 I would just for the new features. Many blind people who have issues with balance and old people would benefit. The iPhone nice but nothing new.

I agree with David, i’ve been watching these things for years as well, and I was waiting for a wow factor. That said, I’m upgrading from my iPhone 8 to an iPhone XS next week. David’s Wonderful and thorough review of the iPhone X and it’s new gestures actually was part of what helps me take the plunge and why I joined this site. I am one of those who always likes to have the latest Apple products, and I figured that no home button and Face ID is where everything is headed, so I may as well except the challenge now and dive right in!