Apple September 2015 Event Live Blog

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• Impulses - Wednesday, September 9, 2015 - link

  All these controlled force gestures seem like they'll be awfully confusing for the average buyer that enjoys iOS because there's no right click, cascading menus, shift click, click and hold, etc. I'm not trying to be condescending, it's something I genuinely see a lot... Can't imagine trying to explain "push harder, do a soft half swipe" etc.

• SirKronan - Wednesday, September 9, 2015 - link

  iPad Pro with a smartphone/tablet OS ... on a 12.9 inch screen. Seems like such a huge waste of potential. Why not a full featured OSX with touch enhancements, a la Windows 8.1 on the Surface Pro 3?? Otherwise it's just a bigger iPad with a more precise pen. It's like they copied the Surface Pro 3 but without half of the important features that make it worth the expense.

• jwcalla - Wednesday, September 9, 2015 - link

  meh. I don't really see the appeal of a desktop OS on a tablet though.

• SirKronan - Wednesday, September 9, 2015 - link

  Content creation and app compatibility. 12.9 inches is fully usable with a mouse and keyboard as a laptop/desktop replacement on the go. I use my surface pro 3 for this all the time. Most of the time I use touch optimized stuff, but I'm not limited to that. Full games work, and if there's no touch optimized "app" in the Windows Store (or App Store, for example) I can use the desktop equivalent without a hitch. With full OSX you could use all full featured Adobe Creative Suite applications, which are now optimized for touch screens and stylus input. The possibilities are endless.
  
  Microsoft saw that and made it so. Apple did not. Microsoft should be shouting hallelujah right now, because the Surface Pro line is now profitable to them, and thanks to Apple being a chicken and playing it safe, MS has little to worry about from them after this announcement.

• SirKronan - Wednesday, September 9, 2015 - link

  Forgot to mention, Windows 8.1 is NOT really a desktop OS. It's a very good tablet OS that happens to run desktop apps when you need them, and for many professionals, that's EXACTLY why the Surface Pro 3 is selling well and making Microsoft money. And there is a world of difference between having 128GB vs. 256GB and sd card/USB 3.0 expandability. I can author bluray discs of photo shoots on the spot. That's power.

• akdj - Thursday, September 10, 2015 - link

  Lol. That made me laugh. Blu ray photo shot discs?
  Why not a Dropbox share link? Google Drive, iCloud Drive?
  Who goes home to their Blu ray deck to review your photoshoot?
  That's not power. That's shorting your client. Most photogs print for their client ...or maybe link them to uncompressed downloads? Maybe it's just this side of the world. Never mind

• SirKronan - Thursday, September 10, 2015 - link

  akdj, it's just an option. What planet do you live on where you have the cellular data capability to upload full quality images (or at least back them up) in the minutes it takes to burn a bluray disc? It's a very cost effective and time efficient way to back up full quality images after a shoot. By throwing your compressed and limited size files online you're either paying monthly fees for gobs of cloud storage (which I do not want to do, and most of my clients do not want to do either) or you live near free open fast wifi.
  
  I use the cloud to share when appropriate, but my clients still prefer a hard physical backup of their things. The new Xbox and Playstation both read blurays. Throw the disc in and start looking at your photos. Sometimes I need to make a video slideshow and have it play back in full quality. You can stick it in any old PS3 or bluray player and have it loop.
  
  Verizon, the most respectable LTE network around, doesn't even offer unlimited data anymore. I'd saturate my monthly allowance of data before I uploaded one shoot, or I'd have to do all my editing and selecting on the spot (which the Surface Pro 3 would let me do with full CC suite, mind you). I'm just talking about possibilities, and they are endless with the surface pro series, versus limited to tablet/smartphone capabilities with the iPad Pro ... plus a fancy pen that costs 100 dollars.

• akdj - Thursday, September 10, 2015 - link

  $10/month = 1TB Dropbox (as large a file or type you're shooting)
  $10/month = 5TB OneDrive (5 accounts, cross platform, upload cellular/LTE or wifi, in background, you choose. Same as above)
  Free ...up to 12/14/16 megapixel Raw. If you're shooting larger, three bucks gets you a couple hundred GBs on Google Drive
  iCloud, it's spendier but if living in OS X and iOS $20/1TB and cross platform, 'always there' (albeit optimized for storage locally so you're not storing 50mpxl Raw CR1 files.
  Man, for ten bucks a month, about the price of a couple dual side BDRs blank and you're set. I backup locally but mainly shoot motion --- as well as transcoded and B Roll footage that'll be used 'to the cloud' for redundancy.
  
  I guess I found it curious a pro shooter was sending anyone home with a BDR copy of their pics. Thumb drives are cheap these days. As are SD cards. Slower, maybe. Depends what ya spend. I'm a BluRay supporter. Whole hog. Love the clarity and sound options and in comparison to even excellent 480p footage it's the BEST thing to happen to TV since color (k, maybe a bit of embellishment --- but I do truly appreciate the format and lately the DVD & digital copies provided)
  But as a transfer to client medium, I hadn't heard such a thing. Not many have BDR readers on their computers (even Windows rigs are pretty specialty these days to have Blu Ray ...hell, optical period is dropping off the map)
  
  Anyway, we've been using (AVC Intra, Pro Res and still some HDV) the cheap PNC 3.0 (USB) sticks but it's a small loop and more of a production Than client distribution --- which ultimately maybe on BDR, when we're delivering motion. Most of the time FTP transfers or downloads from servers or mass storage sites named above is how we've been moving footage and audio, stills and story boards).
  Forgive me, didn't mean to sound like such a dick. After rereading my comment it certainly came across that way. My bad, my apologies and I think you may have just been a victim of my 33rd 'defense' comment ;)
  
  Of all folks though, you're TRULY not seeing the value of this iPad? I've got 80GB a month (rollover from standard but doubled business account with AT&T last October ...had 20, doubled gratis to 40 like all others and now the rollover keeps me at a steady 78-80GB a month and with quick, often faster LTE uploads than even the fastest wifi or connected ISPs that slow traffic --- I actually live in Alaska. You're right. Different world. I've been 'shooting' here the past 27 years and have been lucky enough to work with several major production companies from cable as well as motion picture.
  From the Bering Sea to the Kenai River, villages with a ½ dozen folks year round and Anchorage (Seattle's most Northern suburb and certainly not 'Alaska' ;)) --- with Smithsonian, Nat Geo, Discovery or Warner Bros. I've yet to see content drilled to and distributed on BDR.
  Sorry, learn something each day. But it's an excellent time to 'switch' with $5 16GB SD cards and thumb drives and 64GB USB 3's dropping to 50 cents a GB, just seems easier if you're looking to transfer physically. As much as I enjoy BDR & DVD, CDs and my extensive vinyl collection, those areas to buy the media much less the medium to play from are shrinking daily.
  
  Good luck. Dollars to donuts you dig the iPad pro though ;)
  J

• SirKronan - Thursday, September 10, 2015 - link

  The Surface Pro 3 fits my usage model so well it's not even funny. I appreciate your response, and I was a little surprised by your other response. No offense taken, and thanks for coming back and explaining yourself further! You can always learn something new.
  
  It's a tablet with a card reader/USB port, so I can pull the card right out of my camera or phone for viewing on the Surface's excellent screen. (I know iPads have this functionality with an adapter). Does the tablet usage model work for most of what I do? Yes! But "most" doesn't cut it. There are times when I've needed full Office and other desktop apps.
  
  And bluray discs are so cheap, and have a 20+ year shelf life with NO monthly fees. 25GB is usually plenty large to cover a photo shoot, backing up the RAW and JPG files from a 32GB card. 25GB discs burn quickly, are reliable, and can be found for $1 or less a piece. That is WAY more economical than any of the numbers you mentioned above for monthly fee cloud storage.
  
  And you mention cheap USB 3.0 sticks ... can you even plug one of those in to the new iPad Pro? (sincere question). Longevity of solid state memory is still not as well established as a long term storage option versus very reliable and well established optical media. (Blurays also have scratch resistance built in!)
  
  And 80GB of data a month... I wouldn't need that much, but I have used up to 42GB of data in one month on my mobile plan, back when I was on unlimited with Verizon. I have had to since switch to Sprint in order to keep unlimited for a similar monthly price, and their network is not nearly as robust nation wide, so I do not have access to quick cloud uploads/downloads once I get out of town (which is where many of my photo shoots are - I don't do much studio stuff).
  
  The SP3 just fits. Like a glove. And your Intel i7 speeds are always there with full x86 compatibility so you can reasonably do real editing and output on the spot. It's the device I have honestly been hoping someone would make for YEARS.
  
  Apple could have done that and effectively killed of the surface pro line, but instead they've just made a larger version of something they already had, added a few bells and whistles, and mislabeled it a "pro" version.
  
  A "Pro" tablet with 32GB of storage?? Really? How will that work when you're editing all your fancy 4k video on it? Even 128 is HALF of what you get on the 256GB Surface Pro 3, which you can expand to 512 if you have the funds, OR add a 128GB micro SD card to.

• Akrovah - Wednesday, September 9, 2015 - link

  Apple TV can search multiple sources for content? They talk about it like it's revolutionary, but hasn't the Xbox 360 been doing that for years now?