Apple's Brooklyn Event Part 1: Newly Redesigned, Gorgeous MacBook Air

Apple Announces A Long-Waited Update to the MacBook Air and more at its Special Event today at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House

Image via Apple

Apple’s Special Event today was held in Brooklyn at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), indicating a creative bent to the event. Journalists invited to the event received unique invitations as indicated by the image below.

Image via Journalist Shara Tibken

After the live stream event, Apple also provided a demo room for journalists at Skylight One Hanson, providing a dramatic and gorgeous setting.

Image via Journalist Shara Tibken

Image via Apple

Image via Apple

In Part 1, we cover the new MacBook Air. Apple also released an updated iOS 12.1 for iPhones and iPads. See our coverage here. The new MacBook Air is available for purchase today at Apple starting at $1,199. It will be available in Apple retail stores and via Apple Authorized Resellers by Wednesday, November 7. Tech specifications, configuration options and accessories are available here.

Images via Apple

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Newly Redesigned MacBook Air

Apple revealed a long-awaited update to the MacBook Air, beloved among existing Apple users for its powerful functionality and lightness that Steve Jobs famously demonstrated in 2008, by pulling the thin laptop out of an envelope. The laptop has been surpassed over the years by the MacBook Pro and the newer MacBook, both of which had additional functionality and high resolution Retina displays. Today’s event brought the MacBook Air to the forefront with its first redesign in eight years, by adding a high-resolution Retina display, Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) and Touch ID, while still being smaller and lighter than MacBook Pros.

The new MacBook Air is thinner and lighter than prior models, but still maintains its distinctive wedge-shaped design, while adding up to four times the prior resolution in prior models with the addition of a new Retina display. Aluminum bezels around the old display have also been removed, offering a closer edge-to-edge display. With a third-generation butterfly keyboard that is quieter and presumably more dust-resistant than prior laptop models, and precision build quality with a 10 percent recycled aluminum, the MacBook Pro is the greenest computer available today. The custom aluminum alloy used helps decrease MacBook Air’s carbon footprint by almost 50 percent.

“MacBook Air has become the most beloved notebook ever.”

— Tim Cook, Apple CEO

Image via Apple

You can open the lid with just one finger and use the large touchpad (20 percent larger than prior models) that has Force Touch. The new 13-inch MacBook Air is available in three finishes — gold, space gray and silver. The newer version also sports faster SSDs, wide stereo sound, the Apple T2 Security Chip and Thunderbolt 3, while running Apple’s latest software system, macOS Mojave. The newer MacBook Air has lost a few of its old ports, replacing them with a pair of Thunderbolt ports on the left side and a solo headphone jack on the right side. Still compact and portable, the new MacBook Air delivers up to 12 hours of battery life. The latest model also is thinner and lighter, taking up 17 percent less volume while being 10 percent thinner, measuring only .61 inches at its thickest point, and weighing 2.75 pounds - up to a quarter pound lighter than the previous model.

Image via Apple

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Retina Display

Image via Apple

By adding Retina display to the MacBook Air, Apple brings the thin laptop up to par with its other high end model, MacBook Pro to provide high fidelity image processing and access to higher quality screen resolution. The new MacBook Air has a gorgeous 13.3-inch Retina display with 4 million pixels of resolution for stunning imagery and video displays via macOS Mojave and with 48 percent more color than prior versions.

The 13.3-inch Retina display comes with a native resolution of 2560 x 1600, and scaled resolutions of 1680 x 1050, 1440 x 900, and 1024 x 640. Using the Intel UHD Graphics 617, The new MacBook Air can support an external display with 5120 x 2880 resolution up to 60Hz or can support two external displays with 4096 x 2304 resolution at up to 60Hz via Thunderbolt 3.

The new MacBook Air has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, enabling you to charge your laptop, transfer data via USB and Thunderbolt, output video in three formats and connect to a variety of devices ranging from external storage, 4K and 5K displays, docks for ports and eGPUS for fast graphics processing.

This is further enhanced by the addition of the 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor, Intel UHD Graphics and quick 2133 MHz up to 16GB in the MacBook Air that features SSDs up to 1.5TB in capacity. The MacBook Air has faster and more powerful processing for daily activities that include editing photos and videos.

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Group FaceTime

Image via Apple

The new MacBook Air has a built-in FaceTime HD camera, allowing you to do Group FaceTime calls for up to 32 people via iOS 12.1 and benefits from the new laptop’s better sound quality via the microphone and Siri’s enhanced voice recognition.

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Enhanced Security via Touch ID and Apple’s T2 Security Chip

Image via Apple

The new MacBook Air now has Touch ID, the fingerprint sensor built right into the keyboard. This enables you to quickly unlock your MacBook Air, authenticate your identity and purchase items online securely with Apple Pay.

Image via Apple

MacBook Air comes with a new Apple T2 Security Chip to protect your Touch ID information and to ensure that software loaded during the boot process is not been tampered with. The T2 has an SSD controller with data encryption for everything stored on the SSD, thus making the MacBook Air have a secure boot process and the most secure storage of any laptop. T2 also has a processor that enables Hey Siri features for quick requests like finding files and opening apps.

Image via Apple

Image via Apple

The new T2 Security Chip also proactively prevents hacking via MacBook Air microphones via a mechanism that terminates the laptop’s microphone from functioning when the lid is closed. This in effect means that no malware installed on the laptop will be able to listen to your conversations after you close the computer via any software hacks and tricks. In new documentation about Apple’s T2 Security Chip, Apple explains, “All Mac portables with the Apple T2 Security Chip feature a hardware disconnect that ensures that the microphone is disabled whenever the lid is closed. This disconnect is implemented in hardware alone, and therefore prevents any software, even with root or kernel privileges in macOS, and even the software on the T2 chip, from engaging the microphone when the lid is closed."

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Better Audio Quality

The new MacBook Air also improves upon prior model’s microphone audio quality. The latest model features advanced speakers and better audio processing technology for better stereo playback, louder speakers (25 percent more) with greater bass, dynamic range and fuller sound for a fuller and more immersive audio experience.

iOS 12.1 Brings Group FaceTime, Over 70 New Emoji, Depth Control in Cameras and Dual SIMs

Apple Announced 4 New Features at its Brooklyn Event today with iOS 12.1 available for download today for iPhones and iPads

The iOS 12.1 update is available on all eligible devices over-the-air via the Settings app. Access the free update by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Having your iPhone or iPad plugged into a power source is recommended.

Group FaceTime

With iOS 12.1, Apple offers Group FaceTime for up to 32 people simultaneously. You can easily add another person, use camera effects, join an existing FaceTime call and use Animoji and Memoji features. FaceTime now actually sizes a person’s image in relationship to how active the person is during the call, bringing prominent speakers to the forefront. You can also bring a person to the forefront with just a tap. Joining calls is not disruptive, and announced just by a simple ringless notification.

Group FaceTime integrates into the Messages apps so that you can start a chat right from iMessages. All FaceTime conversations remain private, whether one-to-one or with multiple individuals.

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Image via Apple

Apple embraced emojis early on, creating beautiful and simple images that have become widespread in use, replacing words and expressing emotions and moods in fun, creative ways. Back in November 2017, we featured Shigetaka Kurita in our Facebook series “100 Things We Love About Design” and “People You May or May Not Know.”

Emoji inventor Shigetaka Kurita

Back in 1995, while working at Docomo, a pager company in Japan, Kurita came up with the concept of 'emojis' that became instantly popular. Kurita also worked on 'i-mode' - the world's first mobile Internet platform that was quickly adopted in Japan and gave the country a 10-year headstart in technology over the rest of the world no less! 

An economics major himself, Kurita was not a designer but nonetheless put together a complete set of 176 12 pixel by 12 pixel characters to cover the entire range of human emotion!

As you can see, some of the emojis Kurita designed back in 1995 are still in use today!

Emojis by Shigetaka Kurita

Image via Apple

Image via Apple

Image via Apple

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Depth Control in Camera Preview

iOS 12.1 brings Depth Control in Camera Preview to iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. In earlier versions of iOS 12, Depth Control was only available for post-capture editing. Now you can use Depth Control to adjust the depth of field of your Portrait Mode photos before you capture them. To use this new feature when you create an image composition, tap on the ‘F’ icon at the top of the screen. Drag the slider to adjust the amount of background blur in the image. 

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Dual SIM Support

iOS 12.1 also brings Dual SIM Support Comes to iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. This is an exciting feature for anyone who travels. You can now activate a cellular plan from a carrier without using a physical SIM card. This new feature is available through the existing physical SIM slot and the eSIM. This is available in all countries, except in China where new iPhones have two SIM card slots.

Apple Developing High Voltage Battery Power Converters Used for Sports Cars Similar to Porsche

Apple has been working on ways to improve power transfer systems in electric vehicles, which could assist with running low power equipment inside cars, similar to Porsche and other electric car manufacturers.

Porsche’s Floor Battery, Image via Porsche

Porsche’s Mission E electric car

As the electric car market heats up spurred on by Tesla’s push for widespread charging stations across the United States and worldwide, new models have been appearing in well known car manufacturers, known for precision engineering such as Daimler (owner of Mercedes Benz) and also newer players such as Faraday Future.

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Apple’s Proposal for Converter Architecture

Apple has applied for a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, published October 11th of this year for "Converter Architecture.” The patent explains how power from a high voltage source could be converted to a lower voltage, and how this can be used in automotive systems.

Both electric and hybrid vehicles are usually power by a high energy source such as a high voltage battery. This system powers the car’s initial movement and also powers internal components and systems ranging from the dashboard to air conditioning, battery controllers and infotainment. Converters that are typically used today are inefficient and vary in their electrical output. This could in turn, damage low voltage components.

Apple Voltage Regulator

Apple has proposed a solution to use an unregulated direct current (DC) converter changing the high energy source into a lower voltage. This in turn, is passed on to a second regulated DC converter that will regulate the vehicle’s voltage. In addition, a second lower-voltage power source like a battery could be connected to a regulated converter and recharged. If the power sent to the regulated converter is below acceptable thresholds, then the second power source will offer a supplemental power, thus ensuring that the vehicle can fully power all connected components. This proposal is intended to assist in the conversion of battery power for both buses and automotive vehicles that have electric vehicle power trains. 

Given the patent’s cited high voltage numbers of 800 volts (initial high source) to 48 volts (lower voltage for connected components), it can be expected that the patent is intended for high performance vehicles ranging from sports cars to buses. To put this voltage number in perspective, consider Tesla’s Model S, a luxury vehicle intended for consumers that is known for its initial fast acceleration. The Model S uses a battery voltage of 375 volts.

How and when Apple will use this system is not yet evident, although the company has also filed patents for sunroofs and headlight systems. Well known industry TF International Securities analyst Ming Chi-Kuo has predicted that Apple will come out with its own vehicle down the road, potentially between 2020 and 2025 with excellent integration of hardware, software and services. TF International Securities is a financial services group in the Asia-Pacific region. Ming Chi-Kuo regularly collects intelligence from his contacts in Apple's Asian supply chain, analyzes the data and compiles research notes for his investor clients. Ming Chi-Kuo has become well known as an Apple industry expert for his accurate assessments and predictions. Kuo predicts that a nw Apple Car would revolutionize the automobile market like the iPhone did in 2007.  

“We expect that Apple Car, which will likely be launched in 2023–2025, will be the next star product. The reasons for this are as follows: (1) Potentially huge replacement demands are emerging in the auto sector because it is being redefined by new technologies. The case is the same as the smartphone sector 10 years ago; (2) Apple’s leading technology advantages (e.g. AR) would redefine cars and differentiate Apple Car from peers’ products; (3) Apple’s service will grow significantly by entering the huge car finance market via Apple Car, and (4) Apple can do a better integration of hardware, software, and service than current competitors in the consumer electronics sector and potential competitors in the auto sector.”

— Ming Chi-Kuo, TF International Securities analyst

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At Elf, we have been working on a variety of connected car innovations with our automotive clients since 2016. Some of these models are now coming to market at the start of 2019. We are excited about the future for automotive vehicles and how we can contribute in the best way to provide consumers with delightful, intuitive experiences.