here to break down at all for us is Ian
scher Editor at large at Cnet. Thank you so
much for joining us about this. I know there's
a lot of excitement. What are some of the
newest features from these phones that you're really excited about
though? Yeah, I mean we we had seen
it got to run the phone through its paces and
the things that we found really interesting about it were
actually some of the stuff we couldn't test, namely
S. O. S. By satellite. So
this is a new feature Apple introduced where if you
are in the middle of nowhere, right, imagine
the desert or you decide you want to reenact castaway
with tom Hanks you, you will be able to
actually call for help even though you don't have self
service and this is a really interesting feature, you
can understand why we may not have been able to
test. It is also not going to be coming
out until november. Another feature that they announced is
actually going to be crash detection in a car.
Right? So again, something I don't want to
test, but the idea of being able to actually
identify when you've had been in car crash, ask
if you're okay and if you if you don't respond
or if you say you're not call the authorities for
you. This is something that's pretty popular on the
Apple watch already when it comes to fall detection so
I can see the value there and then some of
the other features they added as well that got a
lot of our attention where that they got upgraded cameras
. Apple has always been known for their cameras and
also this new idea called the dynamic island which is
a silly now for something admittedly but it's a new
way to look at kind of the information that that
black box at the top of the screen typically that's
been there and it's kind of annoying to look at
. It's always been something that Apple's tried to cover
up in its advertising in a certain way. Now
what they're gonna do is actually make it so that
information is up there including like what apps are running
in the background if you have a timer going,
if you have a phone call happening stuff like that
. So interesting, so many different things to dig
into there but I want to talk with you about
the camera feature because I think that's the thing that
so many really get excited about with the new drop
of every iphone and it feels like and this is
just anecdotally, it feels like your camera is never
good enough until you have the best and the latest
version. So is it actually worth the hype this
time? Well, I will tell you that what
a Pulitzer winning photographer told me once which is the
best camera you have is the one that's on you
right now. So you know having a good camera
is helpful but it's not always the most important thing
. So the big thing that Apple changed this time
around is that the cameras are able to handle a
lot more low light performance. So you you can
actually take photos much better in darkness. That's a
that's a really key feature. And something that phones
in general have really struggled with because you know,
the the whole camera is very small and photographs are
about light, right? So the bigger they are
, the more light they can bring in, the
more better photos you're able to get. And so
it's very hard to make all this stuff work.
But they said they came up with new technology that
actually makes it twice as good as the previous generations
will of course have to see how that goes over
time. The other thing also is that they actually
increase the amount of megapixels in there. Right.
The amount of data that's pulling in and part of
that has helped the low light performance. And also
it gives them a little more detail and allows them
to crop the images in new ways. Having a
two X. Zoom instead of just relying on one
and three X for example, I still remember when
they first debuted portrait mode and it was almost like
having a DSLR camera in your pocket and such a
game changer. So I'm still kind of waiting for
something noteworthy to come from Apple to this point.
But I also want to talk with you about some
of the IOS updates that aren't just featured on these
latest pieces of hardware from Apple, but also on
anyone who updates the phone. And one of the
features literally everyone is talking about is people being able
to unsent text messages. So talk about that feature
because I feel like I've seen some screenshots and screen
recordings of it, but just break down exactly how
that works. It got probably the most applause when
Apple announced it too. So it only works in
my message. Right? So it's only a blue
bubble thing. But the idea is that you're able
to hold down your finger on the message that maybe
you screwed up and you wrote coffee or something like
that and you can actually edit the text in it
and be able to resend with the correct language.
This is really helpful for those of us who have
dealt with auto correct, which I don't know anyone
who hasn't had an auto correct happen at one point
or another. So that's that's really great. The
other thing also you can actually delete messages as well
. So this is kind of like, you know
, for those of us in corporate email being able
to recall an email, um it'll be somewhat similar
to in that people will know you deleted it,
right? So it's not like something you should say
something mean and nasty to someone that delete it and
think everything's okay, but it does at least make
things a little easier and maybe you don't have to
send three text messages when you accidentally spell something and
then accidentally spell it again and then finally get it
right, okay. Got it. So both recipients
of these tax on any sort of chain will be
able to see any revision. So it's kind of
similar not to jump too far but with twitter and
how they're allowing for revised tweets. But you see
that there is a revision in play, Is that
kind of what we're saying here? Okay. Got
it in a way you won't be able to see
the history of the of the edits but it will
tell you that this was edited. Right? So
again, it's you know, Apple's not trying to
suddenly become like the text message police here, but
I think they are at least trying to come up
with a way that hey, you can, you
know, fix the spelling mistakes you make, particularly
if you're texting like your boss or maybe your your
parents in law, but at the same time you
can also still be forthright right? And they can
be honest about the fact that you know, hey
maybe you made a mistake that's okay. It just
mentions that you did okay because I was worried for
a second there that I was going to see a
text message deleted from someone and be like, did
I imagine that? Did I dream about that?
Did it actually happen? But any other sort of
features that are coming out with this IOS update that
you're really excited about as well? Yeah, there's
one other thing that's gotten a lot of people's attention
which is actually uh lock screen widgets. So,
you know, normally when you have the phone locked
, it just has the picture that you have there
. And then the time of day, now they're
going to start adding stuff, like you can have
your Apple Watch's battery or what the, you know
what the weather is outside and All sorts of other
stuff, so they're trying to make it more interesting
. And then with the iPhone 14 pro, going
back back for a second, it actually hasn't always
on display. So some of those widgets will actually
tell you what's going on, even when the phone
is off, because you'll be able to see information
on the screen. So that's especially gonna be helpful
for sports fanatics who will be able to look at
the game, even though they don't have to turn
on their phone. Lots of good stuff. That's
Ian Scher editor at large at Cnet. Thank you
so much for joining us and for sharing those updates
on the iPhone 14