Apple's autumn event, streamed from the Steve Jobs Theater on Wednesday, 7 September 2022 under the name "Far Out", opened with the watch rather than the phone. Chief operating officer Jeff Williams introduced Apple Watch Series 8, the first with a body-temperature sensor, before Tim Cook handed over to the iPhone 14 family. Here is what was announced and what it costs.
Apple Watch Series 8, Ultra and SE
- Series 8, $399 ($499 with cellular). Two temperature sensors take readings overnight, mainly for retrospective ovulation estimates and cycle tracking; crash detection uses new high-g motion sensors to call emergency services after a car accident; a low-power mode stretches the 18-hour battery to 36. Colours: midnight, starlight, silver and red in aluminium.
- Watch Ultra, $799. A 49 mm titanium watch for divers, climbers and endurance athletes: a brighter, larger screen, a customisable Action button, dual-frequency GPS, a siren, water resistance to 100 metres and 36 hours of battery, 60 in low-power mode.
- Watch SE, $249. The cheap one, now with the faster chip and crash detection.
AirPods Pro 2, $249
A new H2 chip doubles the noise cancelling, adds touch volume control on the stem, six hours of battery per charge, and a case that can be found with the Find My network and charged from an Apple Watch charger.
iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and Pro Max
The iPhone 14 ($799) and the new 6.7-inch 14 Plus ($899) keep last year's A15 chip with a better camera and, in the United States, no SIM tray at all: eSIM only. The Pro ($999) and Pro Max ($1,099) get the A16, a 48-megapixel main camera, an always-on display and the Dynamic Island, a pill-shaped cut-out that grows and shrinks to show calls, timers and music, turning the hated notch into a feature. All four add crash detection and Emergency SOS via satellite, which lets a phone with no signal send a short message to rescue services; it launches in the United States and Canada in November, free for two years.
For buyers in Bangladesh
None of this is sold officially here; authorised resellers list the iPhone 14 Pro at roughly Tk 1.5 lakh and grey importers slightly less. Two cautions: the US models have no physical SIM slot, and a US iPhone 14 will not accept a Grameenphone SIM card, so check the model number before buying from a relative abroad; and satellite SOS does not work outside the launch countries. The Watch's crash detection, however, works anywhere a phone can dial 999.
