Apple: Recycling Festival with the new iPhone 14 and Apple Watch

Can you also feel the crisp September air, the light breeze and the coolness that herald the most important tech event of the year?

On September 7, 2022, at the Steve Jobs Theater, Apple presented the New range of iPhones of 2022, the 14 and 14 Pro models and the new Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra.

But this year, I admit, as a technology enthusiast I am trying for the first - or umpteenth - time of disappointment.

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The reality of the facts is that Apple introduced the iPhone 12+2 with an exorbitant price and justified only by the sum of the numbers.

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That the ideas are over?

Or even worse, that the smartphone as we know it today has reached its maximum limit?

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For those who missed it, here is the presentation:

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Let's go in order and Let's figure out together if it's worth wasting money this year for nothing done and many suffixes Plus, Pro, Ultra and Super Saiyan.

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New Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra

To a great surprise - it's not true, we have had leaks since February - this year Apple has outdone itself and in addition to the brand new - and recycled - Apple Watch Series 8 presented the phantasmagorical Apple Watch Ultra for real sportsmen.

Let's start with the recycled.

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All the news of the new Apple Watch Series 8

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This year, as the happy owner of a very decent Apple Watch SE, I was super curious to discover the innovations of New Series 8 But, with bitter and conscious disappointment, we found ourselves nothing poopò less than a Apple Watch Series 7+1 where this year's greatest innovation is the analysis - perfect and super integrated into the ecosystem - of monitoring of the female cycle and ovulation.

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Oh yeah.

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Very useful for women, for goodness sake, but nothing done compared to the previous model.

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I'll list the other - few - news just because I love you:

• Skin temperature sensor, useful for monitoring sleep and periods of fertility in women
• Accident detection, thanks to a new gyroscope - also included in the new iPhone 14 - Apple Watch Series 8 Detect sudden stops on the move and, as in the case of fall detection, analyzes the situation and immediately calls for help, communicating the location of the accident
• Improved battery life which reaches 18 hours and which, thanks to the Low Power Mode introduced with watchOS 9, will even last 36 hours

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And that's it, the design is identical to the 7 series.

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Apple Watch Series 8 prices

Here is the cost of Apple Watch Series 8 in its variants:

• Apple Watch Series 8 41mm GPS: 509€
• Apple Watch Series 8 x 41mm GPS + Cellular: 629€
• Apple Watch Series 8 45mm GPS: 549€
• Apple Watch Series 8 45mm GPS + Cellular: 669€

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Apple Watch Ultra is AWESOME

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The real news on the watch side this year is definitely the brand new Apple Watch Ultra which takes all the functionality of the Cupertino smartwatch to the extreme and which, literally, appropriates the title of “Most Powerful Smartwatch Ever”.

It is a particular, niche and decidedly expensive smartwatch that winks at all extreme sports fans.

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Apple Watch Ultra: new bulky design

The super bulky design of Apple Watch Ultra has shocked everyone, is something never seen at Apple and it's absolutely fantastic, enclosed in a 49-millimeter titanium case.

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Here are all the Apple Watch Ultra design features:

• 49mm titanium case
• Sapphire display flush with the edge of the frame and twice as bright as Apple Watch Series 8, very useful under the sun
• The Digital Crown is larger and has grooves on the ring, presumably for easier use with gloves
• On the left side of Apple Watch Ultra there is the news, a new programmable 'action' button with quick actions from the settings
• New speaker that in dangerous situations makes a sound 86 decibel emergency siren, audible up to 180 meters
• New special Alpine Loop and Ocean Band straps designed for extreme high-speed sports, promising greater elasticity and a practical tab for quick adjustments without taking off the watch.

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Apple Watch Ultra: all the features

The real 'fat' of Apple Watch Ultra, in addition to the new design, we find it in the exclusive functions introduced by Apple and designed specifically for 'extreme' situations (although let's face it, we'll all buy it and use it at school or in the office, the most extreme thing we'll do will be breakfast at 7 in the morning).

So unless you do extreme sports or you like to get lost in the desert, I recommend that you move towards a Apple Watch Series 8 or even an SE.

Then, if you like to waste money, go ahead.

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Here are all the great features introduced for Apple Watch Ultra:

• Completely renewed compass app, it is possible to save specific waypoints and markers on the map and, through a new tracking function, Is it possible to retrace the path just taken (in short, if you get lost you know how to go back)
• GPS enhanced with the new L frequency5 for a position as accurate as possible
• Exclusive Wayfinder dial which encompasses all the complications associated with outdoor sports
• New 'Night' mode, which can be activated by rotating the Digital Crown, which makes the interface red for greater visibility
• New Ocean+ app for scuba diving to accurately measure even sports such as scuba diving and in addition, Apple is working with Huish Outdoors to turn the Apple Watch Ultra into an underwater computer from the wrist.

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And last but not least, Apple Watch Ultra battery life reaches 36 hours of use standard and up to 60 hours in WatchOS 9 energy saving mode.

The peculiarity of the new energy saving mode introduced with watchOS 9 is that, trivially, it disables all energy-intensive functions such as automatic sleep and sports monitoring activities.

In short, the perfect watch for Bear Grylls.

Apple Watch Ultra prices

Here is the cost of Apple Watch Ultra in its variants:

• Apple Watch Ultra GPS + Cellular: 1009€

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New iPhone 14 and 14 Pro

The presentation of the iPhone, now 14 years old, is always something unique that has the power to stop the world for 60 minutes.

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Unfortunately, for a couple of years now, however, I have felt less and less desire to see his presentation and more and more acquaintances respond to my enthusiasm with a “oh well, it will be the same as the old one”.

And iPhone 14, like never before, has confirmed the problem of recent years: Total flatware in innovation.

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We could say that, for all intents and purposes, after the presentation of the legendary iPhone 12, the next models were:

• iPhone 12 + 1
• iPhone 12 + 2

For goodness sake, I don't want to make trivial controversy, but to ask a simple question: have we perhaps reached the maximum limit of smartphones as we know them today?

The answer is that maybe we are really on edge and that, in a few years, We will experience the new digital revolution with quantum computers and augmented reality.

Or we'll die with World War III, we'll see 😂.

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But stop the chatter, let's analyze this year's news proposed with the dropper by Apple.

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iPhone 14: Plus model and goodbye mini

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Apple has announced the new iPhone 14 Ed iPhone 14 Plus, two models whose only difference lies in the 6.1 and 6.7 inch display respectively, with important improvements for the photographic sector, enhanced eSIM and new SOS mode via satellite.

Fine. Ahahah. Come on let's see the details.

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Here's all the news from iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus:

• 6.1 and 6.7 inch OLED display
• A15 Bionic chip, borrowed from iPhone 13 Pro, with 5-core GPU for better gaming performance
• New 12 MP main camera with larger sensor and low-light improvement for more details and colors
• New 'Action' mode for advanced video stabilization Like gimbals
• Improved battery life on iPhone 14 Plus as for the Pro Max models
• New SOS satellite functionality to ask for help where there is no telephone line, as in the countryside of southern Italy (true story: ')
• New incident detection mode like on Apple Watch Series 8
• In America it is sold only with eSIM, no physical slot FINALLY

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In short, a beautiful iPhone 13 + 1, or an iPhone 12 + 2, simply more expensive.

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Prices of iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

Here is the cost of iPhone 14 and 14 Plus in its variants:

• iPhone 14 128GB: 1029€
• iPhone 14 256GB: 1159€
• iPhone 14 512GB: 1419€
• iPhone 14 Plus 128GB: 1179€
• iPhone 14 Plus 256GB: 1309€
• iPhone 14 Plus 512GB: 1569€

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iPhone 14 Pro: Apple's real innovation

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This year's Pro version of iPhone - YES I'M ABOUT TO SAY IT - is really fantastic and, despite the little hardware innovation, theiPhone 14 Pro stands on the podium of mobile innovation for the novelty - unique to tell the truth - this year: the Dynamic Island.

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There is also the new 48 MP camera - FINALLY - but let's go step by step.

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Finally we can say it: theIt was the iPhone's notch, which made fans discuss so much, Is it officially over.

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Over the years, all Apple's competitors have always tried, in addition to shamelessly copying, to innovate and propose alternatives to the heavy notch introduced with iPhone X.

Between holes everywhere and mechanical solutions for elementary school homework, Samsung and All other smartphone manufacturers have always tried to solve the notch problem by working on hardware, almost completely ignoring the software.

Apple, after years of reducing the notch by 1 mm per model, has pulled it out of the cylinder, reaping for all intents and purposes the fruits of the investments of recent years.

Leaks have been popping up like mushrooms for maybe 2 months about the 'new notch' of iPhone 14 Pro But everything we would have expected except for a solution as simple as it is beautiful and innovative like the Dynamic Island.

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Let's dive in to discover the news of this iPhone 14 Pro “innovative enough to sell 15.”

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iPhone 14 Pro: all the news

We can say hands down that that ofiPhone 14 Pro It is perhaps themost substantial and significant update in recent years for a Pro model.

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Here's all the news from iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max:

• Dynamic Island, a new pill-shaped notch for Face ID and front camera that dynamically changes size based on alerts, notifications, calls, use of Face ID, connection of devices such as AirPods and background activities along the lines of Live Activities on the iOS 16 lockscreen.
• New 1600 nit display with thinner frames, reaching 2000 nits of maximum brightness (like Apple Display XDR)
• Always on display, finally on iPhone thanks to a new technology that allows refresh rates of up to 1 hz
• A16 Bionic chip built with a 4-nanometer production process, 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU and enhanced Neural Engine for computational photography processes.
• New 48 MP camera for super sharp photos in Apple ProRaw and super low light performance thanks to the new Photonic Engine
• Cinema mode finally in 4K up to 40 fps and new 'Action' mode for advanced stabilization in video like on gimbal
• Better battery life
• New incident detection mode like on Apple Watch Series 8

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iPhone 14 Pro prices

Here is the cost of iPhone 14 and 14 Plus in its variants:

• iPhone 14 Pro 128GB: 1339€
• iPhone 14 Pro 256GB: 1469€
• iPhone 14 Pro 512GB: 1729€
• iPhone 14 Pro Max 128GB: 1489€
• iPhone 14 Pro Max 256GB: 1619€
• iPhone 14 Pro Max 512GB: 1879€

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Which iPhone to get in 2022?

Parenthesis on the fly to understand which iPhone to buy in 2022 and what to evaluate for each model.

The choice of iPhone is always as simple as it is complex:

• Do you have money to spend? Change it every year and so on.
• Don't you want to waste money? Change it every two or three years.

Basically I recommend doing this:

• If you have iPhone 12 or 13 don't take the 14, you're wasting money and There is little news to justify the expense
• If you have an iPhone X, XR or 11 consider iPhone 13 or a good used iPhone 12 because the prices of the iPhone 14 are exorbitant
• If you have an iPhone 12 Pro or 13 Pro, consider carefully why the main innovation of Dynamic Island does not drastically impact the user experience and you would have only your model but without a notch
• If you don't have an iPhone, first be ashamed and then go for iPhone 13 because you won't regret it

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Conclusions

Mamma mia what a journey between disappointments and surprises!

Apple, like every year, makes us dream and even this time, despite the usual release of news at the dropper, it has managed to surprise everyone with the best software news ever, the Dynamic Island, which I loved madly as a UX Designer.

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And what iPhone are you going to get?

I think I'll wait, I have a very decent iPhone 13 Pro that goes off like a bomb, but I already know that I will not resist and I will have a beautiful iPhone 14 Pro Silver.