On September 7th, Apple hosted a special keynote event where, among other things, they revealed the new iPhone 7 models would not have a headphone jack.
That’s not what I’m here to talk about.
What I am here to talk about is some of the other stuff that you probably glossed over when listening to the news after the keynote aired. Because in the two hour presentation, Apple and others revealed a whole slew of new stuff coming this year.
Second, after the iPhone 7 news, the largest announcement that came out of this event was probably the announcement by Nintendo that a new Super Mario game would be coming to iOS. As announced by Mario’s father himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, the game is to be a single-button runner, which looks something like a cross between Flappy Bird and Temple Run. The goal is simple – tap the screen to jump, and get through the courses as fast as you can while collecting the most coins possible. There will also be a multiplayer mode, where courses last a set amount of time, and two players compete to collect the most coins. The game is slated for release in December, before the holiday season.
Another somewhat significant announcement came about iWork – you know, Apple’s Office clones. It seems that now, they’re stepping even further down the path paved by Google Docs, with real-time collaboration being introduced for all three platforms. The feature is currently in beta, but it seems by the tech demo on the stage that it works very similarly to how collaboration works in Google Docs. Of course, while it’s no Office just yet, iWork might prove itself a more powerful tool for collaboration than Google Docs, since it can leverage the power of being a full desktop suite. But with the “beta” label at launch, the jury will be out for a while on this one.
And if any of you have your hands on an Apple Watch, there are some new features coming in the 3rd revision of WatchOS soon. An enhanced messaging system will let you write out messages from your watch, a better multitasking view will let you see your most used apps, and a new SOS feature can help you out if you ever get into trouble somehow. Following these announcements, we also got a visit from the CEO of Niantic, who announced that a companion app for Pokémon GO would be coming soon as well. All you lucky wearable users, you can look forward to grabbing stops and hatching eggs from your wrists by the end of the year.
And that’s just a taste of the other things that Apple’s announced now. Nothing’s gonna beat the headphone jack story, but don’t downplay the other announcements that have been made. After all that’s happened, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim Cook’s got plenty more tricks up his sleeves.