What To Expect From Today's Apple Event

​It's that time of the year you all know and love. The heat and humidity is subsiding. The kids are back in school. You're starting to relish the idea of wearing multiple layers. And yes: it's time for Tim Cook and the Apple Dads to get up on a stage and show you some new telephones and other various bits of consumer technology.

You can read our compelling live blog coverage of the event below. Just refresh this page occasionally you too can enjoy our unique brand of commentary and analysis. Apple events are historically pretty segmented and organized into distinct product launches, so we break out this blog into distinct sections and provide a short summary of what to know.

In the event that you do not want to scroll all the way through this here's the long and short of it. 

There are three new iPhones: The XS the XS Max and the XR. The first two are the logical extension of the iPhone X — better, faster, more productive — while the XR is the more relatively reasonable version that trades on screen and camera quality but still delivers on Apple's new A12 Bionic processor.

There's also a new Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Series 4, that has a larger screen, an updated UI and improved heart rate monitoring capabilities that extend to taking an electrocardiogram.

One thing to note is that they never explained what the dang circle means.

Here's How It Happened (In Reverse Chronilogical Order)

iPhone XR

In Short: The iPhone XR is the pared-down version of the iPhone XS, with an LCD, not OLED display, and a single lens camera. Prices start at $749. Pre-orders start on October 19, and ships on October 24. 

 Unlike the XS, the XR has an LCD screen, not an OLED. It's a 6.1″ display that goes edge to edge. Apple is calling it the "Liquid Retina." Interestingly, it doesn't have 3D touch, but it does have Face ID.

It also sports the A12 Bionic, the same as the XS, but a single-lens camera. So I suppose if you're looking for a faster phone without all the bells and whistles of the XS, the XR is the thing you're looking for?

 Well as expected there's another new iPhone. It's called the iPhone XR. (They're saying it like "Ten Arr") Like, the iPhone 5C it comes in a bunch of different colors. And like the 5C, it's supposed to be a less-expensive option to the XS. A successor to the iPhone 8, if you will.

 iPhone XS

In Short: There are two new iPhones. The iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max. The screens are bigger, the processor is more powerful, the camera is better. It comes in gold. Prices start at $999 for the XS and $1099 for the XS Max. Like the new Apple Watch you can start preorders on September 14 and ships on September 21.

The iPhone XS camera is, you guessed it, better than ever. How so? Well they improved the guts and combined them with a more powerful processor to not only capture better image data, but also process it better. A number that was thrown out was that when you take a photo your iPhone XS can run "a trillion" operations on that image. Good for them. 

An example of this is something called "Smart HDR" which captures the image at multiple exposures and figures out which ones to use to give you that high dynamic range of lighting you know and love. 

Also improved is the depth of field found in portrait mode — you can actually go in and change the depth-of-field after the fact. Just a few years ago, this was only possible with the short-lived purpose-built Lytro camera.

 There's also an AR version of "Galaga" that's like a four-player version of a mini-game found in "Watch Dogs 2." I hope that sentence makes sense to you.

Oh, Steve Nash is here too. He's here to talk about this app called Homecourt which uses machine learning and augmented reality to track your jump shots. And yes, it's all because of the iPhone's A12 Bionic chip. It literally analyzes your jump shot and tells you if it's good or not. I gotta say, it's pretty great that you can now point a phone at someone and it'll say not only that their form sucks, but use numbers to tell you why you're tossing up bricks.

Uh, Bethesda's Todd Howard is here? And he's here to talk about games… on the iPhone XS? There's a new mobile "Elder Scrolls" game called "Blades." Which, Todd Howard tells us, is only possible on iPhone XS. It actually looks like great! And it's, technically, not just "Skyrim" on another platform! Great job Todd!

So what can do you with all of this power? Well, apparently everything you're already used to with the iPhone X — unlocking the phone with your face, play "Fortnite" and take pictures — but also apps launch some 30 percent faster. So, uh, what you'd expect with a more powerful processor. Augmented reality apps should run and look better, if that's your thing.

The iPhone XS comes with a brand new chip: The A12 Bionic. What a name. Normally, I kinda sleep through this part of the presentation because speeds and feeds are kinda, well, what can you do other than say "hey this chip is faster!" But I'm a little struck that this processor has both a CPU and and GPU and a neural engine all within a 7 nanometer chip. Technology!

First up, the screen. They're calling it a Super Retina. The XS comes in two sizes. 5.8 inches and 6.5 inches. Given that 5.8″ screen is already bigger than Apple's plus-size phones, Apple has decided to call the 6.5″ phone the iPhone X S Max. Here are the specs for each. 

 Here it is, the iPhone XS. iPhone X S? iPhone X s? (They're pronouncing it "Ten Ess")

We're only 35 minutes into this traditionally two-hour event and we're already moving on to iPhone? Interesting! Tim Cook says that the iPhone X is the most popular smartphone in the world. He's excited to show us the most advanced iPhone ever created.

 Apple Watch Series 4

In Short: A bigger screen, updated UI design, faster guts, improved crown and expanded heart rate monitoring capabilities. Prices start at $399 with GPs and $499 with cellular. Preorders start on September 14, launching on September 21.

 "This kinda makes you want to take an ECG."

All of this is endorsed by American Heart Association President Dr. Ivor J. Benjamin and the FDA. That's nice.

What's more, the Apple Watch Series 4 heart rate monitor can now monitor your heart activity for low heart rate and atrial fibrillation. An improved heart rate sensor will also let you take an electrocardiogram. I think that's just great. You can use it to take an ECG yourself, it only takes 30 seconds, and the watch will actually diagnose the ECG and file away the data for use for your doctor. 

 The innards are improved as well: a faster processor, an improved gyroscope. The end-result of this? Apple Watch Series 4 can tell when you've fallen and can't get up. This, apparently, is very hard and required a lot of falling research, processing power and a better accelerometer and gyroscope. The end result is if you take a fall the watch will notice and make an emergency call. Most will probably label this as a joke feature only for olds, but I guess it's nice that they implemented this and would imagine that it might actually help some folks.

 The crown of the watch now has haptic feedback, so you can feel like you're scrolling through things. The speaker is also improved, so you can actually hear Siri without Ear Pods. The back of the watch also gains something of a staple of luxury watches, you can see through the back of the watch. This apparently also improves sound and cell reception. Cool I guess.

 A bigger screen allows for more modular watch faces, introducing what Apple calls "complications" or modifications to existing stock displays.

 First up, the screen is about a third larger, extending all the way to the edges of the watch face.

Hey, there's a new generation of Apple Watch. This is what it looks like. It's gold, and the screen is bigger. The Apple Watch Series 4.

 Opening Remarks

Also as is custom, Tim Cook is extolling some stats about Apple. Some 500 million visitors to Apple Stores, 2 billion iOS devices. And… damn Tim, what are those?

 It was all to get Tim Cook his clicker. Look how happy he is.

 As is custom, this Apple Event opens with a promo video. This year it's a "Mission Impossible" themed romp through the Apple campus that, of course, demonstrates the usefulness of the Apple Watch.