Apple didn’t launch major new services. With the exception of the Apple Watch Series 4, most of this year’s product and service releases were safe and predictable. Just as iPhones have “S” years (iPhone 4s, 5s, 6s, etc.) where the design stays the same but everything is just better, this was an “S” year for Apple as a company.
Pages 2018 Software Updates ThatWorks on Windows, MacBut it did deliver a lot of products and software updates that we’ve all wanted for a long time. Deploy to more users for same price. 1/3 the price of Adobe Acrobat. Built-in Apps: iMovie, Photos, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Siri.PDF Studio is an all-in-one, easy to use PDF editor that provides all PDF features needed (see features comparison with Acrobat) at one third the price of Adobe® Acrobat® and maintains full compatibility with the Adobe PDF Standards.But Amazon Echo and Google Home speakers are simply far more useful. In fact, HomePod as delivered in 2018 is the smart speaker we should have expected from Apple in 2016.The HomePod is a new product category for Apple, but it doesn’t break new ground for smart speakersLaunched in February (after missing its promised late-2017 release), HomePod does a great job of making Apple Music sound great, and does a decent job of controlling HomeKit-enabled devices. HomePod is exactly the kind of product we could have guessed Apple would make in order to enter the smart speaker market: expensive, high-quality, great-sounding, and severely hamstrung by the limitations of Siri and HomeKit. HomePod: The little speaker that couldn’t1 Click the Pages button ( ) in the panel docking area, or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F12 (Windows) or Command+F12 (Mac OS), to open the Pages panel.Apple did introduce an entirely new product this year, though it was in a product category already made popular by competitors. Years like 2018 may not be thrilling, but they’re necessary and good.With an upgrade to the A10 Fusion processor and newly-added Apple Pencil support, the new 9.7-inch iPad is a great bargain at $329. The iPad gets a small update, the iPad Pro gets a big oneAt a spring event focusing on the education market, Apple unveiled a new iPad…that is, a new entry-level, 9.7-inch iPad. But releasing a product in a new category (for Apple) that was so roundly panned by critics was an inauspicious way for Apple to start off the year. There’s nothing wrong with HomePod that a bunch of big, big improvements to Siri couldn’t fix. Those problems, along with limited support for third-party audio services, make HomePod a smart speaker that you’ll love to listen to but hate to talk to.The hardware is top-notch, and Apple’s voice recognition and sound quality are second to none in this category. From answering general trivia questions to managing shopping lists, Alexa and Google Assistant are leagues beyond Siri.![]() This is the first significant design update to the iPad line in years, though it’s less about breaking new ground than it is about taking Apple’s new iPhone aesthetic and applying it to the tablet line.The new iPad Pro is a significant shift, but not an unexpected one.The new iPad Pro brought with it a new Apple Pencil, too. It’s got iPhone X design sensibilities, complete with Face ID, no Home button, and small uniform bezels all the way around the display. It’s faster, and it’s equipped with a new A12X chip that outclasses most thin-and-light laptops. Daniel Masaoka/IDGCan you tell which is this year’s model and which is last year’s?The iPad Pro got a more significant update in the fall. Sure, it was added in a software update after launch and is currently limited to the U.S., but it puts Apple way ahead of competitors in terms of smartwatch health features.Apple Watch Series 4 sets the pace for the next several years in the same way the iPhone X did for the iPhone in 2017. It’s definitely capable of doing serious work, but sometimes serious work is more convoluted than it has to be because iOS makes it difficult to do some common tasks (especially when it comes to file management).It took a few months to be released, but the ECG feature is true innovation in a smart watch.And capping it all off, an actual electrocardiogram (ECG) feature. But it’s also much more expensive than its predecessor and hobbled by the limitations of iOS. It’s a fantastic piece of hardware: lightweight, blazing fast, attractive. These may be good design decisions, but it means the iPad and iPad Pro are currently fragmented between compatible accessories, including two very different and mutually exclusive Apple Pencils.Opinions on the new iPad Pro are mixed. The new iPad Pro also dropped Lightning in favor of USB-C. Mac app cleaner freeThose phones get an “S” moniker (e.g., iPhone 4s or iPhone 5s).Last year was…weird. The next year, Apple keeps the same general design, but improves the processor, camera, and adds one significant feature. In one year, we get a totally new phone design with a new number (e.g., iPhone 4 or iPhone 5). The iPhone has an ‘S year’…sort ofFor years, iPhones have followed a two-year cadence. ![]() It’s simply unreasonable, after all, to expect Apple to reinvent the iPhone every year. But there’s no feature in these iPhones that we haven’t seen anywhere before, and they still carry the same general visual appearance. The A12 processor is a lot faster than the A11. It comes in a bunch of colors, too.As much as Apple has gone off-script with iPhone models, it still didn’t wow us with a new design or amazing new features this year. Special k for mac sierra 1013There’s more RAM, more I/O options, much faster graphics—it’s a tiny little powerhouse. Fusion drives are gone in favor of SSDs. It went from dual-core, fourth-generation Intel Core processors to eighth-generation processors with up to six cores. This has robbed it of its uniqueness, but at least Apple is no longer selling 2015 technology at 2018 prices.The Mac mini jumped in price to $799, but got a huge boost in performance. The new MacBook Air gives us a design reminiscent of other modern Macs—USB-C only, Retina Display, True Tone, better speakers, and Apple’s latest keyboard and trackpad. Apple had at times been slow to adopt new Intel processors, and some key products languished for years with only the slightest of upgrades.Apple followed that up in the fall with updates to a pair of long-neglected Macs: the MacBook Air and Mac mini. IOS 12 focuses on addressing grievancesEvery year Apple wows us at WWDC with a bunch of promises of what the new version of iOS will bring. Apple seems to be playing it safe with Mac updates, delivering performance improvements but not truly pushing the envelope. Where’s Face ID on the Mac? Why do they all still force upon us a keyboard that nobody seems to like? What about bringing the display innovations we see in the iPad Pro, like ProMotion or HDR, to the Mac? Where’s that ARM-based MacBook with an Apple-designed processor?In 2018, Apple gave us some of what we wanted by finally bringing long-neglected Macs up to par, but it didn’t go any further. And it’s packed with ports.But we’re still waiting on an all-new Mac Pro—maybe 2019 will be our year!—and the overall MacBook design is in need of an overhaul. Stability was great from the start, with only very minor problems relative to prior iOS releases. The renewed focus on performance made old devices feel new again. Apple fans were annoyed by a long list of complaints that seemed to fall on deaf ears: iOS has gotten too slow! Notifications are a mess! Maps is terrible! There are no parental controls!With iOS 12, Apple took a different approach.
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