Apple Reveals What's Going on Under the Hood

Hullo —Alex Webb here. I’m sheltering from the 90-degree Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) heat under a canopy overlooking the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, curled over my laptop from the spot where the world’s TV crews have been broadcasting since the early hours. Down in the venue itself, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled on Tuesday, as expected, a handful of new iPhones, an Apple Watch and TV set-top box, products which could encourage consumers to direct an estimated $86 billion into Apple’s coffers over the holiday shopping period.

There were no real surprises —the high-end $999 iPhone X (following the Latin taxonomy, it’s pronounced ‘ten’) unlocks with a 3-D facial recognition system dubbed Face ID, and boasts an edge-to-edge OLED screen which contributes to another two hours of battery life; the Apple Watch Series 3 offers cellular connectivity, as software chief Craig Federighi demonstrated by calling an employee who was standing on a paddle board in the middle of a lake; and the TV set-top box supports 4K video, as well as the ability to livestream news and sports from apps such as ESPN and, dare I say it, Bloomberg TV.