What Apple Didn’t Highlight During Its September Event (Premium)

This week’s Apple event was typical for Apple in that it was big on hyperbole, but it was also atypical in that there wasn’t much big news. And that made for an interesting infomercial in which what Apple didn’t say mattered more, in many ways, than what it did say.

I don’t write that to be critical of the products that Apple announced: Each is, as I wrote yesterday, an evolutionary update* to an existing and mature product, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The only issue I have is with Apple itself: It’s so over the top when it promotes the relative improvements in everything it releases that yesterday’s event came off as even less credible than usual. Yeah, we get it, Tim, the best iPhones you’ve ever made. Obviously.

(* The one notable exception is the new iPad mini, which should be marketed as the iPad Air mini. In taking on this new---for the mini---design, Apple’s smallest iPad has surged ahead in design and usability in ways that none of the other products it announced have. If you’ve been holding out for a new iPad mini, it’s time.)

Anyway, this can’t be a definitive list, as I’m just not as immersed in the Apple world as some others. But even to this relative outsider, there were so many things left unsaid that I feel it warrants discussion. So let’s dive in.
iPad

Same tired design with huge bezels and a proprietary Lightning port instead of USB-C. Yes, this is Apple’s cheapest iPad, and reusing the same design year after year helps keep down the costs. (And, more important to Apple, helps keep up the margins.) But this design sticks out like an aging thumb in the iPad lineup because the look hasn't changed almost at all since the iPad 2 in 2011.
Apple Pencil (1st generation) only. Apple quickly noted that the “new” iPad supports Apple Pencil, but this is the aging first-generation Apple Pencil only, not the superior 2nd-generation version that works with iPad Pro, iPad Air, and the new iPad mini. That means you’ll be charging it from the tip over Lightning like a jerk and hoping it doesn’t keep rolling off the table, which it will.

iPad mini

As noted, this one should have been called the iPad Air mini. It’s a great design. But no mini keyboard case? :)

Apple Watch Series 7

No new design. I get it, this wasn’t Apple’s fault per se, as it had never announced a new design, but one of the top rumors this year was that the next Watch would get the same squared-off design we see on the new iPhones (which is based on the iPhone 4 and 5 series handsets). And that didn’t happen: Instead, the Apple Watch Series 7 uses an almost identical bulbous design to its predecessor (albeit with a bigger display, which is great). The other good news? All the straps are compatible across the generations.
Same processor. The Apple Watch Series 7 should be marketed as the Apple Watch Series 6 Pro, since it’s the exact same device internally, with the same processor/S...