As we say goodbye to August, there’s a lot of good news coming out from a variety of sources:
- Apple makes it official by announcing an event on September 12 at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park
- The ninth developer betas of iOS 11 and tvOS 11 were shipped today
- DJI announced updates to its drone line from the diminutive Spark all the way up to the Phantom 4 Pro
- OWC is now shipping its highly-anticipated OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock
The text version of the podcast can be read below. To listen to the podcast here, click the play button on the player below. Apple News readers need to visit Apple World Today in order to listen to the podcast.
Text Version
This is Steve Sande for Apple World Today, and you’re listening to the AWT News Update for August 31st, 2017.
As you probably saw on Apple World Today this morning, it’s official — Apple will hold an event at Apple Park in the Steve Jobs Theater at 10 AM PT on Tuesday, September 12, 2017. Just about everyone expects the same announcements at the event — the release of most, if not all, of the new operating system versions; the release of the iPhone 8, iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus; the release of a fifth-generation Apple TV that supports 4K HDR video streaming, and a new Apple Watch with built-in LTE support. It could be a very expensive autumn for Apple fans! We’ll have our regular coverage of the event on September 12, and we’ll let you know more about that coverage as the day gets closer.
With the big release date getting closer, Apple today released the ninth developer beta versions of iOS 11 and tvOS 11. Both of those operating systems are likely in their last beta version before the release of the Golden Master — the final shipping version of iOS and tvOS. It’s interesting, but not entirely unprecedented, that macOS 10.13 High Sierra and watchOS 4 were not bumped to a new beta version. It could just be that Apple feels that they’re ready for prime time, or perhaps it’s the opposite and they’ll wait to ship those two operating systems until after iOS and tvOS.
I like to talk about drones, especially those that can be controlled by iOS devices. One of the biggest and most well-known drone companies, DJI, today released some updates to its drone line that might be welcome to Apple World Today listeners and readers. First, the popular Mavic Pro now comes in a new version called Mavic Pro Platinum that’s available starting at $1,099. What makes it special is an extended flight time of 30 minutes, a new platinum finish, and quieter flight — yes, the new Mavic Pro is 4 dB quieter than the regular version. Next, the DJI Phantom 4 Pro will now be available in a new obsidian color, which is basically the “space gray” of drones. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian is still priced at $1,499, and also gets a new gimbal that is built out of magnesia and has an anti-fingerprint coating. Finally, the $499 Spark consumer drone will get a firmware upgrade that provides a way to take panoramic photos and then lay them out in a spherical shape.
Mac upgrade and accessory manufacturer OWC, located on the web at MacSales.com, today announced that its OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock is available for order. This highly-anticipated dock can drive twin 4K displays, connect and charge up to six USB devices, connect to legacy FireWire storage, provide audio output, connect to Ethernet and read SD cards — all through a single Thunderbolt 3 cable. The dock is available in silver or space gray at a price of $299.00.
That’s all for today; I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with another edition of the AWT News Update.
