Roger Fingas
Finally putting an end to rumors, Apple this week revealed the iPhone 7, a second-generation Apple Watch, and more at a press event in San Francisco, putting the new devices up for preorder on Friday.
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Everything you need to know:
- The iPhone 7 features new camera tech, more storage, faster processors, and a pressure-sensitive home button > >
- The Apple Watch Series 2 is waterproof with a brighter display and GPS > >
- Apple's AirPods ditch all wires and have a custom W1 chip > >
- iOS 10 comes out Sept. 13, followed by macOS Sierra on Sept. 20 > >
- The original Apple Watch is now cheaper with a faster processor > >
- The first Mario game for iOS is coming in December > >
- Pokemon Go is headed to the Apple Watch > >
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Charles Martin
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5 Comments
I will start the iPhone 7s rumors. There will be a purple version. It will be called the Prince version. Among the many new features will be ringtones for Prince's top 10 songs of all time. Also you will now be able to use Prince's voice for Siri. Apple will include a new Health app that assists you in keeping track of your prescription drugs. Too much to soon?
From a technical standpoint of the event itself, it was one of their best. The streaming was solid and the flow was very tight. I'm not a fan of the 3rd-party app demos but I understand the need, and thankfully they are less than they used to be. Also, they no longer rehash, in a long segment, all the iOS and macOS nee Mac OS X features from WWDC.
It was a good keynote, better than some of the last ones.
I would like Apple to begin researching and integrating certain Tricorder functions into newer versions of iPhones down the line.
It would be awesome, and believe me, I think that it's coming eventually. Not next year, or maybe not even in 5 years, but I think that it's happening.
My experience with Apple Tech Support about my iPhone 7 I ordered. Simply wanted to know if my iPhone 7+ would support both GSM and CDMA. The saga is as follows...
I preordered Unlocked iPhone 7+, single payment a few minutes after preorders went live. I presume this is the sim-free unlocked version, since it was the ONLY Unlocked option.
I need a world phone as my wife is from the Philippines and we travel through China/Hong Kong and Japan in our (too frequent for my age) travels to the Philippines to spend time with her family there.
I noted that my confirmation email listed the iPhone 7+ but put (GSM) out at the end of the description. My cellular account is with AT&T, which is GSM, but I specifically purchased the sim-free Unlocked phone at higher out-of-pocket expense (for me) to get the world-phone.
I called Apple tech support, who didn't seem to know that there were multiple models of that phone in the USA. Specifically, the iPhone 7+ Model A1661 supports both GSM AND CDMA while the model A1784 supports only GSM. This information is on the official public Apple.com iPhone 7 web site under "tech specs". I mentioned this to the tech support guy, who apologized and said that he wasn't aware of this and offered to transfer me to a "senior technical support rep". I said "Sure, sounds good." This is Apple, right? I can see the front-line people only being trained to handle common issues, especially in a new-iPhone-season where they have probably hired many new people, fresh out of training.
The original support rep came back and said the the senior support tech told him that ALL iPhone 7s supported both GSM/CDMA, so there was no need to transfer me. I told him that this was confusing to me considering that the apple.com site said otherwise. I asked him to just give me the model number of the iPhone that I ordered since this info was not reflected in my email or in my online order details. He had NO IDEA what I was talking about; again he talked to the senior tech support rep. He came back and told me simple that they could not support the iPhone 7 since it had not yet shipped.
WTF? I don't need "support" other than to know what model it is. They told me I need to talk to the sales department. "Okay, fine. No problem!" I guess that make sense as the sales department will surely know what iPhones they are selling people.
I finally gave up after 2 hours and 15 minutes of holding. My earpiece started warning me that its battery was low. Maybe I'll have better luck in a few days. If it's the wrong model for me, it may be better just to allow it to come and trade it at an Apple Store; I think if I try to get them to change the order, I'll basically be placing a new order with a November delivery date.
Anyone have any opinions or advice?
Does anyone know how to determine the specific model of phone from an Apple order?