All of this points to one of the most interesting corners of the Apple ecosystem — a growing suite of financial products within the Wallet app. Many of these features aren’t designed to make money for Apple directly, but they do make Apple Pay more attractive for people who haven’t tried it yet. (Apple takes a tiny percentage of every Apple Pay transaction, so the more people using it, the better it is for Apple.) Like most major new iOS features, it’s also another mechanism to keep customers locked into Apple’s ecosystem and upgrading to a new iPhone when they’re ready. But Apple’s new Wallet features are also coming at a time of great economic uncertainty. Inflation is still going wild. Gas prices continue to hit record highs. And there are plenty of very real fears about an upcoming recession. It could be a tough time for Apple to launch a new product designed to get people to buy more stuff if those trends persist throughout the year.
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The iPhone SE isn’t really made for power users, and that shows in the battery life. It’ll get you through a day if you’re making phone calls and surfing the web, but don’t expect it to last all day if you’re doing a ton of gaming or more processor-intensive tasks. It looks the same as the iPhone SE from 2020, which looked the same as the iPhone 8 from 2017. It does look dated, and there are lots of phones with nicer screens that reach the top and bottom of the phone. The screen is adequate, but won’t wow you like the brighter and faster screens on Apple’s more expensive phones.
TechFinally, while it’s not as water-resistant as Apple’s other iPhones, it can still survive a dunk in the bath or a spill without any worry, and has the same strong glass as other iPhones to help prevent shattering if you drop it. It doesn’t feel cheap like some low-cost Android phones, which often use plastic instead of glass and metal.
Tech BlogWe got our first look at games like Aliens Dark Descent, Fort Solis, Routine, Stormgate, Goat Simulator 3, Midnight Fight Express, One Piece Odyssey, Honkai Starrail and several others. Though many of these games are of the indie variety, it's good to see we're getting some new titles in what has been an otherwise dry year for gaming. While Summer Game Fest 2022 had its fair share of commercials (did we really need to see a trailer for Black Adam during a games show?), the ads didn't feel as blatant as they have in years past. Most of the focus was on game trailers and announcements. And even obvious commercials like the one for Mario Strikers: Battle League were tolerable since they at least announced new games or add-ons.
GamingOn the fintech side, however, Apple is building a foundation to provide a boost to its payments business by layering more functions into Apply Pay and Wallet beyond just using your iPhone, instead of your credit card, to pay for things. And because of Apple’s scale with more than a billion devices in use, a lot more people are about to be exposed to these products. Apple recently announced its new iPhone software, iOS 16, during its developers conference. The new lock screen customization options suggest that at least one of this year’s new iPhones will get a feature Android phones have had for years: an always-on display.
Pc GamingThe picture quality on the Studio Display is good, but it won’t blow you away. I like that text is nice and sharp thanks to the extra pixels, so people who read on their computer for hours per day might want to consider it. And while it might seem expensive, it’s a lot less than the Pro Display XDR Apple also sells, which costs $4,999 before you add in the $1,000 stand. That’s for video professionals who need a bigger, brighter, 32-inch screen and more accurate colors for work.
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5G is nice to have if you care about using your iPad outside of a Wi-Fi network, like on the bus or the train. I usually buy the cellular model because I like having that option. But 5G doesn’t offer consumers all that much yet over the older 4G LTE networks, other than faster downloads, which might be useful if you need to quickly download some movies before hopping on a flight. Just expect to pay about $150 more for the cellular version.
AmazonThe Mac Studio has an excellent, compact design. It’s focused on practicality with plenty of ports to plug anything in. It’s shaped like an aluminum brick, measuring about 8 inches per side and 4 inches tall, elegantly elevated a few millimeters off the desktop for ventilation. I tested the model with Apple’s M1 Max chip, the second-fastest processor Apple makes. Unlike Apple’s laptops before last year’s models, it has plenty of practical ports: two USB-C ports and a reader for SD memory cards like cameras use on the front, and four USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, and an Ethernet and HDMI port on the back. Most people will be able to connect anything to it without a dongle.
Amazon Prime OfferteThe iPhone SE is $30 more than the identically named model that launched in 2020 for $399. It offers more than that model, including support for faster 5G cellular, stronger glass, and the same high-speed processor that appears in the more expensive iPhone 13 (which starts at $699 for the Mini model). But it seems inflation and supply chain constraints could also be playing a role. I think Apple could really have boosted the appeal by dropping the price a bit, considering consumers are getting squeezed everywhere else right now, from the grocery store to the gas pump.
Offerte PcMy biggest ding against the new iPad Air is that the entry-level model gives you only 64GB of storage. That’s probably fine for folks who don’t install a ton of apps and games or prefer to stream movies instead of downloading them. But you may fill that up fast. So, you should consider the 256GB model for $749. But at that point you’re $50 shy of the entry-level iPad Pro, which has a nicer screen, twice the storage and more camera options. Apple should have just put 128GB in the entry-level iPad Air. The screen has great colors and is nice and bright, but it lacks the high refresh rate you’ll get in the iPad Pro. I get that Apple wants to keep the feature on its more expensive iPads, but I think all consumers can benefit from higher refresh rates, from just smoother scrolling through websites and long photo albums to smoother game play. Apple offers the high refresh rate screens only in its pro-level products, though, including in its iPhone 13 Pro and new MacBook Pro.
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