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in the early morning of september 10, 2024, apple held its autumn new product launch conference. as in previous years, apple will leave some suspense at each launch conference, waiting for various technology media or consumers to discover. although the new products have not yet started shipping, we have also sorted out some details that were not mentioned in the conference. let's take a look to see if there are any that you are interested in.

wireless fast charging

the issue of wireless fast charging for apple watch and iphone was not explained in detail at the press conference, but it has attracted much attention.

first of all, some models of apple watch series 10, apple watch ultra 2, and apple watch se (2nd generation) sold in china do not support wireless fast charging. even if you use the apple watch magnetic fast charger that comes with the old watches, you can't charge these watches.

these watches can only be charged with the included or purchased apple watch magnetic charger. it is not clear how the shielding is implemented, but considering apple's preference for sharing the same hardware, it is more likely to be a software limitation.

according to the interim provisions on radio management of wireless charging (power transmission) equipment, which came into effect on september 1 this year:

article 4 the operating frequency range of mobile and portable wireless charging equipment is 100-148.5khz, 6765-6795khz, and 13553-13567khz frequency bands, and the rated transmission power shall not exceed 80w.

it is not difficult to find from relevant documents that the main operating frequency of magsafe and qi2 is 360khz, which means that they cannot be used for wireless charging according to the new domestic regulations.

why does the regulation restrict this frequency band? from the perspective of radio management, each frequency band often has a designated purpose, which is generally negotiated and formulated by the international telecommunication union (itu). china also adopts the itu division method, which is reflected in the ministry of industry and information technology's document "radio frequency division regulations". according to the regulations, 325-405khz is used for aviation radio navigation services. therefore, the new regulations avoid this frequency band, probably out of consideration to avoid interference.

apple refers to these regulations collectively as wireless power transfer (wpt) regulations, and states:

…wpt-compliant apple watch magnetic charger to usb‑c cable (1m). this charger does not support or charge other apple watch models.

similarly, the iphone’s fast charging is also restricted by wireless power transmission (wpt) regulations, so the iphone 16 series sold in mainland china this year does not support up to 25w magsafe wireless charging.

in the united states, apple's hometown, the federal communications commission (fcc) also uses the itu frequency planning table to allocate 360khz to aviation radio. why is there no such restriction on the us version of the device? this is because according to fcc regulations, consumer-grade low-power devices can use frequency bands that are not allocated to them without interfering with the allocated purpose and after going through the specified testing and declaration process. in addition, the fcc is also relatively advanced, issuing guidelines that clearly allow the use of frequency bands for magsafe-type wireless charging devices and simplifying some certification processes.

but apple itself is not without responsibility for the fact that apple watch cannot use fast charging in china this time. first of all, the draft for comments on the wireless charging specification was available as early as 2021, and there was an additional public notice in june 2023. apple theoretically had a full year to deal with this issue, but from the results it was clear that it did not deal with it in a timely manner. for example, the magsafe wireless charger (and related modules) supports ota, which means that in theory it is possible to change the frequency through ota to achieve fast charging within the frequency band allowed in a specific area, but apple does not seem to be actively exploring this approach.

at present, we can only hope that apple can achieve higher wireless charging power through ota upgrades in the future.

iphone

although apple changed lighting to the more widespread usb-c interface starting with the iphone 15 series, the iphone 15 series uses usb 2.0 with a transmission rate of 480 mbps, the same as the previous lightning interface; while the iphone 15 pro series uses usb 3.0 with a transmission rate of 10gb/s.

this year's iphone 16 and 16 plus still maintain usb 2.0 speeds; and the a18 pro chip, which was marked at the launch conference as supporting the faster usb 3, actually still has a usb-c speed of 10gb/s for the iphone 16 pro and pro max.

in terms of 5g networks, the parameters of the entire iphone 16 series are consistent with the previous generation. only the us version of the iphone uses millimeter wave technology. other regions support sub-6ghz, but there are still some differences in the frequency band. as for wireless networks, the entire iphone 16 series supports wi-fi 7. however, apple emphasizes that "wi-fi 6e and wi-fi 7 are only available in countries or regions that support this feature", so the specific situation depends on the network planning and arrangements in various places.

this year, the rear cameras of the iphone 16 series all support taking space photos. it seems that apple has begun to vigorously promote space video shooting, but the resolution is still 1080p (30 fps).

however, the focus of this camera update is still equipped with an anti-reflective lens coating. all cameras in the iphone 16 pro series are equipped with anti-reflective lens coating, while only the fusion camera (main camera) of the iphone 16 regular series uses anti-reflective coating. it is hard to say how effective the anti-reflective lens coating is, but at least the "ghosting" should be saved.

in terms of file formats, according to macrumors, the iphone 16 pro series now supports the jpeg-xl format, which has a higher compression rate and supports both lossy and lossless compression. however, the default format of ios is still heic, but users can manually switch to the jpeg-xl format.

in terms of memory, according to macrumors, compared to last year's iphone 15 series, which only had 6gb of memory, this year's iphone 16 and iphone 16 pro series (four models) are equipped with 8gb of ram, designed to better run apple smartphones. although apple said that apple smartphones will support chinese next year, unfortunately, apple smartphones in china still "need to be approved by regulators later before this feature can be used."

in terms of battery, thanks to the larger battery of the entire iphone 16 series, the battery life has been significantly improved; however, due to the larger battery, the 20w charger cannot charge the iphone 16 pro max series to 50% within 30 minutes, and it takes 35 minutes. in addition, according to the current exposure of the charging details of the new mobile phone by the china quality certification center, the entire iphone 16 series may support a maximum charging speed of 15v 3a, which is a maximum charging speed of 45w. however, after testing, a blogger found that the maximum charging speed of the iphone 16 series is 35w.

iphone 16 series is marked as 5-15vdc, 3a maximum

the iphone 15 series is marked as 5vdc, 1a or 5.2vdc, 2.4a or 9vdc, 3a or 14.5vdc, 2a

airpods

compared with airpod 3, airpod 4 has been significantly updated, with an updated h2 chip, a usb-c interface, support for dust, sweat and water resistance (ip54), but it is divided into two versions: airpods 4 and airpods 4 (supports active noise reduction).

the battery life of airpods 4 series headphones and the charging box can reach 30 hours. among them, airpods 4 (supporting active noise reduction) can last up to 20 hours after enabling active noise reduction, and also supports functions such as transparency mode, adaptive audio and conversation perception, and the wearing sensor is changed from skin sensor to optical sensor again.

but this year, there will be one less accessory in the airpod 4 box - a usb-c data cable. cook is becoming more and more stingy.

and if you are a college teacher or student, it is worth considering buying an ipad or mac through educational discounts now, because the headphones given in the educational discounts have now become airpods 4 (with active noise reduction).

accessories

at this year's press conference, related accessories were also updated along with the new products, especially the much-anticipated mobile phone cases.

although the fine woven twill protective case launched when the iphone 15 was released last year was popular, because the material is easy to wear and stain, apple did not launch the fine woven twill protective case when the iphone 16 was released this year. currently, only two options are available: magsafe transparent protective case and silicone protective case, and both protective cases are priced at 399 yuan.