Apple’s Spring Forward event ; Apple Watch ; new MacBook laptop ; ResearchKit ; upgraded MacBook Pro and Airs ; iOS 8.2

Lots of announcements from Apple’s March 9 “Spring Forward” event.

You can watch the full keynote of Apple’s March 9 “Spring Forward” on Apple’s site or if you don’t have time to watch the entire video, check out AppleInsider’s 2 min report:

 

Here are several links for more details that Apple mentioned

Contents

Apple Watch

http://youtu.be/1Ql0Z8Il73s

Available April 24, 2015, the Apple Watch is available in two case sizes : 38mm and 42mm. However, the Apple watch comes in three style collections:

  • Apple Watch – 20 models with stainless steel or space black steel cases with the display protected by sapphire crystal.
  • Apple Watch Sport – 10 models with aluminum cases in silver or space grey with the display protected by strengthened Ion-X glass
  • Apple Watch Edition – 8 models in 18-karat gold cases in yellow or rose colours with the display protected by sapphire crystal

All collections have a variety of bands. The Apple’s Watch page is fairly detailed with many pictures and videos and prices start from $349 US to $17,000 US.

Apple MacBook

Apple’s new MacBook is a thin (13.1mm thin) and light (2lb) notebook with a 12″ Retina display, 8GB RAM and integrated Intel Graphics 5300, new Force Touch trackpad and new keyboard and a single USB-C port for charging, video out and data transfer. The Macbook is available in gold, space grey and silver colours.

There are two models

  • 256GB flash storage and 1.1Ghz Intel Core M CPU for $1,299 US
  • 512GB flash storage and 1.2 Ghz Intel Core M CPU for $1,599 US

Ars Technica has a writeup and hands on look. Apple’s Macbook page also has many details, photos and videos.

ResearchKit

http://youtu.be/VyY2qPb6c0c

ResearchKit is an open source framework that makes it easy for developers and researchers to create apps to gather more frequently and more accurately from participants using iOS devices.

Apple’s ResearchKit page has more details including how several medical institutions are using ResearchKit already.

Updated Macbook Pro and Macbook Airs

The 13″ MacBook Pro and the 11″ and 13″ MacBook Air also were upgraded.

Ars Technica has a great summary of the updates

Apple’s Compare Notebook models page is also useful.

iOS 8.2 released

iOS 8.2 was released to support the Apple Watch and for any device that runs iOS 8. The update also has various bug fixes and security updates.

FYI, Today (March 10), Apple also posted a security update 2014-002 for Mac OS X “Mountain Lion” 10.8.5 to “Yosemite” 10.10.2

HBO NOW

You will be available to subscribe to HBO NOW and watch HBO content from your Apple device for $14.99 US a month on demand. See Apple’s press release for details.