The new iPhones are on the way.
At least that’s the expectation after Apple on Thursday sent out invitations to a media event next month. In years past, the company has typically announced updates to its iPhone lineup at events in September. Rumors and reports leading up to Apple sending out the invitations have suggested the company will do the same this year, announcing the successors to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
As it typically does, though, Apple kept coy with the actual invitation to the event, which will take place on September 9.
“Hey Siri, give us a hint,” the invitation read.
Siri, of course, is the intelligent assistant that debuted on the iPhone 4s and is now built into the iOS software that underlies all of its iPhones and iPads.
The key feature of the new iPhones, likely to be called the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, is expected to beForce Touch, a method of interacting with touch-sensitive devices that debuted this spring with Apple Watch and the company’s new Macbook laptop. Force Touch can sense how hard a user is pressing on a screen. A device with Force Touch can provide different information to users depending on how hard they press down. Apple has since added the technology to some of its Macbook Pro notebooks.
In addition to the new iPhones, Apple is widely expected to unveil an update to Apple TV, its digital media player. The new Apple TV is expected to have a much faster chip and an updated interface. Apple is also expected to introduce an app store for the device, allowing developers to create programs for it and consumers to download them to it. The update to Apple TV is a long time coming; the company last introduced a fully new model in 2012.
The event is also likely to see the debut of the next version of watchOS, the operating system underlying Apple Watch. That version will allow developers to create apps that run on the watch itself rather than on a paired iPhone and will give them access to many more of the device’s sensors and capabilities.
Image courtesy of Apple.
