Today will be a big day for iPhone and iPad users. First, Apple is holding its October special event at 10 Eastern in Brooklyn, NY. Apple isn’t saying what will be announced, but virtually everyone expects to see a new iPad Pro with smaller bezels, no home button, and Face ID — the iPad version of the iPhone X. There are also rumors that Apple will unveil a second generation of the Apple Pencil with support for touch gestures on the Pencil. I would love the ability to tap or do something else on the Pencil to switch between a pencil and an eraser. And I’m sure that Apple has even more to unveil this morning. You can watch the presentation live by visiting this page on Apple’s website.
Second, Apple announced yesterday in a press release that Apple will release iOS 12.1 today. This .1 update will include new features, including some which were previously announced but not quite ready when iOS 12 was released last month: (1) Group FaceTime, which allows you to have private, encrypted FaceTime video conferences with up to 32 people at one time with automatic selection and focus on the person speaking; (2) the new emoji which Apple first previewed this past July; (3) for iPhone XS owners, the ability to control the bokeh effect in Portrait mode by adjusting the depth effect while you are taking the picture instead of just after the picture is taken; and (4) dual SIM support for the iPhone XS and iPhone XR. Those are the major new features, but there are sure to be many other improvements in there as well.
Today should be an interesting day!