After holding a virtual presentation, Apple announced new services, updates, a novel line of iPhones and future plans for production and manufacturing across their entire business. Many shocking announcements were made at the event, such as the company’s plans to go carbon neutral and reduce emissions.

The corporate headquarters from which the announcement was made are located in Apple Park, in Cupertino, Calif.  Here, Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Executive Officer, covered the specs, performance and new services presented in the event along with a big reveal of the iPhone- specifically its new 5G capabilities. The new iPhones have updated antenna bands that allow for 5G usage which affords its users speeds over 100 times faster than 4G, as was previously available.

This announcement will most likely greatly ramp up the production of 5G infrastructure in order to reach a larger percentage of users worldwide. The iPhone will have the ability to recognize when 5G is appropriate for the task one is attempting to complete. If not, it will switch to Long-Term Evolution to save as much battery life and performance as it can and instantly switch back when it becomes necessary.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg was at the event and stated that Verizon and Apple would be partnering up to increase the availability of 5G and to give better financing options for those seeking to get the new iPhone 12.

Specifications of the iPhone 12 were reviewed by Kaiann Drance and its abilities were presented through photos, videos and diagrams of its internal structure and performance.

The new phone has smooth, flat edges as opposed to the curved design seen on past models, which are designed to accommodate for the added antennas that make 5G possible. The iPhone 12 has greater performance than many of its competitors and will show improvements in comparison to its own models.

The new iPhone is 12 percent thinner, 15 percent smaller and 16 percent lighter, while still maintaining the same level of performance and even a slightly larger screen size as the phones before it.

“When I first looked at the iPhone 12, I kind of thought nothing of it. I thought it looked like the previous release, but then I saw how thick it was and it reminded me of all those iPhone 5s we all used to have. It was funny, but I am not really interested in getting one,” sophomore Sarah Whalen said.

Engineers did not stop with innovations when considering durability. According to Apple, the new phone will have a ‘four times better drop performance’ than its antecedents due to the ceramic glass. ‘Ceramic Shield’ was made with leading glass production companies, such as Corning, to develop this technology which is made by “adding a new high-temperature crystallization step, which grows nanoceramic within the glass matrix, to dramatically improve toughness.” For more detailed information on specs refer here to Apple.

As with most iPhone line ups, the Pro and Pro Max models of the iPhone 12 were also revealed, with the added surprise of the iPhone 12 mini, a smaller version that provides a wider range of options in the sizing of the phones. The phones will come in various colors, which include but are not limited to gold, white, pacific blue and product red.

The starting capacity of the phone’s storage has now also been doubled from 64 gigabytes to 128 GB.

Pricing was also revealed with the old iPhone SE starting at four hundred dollars, considered the “budget” iPhone, and the new iPhone 12 starting at seven hundred dollars. The Pro Models will start at the usual one thousand dollar price tag for the Pro and 1099 dollar for the Pro Max.

Another significant announcement made by Apple at the event was its plans to go completely carbon neutral across ‘all product life-cycles.’ They achieved their 2020 goal of having no emissions across corporate offices, data centers and retail stores by using solar panels and other forms of renewable energy.

Apple Park itself is completely lined with solar panels over its roof that supply the building with one hundred percent of its energy. By 2030, however, Apple plans to go carbon neutral throughout its entire business, which includes material collection, component manufacturing and recycling.

These changes will decrease the burden of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted during the production of Apple products on the atmosphere.

They will also be using more recycled materials in the making of iPhones, for example, using one hundred percent recycled rare earth elements in their magnets for the first time ever. These adjustments have cut over two million metric tons of carbon, the equivalent of removing 450,000 cars off the road every year.

“I am actually pretty excited they are going carbon neutral since they are such a big company, they are setting an example for other companies to join in on bettering the atmosphere and planet health,” junior Victoria Mavarez said.

Following their discussion on carbon emissions, as previous rumors suggested, they stated their removal of the lightning cable charger from the iPhone box. Apple claims that due to this removal, the box is smaller and lighter, making it possible to fit up to 70 percent more iPhones on a shipping pallet, which will “help greatly reduce carbon emissions in transport.”

They also mentioned that over 2 billion power adapters were already in use at homes and “that does not include the billions more third-party adapters.” Their hope is that the transition to wireless technology becomes more widespread and prevalent, making this change in their global logistics chain not only environmentally justified, but also socially.

Viewers also got a look at HomePod Mini, an intelligent speaker like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Echo. As well as what it meant for the new improvements being made to the interconnections of smart homes, such as automated lights, locks and cameras. Bob Borchers, Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, explained the main points of HomePod as an “amazing sound, intelligent assistant, smart home, privacy and security.”

The mesh outer layer of the device is specifically engineered to provoke the best acoustics for the functionality of the speakers. Also, the “world-class” intelligent assistant, better known as Siri, is an integral part of its use and what orchestrates the next point, the smart home.

This event was a big move for Apple after a larger than expected profit this quarter. Investors and consumers will be looking closely to see what else Apple may announce in the coming days. For now, expect to see the new iPhone available by Oct. 23 for some models, the fastest Apple has ever made iPhones available after an event. To watch the entire Apple event, refer here to their channel and for a shorter, one minute overview, refer to this video.

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