Apple's latest iPhones are here, and Ian Sherr, an editor at large for CNET, joined Cheddar News to talk about the newest features present on the iPhone 14 Pro including crash detection and camera upgrades.

Opening Bell

Breaking Down What to Look for in iPhone 14 Pro

here to break down at all for us is Ian scher Editor at large at Cnet. Thank you so much for joining us about this. I know there's a lot of excitement. What are some of the newest features from these phones that you're really excited about though? Yeah, I mean we we had seen it got to run the phone through its paces and the things that we found really interesting about it were actually some of the stuff we couldn't test, namely S. O. S. By satellite. So this is a new feature Apple introduced where if you are in the middle of nowhere, right, imagine the desert or you decide you want to reenact castaway with tom Hanks you, you will be able to actually call for help even though you don't have self service and this is a really interesting feature, you can understand why we may not have been able to test. It is also not going to be coming out until november. Another feature that they announced is actually going to be crash detection in a car. Right? So again, something I don't want to test, but the idea of being able to actually identify when you've had been in car crash, ask if you're okay and if you if you don't respond or if you say you're not call the authorities for you. This is something that's pretty popular on the Apple watch already when it comes to fall detection so I can see the value there and then some of the other features they added as well that got a lot of our attention where that they got upgraded cameras. Apple has always been known for their cameras and also this new idea called the dynamic island which is a silly now for something admittedly but it's a new way to look at kind of the information that that black box at the top of the screen. Typically that's been there and it's kind of annoying to look at it. It's always been something that Apple's tried to cover up in its advertising in a certain way. Now what they're going to do is actually make it so that information is up there including like what apps are running in the background if you have a timer going if you have a phone call happening stuff like that. So interesting, so many different things to dig into there. But I want to talk with you about the camera feature because I think that's the thing that so many really get excited about with the new drop of every iphone and it feels like and this is just anecdotally, it feels like your camera is never good enough until you have the best and the latest version. So is it actually worth the hype this time. Well I will tell you that what a Pulitzer winning photographer told me once which is the best camera you have is the one that's on you right now. So you know having a good camera is helpful but it's not always the most important thing. So the big thing that Apple changed this time around is that the cameras are able to handle a lot more low light performance. So you you can actually take photos much better in darkness. That's a that's a really key feature and something that phones in general have really struggled with because you know, the the whole camera is very small and photographs are about light. Right? So the bigger they are, the more light they can bring in, the more better photos you're able to get. And so it's very hard to make all this stuff work. But they said they came up with new technology that actually makes it twice as good as the previous generations will of course have to see how that goes over time. The other thing also is that they actually increase the amount of megapixels in there. Right. The amount of data that's pulling in and part of that has helped the low light performance. And also it gives them a little more detail and allows them to crop the images in new ways. Having a two X. Zoom instead of just relying on one and three X for example, I still remember when they first debuted portrait mode and it was almost like having a DSLR camera in your pocket and such a game changer. So I'm still kind of waiting for something noteworthy to come from Apple to this point. But I also want to talk with you about some of the IOS updates that aren't just featured on these latest pieces of hardware from Apple, but also on anyone who updates the phone. And one of the features literally everyone is talking about is people being able to unsent text messages. So talk about that feature because I feel like I've seen some screenshots and some screen recordings of it, but just break down exactly how that works. It got probably the most applause when Apple announced it too. So it only works in my message. Right? So it's only a blue bubble thing. But the idea is that you're able to hold down your finger on the message that maybe you screwed up and you wrote coffee or something like that and you can actually edit the text in it and be able to resend with the correct language. This is really helpful for those of us who have dealt with auto correct, which I don't know anyone who hasn't had an auto correct happened at one point or another. So that's, that's really great. The other thing also you can actually delete messages as well. So this is kind of like, you know, for those of us in corporate email being able to recall an email, um, it'll be somewhat similar to in that people will know you deleted it, right? So it's not like something you should say something mean and nasty to someone then delete it and think everything's okay, but it does at least make things a little easier. And maybe you don't have to send three text messages when you accidentally spell something and then accidentally spell it again and then finally get it right, okay. Got it. So both recipients of these tax on any sort of chain will be able to see any revision. So it's kind of similar not to jump too far but with twitter and how they're allowing for revised tweets. But you see that there is a revision in play. Is that kind of what we're saying here? Okay. Got it in a way you won't be able to see the history of the of the edits but it will tell you that this was edited. Right? So again, it's it's you know, Apple's not trying to suddenly become like the text message police here, but I think they are at least trying to come up with a way that hey, you can, you know, fix the spelling mistakes you make, particularly if you're texting like your boss or maybe your, your parents in law, but at the same time you can also still be forthright right? And they can be honest about the fact that you know, hey maybe you made a mistake that's okay. It just mentions that you did okay because I was worried for a second there that I was going to see a text message deleted from someone and be like, did I imagine that? Did I dream about that? Did it actually happen? But any other sort of features that are coming out with this IOS update that you're really excited about as well? Yeah, there's one other thing that's gotten a lot of people's attention which is actually uh lock screen widgets. So you know, normally when you have the phone locked, it just has the picture that you have there, and then the time of day, now they're gonna start adding stuff, like you can have your Apple Watch's battery or what the, you know what the weather is outside and All sorts of other stuff, so they're trying to make it more interesting. And then with the iPhone 14 pro, going back back for a second, it actually hasn't always on display. So some of those widgets will actually tell you what's going on, even when the phone is off, because you'll be able to see information on the screen. So that's especially gonna be helpful for sports fanatics who will be able to look at the game even though they don't have to turn on their phone. Lots of good stuff. That's Ian Scher editor at large at Cnet. Thank you so much for joining us and for sharing those updates on the iPhone 14