That's a huge focus for Jobs, Cook, and the whole design team
Worried about your thumb not reaching? The double-touch on the TouchID button may help by sliding content down. We'll see how comfortable that is in the real world.
"We all love our apps" -- some more than others.
Schiller: What about all that great software you already have. Apple Store has over 1.3 million applications
Schiller: Xcode - automatic layouts, easier to make software scale. But what about apps that haven't been updated yet. Well here's what happens. They just work
Schiller is showing us the CNN app and what it looks like before it was updated for the bigger screen
Schiller: It all just works.
Apps will scale appropriately across devices. Phil says there's a "Desktop-class scaler" in there. We're guessing app devs will want to update their assets, though.
Schiller: If a developer wants to take advatnage of special apps, can create even more increidble apps with more density of content.
Schiller: CNN is creating new horizontal view etc.
Schiller: That doesn't come close to telling the story why these are the best phones ever made
I'm looking forward to seeing what other apps get similarly updated to offer new functionality for the extra resolution. Perhaps we should talk to our devs...
Schiller: 2nd gen 64 bit chip. 2 billion transistors, up from 1B in the A7. Built on 28 nanometer process, or billionths of a meter.
ST NOTE - most mobile chips already are 28 nanometer, including those from Qulacomm, etc. Intel is at 14 nanometers with its PC chips
Phil's running through the benchmark-free specs as usual, 25% faster CPU, 50% faster graphics.
Schiller: Up to 84X faster GPU performance
Schiller: Extra goal with A8 - 50% more energy efficent than A7 chip. Allows to sustain performance over longer period of time
Schiller: Talking up sustained performance. Able to keep performance levels high when needed
Schiller: Just this summer we launched Metal, a new graphics library for our developers
Phil's talking about heat constraints being a big issue for smartphones. He specifically mentions gaming, but I think more people will see an advantage with GPS navigation. That certainly makes my phone get toasty...
The A7 chip last year was the first 64 bit chip for mobile
Such chips enable faster apps that can juggle large amounts of data more efficiently than the 32-bit processors common in smartphones and tablets today. However, most mobile operating systems and apps don't currently support 64-bit. Some chip companies have started to produce 64-bit processors to be ready when the operating systems catch up, but others are still working on their chips.
Phil's telling us about Metal again, the new GPU layer that gives more power and direct access to game developers than OpenGL.
Schiller: Games on metal from EA, Disney, Rovio, UbiSoft, Zynga, etc
Some game dev have apparently had a chance to play with A8, so it's time to get a demo!
Stephan Sherman from Super Evil Megacorp is going to give us a demo.
Schiller: introducing Stephan Sherman, chief creative officer of Super Evil Megacorp (best name ever)
Sherman: Today I am thrilled to debut for you Vain Glory. New game
A battle arena game that uses touch? Let's see how this looks..
Sherman: Vain Glory players play a unique hero. Petal can plant seeds that sprout
Sherman: Vain Glory brings this world class competitive gaming to iOS
The basic gameplay mode is to destroy a giant crystal in the opposing team's base, like aggro CTF.
Sherman is going over some aspects of the game
Uh oh, he's unleashed a kraken.
Apparently you can recruit the kraken and he'll help you destroy your opponent's crystal.