Apple launched its cheapest iPhone SE and other products at an online event on Tuesday.
Here are five takeaways from the event.
Green Apple
The new iPhone SE and iPad Air are designed in a sustainable manner, the company said.
The smartphone is made up of recycled materials, including 100 per cent recycled rare earth elements. Its redesigned packaging eliminates the outer plastic wrap, bringing the company closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from all packaging in the next three years.
iPad Air comes with a 100 per cent recycled aluminium enclosure and 100 per cent recycled rare earth elements in both the enclosure and audio magnets.
Apple is currently carbon neutral for global corporate operations and by 2030, it plans to have a net-zero climate impact across the entire business, which includes manufacturing supply chains and product life cycles.
Centre stage comes to iPad Air
iPad Air’s ultra-wide 12-megapixel front camera comes with the centre stage feature. It automatically keeps the users in the main frame as they move around. When others join in, the camera detects them, too, and smoothly zooms out to include them in the same frame.
With the addition of centre stage to the new iPad Air, all iPad models now feature this experience.
In addition, there is a 12-megapixel wide camera on the rear of the new iPad Air that lets users capture photos, record videos, scan documents and experiment with various augmented reality experiences.
M1 Ultra: Apple's most powerful chip yet
Apple unveiled the M1 Ultra, the next giant step in the chip industry. It consists of 114 billion transistors, the most ever used in a personal computer chip.
It can run up to 22 trillion operations per second, speeding through the most challenging machine learning tasks, Apple said.
The company launched its own M1 chip in November 2020 to reduce its reliance on other chip manufacturers such as Intel and to avoid supply chain-related disruptions. It launched the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in October.
Attracting baseball fans
Apple and Major League Baseball (MLB) in the US announced “Friday Night Baseball” - a weekly double header with live pre- and postgame shows that will be available in eight countries on Apple TV+ as soon as the regular season begins.
“Just like all baseball fans, we can’t wait for the season to open,” said Peter Stern, Apple’s vice president of services.
“Baseball has a special place in the heart of so many Apple customers — not just in the US, but in many countries around the world. We are proud to make Apple TV+ the home for great baseball moments throughout the season,” he added.
Apple might launch new iOS 15.4 on March 18
Though Apple did not disclose the exact date of the launch of the consumer-version of its latest operation system, iOS 15.4, it indicated the update might be available from March 18.
This is the same day Apple’s new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro with green finishes will become available to customers. In a media statement on Tuesday, Apple said these phones will be shipped with the latest iOS 15.4.
Apple recently rolled out the fifth beta of iOS 15.4. It will offer many new features, such as a Face ID facial recognition system that works with masks and can recognise unique features around the eyes for verification.
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What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
Results
2pm: Serve U – Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (Dirt) 1,400m; Winner: Violent Justice, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)
2.30pm: Al Shafar Investment – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,400m; Winner: Desert Wisdom, Bernardo Pinheiro, Ahmed Al Shemaili
3pm: Commercial Bank of Dubai – Handicap (TB) Dh68,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Fawaareq, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson
3.30pm: Shadwell – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer
4pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Rakeez, Patrick Cosgrave, Bhupat Seemar
4.30pm: Al Redha Insurance Brokers – Handicap (TB) Dh78,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Capla Crusader, Bernardo Pinheiro, Rashed Bouresly
Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
Pakistan squad
Sarfraz (c), Zaman, Imam, Masood, Azam, Malik, Asif, Sohail, Shadab, Nawaz, Ashraf, Hasan, Amir, Junaid, Shinwari and Afridi
Results
5pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (Dirt) 1,000m, Winner: Hazeem Al Raed, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Ahmed Al Shemaili (trainer)
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 85,000 (D) 1,000m, Winner: Ghazwan Al Khalediah, Hugo Lebouc, Helal Al Alawi
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,400m, Winner: Dinar Al Khalediah, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi.
6.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Faith And Fortune, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Only Smoke, Bernardo Pinheiro, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: AF Ramz, Saif Al Balushi, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
8pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 2,000m, Winner: AF Mass, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel.
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
2019 ASIA CUP POTS
Pot 1
UAE, Iran, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia
Pot 2
China, Syria, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Qatar, Thailand
Pot 3
Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, India, Vietnam
Pot 4
North Korea, Philippines, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, Turkmenistan
