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Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Apple Ditches Headphone Socket For iPhone 7

Apple's newest iPhone will be water resistant and come without a headphone socket, the firm has confirmed.

The tech giant announced the iPhone 7 and unveiled 10 major new features during a live conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Both the camera and speakers will be "hugely advanced," Apple chief executive Tim Cook confirmed at the event.

The phone will also have better graphics and a more responsive home button.

And, in what will be a huge plus for millions of users, battery life has been improved.

Following a leak on Twitter earlier in the day, most of the announcements didn't come as too much of a surprise to fans.

Several tweets about the new features, put out accidentally on Apple's recently-activated account before the official event, have since been deleted.

At the event, Mr Cook told the audience the iPhone had become the "industry gold standard" and the smartphone "by which all others are measured".

The new camera - particularly a second 'telephoto' lens on the larger iPhone 7 Plus - will enable people to create much better, sharper images, he said.

The removal of the headphone jack will perhaps be the biggest change for users.

New devices will come with earphones that connect to the iPhone's Lightning connection, currently used for charging and data transfer.

Adaptors will also be included to give traditional users the opportunity to connect with existing headphones.

However, those who want to go wireless will be able to do so using "breakthrough" wireless EarPods, called AirPods.

Sky technology correspondent Tom Cheshire said while he would miss his headphone jack, he was impressed by the advancement.

"AirPods, introduced as standard, open up a new way of interacting with our phones - aural augmented reality," he said.

"Like the film Her, we're plausibly at the beginning of a scenario where we wake up, put our headphones in and leave them in all day, using them with Siri to interact with the world."

The new phone will cost from $649 in the US and £599 in the UK, with the Plus 7 starting at $749 (£719 in the UK).

Storage capacity has been upgraded, starting at 32GB, and users who want more can choose between 128GB and 256GB.

It is available for pre-order from 9 September and on sale from 16 September.

A new version of the Apple Watch, called the Series 2 and with greater focus on health and exercise tracking, was also announced.

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