Here is the availability for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max for the early afternoon of Sunday, September 25th, 2022.
There are only a few changes for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max for AT&T and Verizon.
Changes for the Carriers
AT&T
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 28 to Oct 4
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 28 to Oct 4
Verizon
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Gold has changed from In Stock to Oct 21
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Silver has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
Here is the availability for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max for the early morning of Saturday, September 24th, 2022.
Changes for Apple
iPhone 14
128GB - Blue has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
256GB - Blue has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
512GB - Blue has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
128GB - Purple has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
256GB - Purple has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
512GB - Purple has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
128GB - Midnight has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
256GB - Midnight has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
512GB - Midnight has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
128GB - Starlight has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
256GB - Starlight has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
512GB - Starlight has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
128GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
256GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
512GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Sat, Sep 24 to Tue, Sep 27
Changes for the Carriers
AT&T
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Blue has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 256GB - Blue has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 512GB - Blue has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Purple has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 256GB - Purple has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 512GB - Purple has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Midnight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 256GB - Midnight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 512GB - Midnight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Starlight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 256GB - Starlight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 512GB - Starlight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 128GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 256GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 - 512GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Blue has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - Blue has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - Blue has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Purple has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - Purple has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - Purple has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Midnight has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - Midnight has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - Midnight has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Gold has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Gold has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Gold has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Gold has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Silver has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Silver has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Silver has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Silver has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 28
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Space Black has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Gold has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Gold has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Gold has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Gold has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Silver has changed from Oct 28 to Oct 31
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Silver has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Silver has changed from Oct 28 to Oct 31
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Silver has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Space Black has changed from Oct 21 to Oct 24
T-Mobile
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 08 - Oct 13
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 23 - Sep 26 to Sep 27 - Sep 30
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 23 - Sep 26 to Sep 27 - Sep 30
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 10 - Oct 24 to Sep 27 - Sep 30
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Gold has changed from Sep 23 - Sep 26 to Sep 27 - Sep 30
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Gold has changed from Sep 23 - Sep 26 to Sep 27 - Sep 30
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Gold has changed from Oct 06 - Oct 20 to Sep 27 - Sep 30
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 23 - Sep 26 to Sep 27 - Sep 30
Verizon
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Silver has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Gold has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
I am fortunate enough to be able to purchase a new iPhone every year since 2007 with the introduction of the original iPhone. In that time I have owned 16 different phones. Some years that are big changes, while other years there are some improvements but those improvements come with software. There are those times when it a combination of both hardware and software that ends up creating an overall better experience. The iPhone 14 Pro Max is an instance where the iPhone has both hardware and software changes that improve the overall experience.
Starting in 2019 with the introduction of the iPhone 11 line, Apple began to differentiate the phones into two different lines, the “non-pro” line and the “pro” line of phones. This started with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Some years there was very little that differentiated the non-pro and pro lines. Once thing that has been a differentiator, at least since the iPhone 11, the two has been the number of cameras on the device. The non-pro phones have had a dual camera system while the pro line has a triple-lens camera system. This remains true through the iPhone 14 line. One thing that has not been the case is that all new models of the iPhone have received the same processor across the line. The exception to this was the iPhone 5c, which had an A6 while the other phone introduced that year, the iPhone 5s, had the A7. Beyond that, all new phones have had the latest processors.
This year though, that changes. Now the processors are different between the non-pro and pro lines. The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have an A15 Bionic while the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max have the A16 Bionic processor. This bifurcation is the first time where there is a clear delineation between the two lines. I suspect that this will continue to be the case in the future.
The hardware changes for this are exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, but some of the features are also available in the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. Before we dive into the actual device, the iPhone 14 Pro Max, let us look at my pre-order, pickup, and setup experiences.
Pre-order Experience
Pre-orders opened up on Friday, September 9th at 7am Central Time, or were supposed to start at that time, but as usual, due to caching and other issues, some were not able to order their devices in the first few minutes and up to 10 minutes after. My pre-order experience was a frantic one due to the many issues I had.
When the Apple Store app finally refreshed to allow me to order, it prompted me to complete the pre-order information that I saved. I went through the steps and attempted to complete the transaction with picking up at my local Apple Store. I initially chose 9:15am. Upon check out it indicate that my contact information was incorrect, even though it has not changed in years. So, I changed it and went back to checkout, but when it completed, it was changed it to shipping instead of pickup. This in itself would not be a problem, except the delivery date range was September 27th to 29th. If the delivery was for launch day, I might have kept it.
When I placed the order that would have been delivered late, I also ordered a Midnight case. I opted to just cancel the entire order and I re-ordered the Apple Midnight MagSafe case separately. That did arrive early, as iPhone cases tend to do. The next thing that happened was the wait for pickup day, so let us look at that.
Pickup
The pickup for the Apple Store could not have bee smoother. I got there at 9:50, stood in line for 5 minutes, got helped and was out. I left the Apple Store at 10:12. It might have even been quicker, but I also wanted to pick up a couple of Apple Watch bands while I was there and it took a little bit of time for another Apple employee to bring them out. After I left the Apple Store I drove home and did the setup on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, so let us cover that next.
Setup and Transferring Phone to Phone
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is the 16th iPhone that I have owned, so I am no stranger to having to move between devices. My typical approach is as follows:
Unpair Apple Watch to perform a backup to my current phone.
Plug iPhone into my Mac.
Perform encrypted backup using Finder
Plug in my new iPhone.
Restore from encrypted backup.
Pair new watch using Apple Watch backup from encrypted backup.
However, this time I did something a bit different. Instead, I decided to do a Phone to Phone transfer. Last year, as mentioned in my review of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, I intended to do an iPhone to iPhone transfer, but canceled that because the amount of time was up to 7 hours and stayed there. So last year I went with my tried and true approach. This year, I decided to do the device to device transfer and let it run its course.
As with many other device setups with Apple you bring your new iPhone next to your old iPhone and tap on the “Setup New iPhone” popup. After this you enter in your Apple ID credentials. Once this has been done you walk through the transfer. You will need to enter in your iPhone’s passcode during the transfer.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max, along with the other iPhone 14 devices, do not have a physical SIM card slot, at least not in the United States. Instead, all iPhone 14 models in the United States have an electronic sim, or eSm. iPhones have had an eSim option since the iPhone XS, except in China where physical SIMs are mandated by law. I have not used an eSim previously, so this has been my first experience doing so. Some people have used eSim previously, and a few have preemptively converted their physical SIM to an eSim before they got their iPhone 14s.
Converting Physical Sim to eSim
The setup of my eSim was fairly straight-forward, well it is supposed to be. During the setup there is a screen titled “Set up eSim”. The screen is supposed to allow you to transfer your phone number from a physical SIM on your old iPhone to the eSim on your new phone. However, it did not go as smoothly as you might expect.
The first time that I tried to do the transfer it came back as “Failed, could not transfer the number”. When this happens there are three options, Back, Try Again, Setup Later in Settings. I was going to set it up later, but I decided to go back and try it again. The second time it was able to successfully transfer my phone number.
I know I am not the only who had this exact experience. Friend, and editor of my books, Barry Sullivan also got two iPhones on launch day and he let me know that he had the exact same experience when trying to activate his phones. The trick of going back and doing it again allowed both of his phones to transfer properly. It was a simple fix, but still a very odd one. I am not sure if the issue was an AT&T one or an Apple one. Regardless of the ultimate cause of the issue I hope Apple and AT&T are able to figure out the issue and correct it for future versions of iOS and people who are trying to convert their physical sims to an eSim. After this step the actual transfer began.
Remaining Device to Device Transfer
Once transfer was finished, which took just about an hour and 45 minutes, there was the last screen. I tried to wake up the screen, but the backlight would not fully turn up to a correct brightness. It was super difficult for me to see the screen. I had to hold the iPhone 14 Pro Max at an angle to see what was on the screen. I entered in my passcode and the phone restarted. Once that was done, my phone was ready to go with the next step, downloading everything.
The phone to phone transfer is intended to transfer over all data, like app data, photos, and other similar data. What is not transferred is apps or downloaded songs. Once the data has transferred over then your apps and songs will be downloaded again. At one point while doing this, my phone was consuming a good 92% of all of my internet bandwidth by downloading at 277 megabits per second.
The downloading of apps and songs went perfectly, as did most of the phone to phone data transfer. There was one thing that did not transfer over, my Apple Watch. It never prompted me during setup either, even though I specified to transfer it over on the first step.
Since it did not transfer over, When I opened the Apple Watch app on my iPhone 14 Pro Max, it kept saying “Pair Existing Watch” and when I tried to say “Pair Existing Watch” it would constantly fail. I contacted Apple, and the genius suggested unpairing the Watch from my iPhone 13 Pro Max. In itself un-pairing and re-pairing an Apple Watch is not a big deal. The problem I had is that given the length of time that the restore took, I got three standing hours in and I had burned 100 more calories. My Phone finished early enough in the day where I could finish closing my standing rings. In reality, it was not really a problem, but an annoyance none-the-less.
What was really odd, is that I went back and checked my activity information, those missing standing hours showed up on my watch, as did the missing calories and steps. What would be really nice would be if there was a way to force the Fitness app to synchronize data up to iCloud and then trigger a download, but Apple seems opposed to these types of things. Instead, “it just works”, except when it does not.
Looking back there are two things that I could have done. The first would have been to unpair the watch entirely before beginning the transfer. This would have provided a backup to the iPhone and then it would have likely transferred that data over to the Apple Watch. However, it likely would have resulted in me missing those two hours of stand time, as well as any other calories and steps earned during that time, due to the data not being transferred over.
The second thing I could have done, which now in hindsight might have been the correct answer, would have been to just setup my new Apple Watch Series 8 and not worry about the missing data, because it would eventually synchronized. Again, I was not worried about the time of the day, because I had plenty of time to get the standing hours back, but it was a bit annoying. There is one downside to using the device to device transfer.
Downside to Phone to Phone
One of the biggest downsides to using the “Phone to Phone” transfer method is that you cannot use either device while it is transferring data. This meant that the two devices were just sitting there the entire time. An hour and 45 minutes was long enough, but if I had even more data it likely would have taken longer. There has to be some other sort of solution, like possibly even using a wired connection. I suspect that using a wired connection would have make the process faster because it could have used more bandwidth. I am guessing that I am an outlier by using this process. I am presuming that most people just use iCloud for backing up their iPhone and then restoring it. But there is just something to using a wire to do a transfer that makes it more reliable, at least to me anyway.
Color
When I purchase a new iPhone I have always gotten the “gray” variant of a phone. For the early iPhone this was not a problem, because there was only two choices, Black or White. The white iPhones always had a white bezel, and I did not like the look of those, therefore I ended up selecting the black or space gray option. With the introduction of the iPhone X the choice of color became less relevant, because all of the bezels on the Face ID phones have a minimal bezel, which is black. The one exception to this was with the iPhone 12 Pro Max where I got the Pacific Blue.
There was the Deep Purple option for the iPhone 14 Pro Max, but I opted to go with my standard and ordered the “Space Black” iPhone 14 Pro Max. As you can see in the image below, there is a distinct color difference. The Space Black is a much darker than the Graphite of the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Now that we have covered the setup, let us look at the actual features of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, starting with the biggest change, the Dynamic Island.
Dynamic Island
Back in 2017 Apple revolutionized the iPhone by introducing a whole new form factor for the iPhone. Gone was the home button, Touch ID, and most of the front bezel. Instead of the Home Button and Touch ID sensor, Apple replaced it with a new technology called Face ID. In order for Face ID to function a brand new set of sensors was needed, called a True Depth sensor.
The True Depth sensor contains an infrared sensor, the actual Face ID infrared camera, and the FaceTime camera. When FaceID was introduced on the iPhone X, the top of the iPhone’s screen was where the Face ID sensor housing was placed. Over the last five years, Apple has shrunken the size of the notch. Now with the iPhone 14 the notch has been moved to an area slightly below the top of the screen, that is entirely surrounded by pixels, hence the use of the term ‘island’. In the photo below you can see the notch on the iPhone X as compared to the notch on the iPhone 13 Pro Max and the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Photo of an iPhone X, iPhone 13 Pro Max, and iPhone 14 Pro Max for a notch comparison
Now that the sensor array is not attached to the top of the screen, so it creates a cutout near the top of the screen. With the notch not being attached to the top of the screen, it needs a new name. The new area is called the “Dynamic Island”.
The Dynamic Island will now look a lot like a pill, most of the time. The pill is not an actual pill, but it is two different sensors that are actually separated by a bit of spacing. A majority of the time this will appear as a single pill with the area between the two cameras being filled in with black pixels, thus making it look like a pill.
The term “Dynamic Island” is an accurate name because the Dynamic Island will change based upon what you are doing at any time. For instance, if you are listening to audio, whether it be a podcast, audiobook, or music, it will be minimized to the Dynamic Island, as will all other audio apps. When an audio app is minimized to the Dynamic Island you will see a small version of the cover art on the left and a wave form of the playing audio on the right. This straddles the Dynamic Island.
When an item is minimized to the Dynamic Island, the animation for the minimization will differ slightly depending on which direction you push the app. Here is a video showing various animations.
Dynamic Island Animations for various animations
As mentioned above the Dynamic Island will be a pill, most of the time. There is one exception to this. If there are multiple items that can be minimized to the Dynamic Island, the lower priority item will be moved to its own icon to the right of the Face ID sensor array. There will be some pixels shown between the two islands.
When there is an audio app, or other app, minimized to the Dynamic Island, you can perform two different actions. You can either tap or you can tap and hold. When you tap on the item it will open the corresponding app. However, if you tap and hold on the Dynamic Island it will display a miniature interface. For an audio app it will just appear just like it would look like on the Lock Screen. For an app like the Timer, you will see the timer countdown with a pause and cancel button.
I have been going back and forth on whether these two gestures are the right ones or not, and I think they should be reversed. I think tapping should bring up the miniature interface and tapping and holding should open the app. I think this is a more natural interaction to tap on the Dynamic Island and see the miniature interface. Even a toggle for allowing this would be sufficient, so then people can decide how they want to handle the interactions.
Uses of the Dynamic Island
There have been some interesting interactions created with the Dynamic Island. There are two apps in particular. The first is a game called “Hit the Island”, which is a breakout-type game where you try and hit the Dynamic Island with a ball. “Hit the Island” is not only limited to iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, but it also works on any Face ID-enabled iPhone as well.
The second is within the Reddit app called Apollo. There is an option to add a cat that walks back and forth, as well as rests, on the top of the Dynamic Island. This does not have any functionality, but it does provide a bit of ambiance while browsing Reddit. I do not use Apollo, nor Reddit in general, but I saw it cross my twitter feed.
Adjustments Needed
One behavior that might take some adjustment is using the area below the notch to try and scroll up. With the Dynamic Island this does not work. You can still tap off to the left or right of the Dynamic Island it will scroll, but not directly underneath it. This is a minor thing that will take some time to get acclimated to, but it is something to be cognizant about.
It will be interesting to see what developers do with the Dynamic Island in the future once the Live Activities APIs are available for all to use. Next, let us look at another new hardware feature, the Always-On Display.
Always on Display
Modern phones can differ in a variety of ways. These differences could be in size, storage, operating system, authentication mechanisms, and even cameras. One thing that has been same across all phones, at least since 2007, is that they all have a screen that takes up most of the front of the device. Depending on the size of your iPhone this can range from a 4.7-inch screen on the iPhone SE (2nd Generation) up to a 6.7-inch on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
If you needed to check something while your phone was locked you could hit the sleep/wake button or raise your phone to actually show your Lock Screen. Starting with the iPhone X you could tap on the screen to wake it up. This approach certainly does work, but having to constantly wake your screen to check for new information can become tiresome after a while. What would be even better is if there was a way of quickly glance at your screen and see if there is any new information without needing to do anything. This is now possible with the new “Always On” display.
iPhone 14 Pro Max 'Always On Display' in a Locked State.
You might be wondering how the screen can always stay on, given that the screen is a huge use of battery power. The reason that the screen can always stay on is because the Always On Display on the iPhone 14 Pro Max works similarly to the Always On Display on the Apple Watch Series 5, and newer. This means that the screen is always on but it will be dimmed when not in use. Beyond dimming, the refresh rate of the screen will drop its refresh rate down to a rate of 1Hz, meaning it will refresh once every second. This is is comparison to the iPhone 13 Pro Max where it can refresh up to 120 times per second while the screen is on. The combination of the backlight not being at full brightness and the refresh rate being so low, it should not interfere too much with battery life.
Even though the screen is an “Always On” display on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, this does not mean that the screen will be on 100% of the time. In fact there are some instances when the screen will turn off. The situations are:
When the phone is off (obviously)
During wind down. As soon as it starts the screen turns off.
When you are in a sleep focus.
If your iPhone is face down on a surface. There is no need to have the screen on at this point.
When you walk away from the iPhone and you are wearing an Apple Watch. Once the distance is far enough away the phone screen will turn off.
When you are using your iPhone as a continuity camera on your Mac. The screen is not needed for this.
You can simply tap on the screen to have it activate again and interact with it as you normally would. If you do tap on the screen it will return to its dimmed state after 7 seconds. This is the same behavior as the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Disabling Always On Display
If you find that you do not like the way that the Always On Display functions, you can easily turn it off by using the following steps:
Open Settings.
Scroll down to Display & Brightness.
Tap on Display & Brightness to open up the Display & Brightness settings.
Scroll down to “Always On”.
Tap the toggle next to “Always On” to disable the Always On functionality.
When you do disable the Always On Display, it will act just like all previous iPhones, if that is more of your style. Next, let us now turn to another area that has seen some improvements and needs to be covered, the Cameras.
Camera
With each new iPhone Apple tends to improve the camera year over year, and there have been some improvements of the iPhone 14 Pro Max over the iPhone 13 Pro Max. I will go into most of the camera specifications in a bit, but let us look at a couple of the biggest changes, starting with the TrueDepth camera.
The TrueDepth camera has gone from a 12megapixel ƒ/2.2 aperture to a 12megapixel camera with an ƒ/1.9 aperture. As with all photography, the lower the number means that even more light will be captured when using the FaceTime camera. In practice what this means is that you should be able to get better pictures when using the FaceTime Camera, including the ability to have more than one person’s face be in focus, even when using the FaceTime camera. The TrueDepth camera is not the only camera that has seen some improvements. The rear camera sensor has seen some improvements. Specifically, the Main camera has been significantly improved. The second item to talk about when it comes to specifications is the Wide camera.
Picture of a Red Hibiscus taken with the iPhone 14 Pro Max
If you were to look at Apple’s specifications pages or the iPhone 13 Pro Max you may notice that there are three cameras, Wide, Ultra Wide, and Telephoto. Now, if you compare these to the iPhone 14 Pro Max there are actually four, but more on the fourth one in a moment. What you may notice is that on the iPhone 13 Pro Max specifications page there is no “Main” camera. Previous models called the Main camera the “Wide”. While the name of “Wide” was technically accurate, most people never called it the Wide camera, and instead just called it the Main, or primary, camera. Hence, it is now called the “Main” camera. Before we delve any further, let us look at the specification comparisons between the iPhone 13 Pro Max an the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
For the first time Apple has listed the actual size of the sensors. Here are the sensor sizes, apertures, and zoom for the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Lens
Zoom
Megapixels
Length
Aperature
Ultra Wide
0.5x
12 Megapixels
13mm
ƒ/2.2
Main
1x
48 Megapixels
24mm
ƒ/1.78
Telephoto
2x
12 Megapixels
48mm
ƒ/1.78
Telephoto
3x
12 Megapixels
77mm
ƒ/2.8
For comparison, here are the iPhone 13 Pro Max Camera specifications
Lens
Zoom
Megapixels
Length
Aperature
Ultra Wide
0.5
12 Megapixels
13mm
ƒ/1.8
Wide
1
12 Megapixels
26mm
ƒ/1.78
Telephoto
3x
12 Megapixels
77mm
ƒ/2.8
When you look at a the specifications you may notice a few things that jump out right away. The Main camera has gone from a 12 Megapixel ƒ/1.5 aperture camera to a whopping 48 Megapixel 24 mm, ƒ/1.78 aperture camera. This is four times the number of pixels. However, you do not get 48 Megapixel images, most of the time. Instead pixels are grouped into a set of quad-pixels. Each set of quad-pixels will allow more light into each photo, which should provide even cleaner and more crisp pictures.
One of the complaints about the last few iPhones is that they had three optical zoom options, 0.5x, 1.0x, and 3x. These are all great options to have, in particular if you do want to zoom in and have a super crisp picture, the 3x zoom would deliver that. However, there is a wide range between the 1x and 3x. What was missing is 2x. With the iPhone 14 Pro Max, you now have 2x zoom in addition to the existing 0.5x, 1.0x, and 3x options.
When you use the 2x zoom, what is doing is it is actually using the central 12 Megapixels of the Main 48 Megapixel image. The image is still being taken at the standard 4K resolution, so you will still get the 12megapixels that you are expecting. There are no controls for which part of the sensor is used, it will use the central pixels. There is one use case when you can use the full 48 Megapixels within the sensor. That is when you use the ‘Raw’ mode in the Camera. When you do this you will get the raw information off of the sensor in Apple ProRes Raw format. This can then be used by various photo editing applications to tweak and get the images that you want.
Note: The above image is scaled. You can see the full resolution image. The image that is linked is a JPG, but it is the full 48 Megapixel dimensions.
Be warned though, Raw images are rather large. As an example, I took two pictures using my iPhone 14 Pro Max. The processed HEIC photo is 998 Kilobytes, while the Raw image is 45.7 Megabytes. This should not be a surprise, but it is something to be aware of.
One of the other photo-related changes to the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a new dedicated engine that will help process photos. That feature is called the “Photonic Engine”. Apple has not clarified if this is a set of hardware, software, or a combination of both. The purpose of the Photonic Engine is that that it will take your photos that have been captured in non-ideal lighting conditions and it can use the additional Focus Pixels to gather more light, and then use machine learning to help improve the lighting on your photos. According to Apple:
“Through a deep integration of hardware and software, Photonic Engine improves mid- to low-light performance for photos across all cameras: up to 2x on the Ultra Wide camera, 2x on the TrueDepth camera, and an impressive 2.5x on the new Main camera. Photonic Engine enables this dramatic increase in quality by applying the computational benefits of Deep Fusion earlier in the imaging process to deliver extraordinary detail, and preserve subtle textures, provide better color, and maintain more information in a photo.”
You cannot really get a feel for the Photonic Engine through words, so here are a couple of photos for comparison.
Overall, the cameras on the iPhone 14 Pro Max are a huge improvement. The return of the optical 2x zoom is a very welcome feature that will allow people to take photos that are at the right distance. The addition of the new Photonic Engine means that pictures will be even better, particularly in low light. Ultimately though, which camera you are going to use depends on the current situation, but you should be able to get the picture you want from one of the cameras. No photo that you take with your iPhone is exactly what the sensor sees unless, of course, you are using the Apple ProRes Raw format. Now, let us move to the obligatory benchmark comparison.
Obligatory Benchmarks
As with all of my reviews I include some benchmarks for general comparison. All of the items below are based on Apple Silicon, in some manner. This could be the A-Series or the M-Series. I used Geekbench for all of these comparisons. Here are the results of the benchmark tests.
Device
Single Core
Multi-Core
Compute
iPhone X (A10)
917
2462
3776
iPad mini (6th Generation) (A15 Bionic)
1594
4523
11960
5th Generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro (M1)
1673
6455
21007
Mac mini (Late 2020, M1)
1743
7619
21646
iPhone 13 Pro Max (A15 Bionic)
1746
4410
14460
Mac Studio (2022, M1 Max)
1765
12467
62662
iPhone 14 Pro Max (A16 Bionic)
1902
4543
15106
Closing Thoughts
Each new release of an iPhone is not a huge leap in standards as compared to the immediately previous model. Even though it is not a gigantic change the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a big upgrade. There have been both hardware and software changes. Many do use their iPhones as a phone, but many also use their iPhones for all other tasks. One of the biggest uses is taking pictures. The iPhone 14 Pro Max bring a whole new main 48 megapixel camera. While it will only provide 12 megapixel images, the amount of light let in will be four times as much, meaning better low light photos. Low Light photos will look better with the new Photonic Engine, which is a combination of hardware and software that will enhance low light images and make them sharper.
Beyond the camera, there is the new Always On Display. This display will allow you to easily see updated information on the Lock Screen including any widgets that you have configured on your Home Screen. The Always On Display can automatically reduce its refresh rate down to 1Hz, or only refresh the screen once a second, which will reduce the battery usage. If the Always On nature of the screen is not to your liking, you can disable it within Settings.
The biggest change to the iPhone 14 Pro Max is the new Dynamic Island, which is currently exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The Dynamic Island is a progression of the notch that began with the iPhone X in 2017. The Dynamic Island is an area in the display that is surrounded by pixels. Apple could have chosen to just leave this as is, but instead they created a whole new way to interact with applications that uses the fact that the Face ID sensor is surrounded by pixels to its advantage. If you tap and hold on the Dynamic Island while there is an application
As of this review the current version of iOS is iOS 16 and third-party applications cannot create custom interactions with the Dynamic Island, but it will be available in iOS 16.1 and it will be interesting to see what uses third-party applications create with the Dynamic Island. The Dynamic Island is the biggest change to interaction methods since the iPhone X.
Overall, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a solid upgrade, should you want, or need, the 6.7-inch screen. If you want a bit smaller screen the iPhone 14 Pro may be the right option for you. If you have an iPhone 12 or iPhone 13, it might be worthwhile to wait for the iPhone 15 Pros before upgrading your device.
A Space Black iPhone 14 Pro Max with an iPhone 14 Pro Max Case in Midnight in their respective boxes
Here is the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max availability for the evening of Thursday, September 22nd, 2022.
There have only been a few changes for the carriers. The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus continue to be available from Apple and some models of the iPhone 14 Pro are in stock from the U.S. carriers.
Changes for the Carriers
AT&T
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 6 to Sep 27
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 6 to Sep 27
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Gold has changed from Oct 6 to Sep 27
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Gold has changed from Oct 6 to Sep 27
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 13 to Sep 27
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Gold has changed from Oct 20 to Oct 14
T-Mobile
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Silver has changed from Oct 10 - Oct 24 to Oct 18 - Nov 01
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 22 - Sep 26 to Oct 13 - Oct 27
Verizon
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Gold has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Space Black has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
Here is the availability for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Availability of iPhones continues to vary wildly. The iPhone 14 Plus still has a delivery date of October 7th from Apple. The iPhone 14 continues to be available, but the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are still 4 to 6 weeks, depending on model.
Changes for Apple
iPhone 14
128GB - Blue has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
256GB - Blue has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
512GB - Blue has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
128GB - Purple has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
256GB - Purple has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
512GB - Purple has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
128GB - Midnight has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
256GB - Midnight has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
512GB - Midnight has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
128GB - Starlight has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
256GB - Starlight has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
512GB - Starlight has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
128GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
256GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
512GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Tomorrow to Fri, Sep 23
Changes for the Carriers
AT&T
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Blue has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 256GB - Blue has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 512GB - Blue has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Purple has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 256GB - Purple has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 512GB - Purple has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Midnight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 256GB - Midnight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 512GB - Midnight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Starlight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 256GB - Starlight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 512GB - Starlight has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 128GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 256GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
iPhone 14 - 512GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Sep 27 to Sep 26
T-Mobile
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 17 - Oct 31 to Sep 21 - Sep 26
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - Blue has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 08 - Oct 13
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Gold has changed from Sep 23 - Sep 29 to Oct 06 - Oct 20
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 23 - Sep 29 to Oct 06 - Oct 20
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 20 - Sep 23 to Oct 18 - Nov 01
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 30 - Oct 14 to Oct 13 - Oct 27
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Gold has changed from Sep 23 - Sep 29 to Oct 13 - Oct 27
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Gold has changed from Sep 23 - Sep 29 to Oct 13 - Oct 27
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Gold has changed from Oct 17 - Oct 31 to Oct 18 - Nov 01
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 30 - Oct 14 to Sep 22 - Sep 26
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 20 - Sep 23 to Oct 13 - Oct 27
Verizon
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Gold has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Silver has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Silver has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Gold has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Gold has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Silver has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Silver has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Silver has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
The Apple Watch is now a pretty mature product and it has come into its own, in terms of finding its primary use cases. The biggest uses for the Apple Watch are for fitness and health. The reason for this is that the Apple Watch is almost always on ones wrist throughout the day, including when someone is sleeping.
With the Apple Watch being a mature product, it does not get nearly as many hardware advances as one might expect. However, there are a couple of new features for this year’s Apple Watch Series 8. Before we dive into those, let us quickly cover my pre-order experience.
Pre-Order Experience
Apple held their “Far Out” event on September 7th and Apple Watch pre-orders were available that afternoon after the event had concluded. Once orders were available, I ordered a 45mm Aluminum Series 8 in Midnight with a Midnight Sport Loop band. Due to my choice of band, the only option I had was delivery. If I had gone with another band, like the Storm Blue, I could have picked it up at my local Apple Store. However, delivery was fine with me since Fedex and UPS do not deliver until the afternoon, at least for me.
Let us briefly look at the Midnight Watch and the Midnight Watch Band.
Midnight Apple Watch and Midnight Bands
Last year when they introduced the Apple Watch Series 7 they introduced a new color, "Midnight". Midnight replaced the standard "Space Gray" or "Black". Midnight is not a pure-black, but more of a really dark blue. Typically when Apple releases an Apple Watch they have a corresponding set of bands to go with it, however, they did not do that last year. This year though they have released a new Midnight Sport Loop as well as a Midnight Solo Loop.
Apple classifies these as "black", but they are not. Here is a comparison of the Midnight Solo Loop and the Black Solo Loop. In the picture below the Midnight Sport Loop is lying on top of the Black Sport Loop. The Black Sport Loop is on an Apple Watch Series 7.
As you can see the Midnight Solo Loop is a slightly brighter shade and is more blue than black. Even though it is a brighter shade that does not mean that it is a bright blue, far from it. It is still a dark color, but just not as nearly dark as the Black Solo Loop.
The Midnight Watch is the same shade as the Series 7 Midnight color. As mentioned above, the Midnight Sport Loop is a new band. The Midnight Sport Loop has alternating stripes of colors. One side is green, while the other is a light gray. There are stripes of blue, green, orange, and gray throughout the band. It was the most subtle band that Apple offered, hence the reason why I chose it when I did my pre-order.
What I would really like is a color-matched Solo Loop because even the Black Solo Loop is not as dark as Midnight Apple Watch. Now, that we have covered the color and bands, let us look at a couple of new features for the Series 8, Crash Detection, and the Temperature Sensor.
Crash Detection
One thing that everyone hopes to not be involved in is a crash. However, should a crash occur the Apple Watch Series 8 has the ability to detect when you are in a crash. This is done using the new accelerometer and gyroscope, along with algorithms for crash detection. The new accelerometer can handle up to 256Gs of force, which is way beyond what a human can withstand. If you are in a crash, the Apple Watch can contact emergency services, and your emergency contacts. The Watch will do so if you do not cancel out of the SOS emergency call.
Back in 2016 there were reports about Apple doing testing in an area and there were complaints of excessive engine noise from neighbors near the facility. I am now thinking that some of that noise could have been testing of the Apple Watch, and iPhone 14, Crash Detection algorithms. If it was not that, it could have been testing to obtain data for the algorithms. This is pure speculation on my part, but the crash detection does make some sense. Features like this are not created in just a few days, but they do take significant testing and tweaking to get correct.
Let us turn to another new hardware feature, the Temperature Sensor.
Temperature Sensor
The Apple Watch is designed with health tracking in mind. This includes fitness, mindfulness, and even sleep tracking. One area that can be health related is cycle tracking. Cycle Tracking was added to watchOS 6 in 2019. The Cycle Tracking features would allow women to track their menstrual cycle and record various aspects, like how much bleeding, any factors like being pregnant, lactating, or using contraceptives, or any other symptoms that they might be experiencing.
One area that the Apple Watch has not been able to help with is temperature. That changes with the Series 8 Apple Watch, because there is a whole new temperature sensor.
The temperature sensor in the Apple Watch Series 8 has two different parts. The first is on the back of the Apple Watch that is in contact with your skin. The second is closer to the surface of the Apple Watch Series 8. The reason that this is needed is because temperatures can differ depending on sleeping environment. The sensor closer to the surface of the Apple Watch is used to detect the temperature of the environment, while the one on the back of the Apple Watch is used to detect your body temperature. According to Apple, “Wrist temperature data will be available after about five nights.”
The temperature sensor on the Series 8 Apple Watch is designed to provide you with a baseline measurement and not the actual temperature. This information can be used to provide you with some possible insight into when you might have ovulated. This can help you with being able to assist you in possibly becoming pregnant. This is not a predictive feature, but a retroactive one. The feature is called "Retrospective Ovulation" and can only provide you with information about when you might have ovulated. It does not predict when you will ovulate. One thing to note about retrospective ovulation is that according to Apple, “retrospective ovulation estimates should be available after about two cycles.”
That covers all of the new features that are for the Apple Watch Series 8 itself, but let us cover a couple of new features for watchOS 9 that are worth noting. These features are the new Compass app, Low Power Mode, and some notes about the Nike Apple Watch.
New Compass App
The Apple Watch has a had a compass feature ever since the original Apple Watch was released in April of 2015. Its functionality has been fairly basic with just providing a digital version of an analog compass. For many people this is enough, but watchOS 9 brings some enhancements to the Compass app.
The Compass app has a new feature, called Backtrack. Backtrack is a way of being able to mark different points along a route so that you can make your way back, should you find yourself in a situation where you get off course.
While this feature is primarily designed to help you when you are out in the wilderness, it could be useful in any situation where you might not be able to find your way back to a place. Some possible examples could be if you are out on a hike, but it could also be just as useful in a new city and you need assistance making your way back.
Backtrack, and the new compass app, are not exclusive to Apple Watch Series 8, but they are new in watchOS 9. This is available for Apple Watch Series SE, and Apple Watch Series 6 and later. Next, let us talk about conserving power with Low Power Mode.
Low Power Mode
The Apple Watch has long had a feature called "Reserve Mode". This mode is an extreme one that would shut off all functionality of the Apple Watch with the exception of being able to keep and display the time. Power Reserve was a binary choice, it was either on or off, there was no middle ground.
The iPhone has long had a way of preserving battery through a feature called Low Power Mode. When you enable Low Power Mode on the iPhone many of the background processes are turned off, or their refresh rates are reduced.
Starting with watchOS 9, Low Power Mode is making its way to the Apple Watch. Low Power Mode is designed to allow someone to extend the battery life on Apple Watch. Low Power Mode can be enabled by swiping up on the Control Center, tapping on the battery percentage, and then toggling the Low Power toggle.
When you enable Low Power Mode there are a number of items that are turned off, or reduced. The items that are turned off include:
The Always-on Display
Background heart rate measurements
Background Blood Oxygen measurements
Start Workout reminders
Irregular heart rate notifications
High heart rate notifications
Low heart rate notifications
If your iPhone is not nearby the following items will also be disabled
Wi-Fi connectiosn
Cellular connections
Incoming phone calls and their notifications
Beyond these items being turned off, there are also other items that are affected including:
Phone calls taking longer
Siri may take longer to process requests
Compilations update less frequently
Background app refresh occurs less frequently
Animations may stutter more
You can enable or disable Low Power mode as needed. Low Power is not a feature of only the newest watches. In fact, it is available for any Apple Watch that is a Series 4 or later. You can also view additional information on Apple’s website. Low Power Mode: Apple Support Article https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213336. Next let us move onto Nike Watch Faces.
Apple Watch Nike
Since the introduction of the Apple Watch Series 2, in 2016, there has been a separate version of the Apple Watch specifically branded as the Nike Edition. The Nike Edition of the Apple Watch has had all of the same features of their corresponding non-Nike aluminum versions. The one thing that the Nike version came with is a set of exclusive Nike Watch Faces that would only work on Nike Watches, and not on non-Nike versions.
Let us say that you had an Apple Watch Series 2 Nike edition and then you upgraded to a regular Series 4 Apple Watch, any Nike Watch faces that you had configured would no longer be available for you to use. This can be somewhat annoying for users of the Nike Watch who upgraded and wanted to continue to use those Nike Watch Faces. The only way to be able to continue to use those would be to upgrade to another Nike edition. This all changes with watchOS 9.
With the release of the Apple Watch Series 8, there is no separate Nike version. Instead, starting with watchOS 9 you can use any of the Nike Watch Faces that you would like. You can add any of the Nike Watch Faces by doing so on your Apple Watch or by adding one from the Face Gallery section within the Apple Watch app on your paired iPhone. The Nike Watch Face options that you have available are:
Nike Analog
Nike Bounce
Nike Compact
Nike Digital
Nike Hybrid
Each of these has its own layout, but each of them can be customized in terms of complications and colors. One of the differences with the Nike Watch Faces is that you have a limited number of options when it comes to color. This is because the faces are designed to correspond to Nike watch bands. As an example, on the Nike Compact and the Nike Hybrid faces you can select any color combination from Summer 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, and Fall 2022.
The Nike Analog, Nike Bounce, and Nike Digital watch faces allow you to select any of the colors from Spring 2017 going forward.
It is good to see the Nike Watch faces available to all Apple Watch users. I am sure that having separate watch models provided additional strain on supply chain, as well as trying to predict how many to manufacture. Beyond this, watchOS also had to know which models could use the Nike Watch Faces and which ones could not and that provided additional overhead for maintaining watchOS.
In some respects it did not make sense to have these versions be entirely separate since they were the exact same as the Aluminum watch, but it is what Apple wanted to do in cooperation with Nike.
The Apple Watch Hermès models still have their own unique Watch Faces. I do not expect the Hermès watch faces to come to other Apple Watches any time soon because the Hermès watches are a more expensive edition and have a more limited user base.
Closing Thoughts
The Apple Watch is focused on glanceable information, like notifications and complications on a watch face. Along with this, the Apple Watch is designed for fitness and health. The Apple Watch Series 8 is no exception for this. The Apple Watch Series 8 does add a few exclusive feature. The first of these is Crash Detection. If a crash is detected, Crash Detection will be able to contact emergency services and your designated emergency contacts that you have configured in the Health app, automatically on your behalf.
Along with Crash Detection there is a new Temperature Sensor. The temperature sensor is a two-part sensor that is designed to work for being able to sense minute changes in temperature for women who are using cycle tracking. The temperature information can be used to provide you with retroactive ovulation estimates. This is a great addition for women to help them with their reproductive health. I would not be surprised to see the temperature sensing feature be enabled for everyone in the future, or be used for future features.
The Apple Watch Series 8 is powered by watchOS 9. watchOS 9 has a bunch of new features, like Low Power Mode. Low Power Mode allows users to extend their battery life. When you enable Low Power mode some functions will no longer work, or the frequency in which they refresh will be reduced. These changes are made to help extend the battery life of the Apple Watch.
Lastly, you have some new options for Watch Faces with the availability of the Nike Watch Faces now being available for all Apple Watch users, and no longer being limited only to the Nike Editions of the Apple Watch.
Overall the Apple Watch Series 8 is a slight upgrade from the Apple Watch Series 7. If you have a Series 7, it may not be worth upgrading. However, if you do want, or need, the Temperature Sensor then it is worth the upgrade.
If you have an Apple Watch Series 6, it would be a stretch to upgrade to a Series 8, that is, unless your battery is not holding enough of a charge to get you comfortably through an entire day. If you have a Series 5, or an even older model, then the Series 8 should be a solid upgrade and one worth looking into possibly upgrading your Apple Watch.
Here is the availability for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max for the early afternoon of Monday, September 19th, 2022.
The most number of changes has occurred with T-Mobile with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro max.
Changes for the Carriers
T-Mobile
iPhone 14 - 128GB - Starlight has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Oct 17 - Oct 31
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 08 - Oct 13 to Oct 14 - Oct 20
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Oct 10 - Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Gold has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Gold has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Gold has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Gold has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Silver has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Oct 10 - Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 20 - Sep 23
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Space Black has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Oct 18 - Nov 08
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 30 - Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Oct 14 - Oct 28
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Gold has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Gold has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Gold has changed from Sep 19 - Sep 22 to Oct 17 - Oct 31
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Gold has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Oct 14 - Oct 28
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 30 - Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Sep 20 - Sep 23
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Space Black has changed from Sep 18 - Sep 21 to Oct 06 - Oct 20
Verizon
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Silver has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Silver has changed from Oct 14 to Oct 21
Here is the availability for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max for the early morning of Saturday, September 17th, 2022.
Most of the changes have been with AT&T. the iPhone 14 Plus has improved by a week from October 24th to October 17th.
There have been various changes for Verizon and T-Mobile as well.
Changes for the Carriers
AT&T
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Blue has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - Blue has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - Blue has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Purple has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - Purple has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - Purple has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Midnight has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - Midnight has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - Midnight has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - Starlight has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 128GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 256GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Plus - 512GB - PRODUCT(RED) has changed from Oct 24 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 26 to Oct 3
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 26 to Oct 3
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Gold has changed from Oct 10 to Oct 3
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Gold has changed from Sep 26 to Oct 3
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Silver has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Silver has changed from Oct 17 to Oct 10
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Silver has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Silver has changed from Oct 10 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 17 to Oct 10
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 17 to Oct 10
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Space Black has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 10
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 10
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 10 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Gold has changed from Oct 10 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Silver has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Silver has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Silver has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Silver has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Space Black has changed from Nov 7 to Oct 17
T-Mobile
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Oct 10 - Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Gold has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro - 128GB - Silver has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Oct 18 - Nov 08
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Silver has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Oct 14 - Oct 28
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Silver has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Oct 18 - Nov 08
iPhone 14 Pro - 1TB - Silver has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Oct 10 - Oct 24
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Sep 20 - Sep 23
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Oct 18 - Nov 08
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Oct 18 - Nov 08
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Oct 14 - Oct 28
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Gold has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Gold has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Sep 23 - Sep 29
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Gold has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Sep 19 - Sep 22
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Gold has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Oct 14 - Oct 28
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Silver has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Oct 18 - Nov 08
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Silver has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Oct 18 - Nov 08
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Silver has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Oct 18 - Nov 08
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Sep 20 - Sep 23
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 28 - Nov 18 to Oct 18 - Nov 08
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Space Black has changed from Sep 16 - Sep 19 to Oct 06 - Oct 20
Verizon
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 23 to In Stock
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Gold has changed from Sep 23 to In Stock
iPhone 14 Pro - 512GB - Gold has changed from Sep 23 to In Stock
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Silver has changed from Sep 23 to Sep 30
iPhone 14 Pro - 256GB - Space Black has changed from Sep 23 to In Stock
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Deep Purple has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 512GB - Deep Purple has changed from Sep 30 to Oct 07
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 128GB - Space Black has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
iPhone 14 Pro Max - 1TB - Space Black has changed from Oct 07 to Oct 14
Today version 1.1 of "Update to 4077: An Unofficial M*A*S*H Trivia App" has been released. This version is a minor release that adds support for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
