Apple's iPhone 13 Event: Everything you need to know

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley recaps yesterday's Apple event and summarizes his thoughts on the new products.

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- Let's talk more about Apple and its product announcement yesterday. Our Dan Howley, who covers tech for us, is joining us right now. Hey there, Dan. This morning, as you take a step back, have a little time to breathe between the announcement and now, what stands out to you most from yesterday?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, I think one of the biggest takeaways from this was the emphasis on the cameras for those new iPhones. I think that really, obviously, is what Apple is trying to push the most. There hasn't been much as far as a redesign of the phone. There's been a few aesthetic changes here and there.

But for the most part, it's a similar phone to last year, which saw kind of a reinvention and the introduction of 5G. And since those were so splashy, I think, for this time around, they're really trying to go for the camera. And look, a lot of people really like what the camera has to offer. When they look for a new smartphone, they look for a camera. So I think that's really going to be the big deal.

But if you want to get the best camera experience, you going to have to go for the iPhone Pro Max. That's going to be the one that gets you everything that Apple talked about whether that's all of the improvements to low light photography, the ability to do macro photography, and that 3x telephoto lens on there.

And I think that's really going to be the draw for most people. Because they do look at screen, they look at camera, they look at battery life, and then they say, OK, this is the phone that I want. And I think that that's going to really help out the average selling price of these iPhones.

And then, for the Apple Watch which was announced-- the Apple Watch Series 7, not a lot a-- whole lot going on here. We are expecting a complete redesign of them. But what they ended up doing was increasing the screen size slightly by reducing the bezels and kind of making the body of it ever so slightly larger. So the sizes now go from 40 and 44 millimeters to 41 and 45 millimeters. But Apple says that you can get 50% more text on screen. So that's kind of a big deal and it's more rugged.

But outside of that, if you have a series 6, then I don't really see much reason to upgrade. Even if you have a series 5 and you don't necessarily want the bells and whistles that came with the series 6 like that blood oxygen sensor. And then, finally, we had the new iPads. We had the iPad Mini and the iPad Standard Edition. And the Mini really got a huge boost. It got big changes to the display, shrunk the bezels on that, now it looks more in line with what the other iPads have to offer.

$499 starting price is pretty high, though, for an iPad Mini. But it does have one of the latest processors and it does work with the Apple Pencil, too, so that's a big deal. But I don't know if the audience for the iPad Mini is really going to kind of be clamoring to pay that much for it. I really like the Mini. I think it's a great piece of equipment to have.

But $499 is a little too rich for my blood. So they have the other iPad-- the standard iPad-- and that's $329 and that did get some upgrades as well. But overall, I think really the big to do here is with that new iPhone and the ability for you to take those photos in low light and get that macro photography. And obviously, Apple wants to push that heavily as they did during the event.

- Dan, I'm still not sure what that blood oxygen sensor on my new Apple Watch is even telling me. It sounds cool that I have it. But nonetheless, not even sure if it's telling me if I'm almost dead or alive.

But look, I mean, so many analysts continue to look for this iPhone supercycle. I don't think it materialized with this cycle. And given these incremental improvements on the iPhone, should that-- that supercycle debate, should that just be put to bed entirely? There's just not going to be one?

DAN HOWLEY: I don't necessarily think so. The 12 sold incredibly well for them. So I think that was kind of know intact to a degree as far as the sales of that go. I think for the 13, what you'll see is more people who are a little bit hesitant about getting on with 5G just because of the discussion of, is it going to drain my phone battery? Is it something that's even worth it right now? Are there any apps?

And look, there aren't too many apps yet that take full advantage of 5G. You still have a lot of people using 4G. So app developers aren't going to use 5G as a means to get on. But I do think that once those start to roll out, we'll continue to see people clamoring for 5G. And really, you know I think the 13 is where you'll start to see most people go on and get their next iPhone with a 5G connection.

- I'm just-- I can't get over that cartoon of you Dan Howley. I love it. Especially with the Apple finger on the chin.