Apple's newest phones have a new chip called the U1, which is not given much attention during the recently concluded event, but it is quite powerful. It was not mentioned on stage, but it is said to have a more advanced spatial awareness than what users have ever seen.
According to CNET, iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max phone all ave the new chip called the U1. The company has not poured a lot of attention to it during the event, but it is said to be a gamechanger. The new chip takes advantage of the ultrawideband technology, allowing increased precision and accuracy in looking for other U1-equipped Apple devices. With U1, the new phones are said to have GPS "at the scale of your living room."
More than their enhanced tracking capabilities because the U1 chip, the new iPhones will also have better AirDrop because of this. With the power of this chip and iOS13, owners of the newest iPhones will have the capacity to AirDrop their files just by pointing their iPhones to another. This feature will start operating with the iOS 13.1, dropping on September 30.
Weirdly, even though the new technology was anticipated to be at the center of the rumored new tracking system that will enable users to buy small trackers that they can attach to items such as keys or backpacks that they can locate using Apple's Find My iOS app, the system was never mentioned during the event.
Despite not being announced on the event, Apple did tease that it has great plans in store for the U1 chip. It wrote on its 11 Pro page that the U1 chip could act in such a way that users could feel as if they are "adding another sense to [the] iPhone" and is "going to lead to amazing new capabilities."
Probably why it was not spoken of much in detail during the event is because a majority of the big big-ticket features associated with the U1 chip are yet to come in the iOS 13.1, and not with iOS 13 that the new iPhones will have. Those who will buy the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max phones will still have to wait a bit for the improved AirDrop with direction awareness and suggestions on who to beam a file to.
More details about this chip and its features will be probably discussed in another Apple event.
