MacRumors

As he often does on product launch days, Apple CEO Tim Cook this morning stopped by the Apple Store in Palo Alto, California as customers gathered to purchase an iPhone 8, Apple Watch Series 3, or 4K Apple TV.

Cook had a few minutes to speak with CNBC, and he said that he's "thrilled" with what he's seeing on launch day. Some stores have sold out of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus he says, and many locations are out of the LTE Apple Watch Series 3 models.

"Here's what we're seeing right now. The watch with LTE -- the Series 3 Watch -- we are sold out in so many places around the world. And we're working really hard to meet demand. We've sold out of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus in some stores, but we've got good supply there. You can see what's going on here this morning -- I couldn't be happier."

Cook spent time mingling with friends and joining in on the staff tradition of cheering and waving to customers purchasing a new iPhone. "We really like what we're seeing," Cook said.

Cook also commented on the LTE issues plaguing the new Apple Watch, which have caused some major publications not to recommend the device for purchase.

"The issue is very minor, it will be fixed in a software update," Cook told CNBC. "It has to do with the handoff between Wi-Fi and cellular, and we'll fix that. It only happens in a rare number of cases. I've been using it for quite a while and it works great. So we're very happy about it."

The bug surfaced when reviewers got their hands on the Apple Watch Series 3 and noticed that it often wouldn't connect to LTE. It turns out, the watch is mistakenly joining unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks with interstitial agreement pages that can't be bypassed. Apple has said the bug will be fixed in an update, but has not given a timeline for the fix.

Despite Cook's positivity, some reports from around the world have suggested demand for the iPhone 8 is low. Reuters reported a "bleak turnout" in Australia and later said there was a "muted launch" in Asia.

The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are in stock and available for launch day purchase in many stores around the world.

iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X feature advanced cameras with a new Portrait Lighting feature that uses sophisticated algorithms to calculate how your facial features interact with light. That data is used to create lighting effects, such as Natural Light, Studio Light, Contour Light, and Stage Light.

In a new interview with BuzzFeed News reporter John Paczkowski, Apple says it studied the work of portrait photographers such as Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, and Johannes Vermeer, a seventeenth-century Dutch painter, to learn how others have used lighting throughout history.

"We didn't just study portrait photography. We went all the way back to paint," said Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller.

"If you look at the Dutch Masters and compare them to the paintings that were being done in Asia, stylistically they're different," said Johnnie Manzari, a designer on Apple's Human Interface Team. "So we asked why are they different? And what elements of those styles can we recreate with software?"

Apple said it took what it learned, went into its studio, and spent countless hours shining light on people from different angles.

"We spent a lot of time shining light on people and moving them around — a lot of time," Manzari added. "We had some engineers trying to understand the contours of a face and how we could apply lighting to them through software, and we had other silicon engineers just working to make the process super-fast. We really did a lot of work."

Schiller acknowledged that Apple aims to make a professional camera, ranked the best among smartphones in a recent review, but he added that the company also cares about what it can contribute to photography as a whole.

"We're in a time where the greatest advances in camera technology are happening as much in the software as in the hardware," Schiller said. "And that obviously plays to Apple's strengths over traditional camera companies."

Apple's software advancements allow anyone to simply pick up an iPhone and capture a high-quality photo, eliminating the learning curve that can come with a high-end DSLR camera from the likes of Canon or Nikon.

"It's all seamless; the camera just does what it needs to," said Schiller. "The software knows how to take care of it for you. There are no settings."

Both the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X rear cameras been advanced with larger, faster dual-lens sensors, new color filters, and deeper pixels. iPhone X also has optical image stabilization for both the wide-angle and telephoto lenses, the latter of which has a larger ƒ/2.4 aperture that lets more light in.

Read More: How Apple Built An iPhone Camera That Makes Everyone A Professional Photographer

BuzzFeed News has put together a video of how Apple prepares for an iPhone launch day around the world.

When iPhone 8, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K pre-orders began at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time last Friday, dozens of Apple engineers were assembled in a so-called "war room" to ensure the process went smoothly.

For around three hours, these engineers sat in front of at least 10 TVs forming a larger display, which appears to show the system status of pre-orders in launch countries. One engineer had a map of the world open on his iMac.

"Over half of the orders that night will come in through the Apple Store app," said Apple's retail chief Angela Ahrendts. "We turn the whole world on at once. I think you saw the map with everything lighting up all over the world."

BuzzFeed reporter Nicole Nguyen then visited UPS's Worldport shipping facility in Louisville, Kentucky, a major hub for Apple products.

Nguyen said the volume of Apple products is so large that UPS has to set aside time to sort just those deliveries. Apple's launch day haul took up an entire large room, and the products later traveled along miles of conveyor belts.

UPS delivers some of the orders to Apple retail stores, while others arrive directly at customers' doorsteps.

Apple retail stores usually attract long queues of customers on launch days, but the crowds have been smaller for today's iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus launch. Many customers are likely waiting for the iPhone X, which launches November 3.

IKEA today has launched a new "tribute campaign" to Apple and the inductive wireless charging features of the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X, playing off of popular Apple catchphrases like "This changes everything" and "Think different" (via DesignTAXI and The Verge).

The campaign is called "This Charges Everything," and includes multiple other references to Apple's advertising campaigns of years past, as well as a few jokes aimed at the internet's wish for AirPower to be called "Apple Juice."

The new IKEA ads are aimed at the RIGGAD LED lamp with Qi wireless charging, which runs for $69.99, and the VARV Table lamp with Qi wireless charging, which runs for $79.99. Other Apple references include: "One more thing... it's also a lamp," "Link different," and a question asking Siri "what lamp should I buy?"

IKEA has quite a few pieces of furniture and home accessories with Qi pads, including bedside tables, floor lamps, and individual charging pads (single and triple) that you can place anywhere.

IKEA teamed up with advertising agency ACNE to build the campaign for "This Charges Everything." According to Morten Kjær, Creative Director at IKEA Creative Hub, “IKEA has been very progressive with wireless charging, and we are thrilled that new iPhone owners finally can make use of one of the most powerful lamps we’ve ever made.”

The new campaign has been shared to time with today's launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which are the first of Apple's iPhones to ever support wireless charging through the Qi standard. When it launches in November, the iPhone X will also support the feature and will be able to charge through IKEA's furniture. For a look at current and upcoming Qi-supported charging pads, check out our roundup here.

DxO Labs has declared the iPhone 8 Plus has the best smartphone camera it has ever tested in a new in-depth review.

iPhone 8 Plus set a new record with an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 94, two points higher than its smaller iPhone 8 sibling. iPhone 8 Plus also topped the Google Pixel and HTC U11, which both scored 90 points, as well as last year's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus which scored 88 and 85 points respectively.

DxO said iPhone 8 models do a better job of capturing HDR scenes. In the comparison below, it found the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus offer better detail preservation and overall exposure than the iPhone 7 Plus. The performance matches that of the Google Pixel, which was released nearly one year ago.

In low light, DxO said the iPhone 8 Plus camera's exposures are generally accurate, with some underexposure in very low light.

DxO said the iPhone 8 Plus is the highest-performing smartphone camera it tested in relation to the bokeh effect, which makes the subject in the foreground sharp while creating an out-of-focus blur in the background.

DxO said the iPhone 8 Plus improves slightly over the iPhone 8 in its color performance by completely avoiding visible color shading, even in low light.

DxO said, overall, the iPhone 8 Plus is an "excellent choice" for the needs of "nearly every smartphone photographer."

It features outstanding image quality, zoom for those needing to get closer to their subjects, and an industry-leading Portrait mode for artistic efforts. It is at the top of our scoring charts in nearly every category — and in particular, its advanced software allows it to do an amazing job of capturing high-dynamic range scenes and images in which it can recognize faces.

DxO says it has analyzed the image and video quality of over 10,000 cameras, lenses, and mobile phones, and its tests are generally respected within the industry. The company also sells some consumer-facing products like the DxO ONE camera, which can be plugged into an iPhone's Lightning connector.

The full review is a worthwhile read for additional photos and analysis of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus cameras.

As it traditionally does on product launch days, Apple today has celebrated the launch of the new iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and Apple Watch Series 3 by sharing a few images of customers around the world buying and trying out the devices for the first time.

The new iPhone and Apple Watch models went on sale (or will soon go on sale) at 8 a.m. local time around the world today, and Apple posted pictures of customers purchasing the devices at Apple Stores in London, Singapore, Taipei, and Sydney.

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are Apple's latest smartphones, with a glass back design, inductive wireless charging, Retina HD displays, faster A11 Bionic chips, and advanced augmented reality capabilities.

Although the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus launched first in countries like New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and China, a Reuters report last night referenced "a bleak turnout" for the smartphones. Fewer than 30 people were said to have lined up outside of the Sydney Apple Store on George Street, in comparison to the hundreds who typically show up for an iPhone launch. Most Apple customers are likely waiting for the iPhone X, coming November 3.

Since the devices launched in other countries, the first sets of unboxing, speed test, and durability videos have been posted online. The iPhone 8 is said to be as resistant to scratches as the iPhone 7, but it emerged from a bend test with higher marks than the previous generation iPhone models.

For the Apple Watch Series 3 Apple has made improvements to the wearable's health and fitness metrics, improving heart rate sensing and enhancing a few user interface elements in watchOS 4 to make it easier to sync to gym equipment and be warned of an elevated heart rate. Series 3 models also include faster dual-core processors and LTE connections in cellular models, letting users stream Apple Music, send texts, and more without needing their iPhone nearby.

Apple also launched the Apple TV 4K today, which introduces the ability to view 4K HDR content on Apple's set-top box. The company confirmed yesterday that the new 4K content on iTunes is limited to streaming only, and can't be downloaded directly to the Apple TV to view offline, so only HD quality versions of films and below can be downloaded.

For more information on all of the new Apple products launching today, be sure to check out our roundups for each of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, and fifth-generation Apple TV 4K.

iFixit purchased one of Apple's new iPhone 8 models in Australia, and has already started ripping it apart in one of the site's traditional teardowns.

Inside, the iPhone 8 looks a lot like the iPhone 7, but there are some notable differences, like the wireless charging coil that enables Qi-based inductive charging.

The iPhone 8 features an 1,821mAh battery, smaller than the 1,960mAh battery in the iPhone 7. Despite the change, the iPhone 8 continues to offer the same battery life as the iPhone 7 due to processor improvements. Battery capacity was first unveiled last week, but has now been confirmed.

Included on the logic board is the A11 Bionic chip, which is layered over 2GB of SK Hynix LPDDR4 RAM. There's also a Qualcomm MDM9656 Snapdragon X16 LTE modem and an NXP 80V18 Secure NFC module, among other chips.

Other small tweaks and changes in iPhone 8 include a new Lightning port bracket that seems to reinforce it, a new interconnect/antenna cable over the speaker that iFixit calls "strange," a lack of gaskets on the pentalobe tabs used for the display, no tri-point screws holding down the display cable bracket, and additional adhesive strips holding the battery in place.

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus launched today at Apple retail stores in the United States and other first wave launch countries, coinciding with the first deliveries to customers.

Apple's iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are already available for purchase in countries like New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and China, and in Sydney, one of the first cities where the two devices became available, lines were short and there was little demand for the new smartphones.

The iPhone 8 launch in Sydney saw "a bleak turnout," reports Reuters, with fewer than 30 people lining up outside of the Sydney Apple Store on George Street. In past years, hundreds of people have lined up for new iPhones on release day.

Apple customers on Twitter have also noted shorter lines in other locations.

The perceived lack of demand for the iPhone 8 and mixed reviews about the device caused Apple stock to fall as low as $152.75 on Thursday. Hints of demand issues first popped up last Friday, when iPhone 8 pre-orders kicked off.

Ahead of a standard launch, pre-order supplies of new iPhones often sell out online, but that was not the case with the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus. Hours after the two devices became available for sale, there was still plenty of stock, with September 22 delivery dates available either online or with in-store pickup.

Many customers appear to be waiting for the higher-cost iPhone X, Apple's new flagship device that will become available for pre-order on October 27. Priced starting at $999, the device features an edge-to-edge OLED display, upgraded cameras, and a new facial recognition system.

Supplies of the iPhone X are rumored to be extremely constrained, and it's been suggested that Apple will not be able to supply adequate amounts of the devices to meet demand until well into 2018.

With the iPhone 8 now available for purchase in many places around the world, it's popping up in a whole range of videos on YouTube that are looking at everything from speed to durability.

YouTuber JerryRigEverything aimed to test Apple's claim that the iPhone 8 is using the most durable glass ever included in a smartphone.

He did Mohs test to determine hardness, finding that it scratched at a level 6 out of 10, much like the iPhone 7. For comparison's sake, sapphire, the material used for the Apple Watch display in Stainless Steel and Edition models, is about a 9. The screen resisted scratches from coins, keys, and a razor blade.

In a bend test, the iPhone 8 held up well, faring better than the iPhone 7 last year. There was no separation between the body and the glass and no real distortion to the frame of the device.

YouTuber MadMatt did a speed test comparison between the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone 7 Plus, displaying apps launching side by side along with a Geekbench benchmark. While apps launched at about the same rate on both devices, the iPhone 8 did much better on the Geekbench test, as we saw last week in leaked A11 scores.

Earlier today, popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee did an iPhone 8 unboxing video, which is worth watching if you'd like to see the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus pulled right out of the box.

The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are already in the hands of many customers around the world. Deliveries will start in the United States in the morning, with customers on the east coast set to receive the first iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K models at around 8:00 a.m. local time.

Apple this evening introduced a new series of tutorial videos, this time highlighting Apple Pay on the iPhone.

One of the videos, which is unlisted, goes through the steps necessary to use Apple Pay Cash, the peer-to-peer Apple Pay feature Apple plans to add in a future iOS 11 update. Apple has already demonstrated most of these steps, but it's interesting to see the simplicity of it in action from end to end.

As described by Apple, users simply need to open the Messages app, go to the App Drawer, tap Apple Pay, enter an amount, and approve the payment with Touch ID.

Apple also mentions approving Apple Pay Cash payments with Face ID, the facial recognition feature on the upcoming iPhone X. Payments received can be accessed through the Apple Pay Cash card in Wallet. There's no word on when Apple Pay Cash will be released, but it could come in the next major iOS update ahead of when the iPhone X launches.

Given that this Apple Pay Cash video is unlisted, it could potentially be removed from YouTube or made private.

The other two videos videos walk users through how to add a card to the iPhone's Wallet app to use with Apple Pay and how to pay in stores with a Touch ID-equipped iPhone.

Like all of Apple's previous tutorial videos, the Apple Pay tutorials are short, to the point, and primarily designed for users who may not often use these features. Apple has also done a series of tutorial videos on iOS 11 features new to the iPad Pro and iPhone 7 camera features.

Update: Unfortunately, Apple has removed the accidentally-release peer-to-peer Apple Pay video.