Update: Check out our ongoing iPhone 4S coverage below for a full run-down on the latest iPhone, or read on for a blow-by-blow with all the nitty-gritty details, as penned lived during the October 4 announcement.
Ongoing iPhone 4S Coverage
Apple iPhone 4S: Everything you need to know
What’s missing from the iPhone 4S? Turns out plenty
Siri voice control for iPhone: Everything you need to know
How to get your hands on a new iPhone 4S
The next-generation iPhone is upon us, and will be announced at Apple’s Cupertino, CA headquarters at 1pm EST (10am PST). We will be writing a number of articles about the new iPhone(s) following the big reveal, but for now, this is the place to be, loyal reader. We’ll be updating this news article on a constant basis, filling in info on the new iPhone and detailing all of the fancy neat surprises as they happen. The best way to follow is to keep up is to refresh every few minutes. New information will be filled in on the chart below and we’ll write out additional underneath. We’ll keep a “Last Updated” marker up here at the top so you know when we last updated. All time is in PST.
(The event is over. Thanks for joining us!)
iPhone 4S: Filling in the blanks
We filled in this section as the vent was unwinding. Below are some quick facts about the iPhone 4S
The phone
Name: iPhone 4S
- Design: exactly like the iPhone 4 (comes in black and white)
- Screen: 3.5 inches, same as iPhone 4
- Specs: dual-core A5 processor,
- Camera: 8-megapixel camera, 60 percent more pixels than iPhone 4, shoots 1/3 faster than iPhone 4, high-end IR filter for better uniformity
- Connection speed: HSPA+, but no 4G LTE
- Special features: World Phone, Siri voice control (you can talk to your phone naturally and ask it questions, will do messages, emails, or ask it to define a word or what the weather is like, etc.), new antenna design
- Price: 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399. 64GB
Additional info
- Accessories: None announced, but it looks like most accessories will carry over from iPhone 4
- Carriers: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint
- Release Date(s): Pre-orders Oct. 7, release date Oct. 14 (U.S., Canada, Australia, U.K., France, Germany, Japan)
- iOS 5 info: Available Oct 12 for free, Card creator app announced, iMessage (IM app), Game Center, iOS 5 is PC free, heavy Twitter integration,
- iCloud info: Will back up media, docs, and Photos (via Photo Stream), new app announced to help locate your family & friends
- Steve Jobs: Did not show up. It was all Tim Cook.
- iPod Nano: Announced with new features including watch display, seven colors, Nike fitness integration without sensors. Price dropped to 8GB for $129, 16GB for $149.
- iPod Touch: Price dropped to 8GB for $199, 32GB for $299, 64GB for $399, getting iMessage and GameCenter
Live coverage
Our messy coverage of things as they happen, more or less, will go here. Please look in the above section for a more organized look at the announcements.
Pictures of the iPhone 4S have been spotted on the Japanese Apple site. Check it out here.
10:00 am: Tim Cook has taken the stage and is discussing how much he loves Apple and how the iPod was announced 10 years ago.
10:11 am: Mac Install base has reached 58 million, OS X Lion has seen 80 percent growth since previous release. Macs have a 23 percent market share of PCs.
10:16 am: 45 million iPods sold from July 2010 to June 2011. It’s still a “large and important market” for Apple. iTunes has hit 20 million songs. 20 times what it had at launch.
10:18 am: iPhone has seen 125 percent YoY growth. The iPhone 4 now makes up half of the overall market.
10:20: iPhone has 5 percent of entire world market for handsets. Customer satisfaction is at 95 percent.
10:21: Now talking about how successful the iPad is. Pilots are using iPads, and 80 percent of top hospitals have iPads
10:24: iPad has 74 percent of tablet market. iOS devices have sold 250 million units.
10:26: Scott Forstall takes the stage. Number time. iOS is the number 1 smartphone OS as of July ComScore with 43 percent market share over Android. 140,000 iPad apps now in the store. 1 billion apps downloaded each month.
10:27: Cards app announced. App Store has 18 billion downloads. “Create and mail beautiful cards right from your iPhone or iPod touch.”
10:29: Apple will print and mail the cards for you. 100% cotton paper. $2.99 in the U.S. Available Oct. 12.
10:30: iMessage announced and will be available on all devices. It’s a new messaging service for iOS. Notifications too.
10:32: Twitter integration is heavy in iOS and Apple apps. New feature that lets you push everything to a new device, allowing you to pick up on one device where you left off on another.
10:33: New camera features. Edit photos on the phone, crop, rotate, remove red-eye.
10:34: Game Center has 67 million users after 1 year. They are adding achievements, points, photos, recommendations from friends, etc.
10:35: Safari has been updated on iOS. Will have Reader that will format stories “perfectly” on device. Instapaper competitor.
10:36: All new iOS devcies are going PC free. You don’t need a PC for updates and iTunes and whatnot anymore. This is all part of iOS 5.
10:39: Eddie Cue takes stage to talk iCloud, which is now being demonstrated. “Keeping it in sync can be frustrating.” We agree.
10:40: Photo Stream shown for photos. It’s cloud storage for pics. Documents in the cloud, etc, being discussed. iCloud stores all of your content and wirelessly pushes it to all of your devices (as long as they are Apple devices).
10:43: iOS devices get daily backups from the iCloud. New Family and Friends app announced. Now you can easily locate friends and family, share stuff, etc. it looks a lot like Google’s Android service, but maybe more usable.
10:46: iTunes match service being shown. Scans and matches library against the iTunes library and if Apple has the songs, they are added to your library. They mentioned the word “stream” too. Video is being shown.
10:49: Phil Schiller takes the stage. Talkin about the iPod. New iPod Nano announced. Has a multitouch display with bigger icons. Mostly the same, it looks like. Will come with Nike fitness app right out of the box.
10:50: Apple is adding clock faces to the iPod Nano so people who want to wear it as a watch, can easily do so.
10:51: iPod Nano price: 8GB for $129, 16GB for $149, 7 colors
10:53: iPod Touch talk. iMessage, Game Center coming.
10:55: iPod Touch 8GB for $199, 32GB for $299, 64GB for $399
10:56: iPhone gets dual-core A5 chip, 7x faster than previous iPhone. Still has “Retina Display”
10:57: named the iPhone 4S. Epic Games is demoing some fancy graphics now possible.
11:01: Picture of the iPhone 4S logo from another site.
11:02: WIll get 8 hours of talk time, data can download up to 2x as fast at 14.4Mbps down. It doesn’t have 4G but will have HSPA+, which Apple is touting as 4G.
11:05: iPhone 4S is a worldphone, 8MP camera that is improved.
11:07: 60 percent more pixels than iPhone 4, shoots 1/3 faster than iPhone 4, high-end IR filter for better uniformity (camera). Face detection, auto white balance. Gets 73 percent more light than iPhone 4
11:09: Droid Bionic takes 2-3 times longer to shoot than the iPhone 4S. (Hmm. I’d like to see it compared to better HTC phones.)
11:12: Camera of iPhone 4S has 1080p real-time video stabilization and video recording, which should be nice.
11:14: Voice feature being announced for iPhone 4S. It’s called “Siri” and lets you communicate with the phone with your voice. “What’s the weather like today?” and Siri gives a forecast.
11:18: Looks like you can talk fairly naturally to the phone, but it’s hard to say how limited this interaction will be.
11:20: They are asking some different questions like “Find me a great Greek restaurants in Palo Alto” and Siri responds with “I’ve found five Greek restaurants and I’ve sorted them by rating” Pretty cool.
11:21: Siri can do reminders and send/read text messages as well. Remembers who you’ve been talking to. Siri can learn who your wife is and things about you. Kind of like HAL.
11:23: iPhone 4S Siri will access Wolfram Alpha if you ask it a question. It can define a word for you, etc. It all looks good in a demo, but how well will it work when we’re using it?
11:27: You can compose and dictate email to Siri, set timers, search contacts, write notes, search Wikipedia, etc.
11:29: Siri will have built in English, French, and German to start. It will be beta at first.
11:31: They are recapping some stuff. Looks like that might be it for the iPhone 4S.
11:37:16GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399. 64GB iPhone 4S, Preorders start Oct. 7, Release is Oct 14, coming to Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and launching in U.S. Canada, Australia, U.K., France, Germany, Japan at first.
11:38: It’s all over. Tim Cook is leaving! We’ve filled in the information blanks above for those of you just joining. No real need to read most of this live blog.
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