Welcome to ReadWrite’s live coverage of Apple’s special event in Cupertino. Readers, you’ll need to refresh the page to see our latest updates. We’ll also be scanning comments and bringing up anything that seems worthy into the live blog itself, so have at it!
Our coverage so far:
- Apple: iOS 7 Final Version Available September 18
- Apple Kills Off iPhone 5 In Favor Of Multicolored iPhone 5C
- What You Need To Know About The iPhone 5S
- Gold Tones, Multicolored iPhones and Apple’s Design Ethos
- Apple’s iPhone 5S Camera Shoots To Kill
- What Apple Didn’t Announce At Today’s iPhone Event
11:26am, David Hamilton: And that seems to be a wrap. Thank you all for joining us, and make sure to check out our further analysis of what Apple did and didn’t announce today. That’ll be over the next few hours, right here at ReadWrite.
11:23am, David Hamilton: Costello is still singing. He joked to Cook that Apple should make an “iPad Twister” app.
11:23am, Selena Larson: Without contract, the 5S is just $100 more at $649. So I guess the “c” isn’t that much cheaper. http://store.apple.com/us/buy-iphone/iphone5s
11:15am, Selena Larson: Without a contract, the 5C starts at $549. http://store.apple.com/us/buy-iphone/iphone5c
11:13am, Selena Larson: I think the only surprise of the whole show was Mr. Costello.
11:12am, Selena Larson: Not sure the target demographic for the 5S or the 5C would listen to Elvis Costello.
11:11am, Dan Rowinski: Elvis Goddamn Costello. Kind of a let down after Foo Fighters last year. I guess that depends on your age.
11:11am, Selena Larson: I was waiting for Miley Cyrus to appear. But I’ll settle for Elvis Costello.
11:11am, David Hamilton: But no Kronos Quartet, sadly.
11:11am, David Hamilton: And… it’s the King of America, Elvis Costello!
11:10am, David Hamilton: Cook: “Before we close, I’d like to return to music.”
11:09am, David Hamilton: It’s time to watch ads!
11:07am, Taylor Hatmaker: The 4S is now free?! That’s insane. Best smartphone deal on the market right there. Obviously with a new two-year carrier contract, but whoa.
11:07am, Adriana Lee: And that’s why we’re staring at a gold iPhone now. It’s going to be huge in Asia.
11:07am, Selena Larson: China included in launch. First time an iPhone has been launched in China at the same time as the U.S.
11:06am, Selena Larson: Sept. 20 they are available for purchase.
11:05am, Selena Larson: Preorder phones this Friday.
11:05am, Selena Larson: I hope there is a platinum case option to protect my gold iPhone.
11:04am, Adriana Lee: Also 32GB at $299 and 64GB at $399. on contract, of course.
11:04am, Selena Larson: 16GB starting at $199. Fairly affordable.
11:03am, Selena Larson: Big three new technologies: 64-bit A7, Camera, Touch ID.
11:03am, Adriana Lee: This is some future tech. Wonder how long it will take before Apple unleashes a Retina Scanner too. Maybe iPhone 7?
11:03am, David Hamilton: Fingerprint data apparently stored within a secure area of iOS 7, and never uploaded to Apple’s servers or the cloud.
11:01am, Selena Larson: Touch ID lets you touch your home button to unlock your phone. I wonder if it auto unlocks? Sometimes I touch the home button just to check the time.
11:00am, Adriana Lee: No wonder they ditched the square icon in the home button. sapphire crystal top and stainless steel detection ring. touch to unlock. Swipe to unlock has left the building.
10:59am, Adriana Lee: Touch ID: 170 microns thin. 500ppi resolution, scans in 360 degrees, can learn different fingers.
10:58am, Taylor Hatmaker: “Touch ID”. Fingerprint phone of the future… unnecessary or cool?
10:57am, Selena Larson: Touch ID – fingerprint scanner. Upgrading security. Nice.
10:57am, Adriana Lee: “The third feature is all about security.” Come on, fingerprint security…
10:57am, Selena Larson: iPhone automatically adjust exposure levels for panorama images. Hopefully the image stabilization will also apply to panorama images to eliminate shaky edges.
10:56am, Brian Proffitt: Wonder how iPhone camera will compare to Lumia 1020?
10:56am, Selena Larson: Have they announced anything that hasn’t leaked already?
10:54am, Taylor Hatmaker: Support for slow motion at 120 fps.
10:53am, Adriana Lee: Schiller asks what we think so far. I think I might actually have a chance of not being a crappy amateur photog.
10:53am, Selena Larson: Auto image stabilization takes multiple photos, combines them for light levels and picks the sharpest one.
10:53am, Taylor Hatmaker: (I don’t have a hat but I’ll find a hat)
10:52am, Taylor Hatmaker: If Apple can show me a photo using flash that I like, I’ll eat my hat.
10:51am, Adriana Lee: A TrueTone flash that automatically gives you the proper color flash? Could it be? No more washed-out night-time pics?
10:49am, Taylor Hatmaker: Note: no mention of fingerprint scanning… yet. If you’ve got a gold phone I guess you might as well trick it out with a fingerprint scanner amirite?
10:49am, Adriana Lee: Bigger camera sensor. 15% bigger. That’s going to make a lot of shooters really happy.
10:47am, Selena Larson: Battery life: 3G talk time: 10 hours. 10 Hours LTE browsing. Solid.
10:46am, Brian Profitt: A better accelerometer means more fitness apps for Owen Thomas to play with.
10:45am, Adriana Lee: Gonna miss that little home button square. It was iconic.
10:44am, David Hamilton: Apparently Apple calls it the iPhone 5s (when the “s” isn’t in a box) and not the iPhone 5S. And typographic stylists everywhere throw up their hands in despair.
10:42am, David Hamilton: And now, the inevitable Infinity Blade demo, which is showing off the iPhone 5s’ chops.
10:38am, Taylor Hatmaker: iPhone 5S to pack an A7 under the hood. The “first and only” smartphone with a 64-bit chip.
10:36am, Taylor Hatmaker: The gold is the champagne color that was largely anticipated.
10:35am, Taylor Hatmaker: Three colors of iPhone 5S confirmed: black, gold and silver. For the not-tweens in your life.
10:34am, Selena Larson: Apple is really proud of the 5C color scheme. Wallpapers will match the phone’s color.
10:34am, Taylor Hatmaker: Second phone official: Meet the iPhone 5S.
10:33am, Taylor Hatmaker: Beats the hell out of the Bumpers…
10:33am, Taylor Hatmaker: Clever way to cut corners on production costs. Put holes in things!
10:33am, Selena Larson: $99 for the 5C and $29 for a case with holes?
10:31am, David Hamilton: Tim Cook: “The iPhone 5C is beautifully, unapologetically plastic.”
10:29am, Taylor Hatmaker: iPhone 5C has a 4″ Retina display, “same” 8-megapixel rear camera. 16 GB will cost $99, 32GB version for $199. Colors: bright green, yellow, pink, blue and white.
10:29am, Owen Thomas: Alas, poor iPhone 5. Shortest-lived iPhone ever?
10:29am, Selena Larson: Going a little crazy on the color palette, between iOS 7 and the 5C it’s too matchy-matchy.
10:27am, Taylor Hatmaker: Whoa there, crazy cut-out Apple custom cases… brightly colored cases with circular cut-outs so you can see the phone’s color underneath. Hence the event invite’s colorful dots!
10:25am, Taylor Hatmaker: The iPhone 5C seems to be made of plastic as expected, but has “no seams.”
10:25am, David Hamilton: The iPhone 5C really does look like a colorful, plastic iPhone 5.
10:24am, Taylor Hatmaker: I thought Apple would actually avoid the “C”… C’s make me think of bad grades…
10:23am, Taylor Hatmaker: iPhone 5C naming official!
10:22am, Taylor Hatmaker: iPhoto still makes me want to iJump off a bridge. Can we fix that?
10:21am, Taylor Hatmaker: September 18 release date for iOS 7
10:21am, Brian Proffitt: So glad I plunked down all that money for the iWork apps years ago.
10:21am, Dan Rowinski: So much for “the intersection of liberal arts and technology.” Cook is stressing iWork as a productivity suite. Lure the enterprise in with Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie, Pages and Numbers … for free!
10:18am, Taylor Hatmaker: I want my Siri to have Tim Cook’s soft lisp.
10:18am, Owen Thomas: Is there a sassy gay option for Siri? “You’re looking super fierce today! Here’s the weather.”
10:18am, Taylor Hatmaker: This iOS 7 stuff has been thoroughly explored by developers for months now. But mainstream users are still going to freak when they see how different things are going to be. (In a good way, I think)
10:17am, Dan Rowinski: And what is that “P2P Wi-Fi” he mentioned? That would be Wi-Fi Direct. What is it and why does it matter? Check out here http://readwr.it/poJ
10:17am, Dan Rowinski: Share Sheet for Twitter, email etc. sharing. Also AirDrop. Craig is really blowing through a LOT of iOS 7 features here. You can catch up on what is in iOS 7 here.
10:16am, David Hamilton: Daft Punk rules iTunes Radio.
10:14am, Taylor Hatmaker: I can’t wait to make Siri sound male instead of female. I hope there’s a male Siri “drill sergeant” option.
10:13am, Dan Rowinski: New ringtones. So, when you are in a room with other people and one person’s phone rings, everybody doesn’t automatically think its them.
10:12am, Taylor Hatmaker: Apple showing off swipe-up Command Center and swipe-down Notification Center. Remember when iOS didn’t even *have* a notification center back in 2011? Android was really ahead of the game on that one… but now it feels like ancient history
10:10am, Taylor Hatmaker: Yes, yes he does.
10:10am, Dan Rowinski: Does Craig Federighi look like The Fonz to anybody else?
10:09am, Dan Rowinski: 700 million iOS device. Super. Wait, Tim … how many of those are iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches?
10:09am, Taylor Hatmaker: Apple “hard at work” completing iOS7 this month. It’s been a bit of a rocky ride so far, so can’t wait to see the finished consumer release
10:09am, David Hamilton: Tim Cook would apparently like you all to stop by the Stanford Apple store. It’s supposed to be really nice.
10:08am, Taylor Hatmaker: Lady Gaga seems implicated…
10:08am, Dan Rowinski: After a brief interlude into the music festival, Tim Cook is back to the normal script that usually plays out at these announcements. Retail! Great year for Apple! Again! Super exciting.
10:06am, David Hamilton: From all the clips playing, you’d think that maybe Lady Gaga is going to unveil the gold iPhone 5S.
10:03am, Dan Rowinski: Cook talking about something called the iTunes Festival with 30 nights of music. Never heard of it. Not even once.
10:03am, Taylor Hatmaker: Al Gore is in the house and I bet he wants the gold iPhone. He’s on the board, after all.
10:03am, David Hamilton: Tim Cook is now onstage extolling the iTunes music festival, apparently now in its seventh year.
9:58am, Dan Rowinski: And welcome one and all to Apple’s annual extravaganza. What do we expect today? Well … iPhones! And not just one iPhone, as has been Apple’s custom over the last six years, but multiple iPhones. One, the iPhone 5S will be the latest and greatest. Gold, finger print sensor, dual flash camera, better processor and GPU while running all the goodness that is iOS 7. The other? Well, that may be the so-called iPhone 5C, a budget option that Apple will target heavily overseas. What do you think Apple is going to announce today? Join us in the comments.