Apple iPhone 5 Meta Liveblog: All The News As It Happened


It’s that time again. Time for another Apple iPhone announcement. From the iPhone 5 to new iPods and new Apple EarPod headphones, here’s how all the news broke overnight…

Whether you joined Giz Australia for our live blog (see below) or were fast asleep, did Apple give you what you wanted? Excited? Underwhelmed? Tell us in the comments!


Apple iPhone 5: Everything You Need To Know

iTunes 11 On Its Way With A Streamlined Look And New Features

iOS 6 Will Arrive On Sept 19 With Better Siri, New Maps, Revamped iMessage

Apple Rolls Out New In-Ear Headphones That Might Actually Not Be So Bad

Finally, A New iPod Touch, Gorgeous iPod Nanos And New iPod Shuffles

Apple: No NFC For You, Maybe In One Year!


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And We’re Live!

[3:00] People are just taking their seats for the event, the lights have just gone down and Tim Cook has taken the stage.


Image courtesy of gdgt

[3:02] He’s starting off by talking about Apple retail and how they built them.

[3:03] Now there’s a video of the stores. There are people in Barcelona going nuts for Apple on that video.

[3:04] 83 million people visited an Apple Store last year. Wonder how many just for the Genius Bar or the free Wi-Fi?


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[3:05] Tim is moving quickly. Now onto Mac and Mountain Lion, which he reveals has been downloaded 7 million times since its launch.

[3:06] Boasts about notebook market share in the US: “Together with the MacBook Air our notebooks rank #1 in the US in marketshare for the last 3 months.”

[3:10] More chest beating, now about the iPad. 96 per cent of Fortune 500 companies now use iPads and they’re making custom apps for them too. “That’s not something they do on PCs.”

[3:11] There are over 700k apps in the App Store, with 250k of those just for iPad.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:13] “We have some exciting news about the new iPhone.” Phil Schiller takes the stage to talk about it.

[3:13] Yet another history lesson on the iPhone from Phil. We do this every time it seems…


Meet The iPhone 5

[3:14] “Today, we’re introducing iPhone 5.” Looks like that’s the name then. None of this “new iPhone business”.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:15] It just rose up out of the stage and now it’s rotating. It’s got a metal back just like the leaks. Made entirely of glass and aluminium. No plastic here.

[3:16] 18 per cent thinner than the iPhone 4S at 7.6mm thick, and it’s 20 per cent lighter at 112 grams. It’s so thin you guys.

[3:17] It’s bigger, too. It’s got a 326ppi retina display across a 4-inch screen now, not 3.5-inch. The resolution is 1136 x 640, giving it a 16:9 aspect ratio.


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[3:17] Thanks to that bigger screen, Apple’s added a new row of icons. Apple is also updating all of its iWork and iLife software for the new screen. That’s iMovie, GarageBand, iLife, Pages, Keynote.

[3:18] So how will apps deal with the new screen real estate? Apple’s not actually going to stretch them. They’ll insert black bars around the edges and centre the app itself.


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[3:19] Phil says that devs are quick to fix their apps for changing Apple devices.

[3:20] The display has better colour saturation than the iPhone 4S. 44 per cent better colour saturation.


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[3:21] The display accuracy has also been improved, Phil says. Touchscreen sensors have been integrated “right into the display”.


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[3:22] The new iPhone does have LTE. But will it have LTE for Australia…? Read: probably not.


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[3:23] Hold the phone! Phil is listing carriers that will support LTE around the world.

“Telstra, Optus and Virgin Mobile…” score a mention! Woohoo!

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[3:24] And now onto the new A6 chip. It’s 22 per cent smaller in physical size but it’s also 2x faster CPU and 2x faster graphics. More: Apple’s New A6 Chip Is Smaller And Mightier



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Left image courtesy of Ars Technica. Right courtesy gdgt

[3:25] We’re being shown specs that it launches apps up to 2x faster than on the iPhone 4S.

[3:26] We’re now getting the obligatory gaming demo. Rob Murray, exec producer from EA is up on stage now.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:27] The graphics are being built to “full console quality”. That’s a big promise, Rob. We’re now being shown rear-view mirrors in a driving game. I’m not much of a mobile gamer, though so I can’t say I’m hugely excited. What’s your favourite iPhone game?

[3:28] Game Center might actually be useful now: Rob is saying that time-shifted multi-player means you can challenge your friend to a game one day, and have them play you the following day. And now that’s Rob done. Bye Rob!

[3:29] Phil returns to the stage. Here to talk battery.

[3:29] Apple is promising big things for this battery. 9 hours of 3G talk time, 3G browsing time, LTE browsing time and 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 of video playback, 40 of music playback and a 225 hour standby time.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:30] Now we’re onto the camera. It’s 25 per cent smaller than the last one, which is bad news for cameras, but Phil is promising it’s still 8-megapixels with backside illumination, a hybrid-IR filter, five-element lens and an aperture of f/2.4.

[3:31] We’re being promised better low-light support, too. Mobile cameras are terrible when the Sun goes down.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:33] Phil makes a joke on the camera demo that the shots we’re seeing are untouched. There’s laughter. Poor Nokia.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:33] There’s now a native panorama feature. You hold your phone vertically and sweep, so it’s taking another image with each pass. The photo we’re seeing of the San Francisco bay is 28-megapixels once it’s stitched together.


Image courtesy of gdgt

[3:35] The Facetime (front-facing) camera has also been updated to support 720p, and you can do Facetime calls over cellular.

[3:36] There’s also three mics on this thing now. One on the front, one in the back and one on the front. The earpiece has also been updated for noise-cancellation.


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[3:37] Now we’re moving onto the dock connector.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:37] “So much has changed since 2003…we use wireless now for the things we used to use cable for,” says Phil.

[3:38] The new cable and connector is called Lightning, like we told you late last night. It’s to keep with the Thunderbolt theme. It’s 80 per cent smaller with better durability, it’s reversible, too. All digital cable.


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[3:40] Don’t stress, though you 30-pin holdouts. There’s going to be an adaptor. Apple’s currently “working on it”.


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[3:41] So that’s the hardware. Phil hands over the stage to Scott Forstall who is showing us iOS 6. I feel like that’s the never ending demo. When will we get it is what I want to know.

More: iOS 6 Will Arrive On Sept 19 With Better Siri, New Maps, Revamped iMessage

[3:41] There’s a lot of new hardware around the new iPhone. What’s the feature you’re most looking forward to? Metal and glass construction? Thinner and lighter? 4G? Better gaming? I’m a fan of thinner and lighter to be honest, but I’m not sold on that two-tone design.

[3:44] We’re now getting a look at Flyover, the new aerial feature. I guarantee that will only be used at parties to impress people. “I can see my house from here!”


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:45] Safari is getting a full-screen mode! Finally. Mail is getting a VIP section for, well, VIPs, and flagging is better for messages. That’s much needed.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:46] We’re now getting a better look at Passbook. Virgin Australia is the only airline I know of that’s signed on for Passbook in Australia right now. Here’s hoping it catches on.

[3:47] We’re now getting another look at Shared Photo Streams via iCloud. This always felt oddly creepy to me.

[3:48] Interestingly, it’s almost like Apple’s own lite-social network. People can Like various photos in your Photo Stream.

[3:49] And now onto Siri, which is still a useless feature in Australia.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:50] Scott’s now looking for movie theatres and sushi restaurants. Nothing groundbreaking here. It’s very quick though.

[3:50] There’s something cool: Siri just posted a message she was dictated to Facebook. Nice. Moving onto Accessibility enhancements. Apple’s made a big deal about this back at WWDC. “We think you’re going to love it”. Oh. That was brief.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[3:51] Forstall, out! Phil is back up.


Image courtesy of gdgt

[3:52] Onto colours: the iPhone will come in two colours. Black and slate and a white one which features a silver aluminium finish on the back rather than black. Wonder what that’s going to look like?

[3:53] Here’s the wrap-up video. Sir Jony Ive is chatting about design, as he does. We must be getting close to a release date somewhere around here, right?




Images courtesy of gdgt

[3:55] These internal components are bonkers. Most of this thing is battery and the A6 chip is tiny. No wonder they needed a new dock connector. The camera also has a sapphire lens.



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[3:59] And that’s the video done. Now, onto pricing.


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[4:00] On a two-year contract in the US, the pricing is the same. 16GB for $US199, 32GB from $US299, 64GB for $US399. 3GS has been ousted from the lineup. iPhone 4 is free on contract, 4S is moved to 16GB-only.

Update: Apple’s recommended retail prices for Australia will be $799 for the 16GB model, $899 for the 32GB model and $999 for the 64GB model.

Apple has also dropped the price of the iPhone 4S to $679, while the iPhone 4 will drop to $449. iOS 6 will be available as a free software update on Wednesday, September 19.

[4:01] Pre-orders start on 14 September, release date is 21 September.
Australia is a launch country!

Break open your piggy banks!

[4:04] iOS 6 ships on 19 September.

More: Apple iPhone 5: Everything You Need To Know


iTunes Gets An Update

[4:04] Now we’re moving onto iTunes and iPods. Eddy Cue is up chatting about the iTunes Store.

More: iTunes 11 On Its Way With A Streamlined Look And New Features


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[4:05] We’re looking at the new App Store design. Devs can already see it but everyone else will get it on September 19.


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[4:07] There are 200 million iTunes in the Cloud users. Wait. Is that iTunes Match or iCloud users with iTunes?

[4:07] Here’s a new version of iTunes! Jeff Robin’s here to tell us more. Edge-to-edge screen. It chooses albums like an iOS device does. Does anyone browse by album? I just browse by song.

[4:08] Looks like the social features of Ping are going to be integrated into the new iTunes without a name. If you like a band and they share some photos, they just appear in your iTunes. Coldplay’s photos are demonstrated.

[4:09] We’re likely going to see new iPods. What do you want out of a new iPod? Will they keep the Classic alive? Will we see a 7.85-inch iPod? Maybe…

[4:10] The new iTunes has a dropdown box that on the Now Playing bar that shows you what’s coming up without having to leave you’re current view. That’s nifty. There’s a new mini player design, too. It looks just like a Notification.


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[4:10] Search is built into that little mini player window.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[4:13] iCloud stuff now affects iTunes. Your movies on iTunes sync to the last place they were at when you watched them on mobile.

[4:14] That’s the iTunes demo done. New iTunes is coming in late October. New hardware time?

[4:15] Greg Josiwak is here to talk iPod. 350 million iPods sold.


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Yep, New iPods…

More: Finally, A New iPod Touch, Gorgeous iPod Nanos And New iPod Shuffles

[4:16] Greg says that Apple wanted to reinvent the Nano. They wanted to give it a better display, better controls and the new Lightning connector. Now here it is. It’s so cute!


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[4:17] New iPod Nano is only 5.4mm thin — 38 per cent thinner. Physical buttons are along the edges and it’s got an adorable 2.5 inch screen. It comes with its own home button and multitouch. How adorable. It’s like a baby iPod Touch. It comes in 7 colours.


Image courtesy of gdgt

[4:19] Video is back on the iPod Nano, and the pedometer and Fitness app is built-in. It’s also got Bluetooth so you can stream to headphones and your car audio system.

[4:20] Moving onto the iPod Touch.


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[4:21] New iPod Touch is out. It’s the lightest one ever at 88 grams and it’s only 6.1mm thin.


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[4:22] This also has the new Lightning connector, the same display as the iPhone 5, built out of aluminium. It’s also got a new A5 chip.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[4:24] Game dev takes the stage to show off a its gaming chops.

[4:26] (Long) demo is over.

[4:27] Greg Josiwak returns to tell us about iPod Touch battery life. 40 hours of music playback, 8 hours of video playback, 5 megapixel camera now too.

[4:28] Panorama mode is also on the iPod Touch, and these images look pretty impressive. No jokes at Nokia’s expense, here.

[4:29] “Rivals point and shoot cameras”. Not sure about that claim. We’ll have to see.


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[4:30] There’s a wrist strap for this thing now, so it looks a hell of a lot like a point and shoot at least, and with iMovie, iPhoto and Wi-Fi, you can edit and post on the go. Err, take that, Android cameras.



Left image courtesy of Ars Technica

[4:31] iPod Touch now has Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and now Siri is on the iPod Touch, too! *waves*

[4:32] New colours for the iPod Touch, too! Five choices, each with a coordinated loop. Black, white, red, blue and yellow.

[4:33] Greg wants to chat about speakers, now. Looks like new headphone time.


EarPods: New Headphones

[4:34] Apple introduces new headphones, called EarPods. (When can we say ‘told you so’ on this stuff?) Watching a video now.

Full details: Apple Rolls Out New In-Ear Headphones That Might Actually Not Be So Bad


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[4:35] Jony Ive says that making headphones to fit everyone is like trying to make a shoe to fit everyone. These new headphones are “designed to drirect sound into the ear,” says Sir Ive.

[4:36] These headphones are shipping as a standalone accessory and that starts today. These are included with the iPod Touch and the iPhone 5, too.



Images courtesy of Ars Technica

[4:38] New prices: iPod Shuffle for $US49, Nano for $US149 coming in October, 16GB Touch cming in at $US199, 32GB at $299, also in October.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[4:39] Tim returns to stage to show us…an iPod ad!


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[4:42] Tim is recapping, saying none of it is possible without great employees.

[4:42] Oh wow. The Foo Fighters are here. Kicking out the jams.


Image courtesy of Ars Technica

[4:43] They’re singing Times Like These.

[4:47] Will we see a “One more thing…”? Probably not. That was a Steve thing.

[4:48] Will Dave Grohl unveil the new iPad? Oooh.

[4:49] Another song, this time My Hero.

[4:52] More tunes. This one is called Walk.

[4:53] In the meantime, Apple has update its product pages. Here’s the iPhone 5, the iPod Nano, iTunes and the iPod Touch.

[4:55] Pricing update: Nano in Australia will cost $169. iPod Touch is $329.

[4:57] Standing ovation for the Foo Fighters. Yay. Now bring me more gadgets!

[4:58] Tim is back, lapping up that ovation.



Images courtesy of gdgt

[4:59] And that’s a wrap! Thanks for joining us this morning for our meta liveblog! We’ll bring you the news as it happens today.


What’s Your Take?

[5:00] Which one will you be getting? Or are they all just rubbish? Tell us in the comments!

[5:00] So what did we see today? We got a look at the taller, lighter and thinner, 4G iPhone 5 and a release date for Australia, we saw a new version of iTunes, new EarPod headphones, new iPod Nano and a new iPod Touch.

Apple iPhone 5: Everything You Need To Know

iTunes 11 On Its Way With A Streamlined Look And New Features

iOS 6 Will Arrive On Sept 19 With Better Siri, New Maps, Revamped iMessage

Apple Rolls Out New In-Ear Headphones That Might Actually Not Be So Bad

Finally, A New iPod Touch, Gorgeous iPod Nanos And New iPod Shuffles

Apple: No NFC For You, Maybe In One Year!


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