Before you dig into the post, check out our predictions here to see if we were right on some of our expectations on the iPhone 5.

If you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, then you probably missed the news that Apple was having a announcement today regarding new products they planned to launch.  Like most of you, I was glued to my computer screen for roughly two hours as I checked out the live stream from some of my favorite tech sites.  The feature of the event was the new iPhone 5 set to release 9/21.  Here is a brief recap of the event provided through live blog feeds from engadget.com, gdgt.com, arstechnica.com, and theverge.com

Apple has 60% market share last year for tablets and 68% so far this year.  (the verge).  iPad accounts for 91% of traffic from tablets.  (Engadget)  Apple has 700000 apps in the App Store, and 250k are tablet-optimized.  (Ars Technica)  Which is a HUGE advantage over android app store, which has like five.  Apple has sold over 400 million iOS devices.  ”Today we uintroduce the iphone 5.”(gdft)

Here is a quick comparison of the iPhone 5 and 4s, just in case you were in question about an upgrade (courtesy of engadget.com).

Courtesy of: http://enphones.blogspot.com/2011/06/apple-iphone-4s-and-iphone-5-in.html

It’s made entirely of glass and aluminum.  It’s built to the most exacting standards Apple has ever taken on. Thinnest, lightest phone Apple’s ever built.  7.6mm thin, 18% thinner. “It’s the world’s thinnest smartphone.” It’s really easy to make a new product that’s bigger. That’s not a challenge.” Retina display, and it’s taller. “The new screen on iPhone 5 is a 4-inch display. 1136×640. All of our software is being updated as well to take advantage of these applications.” 44% more color saturation: now fully sRGB, “it’s now the most accurate display in the industry.” Touch sensor is built into the display now.  “It’s truly the world’s most advanced display, and we couldn’t be prouder of it.” Ultrafast wireless technology. “You can imagine the challenge our team faced: thinner, smaller… but we’ve added HSPA+, DC-HSDPA, and yes, LTE.” What’s next: the A6.” 2x faster CPU, 2x faster graphics, and even smaller.” (gdgt)

“Smaller’s great, but what about power? Time-shifted multiplayer with Game Center, so you can race friends on the same track later.  We’ve matched or exceeded the battery life of the iPhone 4S.” 8 hours of LTE. Next: camera. “If you know anything about camera design, you know the greatest challenge is vertical height. (gdgt)

“We asked our engineering team to create a thinner camera that’s better than the iPhone 4S, and they’ve done that.”  New image processing chip, too. Spatial noise reduction, smart filter that figures out which areas are best for noise reduction and which should be left alone. Photo capture is now 40% faster. “It all adds up to simply using it and seeing what kind of photos you can take.”  New feature: panorama! Just hit a button, swipe your phone around. Rad.   Better video: better image stabilization, face detection, and now FaceTime over cellular. (gdgt)

The audio system got upgrades, too!  Three microphones! Front, back, and bottom. Speakers have five magnet transducers (up from three). Earpiece now includes noise canceling on your own audio out.  Wideband audio: Apple fills up more frequency spectrum to make call audio sound even better. Requires carrier support though, so they need carrier partners. (gdgt)

Connector: “It’s served us well for almost a decade. So much has changed. So many things we used to do over the wire we now do wirelessly.” It’s called Lightning. All-digital, 8 signal design, just as we’d seen leaked. “We’re working with accessory makers to have them integrate Lightning into their products this holiday season… but what about all the devices you have now that use the 30 pin connector.?” Well, they’ve got an adapter for that. It’s big and ugly, but here we are. This was going to happen sooner or later. (gdgt)

“We’ve taken FaceTime beyond WiFi, now you can use it wherever you are… These are just 10 of the over 200 new features in iOS 6, and we think you’re going to love it.”

“The variances from product to product is now measured in microns.” That is freaking ridiculous. They have hundreds of slightly different sized parts that they fit to each case for the absolute best possible fit. Wild. I doubt that has ever been done, especially not at this scale. (gdgt)

They did not forget about a special treat for all who still rock the iPod.

“In addition to announcing the iPhone 5 we have something near and dear to our hears to talk to you about today. It’s about music.” New App Store looks hot. New mini player with search built in. Eh. Available in October! Time for new iPods? (gdgt)

“We’ve sold over 350 million iPods, and we add millions to this every quarter. But we don’t do this just for the numbers, this is part of the DNA of Apple, and we love music. We’re going to make some exciting changes to the lineup today.” The  iPod nano was explained  first. “When we looked to create a new iPod nano, we wanted to reinvent it.” Big display! “The new 7th-generation iPod nano.” “It’s incredibly portable and incredibly light. Almost 50% thinner than the nano it replaces.”7 colors! Looking good. FM tuner built in with live pause. Video is back on the iPod! Fitness/pedometer built-in, integrated with Nike+ out of the box. Hot. Bluetooth support! Stream music to Jambox, wireless headphones, etc. Naturally, it has the new Lightning connector. (gdgt)  “The longest battery life we’ve ever had in a nano with up to 30 hours of music playback.”

New iPod touch time!  Finally, an update! 5th-generation, “The best iPod touch we’ve ever made.” 6.1mm thin, wild. “Almost as thin as the nano!” Weight is 88 grams. Lightning, speaker, and “exactly the same 4-inch Retina display we have on the iPhone 5.” Good, because iPod touch displays have tended to be significantly worse than their iPhone counterparts. “So with all this performance, would we sacrifice battery life? Of course, the answer is no.” 40 hours music, 8 hours video.  1080p video on the touch as well. Wireless improved, too — BT 4.0 LE, 802.11a/b/g/n (dual-band), same as the iPhone. AirPlay mirroring! Sweet. Siri on the touch! We do have one more color for each of these as well: Red.” (gdgt)

And to continue with the surprises, there was an update to the ear buds.

Joz is talking about speakers — headphones, specifically. “We’ve spent three years designing new headphones, and we call them EarPods.” He’s calling it a breakthrough in both comfort and audio quality.

Shuffle: 2GB, $79+, 7 colors. nano, 16GB starting at $149. Old iPod touch, 16GB starting at $199. New iPod touch at 32GB starting at $299. nano and touch are out in October. “When you look at each of these, they’re incredibly industry-leading innovations by themselves. But what sets them apart and sets Apple so ahead of the competition is how well they all work together. … Apple has never been stronger. And that’s because of the dedication and creativity of our employees throughout the world.” They are doing the best work of their lives. Work that has real significance because delivering revolutionary products has real significance in peoples’ lives.”

So there you have it, the unveiling of the iPhone 5, iPod Nano, and iPod touch.  Make sure you hit the comments to let us know if you are going to pre-order, or pick one up on the 21st.  Also, make sure to check out the links at the beginning of the post to get the latest and greatest on all tech news across the board.

Images courtesy of gdgt and ars technica

About the Author

Reece

Aspiring Videographer Photographer Director Forward Thinker

More Posts - Twitter - Facebook