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Live blogging the Apple iPhone 5 announcement

Live blogging the Apple iPhone 5 announcement

By Sam Grobart, New York Times | Updated: 6 June 2012 15:27 IST

Highlights

Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s newly permanent chief executive, takes the stage to launch the new iPhone

Tech journalists are convening at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., on Tuesday to see what innovations the company has in mind for the iPhone. Logic and history would indicate that the iPhone 5 will be thinner and lighter than its predecessor and also include a better camera. Apple is also releasing a new version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5, which will add new functions and interfaces -- including what many suspect will be enhanced voice commands. The proceedings begin at 10 a.m. local time, 1 p.m. New York time, and I'll be on hand, live-blogging the event here as Timothy D. Cook, Apple's newly permanent chief executive, takes the stage.

"Next: iPhone," says Mr. Schiller. We're looking at the existing iPhone 4, hearing how great it is. But now he's talking about the iPhone 4S. Muted applause.

"Inside, it is all new." It has an A5 chip, same as the iPad 2. So, no new design. At least, not for this model -- is there an iPhone 5 as well?

Of course, Apple did the same thing with the iPhone 3G. The model after that was the 3GS.

This is sort of funny - reports were out there that Apple was "hiding" the iPhone 5 in an iPhone 4 body. Maybe Apple wasn't hiding it at all.

Developers of the game Infinity Blade 2 are now on stage, showing off the iPhone 4S's graphics ability.

Mr. Schiller is talking about the iPod Touch. As mentioned earlier, iMessage works over Wi-Fi, so even though the Touch can't do text messages, it can communicate free over Wi-Fi.

There is now a white iPod Touch. The 8-gigabyte Touch is now $199, 32 GB is $299, 64 GB is $399. The iPod Shuffle starts off the lineup at $49.

Phil Schiller is now on stage, looking trim. He's talking about an update to the iPod Nano. The apps on the Nano are now swipeable, making it easy to move from one app to another.

Mr. Schiller is talking about the Nano's use among fitness buffs. There are now 16 new clock faces for people who want to wear their Nano as a watch. The faces are cute: chronometers, and Mickey Mouse! "We worked with Disney," says Mr. Schiller. Given that Steve Jobs is Disney's largest individual shareholder, that mustn't have been too hard.

The Nano is now $129 for 8 gigabytes, $149 for 16.

Mr. Cue is now talking about iTunes Match, which Apple has already previewed. Music that you did not purchase from iTunes can still be shared among devices and backed up in the cloud. Apple will match what you have on your PC with its own online catalog. If you have something that Apple does not, it will be uploaded to the cloud. iTunes Match will cost $25 a year.

iCloud and iOS 5 ship on Oct. 12, and iTunes Match at the end of the month.

We're now watching a video about iCloud. It's like the old journalism rule: Tell them what you're about to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you've told them.

The Find my iPhone function, which lets you see your lost phone on a map, is being adapted for Macs too, so you can find your lost MacBook Pro.

And there's a new app, called Find My Friends. You see a list of friends and family who are sharing their location with you on a map. You can create temporary events, and you can invite friends to share their location with you, but you can set a time for the location-sharing to end. There will undoubtedly be major social snafus because of this feature.

iCloud is free, but heavy users can get storage updates. (More on that later. The slide went by fast.)

Eddie Cue is next to talk about iCloud. (He is clearly reading from a teleprompter.) "It just works."

First: iTunes in the cloud. Music purchased on one device will be downloaded to all your iOS devices. Previously purchased music (or TV shows) can be accessed by any iOS device. This is not entirely new: some of these features have already been available.

We're now on to Photostream. Photos taken by one device will be pushed to all other iOS devices, as well as iPhoto on your computer.

Basically, all of your stuff is available from all of your devices. Mr. Cue is applying this to different apps (Pages, Keynote, etc.), but that's the gist.

iCloud does a daily backup from all your devices. Contacts and calendars are synced.

The Safari browser is next. Reader is a new button on Safari. Tap that button, and you get a text-only version, formatted for your device. It's like Readability (sorry, Readability). Reading List lets you save articles for later, like Instapaper (sorry, Instapaper). Tabbed browsing is also now available.

And in the Mail app, there are new formatting tools, and you can search the text of an e-mail, not just the subject and address lines. (Finally.)

iOS 5 is now PC free, says Mr. Forstall, meaning you don't have to connect your device to a computer to get started. And iOS updates are also wireless. The new operating system will be available next week.

The camera app is now accessible from the lock screen. Double-tap the home button and you can go directly to the camera app, no password or anything required. You can lock autofocus and exposure on a single point in the frame.

Red-eye reduction, auto-enhance and other improvements have been made to Camera.

We're now talking about iOS 5 and getting a recap of new features. Notifications is one of the big ones. All of those old pop-ups are now sent to the notifications center. Notifications can be displayed on the lock screen too. Swipe any notification and you will be taken to the app that is associated with it so you can respond appropriately.

iMessages is next. It's a souped-up text messaging system, basically. These are sent over 3G and Wi-Fi. Then there's Reminders. It will remind you to do things (duh), and also uses the iPhone's location capabilities to remind you to do something when you're near the place where you need to do that thing.

Twitter gets a spot in the lineup, as Mr. Forstall explains how Twitter is deeply integrated into iOS 5. Newsstand is iOS's way to manage publications like magazines and newspapers. New issues are downloaded in the background.

Scott Forstall, Apple's iOS chief, is now on stage. (Steve Jobs does not appear to be here, but there is a bottle of SmartWater, his preferred beverage, on a podium.)

Mr. Forstall is talking about how more than 1 billion apps are downloaded in a month. A new app is being shown: Cards. You can create cards on your phone or iPod Touch, and Apple will print them out and mail them.

If you mail something within the United States, Apple can use the postal service's intelligent barcode system, letting you know when the card will be delivered. The price is $2.99 to mail in the United States, $4.99 for the rest of the world.

My colleague Jenna Wortham adds: Apple is getting into the snail-mail business -- one that start-ups like Postagram, which lets people send real postcards created from pictures taken on their iPhones, have tried to corral. Or is Apple setting its sights on Hallmark?

Mr. Cook is talking about how pilots are using the iPad to replace 40-pound flight plans, which he claims makes the planes more fuel efficient. And that, technically, is true. But come on.

Three out of four tablets sold are iPads, Mr. Cook says. There have been more than 250 million iOS devices sold.

"Today we take this to the next level."

"Next up is iPhone -- this could be a reason why the room is so full today." More stats supporting Apple's dominance. Ninety-three percent of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying the iPhone, Mr. Cook says. He's smooth, totally on his game.

In spite of all this success, Mr. Cook says, the iPhone has only 5 percent of the worldwide handset market. "We believe all handsets will become smartphones," he says.

There have been rumors about Apple releasing a cheaper iPhone for other markets, but previous-generation iPhones are sold at a fairly steep discount, so it's unclear how a purpose-built device would be useful.

Mr. Cook is now talking about the iPod. They're showing an image of the original iPod, which now seems so old and foreign. Who buys the iPod Classic anymore? There have been rumors that it may go away.

Apple has sold more than 300 million iPods, 45 million in the year that ended in June.

ITunes has more than 20 million songs for sale. It is the No. 1 music store in the world, with 16 bilion songs downloaded, Mr. Cook says.

We're now getting news about other Apple product lines, like Lion, the Mac operating system. This is the rhetorical equivalent of putting the milk in the back of the supermarket: We're all here for iPhone news, but first you have to walk past all this other stuff.

Mr. Cook is talking about how Lion was adopted at a rate 10 times faster than Windows 7. (Which is nice for Apple, but let's not forget there are still boatloads more Windows users out there.) Apple is approaching 60 million Mac users and has 23 percent of the PC market, Mr. Cook says. "We have a lot to go," he says, referring to the other 77 percent.

Tim Cook has taken the stage: "I love Apple. I consider it the privilege of a lifetime."

"This room has quite a history at Apple. Just 10 years ago, we launched the original iPod here. And just one year ago, we launched the MacBook Air. Today we will remind you of the innovations of this company."

Mr. Cook, who is wearing dark jeans and a navy Oxford shirt with a black t-shirt underneath, is now talking about the retail stores. New shops are in China -- Shanghai and other cities. Shanghai is their largest store in Asia, and 100,000 people came over opening weekend. By comparison, the Los Angeles store had 100,000 people in a month. Now we're seeing images of the Hong Kong store. And a video about the company's retail arm. Apple now has 357 stores in 11 countries.

We're here in the auditorium; people are being seated and Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" is playing. Prior to that, it was the Rolling Stones and "Under My Thumb." Get it? Thumb? Oh, Apple -- you so funny.

We've now moved on to "Can't Explain," by the Who, a phrase that is often heard from Apple's P.R. department. We should be starting shortly -- we've been asked to silence our phones.

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