[Posted Sept. 13, 2012, 2:45AM local time]
Late-breaking news, hot off the press!
Apple just launched the new iPhone 5 at their San Francisco event at the Yerba Buena Center today, featuring a longer, thinner, more powerful phone.
It’s made entirely of glass and aluminum, and has an all-metal back. The new phones comes in black or white with a silver aluminum back finish. It now features five rows of four icons on its screen, taking advantage of a slightly elongated profile. It’s also 18% thinner than the iPhone 4s, or a slim 7.6mm. It also features a 4-inch retina display at 1136×640 resolution. The screen is more suited to playing widescreen video, and has 44% more color saturation.
The iPhone 5 also has improved specs across the board for most of its features, including an Apple A6 processor. It works with a smaller connector called Lightning that can connect to the phone both ways. The new phone also works on Ultrafast Wifi connections, including LTE, has three microphones and has an improved audio soundfield, although this last feature is largely carrier-dependent and requires partners to implement.
The phone was demoed with the new iOS 6 (which will be released on Sept. 19), although not much new stuff outside of the last WWDC was shown. It will be sold with a carrier contract at $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB and $399 for 64GB, and will be ready for pre-order on Friday, and released in the United States and many other countries on Sept. 21, but unfortunately, not yet in the Philippines. (The iPhone 4 is now free on contract, and the iPhone 4S is now going for $99.)
Apple showed an update to iTunes, with a radical, new, simpler design and has iCloud built into it. iTunes Version 11 will be released in late October. Meanwhile a minor new update, Version 10.7, is now available for download as a 157MB file.
Apple also introduced the 7th generation of the iPod nano, a thinner one, with a bigger multi-touch display (2.5″), new connector and long 30-hour battery life, and looks vaguely like a mini iPod Touch. It comes in several colors, and is going for $149, out in October. The old iPod shuffle will sell at the usual price of $49, but will also have the additional colors to match those of the new nano.
Speaking of which, Apple also unveiled a new iPod touch, much thinner (6.1mm) and about as big as the new iPhone. It has a 5-megapixel iSight camera and the same Retina display as the phone. It has better wifi, 1080p video, new connector, AirPlay mirroring and improved Siri, and comes in five colors. Prices start at $299, and is out in October.
In an interesting sidenote, Apple also introduced brand-new, specially made earphones called EarPods that took three years to design. It’s going on sale both as a standalone product and comes included with the new products. Available today.
Still no word on the iPad mini, though.
More details on these new items in Technoodling in the days to come.
EDIT: Some details have been corrected for accuracy.
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Was disappointed with the no new iPad mini news
“$199 for 16GB, $249 for 32GB and $299 for 64GB, and out in October.”
Are you sure about these prices? It doesn’t align with other tech websites. Though, I only verified with two sites other than technoodling!
Mica: Sorry. Must have been sleepy. Already corrected, thanks.