You’ve read the liveblogs, seen photos and read plenty of analysis and news reports since Wednesday’s unveiling of the iPhone 5, refreshed iPod touches and iPod nanos, and Apple’s new version of iTunes. Now you can watch the event itself on Apple’s Web site.
Apple’s made available a video of Wednesday’s event on its Web site – you’ll just QuickTime installed in order to stream it.
Matthew Panzarino for The Next Web:
We reached out to a few active iOS developers to get their thoughts on whether the larger screen would mean delays or a more difficult development process. The general consensus was that it shouldn’t pose too many huge problems, but that it would be a lot easier to test their apps if they had a device in their hands.
Glad to hear it is a surmountable issue, but there’s no question that it’s going to take a while for iOS developers to get up to speed with the new hardware.
Here is the video of the panel discussion I did this afternoon at TechCrunch Disrupt with John Gruber, Tim Stevens, Jason Snell and MG Siegler.
After Apple’s event finished I got a few minutes with the new iPhone 5, so I thought I’d give you a few pictures and some first impressions.
What was important to me for an updated iPhone was the larger screen. However, making a larger screen does come with its drawbacks if it’s not done right. Specifically, if you can’t operate it with one hand, it might be a difficult sell for a lot of people.
I’m happy to report that I was able to operate the iPhone 5 with ease using one hand. That means I was able to reach the top of the screen with my thumb, change options and navigate through the screens without having to reach uncomfortably.
The other point with the size is being able to fit the iPhone in your pocket. I wasn’t able to give that a try, but judging from the pictures, I think it will be fine.
The screen is brilliant as you might expect being a Retina display. It will be nice watching a 16:9 movie on a screen that was designed to fit the picture.
Here are a few pictures of the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4s for comparison.
Thanks to MG Siegler for holding the iPhones for me.
Apple has taken the wraps off a new version of iTunes for OS X and Windows which it plans to release this October. The software will be a free download when it debuts, as with previous releases. iTunes 10.7 is the current version on Apple’s Web site as this article was posted, a minor update to support the new devices.
Like before, iTunes is used to help you organize and enjoy your music, iOS apps, TV shows and movies. But over the years it’s gotten encumbered as features have been added on, so Apple went back to the drawing board to come up with a dramatically simplified design. What’s more, support for iCloud is now seamlessly integrated.
iTunes is both an application and a service – a storefront for buying music, movies, TV shows and books, and Apple has redesigned iTunes Store, App Store and iBookstore to make it easier to find and buy content than before. Featured content is showcased at the top and shelves expose music, movies and TV shows. A “preview history” shows you all the content you’ve already looked at, and iCloud keeps track of your preview history across different devices. You’ll also be able to fire up 90-second music clips while browsing (right now, clicking away from the tracks you’re previewing causes them to stop playing).
iTunes now sports a full-window interface, a new library view to make it easier to see what’s in your library and click on content categories. The album view lets you see track listings for an individual album while continuing to browse your music library, searching has been reworked, and the MiniPlayer has been redesigned as well. A new feature called “Up Next” lets you queue up the next song or album you want to hear.
Better integration with iCloud makes it easier to access music you’ve purchased, regardless of what computer or device you’ve purchased it from. What’s more, iCloud remembers where you left off when watching movies or TV shows, so you can pick up again without missing a beat.
Apple has refreshed the iPod touch along with introducing the iPhone 5, and the new device gets some of the same enhancements as its phone cousin, especially the 4-inch Retina Display. The iPod touch costs $299 and $399 for a 32GB and 64GB model, respectively.
The new iPod touch includes a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video, and underneath it gets Apple’s A5 microprocessor. Siri, Apple’s “intelligent assistant,” is now included on the iPod touch, which comes with iOS 6.
Previous iPod touch models have closely resembled the iPhone, right down to their case colors. No longer now – the newest iPod touch comes in five hues, including pink, yellow, blue, white and silver, and black and slate. (The latter two choices complement the new iPhone 5).
Like the iPhone 5, the iPod touch also sports the reversible “Lightning” connector which replaces the 30-pin dock connector found on older devices.
Also refreshed today is the iPod nano, billed by Apple as “the thinnest iPod ever.” It measures 5mm thick, and sports a 2.5-inch multi-touch enabled display. A home button, volume buttons, and buttons to play, pause and change songs are incorporated into the interface. An FM radio, pedometer gauge and support for Nike+ complete the features, along with the Lightning interface.
The iPod nano comes in seven colors – pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver and slate. It’ll debut in October for $149 for a 16GB model.
Apple also noted the iPod shuffle, available today in the same spectrum of colors as the new nano – pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver and slate, all for $49 for a 2GB model.
Apple made no mention in the press release announcing the new iPod models of its venerable iPod classic, the last click wheel-enabled iPod, but that device remains part of the product matrix on Apple’s Web site. The iPod classic sports the highest capacity of any iPod model – 160GB, thanks to its use of a hard drive instead of the flash memory found on other iPod devices – and it costs $249.
Apple’s long-awaited iPhone 5 made its debut on Wednesday at a special event in San Francisco. It goes on sale Friday, September 21, 2012 for $199 and $299 in 16GB and 32GB models respectively. A 64GB model is also available for $399. Preorders begin Friday, September 14th.
The iPhone 5, which can play games like 슬롯사이트, is constructed of anodized aluminum and glass inlays, and lighter and thinner than its predecessor. It measures 4.87 x 2.31 x 0.3 inches, and weighs 3.95 ounces. The iPhone 5 comes in either white/silver or black/slate finishes.
The most notable external difference is the screen size – 4 inches, versus the 3.5 inches of previous iPhone models. A Retina Display-equipped phone, it sports a native resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels at 326 pixels per inch. The additional size enables the iPhone to display six rows of icons instead of just five.
Another external change is a smaller connector. Gone is the 30-pin dock connector, a mainstay of the iPhone since its introducing in 2007 (and on the iPod for longer than that). Replacing it is a much smaller interface Apple calls “Lightning,” described by Apple as “an adaptive interface that uses only the signals that each accessory requires.” The interface is reversible, making it easier to connect to accessories. Apple will offer a Lightning to 30-pin adapter, to connect to legacy peripherals.
Under the hood many other improvements have been made. The device uses the new A6 processor, sporting twice the processing and graphics performance of the chip found in the iPhone 4S. It’s the first iPhone to support LTE technologies on GSM and CDMA networks, and it also features 802.11n Wi-Fi support. It’s compatible with Bluetooth 4.0, as well.
The built-in camera sports an 8 megapixel sensor, with a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera for FaceTime chats.
Apple also says the iPhone 5 sports improved microphone technology, and comes with a pair of new “Earpods,” Apple’s new earbuds that sport a natural fit and better durability than their forebears.
Installed on the new iPhone is iOS 6, a major update to the operating system which will be available for all iOS users on September 19th.
I’m at the Apple event and will post live updates throughout.
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[liveblog]
LA Times:
With Apple poised to announce the long-awaited iPhone 5 on Wednesday and reap heavy sales from it, analysts and software developers are looking beyond the product launch to whether Cook can set his own course at the company after the death of its co-founder.“I think we are definitely still riding Steve Jobs’ stewardship,” said Matt Brezina, chief executive of mobile start-up Sincerely Inc. “Tim needs to define what kind of leader he is externally. As a developer on their platform, I’m not quite sure what kind of leader he is yet.”
I can guarantee you that Tim Cook doesn’t give a rat’s ass if people can’t figure out what kind of leader he is.
I know it’s a blue shirt and a lanyard, but does everything have to look like Apple did it?
Andrey Doronichev on the official YouTube blog:
For all you diehard YouTube fans out there who can’t get enough YouTube on your mobile, we’ve got some great news: starting today, you can download the official YouTube app for iPhone and iPod touch from the App Store, bringing you more of the videos you love and more ways to share them with the people you care about.
The new app features access to more videos, a new channel guide, predictive search suggestions, sharing on Google+, Facebook and text message and more. It’s a free download.
This is a replacement for the “built-in” app included with iOS 5, which will go away with the next major iOS release.
512 Pixels:
In preparing for tomorrow’s podcast, I decided to type up a list of Amazon’s pricing for the Kindles. Here’s the complete list.
I won’t steal the pertinent information from the site (others will though) but before you click through, take a guess at how many price points Amazon has for the Kindle and then guess how many Apple has for the iPad. It’s hard not to imagine that Amazon is creating their own “Paralysis of Choice“. Thanks to Matthew Panzarino for the link.
BlueToad:
A little more than a week ago, BlueToad was the victim of a criminal cyber attack, which resulted in the theft of Apple UDIDs from our systems. Shortly thereafter, an unknown group posted these UDIDs on the Internet.We sincerely apologize to our partners, clients, publishers, employees and users of our apps. We take information security very seriously and have great respect and appreciation for the public’s concern surrounding app and information privacy.BlueToad believes the risk that the stolen data can be used to harm app users is very low.
Well….that’s embarrassing.
TUAW:
…last week…Amazon introduced its new, larger HD (Kindle Fire). With low-cost, built-in LTE, and a $50/year data plan that gives users 250 MB of data per month, it provides a budget alternative to the iPad.No matter how you look at it, the Fire is a bargain.
Agreed but the line “I’ve used the Kindle Fire for a year now. It’s fine. The Android-based OS isn’t particularly horrible” is certainly damning with faint praise.
Mike Isaac for All Things D:
Web hosting company GoDaddy experienced a period of company-wide outages on Monday morning, taking down a slew of Web sites that rely on the company for hosting services.
A person who claims an association with the hacker collective known as “Anonymous” is claiming credit for the kill.
New York Times:
(Here) comes an actor, comedian and writer, seeking to make his way across the country in the next two weeks with only a dream and, oh, yes, instead of a dollar, a trailer filled with 3,000 pounds of a new bacon.The actor, Josh Sankey, will embark this week on a promotion for the Oscar Mayer division of Kraft Foods that is being called the Great American Bacon Barter.
This is just yet another lame attempt by Corporate America to leverage social media (and use the mainstream media as a promotional tool) and turn something viral. It rarely works and often blows up in their faces.
On the other hand – Bacon. So there’s that.
Great photos.
Sponsoring The Loop this week is SonicPics.
SonicPics is a fun and engaging digital storytelling app for iOS. Turn your photographs into narrated movies to share with your family and friends!
Check out SonicPics today on the app store.
There’s always something around to help get that bottle open.
If you’re going to buy a Mac, why not get a little something extra.
Nope, never seen anything like this before in my life.
Wall Street Journal:
On Aug. 31, the Federal Aviation Administration requested public comment on its longstanding policy of prohibiting the use of personal electronics during takeoffs and landings. The restrictions date back to 1991 and were motivated in part by anecdotal reports from pilots and flight crews that electronic devices affected an airliner’s navigation equipment or disrupted communication between the cockpit and the ground. Over the years, however, Boeing has been unable to duplicate these problems, and the FAA can only say that the devices’ radio signals “may” interfere with flight operations.
Gadgets may not but the near constant whining of people who can’t use their iPads and Kindles and can’t entertain themselves for a few minutes might drive some of us insane. Our parents seemed to get along just fine on airplanes without needing to be constantly distracted by electronic gizmos.
If you’ve been put off by the (arguably obtrusive) Special Offers on the Kindle Fire HD, Amazon has just announced that they will allow users to pay $15 to opt-out of the ads for the life of the device.
Okay, skinny jeans had to go.
Steve Simonsen:
This morning I received an urgent telephone call from my good friend Pam Gaffin. She was terribly excited about an event that was happening before her eyes. Pam told me it was a migration of soldier crabs also called hermit crabs and there were millions and millions of them she likened it to the migrations of Serengeti.
At what point do you watch this video and think, “That’s really….CREEPY!!”
Tricia Duryee for All Things D:
PayPal President David Marcus responded to mounting criticism from customers by promising that things are changing at the online payments company.
Marcus’ comments come on the heels of some well-publicized criticism of PayPal from Eliot Jay Stocks, a designer who created a magazine called 8 Faces. Stocks posted to his blog about how he would never use PayPal again after repeated incidents of them freezing the funds in his account.
Marcus posted to a discussion thread at the Hacker News Web site, noting “there’s a massive culture change happening at PayPal right now. If we suck at something, we now face it, and we do something about it.”
Of course, it’s one thing to promise change. It’s another to deliver it.
Dan Spitz, former lead guitarist for thrash metal band Anthrax, has sold more than 15 million albums, been nominated for 3 Grammy’s, created over 10 studio albums – and now he is recognized as one of the best watchmakers in the world.
That’s just awesome.
They killed the Mac version of the official Twitter client.
You’d definitely get candid shots with this.
People have been comparing the similarities between Apple products and older Braun products. However, there are big differences between that and what Samsung has done.
But to me, it’s about the difference between drawing inspiration to create something new, versus slavishly copying to create something derivative.
Ive’s designs for Apple apply the Braun aesthetic to devices that depart widely in purpose and function from the original Rams-crafted products. Samsung took Apple’s design for a smartphone and applied it directly to…a smartphone. And then tried to pretend that they didn’t.
Exactly.