September’s been a pretty crazy month of announcements, and now HTC are trying to impress us with their showing in New York. New Windows Phone 8 devices are expected, although an updated One X is also rumoured. Whatever happens, we’ll bring you the latest news here!
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While some of us were frantically liveblogging proceedings from Apple’s San Francisco event, the guy behind the hilariously accurate Twitter account @NextTechBlog did things a bit differently. In the space of 12 tweets, they said more about the world’s reaction to the iPhone 5 and new iPods than a thousand word blog post ever could. If you are a tweeter and not following them, you’re seriously missing out.
ERMAHGERHD ERNDERHD.
It’s iPhone time again! We’ve been through what we expect from the event, but there’s always the chance that Tim Cook will spring a few surprises on us, so check back here from 1PM EDT/5PM GMT/6PM BST for all the latest news!
All times given are BST. This liveblog has now ended.
16:50 Hello all. I am ready.
16:55 Things should kick off in just over an hour.
17:00 Liveblogging today we have Xavier Voigt-Hill and maybe Henry Hunt.
https://twitter.com/LaughingStoic/status/24591741298422988817:29 Just over half an hour to go now. What do we all want tonight?
17:44 Nobody’s inside the Yerba Buena Center yet, so things might be a bit late.
17:50 Theoretically my internet connection could be faster, but Community needs to download. Community > iPhone.
17:52 And everyone is inside! This could start on time after all.
17:56 My mouse is dying, but I will plod on.
17:59 About to get going…
18:00 And here’s Tim Cook!
18:01 Introducing the Barcelona Apple Store.
18:03 Video of more Apple Stores selling more stuff.
18:05 Now Tim is talking Mac and Mountain Lion.
18:06 7 million Mountain Lion upgrades so far.
18:07 Now onto the iPad.
18:08 17 million iPads sold April to June. Last year Apple had 62% tablet marketshare.
18:09 That figure is now 68%. iPads count for 91% of all tablet web traffic.
18:10 700k apps in the App Store. 250,000 designed for iPad.
18:12 400 million iOS devices sold up to June.
18:13 Phil Schiller is here to talk iPhone.
18:13 ‘Today we’re introducing iPhone 5.’
18:14 It rose out of the stage. It’s rotating. It’s tall. It looks leaked.
18:15 Entirely glass and aluminium. It is the thinnest and lightest iPhone at 7.6mm. The world’s thinnest smartphone. Eat that Razr.
18:17 1136 x 640 4″ display, as rumoured. 326ppi.
18:18 Why did Apple do this? So you can see more emails. I DON’T WANT TO SEE MY EMAILS.
18:19 Black bars on either side for existing apps that haven’t been updated for the 16:9 screen.
18:20 The display looks better apparently. Perfect aspect ratio for video and 44% more saturation.
18:21 HSPA+ and LTE. Single chip for voice, data and radio.
18:22 LTE for Sprint, Verizon and AT&T in the US, Rogers, Telus and Bell in Canada. EE in the UK!
18:25 A6 chip has 2x faster CPU and 2x faster graphics than A5.
18:27 Rob Murray from Firemonkeys is showing off Real Racing 3.
18:30 Longer battery life than the 4S.
18:31 There’s a sapphire crystal in the 8MP camera. Why the fuck not?
18:33 A photo from the camera. It looks awesome.
18:34 Built-in panorama mode lets you take 28MP images.
https://twitter.com/hamburger/status/24593812270418739218:37 New dock connector is very small. 3 microphones for noise cancellation. 720p FaceTime HD camera on the front.
18:38 80% smaller ‘Lightning’ dock connector. It’s reversible and durable.
18:41 Here’s a dock connector adapter. This thing is tiny.
18:42 Scott Forstall on stage with iOS 6. Not much new to see here.
18:43 Demoing the new non-Google maps. We’ve already looked at what this all means.
18:44 You can tap to tweet or share on Facebook in Notification Center. Fullscreen mode in Safari too.
18:47 Now Forstall is showing off Passbook and Siri stuff. No sign of NFC though.
18:51 My internet just died, but I’m alive. Siri can tell you sports scores, good movies and Facebook for you.
18:53 And now we are wrapping up with a Jony Ive video. It comes in white too.
18:54 Bob Mansfield is doing the Bob Mansfield and talking about internals.
18:59 American contract pricing is the same. 16GB = $199, 32GB = $299, 64GB = $399. iPhone 4 is now free on contract. 16GB 4S is $99. Pre-order Friday for the September 21st launch.
19:02 iOS 6 coming to iPhone 4 and later on September 19th for free. iPod Touch 4th generation is included in this.
19:03 Let’s talk about iTunes. New look store with Facebook EVERYWHERE.
19:06 iTunes 11 is coming too. It looks fantastic.
19:11 New mini player looks great too.
19:14 iCloud is now built into iTunes for syncing film positions and stuff.
19:15 New iTunes coming October for Mac and PC.
19:16 New iPod Nano is 38% thinner at 5.4mm and has a widescreen multitouch display, physical buttons and a Lightning connector. And a home button.
19:26 The 5th generation iPod Touch is 6.1mm, 88g and has the same display as the iPhone 5. It also has the A5 chip. YOu get 40 hours of music from the battery.
19:28 5MP rear iSight camera actually takes good photos. I might need one of these things.
19:29 iPod Touch Loop now…
19:30 Push something on the bottom and a lanyard strap holder thing appears, like on cameras and some phones.
19:31 720p FaceTime HD camera and Bluetooth 4.0, just like the iPhone 5. AirPlay mirroring is also coming to iPod.
19:32 Siri is also coming to the new iPod Touch!
19:33 Five colour choices too, each with its own loop thing.
19:34 Shut up and take my money and give me an orange one!
19:34 These are white, black, cyan, yellow and red. I want the cyan.
19:34 New EarPods. They’re futuristic earbuds that have taken 3 years to design.
19:38 iPod pricing. New ones are coming in October.
19:41 High resolution iPhone 5 for you via TNW. Click for a bigger view.
19:42 And that’s that. Playing us out are the Foo Fighters.
19:45 To follow Apple’s lead, here are the Foo Fighters.
19:47 That wraps things up. It’s been a massive night, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Goodnight!
Every year since 2007 Apple has announced a new iPhone. Tonight is their sixth release event. Love it or hate it, the iPhone is continually the highest selling smartphone in the world, with record launches coming each generation. Since the launch of the iPhone 4S last October, which was seen by many as an incremental upgrade over the iPhone 4, rumours have suggested that Apple may have a little more up its sleeve tonight as they launch the 6th generation of iPhone to the waiting world.
Name
While we can be certain that the name will include the word ‘iPhone’ somewhere, violent arguments have broken out across the internet about what the actual name will be. Many are referring to this new device as the iPhone 5 as it seems like a natural progression of name from 4 and 4S, but to call the phone this would be a large error of judgment on Apple’s part. Whatever we see tonight will be the 6th generation of iPhone, and calling it the iPhone 5 may confuse (and annoy) some consumers (i.e. me).
What has been speculated is that Apple will follow the naming scheme that they use for every hardware product bar the iPhone to this point, and choose to drop the suffix, referring to the product as iPhone. As with the iPad announced earlier this year, initial advertising may refer to it as the new iPhone and, should it be necessary to pinpoint a specific model, the phone would be referred to as iPhone (6th generation).
Screen
Screen size of the iPhone 4 and 4S
In recent times, Apple has begun to expand its Retina Display branding beyond the confines of the iPhone and iPod Touch, with both the new iPad and MacBook Pro sporting the branding. The two previous generations have sported 960 x 640 panels at 3.5″, but one Verge reader suggested that the latest model may have an elongated 3.99″ panel with a 1152 x 640 resolution. Further investigation into the code of iOS 6 has revealed that if pushed to 1136 x 640, the software will display an extra row of apps on the home screen, thus making it incredibly likely that we will see a taller iPhone today.
How a taller iPhone screen could look
Hardware
Numerous component leaks and the rumours of a taller screen have made the rounds, and one Gizmodo reader had a go at a mockup of the new iPhone, and he can’t be too far off.
Internally things are a bit murkier, but a quad core A6 chip, more RAM and a new mini dock connector seem certain to be included for the first time. A camera upgrade could also be on the way, and 4G LTE support for Verizon, Sprint and AT&T in the US seems certain, especially after the LTE chips found in the new iPad. After EE’s LTE announcement yesterday, CEO Olaf Swantee teased that more devices supporting the network would be announced soon, and an LTE iPhone could prove to be the catalyst to the LTE growth that EE desires.
Whatever happens, we’ll be there with all the news from 6PM BST in our liveblog, so make sure to follow along to get all the news as it happens!
At an event in London today, Everything Everywhere, the company that was formed from the merger of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom’s UK operations, announced their ambitious rollout plans for the UK’s first 4G LTE network. CEO Olaf Swantee also confirmed that the T-Mobile and Orange brands would remain in action, but the 4G network, along with superfast fibre broadband, would be marketed under the new EE brand.
EE’s 4G network, known as 4GEE, is set to initially launch in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol, with 12 more cities set to receive 4G by the end of 2012, covering a third of the UK population. By 2013, this figure is set to rise to 70%, and EE’s current 3G mark of 98% coverage will be matched in 2014 if all goes to plan. Speeds are expected to peak at around 25Mbps, but EE is advertising average speeds of 8-12Mbps at launch, in line with peak 3G speeds across the country.
The range of devices that will support the network is very limited, featuring 5 phones and 2 mobile broadband devices, but Swantee hinted at further announcements during the press event. Apple’s new iPhone, set to be announced tomorrow, is expected to carry support for LTE networks, but has been rumoured that support for UK networks such as EE’s may not be present in this generation of iPhone. The full device range announced today is below, and both Nokia devices, announced last week, are set to be exclusive to EE in the UK.
Update: EE has confirmed that it will have an exclusive on the LTE iPhone 5 in the UK.
Source EE
Via The Verge / Coolsmartphone
In what is supposedly the day’s main event, Motorola and Verizon have a big announcement planned. We expect to see the Droid Razr HD tonight, but Motorola’s stream page promises a few surprises. If you want to see things happen, tune in below at 2PM EDT/6PM GMT/7PM BST/8PM CEST or whatever time it will be for you. Can the Google subsidiary live up to their showstopping promises?
Via The Verge Forums
At an event in New York today, Nokia unveiled the Lumia 920, their first phone with the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 operating system. With a design that serves as a refinement to the Lumia 800 and 900 before it, the 4.5″ device has an 8.7MP PureView camera, a 1280 x 768 PureMotion HD+ display that Nokia claims to be its best ever, a 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and a variety of polycarbonate body colours, including yellow, red, white, gray and black. While there is no sign of a cyan model, one that proved very popular with the 800 and 900, the 920 has a 2000mAh battery and will feature Qi wireless charging.
Windows Phone 8 has a native screenshot feature! Pressing the home and power buttons takes a shot and puts it in your pictures hub.
Kevin Shields demonstrated the device – and Windows Phone – with some gloves. We love him.
At Nokia’s Lumia unveil in New York today, The Verge got an interview with their CEO Stephen Elop. In the video below, Josh Topolsky probes Elop regarding their launch strategy for the 920 and 820, how Lumia 900 owners should feel after being told that their devices were obsolete and would not get Windows Phone 8 just months after launch and whether the PureView branding is being diluted with the 8.7MP sensor in the 920, compared to the 41MP 808 that pioneered the branding. Elop’s responses in the interview are intriguing, and you can watch the video below.
Source The Verge
Samsung’s Unpacked event will be held at IFA in Berlin tonight, and the rumour mill is in full swing. We already know that the successor to the Galaxy Note will be shown off, and sources seem to suggest that an Android based camera and convertible Windows 8 tablet will also appear. Needless to say it’ll be a busy night, and we’ll have all the news on this page as it happens, so join us on a fantastic journey!
Having been announced shortly before Mobile World Congress in February, LG’s Optimus Vu has kept largely under the radar, save for launches in Japan and South Korea, but a press release today details LG’s plans for a global launch of the 5″ 4:3 behemoth, with the company hoping to get to market before Samsung’s Galaxy Note II, which is set to be unveiled at IFA on August 29th. The aging dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 MSM8660 found in existing models is getting replaced by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip, as found in the HTC One X that we recently reviewed, although this means that the device will not support LTE in territories with such networks. The new Vu will ship with Android 4.0, replacing the old Gingerbread build of models past, but this will, as usual, be caked in LG’s customisations, including an upgraded version of QuickMemo™. While we may not be fans of phablets, those who are interested will be able to find the Optimus Vu in stores across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East in September, but those Americans who desire the leaked Verizon LTE model will have to wait longer for official confirmation.
LG ANNOUNCES GLOBAL AVAILABILITY OF OPTIMUS VU:
Largest LG Smartphone to Be Launched in Europe, Asia, Middle East/Africa and Latin America
SEOUL, Aug. 20, 2012 -– On the heels of its successful debut in Korea and Japan, the Optimus Vu: will make its global debut starting in select markets in Europe, Asia, Middle East/Africa and Latin America starting in September. With the world’s first 5-inch 4:3 aspect ratio display, the Optimus Vu: blurs the line between traditional tablets and smartphones for a truly unique smart device experience.
Since its March debut in Korea, the Optimus Vu: has sold over 500,000 units, demonstrating public acceptance of its form-factor. The reception the device received in Korea prompted LG to launch the Optimus Vu: in Japan this month, where it has also been received positively by Japanese consumers.
For the global roll-out, the Optimus Vu: will be equipped with NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 mobile processor, the super 4-PLUS-1™ quad-core with 5th battery-saver core, that offers a superb balance of performance and power requirements. 4 cores are used for high performance tasks such as games and multitasking. For voice call, email, music and video playback, only 5th battery-saver core is enabled and it consumes very less power.
When paired with the high-resolution 5-inch, 4:3 ratio IPS display, the Optimus Vu: becomes something special –- a device that’s both pocketable and spacious. The Optimus Vu: will come with an upgraded version of QuickMemo™ and Notebook, two features which make great use of the large display real estate.
“The different form factor makes Optimus Vu: unique even in the 5-inch smartphone category which we expect will catch on once they become more widely available,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company.
Key Specifications:
Via Engadget
Source LG Newsroom
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