Apple event liveblog: 4″ LTE iPhone 5, 6.1mm thin iPod Touch, widescreen iPod Nano, iTunes 11 and more!

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/245917412984229888

17:29 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.
null

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.
null

18:34 Built-in panorama mode lets you take 28MP images.

https://twitter.com/hamburger/status/245938122704187392

18:37 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.
null

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.
null

18:54 Bob Mansfield is doing the Bob Mansfield and talking about internals.
null

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.
null

19:11 New mini player looks great too.
null
null

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.
null
null

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.
null

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.
null

19:34 New EarPods. They’re futuristic earbuds that have taken 3 years to design.
null

19:38 iPod pricing. New ones are coming in October.
null

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!

New iPad out now, but not for £50

Announced just over 1 week ago, Apple’s new iPad is now available. The ‘resolutionary’ tablet sports a  2048 x 1536 display that covers 9.7″, doubling the pixel density to Retina levels. The processor has received a 200MHz bump to become a 1GHz dual-core chip, while the GPU from the PlayStation Vita completes the A5X chip. 1GB RAM, a 5MP rear camera that borrows optics from the iPhone 4S and support for ‘4G’ LTE and HSPA+ networks round out the change list.

Stores will be selling the new tablet from 8am on Friday in various locations, with the UK pricing starting at £399 for a 16GB WiFi model, before progressing up to £479 and £559 for 32 and 64GB respectively. To get LTE capability as well, expect to pay an additional £100, up to £659 for the 64GB WiFi and 4G model. Do not, however, expect to pay £49.99 for it. A technical blunder from Tesco, similar to that involving Argos and the Nokia Lumia 800, priced the high-end model at this bargain level, but orders were swiftly cancelled. A spokesman confirmed:

We like to offer our customers unbeatable value, but unfortunately this is an IT error that is currently being corrected.

Will you be getting one, or does the newly reduced iPad 2 still float your boat? Let us know in the poll and comments.