Apple’s Fall Event: Highlights and Recap.

The day that has been talked about for months has finally come and gone. Apple again switched things up after completely neglecting the historically sound September event for an October iPhone release. Brining us an incredible event to rival all Apple events. Today was jam-packed with goodies, and we’re here to bring you the best of the best in an all-you-can-eat buffet of Apple. So without any further a due…

iPhone 5

Whether you wanted the new iPhone or the iPhone 5, Apple has released it. Speculation after speculation after rumor after drunken ramble, it’s finally here. We kinda knew it would be here with the helpful sources at the Apple website this morning. Not much Nothing was left as a surprise, but we have all the juicy tidbits below.

Design

The iPhone 5 finally got a design change, one that is over 2 years in the making. All of the rumors have been proven accurate. After being let down last year when we didn’t see any external change, even though it isn’t drastic, this update is a welcomed refresh, a refresh that really can’t wait to get our hands on. Even though we all knew what we were in store for, having the verification from mouth of Phil Schiller has brought a unified sigh of relief amongst the tech-world. Finally knowing what we will get our hands on.

The stretched body of the iPhone, ditching the glass on the back for a gorgeous brushed metal back is something I’m personally stoked for. Not having to baby the crap out of my phone at every twist and turn is something I’ve been waiting 2 years for. Even though the iPhone 4/4S is a gorgeous design, taking the best parts of it and creating a whole new device is a feat amongst feats. Apple can change the design, without really revolutionizing it, and still making millions of people stand in line is what Apple does best.

Amongst the gorgeous curves and two-toned refresh, we can finally lay to rest the 30-pin dock connector Apple has used in all of It’s mobile devices over the years. We’ve heard of so many different pin sizes over the past couple months, but the 8-pin will reign supreme until Apple decides to once-again update it. Along with this change, they will also be selling an adapter to keep the legendary devices up-to-date and keep a lot of those accessories you have acquired over the past few years from collecting dust.

The front-facing camera has packed it’s bags and moved over the earphone, to mirror the iPad’d placement. We also see the headphone jack make the long trek to the bottom of the iPhone.

The iPhone 5 weighs in at 3.95 ounces, with the thickness (read: thinness) of 7.6mm. In comparison with the iPhone 4S, we definitely see it coming in a lot smaller, which is incredible including how tall it is. 18% thinner than the 4S, 20% lighter and 12% less volume, it really seems that the iPhone was bulking up all while getting thinner over the past year. Scaling 9mm taller than the iPhone 4S, all while keeping the same width is incredible.

Display

Apple has finally upgraded the screen to compete with the larger, and less gorgeous devices on the market. Apple breaks into the 21st century with a 4″ retina display that will trump any 4.3″+ screen you can throw at it. No matter the size, Apple packs the sexiest viewing experience, whether it’s their laptops, tablets or their phones, 3.5″ to 4″ and we’re all pleased.

This beautiful display gives you 18% more pixels for a incredible 1136 x 640 resolution. As beautiful as the Retina display on the past two models of the iPhone have been, this screen looks amazing. Bigger, yet still accessible with one hand. Widescreen HD video without letter-boxing is here, in all it’s sexy glory.

Colors are getting a nice little bump as well, with color saturation that’s 44% greater than before. Everything will look absolutely gorgeous on this display – everything!

Processor

We all know that the iPhone 4S was a speedy little devil that was a powerhouse of pure muscle. It seems the iPhone has been working out behind the scenes and is packing an A6 quad-core processor to speed up performance. Offering a 2x faster cpu and 2x graphics bump compared to the A5 that is packed into the 4S.

iSight Camera

The camera stays packing 8MP of picture grabbing goodness, but there definitely are some notable updates gracing Apple’s beautiful device this year.

Most notably is Panorama. This new feature will let you capture panoramic photos without the need of a 3rd part app. From the demo, this looks oh so much nicer than a lot of the apps we have used. With one smooth motion you can shoot up to 240 degrees. Because of the power that is packed into the iPhone 5, you can create a seamless panorama shot up to 28 megapixels.

The camera itself did receive a nice update in performance. We see a 40% faster photo capture and better low-light performance. Having the A6 chip inside can really make this camera out-perform anything on the market.

As far as video recording, we can record 1080p HD video on the back, all while grabbing 720p HD on the FaceTime camera up front. We see some improved image stabilization as well as face detection up to 10 faces. A more notable upgrade is that we can snap pictures while shooting video!

The FaceTime camera can now be used over cellular. Yes you heard that right, we can now FaceTime over cellular. Carrier support wasn’t touched on during the event, but we’ll probably be hearing more on this in the coming weeks.

Battery

Along with the redesign of the iPhone, the battery followed suit. Even though I was expecting to see the iPhone batter get more powerful, but stay equal to the performance my 4S has, it seems Apple bumped up the specs compared to the 4S.

4G LTE

This wasn’t the biggest in surprises. After the latest iPad refresh showed both AT&T and Verizon getting LTE in their versions, it was just a matter of when the iPhone would be released, not if it would be released with LTE. Apple is doing LTE the right way by optimizing the battery for LTE. So we will still see a bump in battery life, even though we’ll be data-ing away on LTE.

Pricing & Availability

Historically, we’ve seen no change in pricing over the release cycle from Apple The 16GB version will set you back $199 with a 2-year contract. We’ll also see the 32GB and 64GB models setting you back $299 and $399 respectively. AT&T, Verizon and Sprint are your contract-packing carriers here in the States. But over the past few months we’ve seen more and more pay-as-you-go carriers piggy-backing off of big-brother offering more cost effective plans, and it looks like we’ll see the same for this iPhone.

And as it was speculated over the past couple weeks. T-Mobile has been passed over for another year. We know they’re hitting the ground running, with their upgraded(soon in all areas) service will finally be able to support the iPhone, as well their incredible plan pricing, if you can afford a factory-unlocked device, you might want to consider saving yourself over 1k for your contract versus AT&T.

Pre-orders will begin on September 14, 2012, and the iPhone will arrive a short week later, as well as available in store at 8:00am your local time that same day.

iPhone Model Options

After Apple decided to keep 3 generations of the iPhone around for all to horde, Apple is keeping with this scheme and keeping the iPhone 4S around as an 16GB model for $99 with a new 2-year contract, as well as the already served iPhone 4 8GB model free, after tacking on that same 2-year contract. The 3GS, as beautiful and powerful as it was, it was left to those retailers that still had stock. We’ll miss the device, it did us well for a year, and it’ll go down as one of greatest pieces of hardware we’ve ever held in our hands.

iOS 6 Updates

As we saw this past June at WWDC 2012, iOS 6 saw quite a few updates. And now that we have a new canvas to enjoy them on, Apple has released a few new goodies that will make your beta-tested software oh so much better. Nothing new was announced in the way of iOS 6, but a few awesome notes are the Points-Of-Interests that are loaded right into Apple’s new Maps.app. We also have the ability to send an text message when you can’t take a call.

iOS 6 will be release 2 days before the iPhone 5 is set to release, making it’s way to a 3GS and later on September 19th.

Siri got a nice little feature today as well. She will not assist you in launching apps (a feature I use in the Jailbreak community all the time!) as well as jokingly recommend you a great movie to see.

iTunes 11 & “EarPods”

Today, Apple unveiled a brand new version of iTunes (version 11) solidifying months of rumors. And just as the rumors predicted, this new version of iTunes features a pretty serious overhaul – the first ever, really. Gone is the bloated, antiquated UI. In its place is a cleaner, more visually impressive system based around album art and simplicity and edge-to-edge design. Clicking on any album brings up a split-window view to allow album art and track list viewing at the same time. Another new feature – “coming next”. Now you can see what song is queued up to play next and re-arrange at will. Finally, Apple has brought forth a new mini player that allows basic playback control as well as playlist management and viewing of upcoming songs.

iCloud integration is now a bigger part of iTunes. In version 11, syncing purchased content between desktop, phone and tablet is easier than ever. On top of that, Facebook integration is deeply integrated into the new iTunes mobile and desktop stores. Sadly, unlike many of the other things today a lengthier wait for the new iTunes will occur with a launch date of simply “October”.

On the iOS side of things, iTunes is darker, simpler and much more inviting thanks to more emphasis being placed on album art and carousel navigation (read: side scrolling is back!). While the new iTunes for desktop won’t drop until October, Apple is giving iOS users access to the new UI on September 19th when iOS 6 is officially released.

Also unveiled today – new “Earpods”. The first major redesign of Apple’s iconic white earbuds look a bit goofy at first. But according to Apple, the new design will be more comfortable, fall out less and better direct sound into the wearer’s ears. A plus in our book considering the old style earbuds were none of those.

Lightning Connector

All of the new iPods (and iPhones) feature Apple’s new “Lightning” 8-pin dock connector which is 80% smaller than the old 30-pin connector it replaces. It doesn’t hurt that it is allegedly more durable, all digital, easier to connect and compatible with old 30-pin accessories via a small $9.99 adapter.

Moan all you want. This new connector was badly needed.

With iTunes, new EarPods and Lightning connectors out of the way out of the way, let’s get onto the real meat of the story – iPods, specifically the Touch and Nano.

iPod Touch & “New” iPod Touch

• 4″ Retina Display

• A6 processor (New 4″ iPod Touch)

• 6.1mm thin

• “Loop” – for attaching lanyards

• Cameras: Rear – (iSight) 5-megapixel sensor w/ backside illumination, Hybrid IR filter, five-element lens, auto-focus, LED flash and f/2.4 aperture. Panorama mode now built in | Front: FaceTime HD camera w/ 720p support, Backside illumination and Face detection.

• Wireless: Bluetooth 4.0 with LE | 802.11 a/b/g/n + 802.11n 2.4 GHz and 5. GHz

• Siri integration

• Colors: White, Black, Light Blue, Yellow, Red

• Availability: October

• Pricing: 4th Gen (old): 16 GB ($199) | 32 GB ($249) – New 4″ iPod Touch: 32 GB ($299) | 64 GB ($399)

• Battery Life: 40 hours of music 8 hours video

iPod Nano (7th Gen)

• 2.5″ Multi-touch display

• Home button ala iPhone/iPod Touch

• 5.4mm thin

• White – raw aluminum back | Black – anodized black back

• FM Tuner w/ DVR functionality, pause/rewind, bluetooth (for wireless streaming support), photos + video support, pedometer built-in

• Battery Life: 30 hours

• Availability: October

• Pricing: 16 GB – $149

iPod Shuffle

• New colors

• Pricing: $49 – 2 GB

Wrap Up

The iPhone 5 has been in the header of probably every Apple/iOS blog for the past few months. With at least 1-3 rumors popping up each week, it was no surprise as to some of the main features we would see. No matter what we’ve seen leaked, Apple still knows how to make our hearts skip a beat. The tech loving nerd in all of us appreciates the level of hard work and design that goes into each hardware release. The iPhone 5 is no exception.

With the addition of the 4G LTE radio, 4″ display and redesign of the body, Apple has once again evolved the game changing device they set out to master back in 2007. Seriously, why are people so thrilled about a 4″ display and LTE? I mean, tons of other devices out there have these features, and have had them for a while. Apple does it right. And September 12, 2012 is no exception. Stay tuned as we get our hands on the newest iPhone, as well as all iOS 6 has to offer in the coming days/weeks.

The iPods received a nice update today as well. The iPod Nano as well as the new 4″ iPod Touch in so many different colors is something the music lover in all of us can appreciate.

Throw in a completely re-designed iTunes with tons of incredible features, today was a great day.

Thanks goes out to The Verge and Engadget for providing outstanding live blogs and gorgeous pictures.

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