gdgt live coverage

Live Apple iPhone 4S event coverage

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gdgt live is back! Did you miss us? Well, we missed you. So, down to business: we’re just little away from (what I can only assume) is Apple’s last event of 2011, and they’ve made it pretty clear they want to talk phones. Well, let’s talk phones, then! I’ll be live from Apple HQ in Cupertino posting the announcements right here.

Don’t forget to register for gdgt (if you haven’t already) so you can discuss the announcements here and add the latest iPhone(s) to your want list!

Live coverage begins in your local timezone at:

Update order: Newest first | Oldest first

Manual updating, hit F5!

11:40AM - Thanks for tuning in everyone!

11:39AM - As always, we’d like to thank the always-awesome team at Rackspace for powering today’s live coverage!

Of course, if you haven’t already registered as gdgt user, head on over and add the iPhone 4S to your list.

11:39AM - Looks like we’re gonna clear out now!

11:39AM - So I guess for Tim’s first, um, Timnote, there’s no One More Thing. Or as I’ve heard it called preemptively, the “Cook-tease.”

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11:38AM - Tim: “Thank you very much.” He’s out, we’re done!

11:38AM - “When you think about it, only Apple can bring all these things together in such a powerful and integrated experience. I am so incredibly proud of this company and all of the teams that work so hard to bring the innovations you’ve seen today to reality.”

11:37AM - Review time (again): iOS 5, iCloud, iPhone 4S, Siri… “when you look at each of these, they’re great, fantastic, and industry-leading. But what sets them apart and puts them way out front is how they work together so well.”

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11:37AM - “It’s pretty incredible, isn’t it? Let’s review today’s announcements.”

11:36AM - “This will be the fastest iPhone rollout we’ve ever had. That’s the iPhone 4S. Thank you.” Big applause, Tim’s back up.

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11:36AM - That’s right Sprint people, you’re FINALLY getting the iPhone. Sorry, T-Mobile people. Guess it’s that AWS of yours, I don’t know.

11:35AM - Sprint!

11:35AM - Pre-orders on the October 7th, and then launching on the 14th.

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11:35AM - Watch out, people, the free iPhone has landed. Unfortunately, it’s the 3G.

11:35AM - “The iPhone 4S is not the only phone in our lineup. The iPhone 4 will now be available in Black and white for just $99. Thei phone 3GS in 8GB: free.” Boom.

11:34AM - Phil: “So that’s the iPhone 4S. Black and white, 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399. 64GB is the first time in an iPhone.”

11:34AM - Marketing demo video is stil going. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll post it up on the Apple site soon enough!

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11:32AM - I will say, I’m pretty impressed they’ve nailed the worldphone aspect here in the same size device. That’s a really challenging thing to do from an antenna design standpoint, and few have ever done this kind of thing before.

11:30AM - Ha. Lady in the video just asked for an Italian restaurant in North Beach. Say, can Siri also find you a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, too? No problemo, right?

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11:29AM - “And now you understand all the great new stuff inside the iPhone 4S.” A5, new antenna system, new optics, HD video, and now Siri. Marketing video time!

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11:28AM - “It’ll be built-in with support for English, French, and German. It will be beta at the start; by beta we mean we’ll add more languages and services over time.”

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11:27AM - Demo over, Phil’s back. “Thanks Scott, that is the coolest feature of the iPhone 4S. Siri does dictation — now whenever you see a keyboard, you’ll see a microphone. Talk to Siri, tap done, and in the blink of an eye it comes back with your text. Speak with your natural language.”

11:26AM - “Compose and dictate email right to Siri. Set timers. Look up contacts, create notes, search the web, search Wikipedia. It’s absolutely blow-away. Well, who is Siri? Just ask!” Siri: “I am a humble personal assistant.”

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11:24AM - Man, this Siri demo is starting to drag on. He’s asking how long until Christmas. Siri: “82 days.” Scott: “Get shopping!”

11:23AM - Instant Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha searches by voice. “Now, to define a word, it’s as easy as asking Siri. Define ‘mitosis.’” And Siri delivers results. “Just ask your personal assistant, Siri.”

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11:20AM - Sorry about that, looks like we had some kind of temporary hiccup! We’re back though, not sure what happened but things are still humming along here.

11:19AM - “With Siri, you can just ask Siri to read your messages to you.” Siri reads the messages in your notification queue, hands-free. Nice.

11:18AM - Scott’s asking Siri all kinds of stuff. Find me a great Greek restaurant in Palo Alto. “I’ve found five Greek restaurants, and I’ve sorted them by rating.” Scott: “I’ve been in the AI field a long time. This blows me away.”

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11:15AM - “What’s the weather like today?” Siri gives the forecast. Big applause.

11:15AM - Demo time for Siri!

11:14AM - Siri: the intelligent assistant to get things done just by asking.

11:14AM - “For decades technologists have teased us with this dream that we can talk to our technology. But it’s never come true! It’s such a let-down! What we really want to do is just talk to our device!”

11:13AM - “We left one thing out to talk about. It’s a feature all about our voice.”

11:11AM - Sorry, I munged that iPhone 4S link a few posts back. My bad! Try that one — if you dare.

11:10AM - 1080p, real-time video image stabilization (yes!), real-time temporal noise reduction. Video demo time!

11:09AM - Next: video recording. “We take stunning Hd video, and for the first time, 1080p video.” Applause.

11:09AM - Phil’s just showing us some photos now.

11:08AM - Oh, by the way, did you add the iPhone 4S to your gdgt want list? Don’t forget!

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11:07AM - Other phones take 2-3x longer to shoot. “What do Droid Bionic customers have to do between taking pictures? Get coffee?” Yaburnt.

11:06AM - Oh, and Phil almost forgot to tell us about the Apple designed ISP, which enables stuff like face-detection and auto-white balance. “And that chip takes super fast photos. What do we mean?”

11:06AM - “We have an amazing lens system, five lens elements. It’s now a really wide f2.4. Compared to most point and shoots we can let in a lot of light.”

11:05AM - “CMOS backside illuminated sensor — gets 73% more light than the iPhone 4 sensor, and 1/3rd faster. On top of that, we place a high-end IR filter for greater accuracy and uniformity.”

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11:04AM - “What’s the new camera on the iPhone 4S like? It starts with an 8 megapixel sensor.”

11:04AM - Camera system. “The iPhone 4 has already surpassed every other camera out there on photo sites. We set our sites on competing with many great point and shoot cameras.”

11:02AM - Next: a worldphone!

11:02AM - “Where have I heard these numbers before? This is what our competitors call 4G… the iPhone 4S is just as fast as all of these phones, even faster in real-world use.”

11:01AM - Data can now download up to 2x as fast. Theoretical max performance used to be 5.8 up and 7.2 down — now doubles to almost 14.4Mbps down.

11:01AM - Second, wireless system: “Our engineering team has worked really hard to advance the state of the art that’s never been done in a phone before. It can now intelligently switch between two antennas between send and receive to make even better call quality.”

11:00AM - Schiller back: “You’d think if you put a CPU like that you’d sacrifice battery life.” Increased to 8 hours talk time, damn! “Fantastic battery life.”

10:58AM - Still battling, stand by.

10:57AM - Infinity Blade update. Looks pretty impressive, but it’s not blowing my mind 7x.

10:56AM - Demo time with Epic Games!

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10:55AM - “Dual-core CPU, 2x as fast at CPU tasks. Also dual-core graphics. Up to 7x faster in the previous iPhone. One area you really see it scream is in games.”

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10:55AM - “Of course it starts with the Retina Display. But inside it is all new. The A5 chip is now making its way into the iPhone.”

10:54AM - “As you’ve heard, it’s the number one smartphone in the world. People have been wondering, how do you follow up a hit product like the iPhone 4?” The iPhone 4S.

10:54AM - “Next, iPhone. It’s a breakthrough device.” Here we go!

10:54AM - iPod touch: now with iOS 5 and iCloud. Now comes in black and a brand new white version. It’s been priced at $229 for 8GB, now it’s $199. A key price point.

$299 and $399 for 32GB and 64GB. Nice. But where’s the 128GB version?

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10:52AM - Talking iMessage and Game Center on the iPod touch. Let’s see the updates!

10:51AM - “Not only is it the most popular music player in the world, but we’re excited to announce it’s now also the most popular portable game player in the world.” Damn.

10:51AM - Next: iPod touch. “It’s our most popular iPod, and it’s incredible.”

10:50AM - It comes in 7 colors, now the iPod nano is 8GB for $129, and 16GB for $149. Available today.

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10:49AM - “There’s a really cool use people have created all their own — accessories like watch bands. We thought that was really fun, so with the updated nano we’ve added 16 new clock faces to make it fun for people who like to wear it as a watch. Why not, right?”

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10:49AM - “We’ve improved the fitness experience as well. Right out of the box, you can go on a walk or a run as well without adding sensors or devices.”

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10:48AM - Updates: multi-touch display even easier to navigate with bigger icons. So UI changes?

10:48AM - “I’d like to give you updates to two of those lines today. First, iPod nano.”

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10:47AM - Eddie’s turned it over to Phil Schiller. “I’m really pleased to talk to you about the iPod. We started the iPod simply because we love music. We still love music, and we’re still making great iPods.”

10:47AM - It’s funny how traffic on these live keynotes starts to wane as Apple goes over the stuff they’ve already announced / launched. I feel ya, folks. Let’s get to the good stuff, shall we?

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10:45AM - Video demo time! Alright everyone, go hit the bathroom or grab a beverage.

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10:45AM - Reviewing iTunes Match service — again, review from past announcements. Granted, it’s not out yet, but you’ve probably heard about it by now. “It scans and matches your library against our 20m songs, we’ll upload what we don’t find, we’ll stream…” wait, did he just say stream? I don’t think he meant to say stream.

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10:43AM - All part of iCloud. Free for iOS 5 and Lion users, with upgrades from device. “A really great add-on to iCloud is iTunes Match.”

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10:42AM - Set location sharing blocks of time — “at the end of the day, location sharing stops automatically. Easily locate friends and family, temp sharing options, simple privacy controls…”

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10:41AM - “Now, when I’m in Disneyland, I can see where my family is.”

10:41AM - “What if you could find your family and friends? Today we’re launching a new app called Family and Friends.” Foursquare, you ready?

10:41AM - Backup: daily backups from your iOS devices, “easily restored right from iCloud.” I’m not so sure about this one, I kind of like owning my backups, you know? Next: syncing contacts, calendars, mail — an ad-free me.com mail account. Find My iPhone is part of iCloud. Yep.

10:39AM - Talking about docs in the cloud, edits in Pages on the iPhone updated across devices. Again, we’re still in review mode here.

10:38AM - iTunes in the cloud, done. Next: Photo Stream. You know, it’s like iTunes in iCloud, but for photos.

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10:37AM - Over 1/3 is purchased on iOS devices. “Keeping it in sync can be frustrating.” You can say that again. Walking us through the whole cloud syncing scenario, you get the gist.

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10:36AM - Eddie Cue is up to talk iCloud now.

10:36AM - Free update, available October 12th! Finally a launch date!

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10:35AM - Mail enhancements. Next up: PC-free. “We have a lot of customers who want to use the iPad or iPhone as their only device.” Well, now you can, and it ain’t too shabby. “These are just ten of the new features in iOS 5.”

10:34AM - Side note! We’re doing a TON of traffic right now, which is awesome! But if you should happen to see a hiccup in the auto-updating, don’t be afraid to refresh the page real quick to kick. Don’t do that right this second though, or you’ll probably take us down. Okay? Okay.

10:33AM - Next up: Safari. “We’ve added a number of things, including Reader. We take the story on the page, we format it perfectly on the device, it’s all loaded so you can just scroll through and read it.” Sure, but I still prefer Instapaper.

10:32AM - Edit photos on-device; crop, rotate, remove red-eye. Next up: Game Center. “It’s only been out for about a year, but it’s been a huge hit.” Oh? “67m users signed up. Adding achievement points, photos, friend recommendations…”

10:31AM - Camera: home screen shortcut — which I do indeed love — and HDR. But will Apple fix the extreme camera slowness in iOS 5? You know what I’m talking about.

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10:30AM - “We’ve integrated Twitter into many of our built-in apps. Tweet photos, web sites, videos, locations from maps. Deep integration from Twitter.” Next: Newsstand. Sorry, but I’m bored. New stuff, please!

10:29AM - “Push to all device; pick up on one device where you left off on another.” Aww yeah. Next: Reminders. Location-based reminders with geo-fencing. Again, all this is stuff you’re probably familiar with if you saw the original iOS 5 announcements. Next: Twitter integration. Oh, did I mention Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is right over there?

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10:28AM - Notifications! Yeah, you know all about this one. iMessage. New iOS-based messaging service, which I assume you’ve probably heard of as well by this point!

10:27AM - iOS 5 time! “We’ve already seeded more than 100k developers, and they love it. We can’t wait to get it in everyone else’s hands.” Recap time! 200 new user features, talking about ten of the top.

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10:26AM - “We’ll affix Apple designed postage to the card.” Of course you will! $2.99 in the US, $4.99 anywhere else. Oct 12th.

10:25AM - “We’ll print it on high quality 100% cotton paper.” Nice! They’ll print it and mail it — push notification on mail delivery through USPS. “Very cool.” Applause. Hmm, paper. Okaaay.

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10:24AM - “Apple has paid developers more than $3b.” New app today: Cards. “Create and mail beautiful cards right from your iPhone or iPod touch.”

10:24AM - “All of these together makes the App Store the number one store for downloading apps. Customers have downloaded more than 18b apps. And it’s accelerating. They’re downloading them at a clip of more than 1 billion per month.” That is pretty insane.

10:23AM - Forstall: “already, more than 500k apps in the app store. More than 140k of these are made specifically for the iPad.”

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10:22AM - “We’ve passed a quarter billion unit sales mark.” Damn. Forstall is up for iOS time!

10:22AM - “92% of Fortune 500 are testing or deploying iPad. This is in less than 18 months. Unheardof.

10:21AM - “It’s not just in the classroom. Pilots are replacing 40 pound flight bags with iPads — making pilots more efficient, and planes more fuel efficient. Yes, that’s true!” Chuckles. iPad in medicine: “80% of the top hospitals in the US are now testing or piloting the iPad.”

10:20AM - “It’s not just in the classroom. Pilots are replacing 40 pound flight bags with iPads — making pilots more efficient, and planes more fuel efficient. Yes, that’s true!” Chuckles. iPad in medicine: “80% of the top hospitals in the US are now testing or piloting the iPad.”

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10:19AM - “The customer satisfaction ratings show a 95% score in a recent survey. They’re showing up everywhere. In schools they’re helping kids learn in amazing new ways. … every state in the US now has an iPad deployment or pilot in place today.” Wow.

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10:18AM - “We believe that over time all phones become smartphones. This market is an enormous opportunity. That’s iPhone, more coming up on iPhone.” Chuckles. Next: iPad.

10:17AM - The customer satisfaction numbers are kind of hilarious. “These are numbers that are hard to imagine for any product.” JD Power rated #1. “Despite all this success and momentum, the iPhone has 5% share of the worldwide market of handsets. I could have shown a much larger number if I just showed smartphones, but that’s not how we look at it.”

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10:16AM - “That momentum is far outpacing the industry. It’s not just consumer, 93% of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying the iPhone. It’s consistently rated #1 in every customer satisfaction ranking I can find.”

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10:15AM - iPhone: “What’s amazing is that the iPhone 4 has sold over half of our total iPhones sold in the entire time we’ve been selling iPhones. It’s the number one smartphone in the world.

10:15AM - “You can’t talk about music without talking about iTunes. We started 8 years ago, we had 200k songs in our music library. We now have 100x that many: 20m songs. It’s now the #1 music store in the world, with over 16b song downloads.” He called it mind-boggling, and yeah, it kind of is. A couple years ago they were still contending with Walmart and Target and Tower.

10:14AM - “To put that in context, it took Sony 30 years to sell 230k Walkman cassette players. The MP3 market is a mature market, and the iPod is still a large and important market for Apple. We’ve sold 45 million iPods in the last year ending in June. What’s more encouraging, is almost half of those are going to people buying their first iPod.”

10:13AM - “Across the last ten years the iPod became the number one music player in the world. And in the US the market share has been above 70% for a very long time. Over that period of time we’ve cumulatively sold 300m iPods around the world.” Damn. That is a lot of iPods.

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10:13AM - Next up: music (i.e. iTunes and iPod). “It was only 10 years ago that iPod launched. It revolutionized the whole music industry. It reminded us how much we all loved music.”

10:12AM - “For those of you that have followed Apple for a while remember that it wasn’t too long ago that this number was in the mid single digits.” Yeap, that number has a long memory. “We have an incredible ceiling here, and a long way to go.”

10:11AM - “Every single quarter for 5 years the Mac has outgrown the PC market! We are now approaching 60 million users. In US retail Macs are now selling in about 1/4 PCs in the store.”

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10:11AM - “In fact, the MacBook Pro and iMac are the #1 best selling notebook

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