No hype allowed.
Christina Bonnington/Wired
After months of breathless anticipation, here is what Apple announced at today's event.
1. The new iPhone, iPhone 5
John Bradley/Wired
- Taller than earlier iPhones, meaning a bigger screen (four inches diagonally), but also hogging up more room in your pocket
- That said, at 7.6 mm thick, it is 18 percent thinner than the iPhone 4S, and weighing 112 grams, 20 percent lighter.
- 326 PPI Retina display (same as before)
- Five rows of icons (as opposed to four on earlier models)
- Apps that are optimized for the new screen size will show more information (more emails, more calendar events) per screen. Those that aren't will display black bars at the top and bottom so they will render like the did on older iPhones.
- LTE support for a maximum hypothetical download speed of around 100 megabits/second.
- Its chip, the A6, will be twice as fast and apps will load about twice as quickly, even those with music and images. It's also 22 percent smaller.
- Camera: 8 megapixel sensor, 3264 by 2448, backside illumination, hybrid IR filter, 5 element lens, f/2.4 aperture, new panorama mode, new social stream to share photos with friends and family
- Video: 1080p HD video, improved video stabilization, face detection
- FaceTime now possible over cellular networks
- No longer uses Apple's standard 30-pin cable. Instead plugs into a new design called "Lightning". Adapters will be available for hooking it up to your dock and other accessories.
- Runs iOS 6, with enhanced 3D maps, more integration with iCloud and Twitter.
- Pre-orders start Friday, and the phones will ship September 21 to nine countries including the U.S.
- Battery life:
- 3G talk time = 8 hours
- LTE or 3G browsing = 8 hours
- WiFi browsing = 10 hours
- standby = 225 hours
- Price
- 16 GB = $199
- 32 GB = $299
- 64 GB = $399
- iPhone 4 and 4S prices now drop: free for the 8 GB iPhone 4 model, and $99 for the 16 GB iPhone 4S
2. Seventh generation iPod Nano
John Bradley/Wired
- Larger display
- Five millimeters thin. Forty percent thinner than previous model.
- Play and pause button the side so you don't always have to use the screen.
- Comes in white, black, pink, green, blue, yellow, and red.
- Built-in fitness tracking and pedometer
- Available in October
- Battery life: 30 hours of music playback
- Price: $149
3. Fifth generation iPod touch
John Bradley/Wired
- 6.1 mm thick and 88 grams
- At the bottom: a headphone jack, speaker, and Lightning connector
- Same 4-inch, Retina display screen as the new iPhone
- Built on an A5 chip which will make it seven times faster than the last iPod Touch
- Built-in five megapixel camera with panorama feature
- New iPhoto for iPod Touch will make iPod photo-editing possible
- Now has Siri
- New hardware to hold on a strap, for wearing your iPod Touch on your wrist as you jog
- Available in October
- Battery life: 40 hours of music playback
- Price:
- 32 GB = $299
- 64 GB = $399
4. Other Odds and Ends
John Bradley/Wired
- EarBuds became EarPods
- iTunes got redesigned.
- The App Store offers more than 700,000 apps, 90 percent of which are downloaded at least once a month.
- The average customer has downloaded over 100 apps. (Seems surprising)
- 350 million iPods sold so far.
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Rebecca J. Rosen is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where she oversees coverage of American constitutional law and government in the Battle for the Constitution series.