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!
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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.â€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.â€
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.â€
11:37AM – “It’s pretty incredible, isn’t it? Let’s review today’s announcements.â€
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.
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.â€
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
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?
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!
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
11:21AM – Scott just set up a meeting with Phil on Friday by voice alone. “This is blow-away. I just checked my calendar, scheduled a meeting, and got it all read back by Siri.â€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.â€
11:15AM – “What’s the weather like today?†Siri gives the forecast. Big applause.11:07AM – Other phones take 2-3x longer to shoot. “What do Droid Bionic customers have to do between taking pictures? Get coffee?†Yaburnt.
11:04AM – “What’s the new camera on the iPhone 4S like? It starts with an 8 megapixel sensor.â€
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.â€
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.â€
$299 and $399 for 32GB and 64GB. Nice. But where’s the 128GB version?
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?â€
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.â€
10:48AM – Updates: multi-touch display even easier to navigate with bigger icons. So UI changes?
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.â€
10:45AM – Video demo time! Alright everyone, go hit the bathroom or grab a beverage.
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.
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.â€
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…â€
10:41AM – “Now, when I’m in Disneyland, I can see where my family is.â€
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.
10:36AM – Eddie Cue is up to talk iCloud now.
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.â€
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.
10:30AM – “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!
10:28AM – 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!
10:26AM – “We’ll affix Apple designed postage to the card.†Of course you will! $2.99 in the US, $4.99 anywhere else. Oct 12th.
10:24AM – “Apple has paid developers more than $3b.†New app today: Cards. “Create and mail beautiful cards right from your iPhone or iPod touch.â€
10:22AM – “We’ve passed a quarter billion unit sales mark.†Damn. Forstall is up for iOS time!
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.
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.
10:16AM – “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.â€
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.
10:14AM – “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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
10:06AM – Still reviewing Hong Kong store opening. “We sold more Macs on opening day in this store than we had in any store in the world. … Now, rather than listen to me talk about this, I’d like to show you a short video.†Retail promo video time!
10:04AM – Hmm, Tim’s slides aren’t advancing. Ah, there we go. Reviewing two new Chinese Apple stores.
10:02AM – “It is a pleasure to host you today. I love Apple.â€