MEDIA TIME.

Alright, so, here we go.
This is the live blog for Apple’s Sept. 12th Media Event.
Please excuse any lack of creativity. I’m tired. And so are my cats. They’re fighting.

4:30AM:
Still awake. All showered up, snug in my onesie, wrapped in my blanket. This bowl of cereal is so good. So are these V’s. And this Berocca.
USTREAM consists of a music playlist, so far. I just heard Gangnam Style. Awesome.

4:46AM:
Still waiting, with the playlist. I’m just one of 107k viewers. Exciting much?
At the moment, some country song is playing. Probably a classic. I have no idea. I seem to be stuck in some sort of “write-extremely-short-sentences” mode.

5:00AM:
Yep, 5:00AM. We’ve started, and, as of right now, there are 127k viewers. Physical media are being allowed into the arena now, and a livestream is being searched for.

5:07AM:
Seven-million downloads of Mountain Lion OSX. Good topic to open with, I guess. Usually start with statistics like that. Still waiting for actual coverage.
They’re talking about the iPad now, and their sales figures. 84 million to date. The iPad is 91% of all tablet web traffic. Phil Schiller says “I don’t know what these other tablets are doing! They must be in warehouses or store shelves or maybe in peoples’ bottom drawer”.

5:12:
Straight into the iPhone discussion.
“Each and every year we introduce new versions with new features… each time setting the gold standard” – Phil Schiller.
“iPhone 5″ is the confirmed name for the new iPhone.
“[The iPhone 5] is made entirely of glass and aluminium. It’s designed and built to an exacting level of standard unlike anything we, or anything in our industry, have made before” – Phil Schiller

7.6mm thick – 18% thinner than before.
112 grams – 20% lighter than the 4S.
326ppi Retina display, 4-inches. 1136×640 resolution. The iPhone is the same width, but taller.
44% better colour saturation, with full sRGB rendering.
Touch is integrated into the display, so it’s thinner and sharper, with less glare in sunlight.

Wireless is now faster. Accepts 802.11 a/b/g/n networks, and is dual-channeled, up to 150Mbps.

New chip. A6 processor. 2X faster CPU and 2x graphics compared to the A5. This is 22% smaller, and more energy-efficient. Examples given are than Pages is going to launch 2.1x faster than before.

EA Games have made an appearance. Some car-racing game. There are realtime relections in the rear-view mirrors. “Yes, for the first time in Real Racing you can see behind you”.
There’s a two-player race, but it’s asynchronous. Essentially, this is multiplayer racing where both people race at different times. “Time-shifted multiplayer”, it’s called.

5:29AM
Battery-life discussion.

5:30AM
Camera talk. 5-element lens and f/2.4 aperture. Same as the iPhone 4S, essentially, but thinner.
Dynamic low-light mode.
There’s now a sapphire lens crystal cover – durable and clear.
New feature called “Shared Photo Streams”. We all know what that means.
Panorama is officially native, now. Simply swing the phone, and you’ll get a 28 megapixel resulting image. It automatically smooths it all out, even if you shake or wobble a bit.
Video is improved, too. 1080p like the previous, but with better video stabilisation and facial recognition.
The front-facing camera is now 720p.

Facetime now works over cellular networks.

5:36AM:
New audio:
Three microphones now – front, bottom and back. This is for voice recognition and noise cancellation.
There’s a wider spectrum for audio, now, so your voice will sound more natural and clearer. More crisp.

5:38AM:
“The iPhone, from its start, has used the iPod’s connector”.
The connector is, indeed, new. They’re also releasing a bunch of accessories to help converting old docks.

5:41AM:
Now they’re discussing iOS6. The info card of each destination has been partnered with Yelp, as I blogged about earlier. They’re basically showing all the new map features, now that it’s all Google-free.

Safari has a new full-screen, similar to the desktop version. You can share tabs from your desktop to your phone. “iCloud Tabs”.

The new mailbox has a VIP system, where you can mark contacts as VIP, and their mail will go directly to a separate inbox.

Siri updates:
“How did the 49ers do last weekend?” – Siri replied with the score.
“What are the current NFL standings?” – Siri brought up a scoreboard with the results.
“Can you recommend a good movie in theaters?” – Siri replies with: “That is a very subjective question. Here’s what others have found to be good movies:” (she then proceeded to show movie listings).
Siri can find you restaurants, and then make reservations for you, if you so desire.

The Phone app allows you to send an SMS or an iMessage if you can’t take the call, which is an interesting and useful feature.

“The most advanced operating system in any mobile device”.

5:52AM:
Two colours – Black or white front. The white version has a raw aluminium back, while the black one has the black anodized backing, like normal.

They’re recapping some of the specs again, explaining that, by making the phone longer, rather than wider, it will still comfortably fit in your hand.

So far, there’s no information about Bluetooth 4.0 for near-field communication. Nothing about wireless charging (I’d be quite shocked if there was), so the Lightning cable (the connector’s new name) will need to be kept handy. Also, there doesn’t seem to be any micro-USB compatibility.

Basically, the phone is everything that we expected.

6:00AM:
iPhone 5 is going to be the same prices as the 4S is currently. This probably means that the contracts that we get will cost the same, too.
Pre-orders start on Friday the 14th. Shipping on September 21st in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore (Not sure about the timezone for those dates, but you should probably add a day for New Zealand dates).

20 more countries next month, which, I’m guessing, includes us. So, it looks like we have an October release date, which I covered in a previous blog post.

iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, new iPad, iPad 2 and iPod touch are all getting iOS 6, which is due for release on September 20th GMT+12.

6:06AM:
iTunes is basically a big grid, now. A lot simpler to use. Apparently, the audience isn’t too enthused about this announcement. Doesn’t seem to be as interesting as everything else that’s been discussed.
There’s a new “coming next” button that allows you to change the order of upcoming tracks, or you can simply click “Play Next”, and that song that you have selected will be put next in the queue.
New mini-player. Very small. Kind of a long, sleek bar, with a little album art spot. Looks very nice.

6:12AM:
iCloud integration is getting a major update.
Movies are getting time-synced – whatever spot you have the movie paused on will stay paused on your iDevice/Desktop.

6:15AM:
iPod discussion, now. Apple has sold over 350 million iPods.

First up is the Nano – “We really wanted to take the chance to reinvent the nano”.
I have to tell you guys now… It looks amazing. I’ll throw a photo here when I can find one.

5.4mm – 38% thinner than the last Nano.
2.5-inch display – multitouch.
Has big volume buttons with a third function for play/pause and track advancing.
Home button.
Seven colours available – aluminium, black, purple, green, blue, yellow and red.
FM tuner.
Look at photos and videos.
Bluetooth.
Lightning Connector.
30 hours of music playback.

6:22AM:
iPod Touch: (Sorry the blog has gotten basic, trying to keep up with it all).
“It’s the world’s most popular music player… but a lot of people don’t realise that it’s also the world’s most popular videogame player as well” – 175,000 games available.

6.1mm thick.
88 grams.
Similar style as the last Touch, but with a slightly more-squared back.
Aluminium on the back – no more scratchy chrome.
Speaker on the bottom.
Lightning connector.
Features the same display as the iPhone 5. Wow.
Said to offer 7x faster graphics than the old iPhone touch.
Up to 40 hours of music playback.
Eight hours of video.
New camera – five megapixel iSight. Has the panorama feature.
New button on the back of the iPod Touch. It’s called the “iPod Touch Loop”.
New space for a little wrist-strap. Seems like they’re marketing the iPod Touch as a camera.
1080p video with iMovie compatibility.
720p front camera.
No 4G wireless, however.
Five colours – raw aluminium, black, blue, yellow and red.

6:33AM:
They’re talking about some new earbud pieces. “Over 600 million sets of earbuds have been shipped. That’s over 1.2 billion little speakers”.
They’re called “EarPods”.
Apparently, they scanned hundreds of ears looking for commonality between them, in order to make ideal “EarPods”.

New Nano and Touch are available in October (US).

6:40AM:
They’re just showing everyone the new iTunes/iPod/iWhatever Ad.

Seems like they’re just wrapping up, now.

Well, that was an intense almost-two-hours. Basically, in summary, we’ve had info on the iPhone 5, iOS 6, iTunes, iCloud, iPod Nano, iPod Touch, and new earphones.
Nothing about the iPad Mini.
Hm.

iPhone 5 official page, now up.

Right, so, now that all of that is over, I think I might go pass out on my bed. I’ll tidy all of this up when I wake up. But for now, au revoir.

Edit: Thank you to Warwick for this: