Tim Cook and company rocked today’s keynote. As expected, the iPhone 5s was announced with a new processor, fingerprint sensor and motion chip alongside the new cost-conscious and brightly-colored iPhone 5c.
Craig Frederhigi spent some time on Jony Ive’s upcoming iOS 7, running through the main features, most of which we’d heard back at WWDC in June, including Control Center, Search anywhere, more textured ringtones and the like.
The two new models of iPhone were the focus of today’s event. CEO Tim Cook said that the iPhone business was getting so big they decided to replace the iPhone 5 with two new models. The iPhone 5c looks to aim directly at kids and perhaps budget-conscious consumers with bright colors and the ability to purchase contrasting soft rubber cases. The iPhone 5s is a tour-de-force of new technology, including the much-anticipated fingerprint sensor, Touch ID, and the new A7 and M7 chips.
The keynote was even more densely packed with info, of course, so we’ve broken everything down into tasty, bite-size nuggets of information so you can get essentials of what happened today without having to read 30,000 different blog posts.
Here’s everything that Apple announced at today’s keynote:
iOS 7
There wasn’t a whole lot new to Craig Federighi’s chat about iOS 7 during today’s Apple event. He went over the same basic features he introduced last June at the WWDC keynote, including the new lock screen, the depth and parallax of the home screen, Control and Notification Centers, and the new multitasking feature. He also touched on iTunes Radio a bit.
Availability:
- Coming September 18th
- Available to developers today
- Compatible with iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini, iPod touch (5th gen)
iWork:
- Free for all new iOS devices
- Best-selling mobile productivity apps
- iPhoto, iMovie also included for free
New Features:
- Siri can search tweets, Wikipedia, inline web & photo search
- New more textured ringtones, improved system alert sounds
- New “share sheet” to share stuff via Twitter or email
- iTunes Radio – 200 new features
iPhone 5c
The first of the new iPhone models, the iPhone 5c is meant to appeal to the young, the budget-conscious, and the fashionable. The screens behind announcer Phil Schiller were full of high-end renders of the beautiful plastic casing, along with the new silicone soft cases, which allow you to create a ton of color combinations, as they let the color of the iPhone 5c through.
Here’s a breakdown of the major features of the new iPhone 5c.
- All the tech of the iPhone 5, but more fun, more colorful
- Green, white, blue, pink, yellow
- Entire back and sides made from one part, no seams or joins
- Hard-coated polycarbonate, steel reinforced, acts as antenna
- 4 inch retina display, integrated touch layer
- 8 megapixel camera, A6 processor, slightly larger battery
- New FaceTime HD camera, larger pixels, improved backside illumination, FaceTime audio
- More LTE bands than any other smartphone – dual band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4GHz and 5GHz
- Custom cases—”soft silicon rubber” that lets you see the original color underneath
- $99 for 16 GB, $199 for 32GB on a two year contract
- $29 for cases
- Pre-orders start Friday, in stores September 20th
iPhone 5s
The big news of the event, obviously, is the flagship iPhone 5s. The technology packed into this metallic-hued powerhouse of a smartphone wowed even the cynics here at Cult of Mac HQ, what with the new LED flash, automatic camera features, high-definition, high-speed video capture, fingerprint sensors, and the like. Schiller spent some time pointing out the technical specs of the iPhone 5s, including the speedy new A7 chip, 64-bit architecture, and the groundbreaking M7 motion chip. All in all, a stellar upgrade to an already fantastic product.
Here are the rest of the details of the iPhone 5s announcements.
- Will come in Space Grey, Gold, Silver
- High grade aluminum with chamfered edges
- Brand new system on a chip–A7–64 bit chip (first ever on a smartphone), will still run older 32-bit apps
- Desktop-class architecture, 2x general purpose registers. Over one billion transistors.
- Seamless developer transition
- Graphics 56x as fast as the iPhone 5, 2 times as fast speed, 40x times as fast CPU
- 10 hours of 3G talk time, 10 hours of LTE browsing, 8 hours of 3g browsing
- $199 for 16G, 32G is $299, 64G is $399
- Arsenic free, mercury free, BFR free, PVC free, highly recyclable
- M7 coprocessor for health and fitness
- On sale Sept 20th in US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom
- 100 countries and 270 carriers by the end of the year
iPhone 5s Camera
The iPhone 5s camera represents the state of the art; if there’s one way in which Apple is king of the market, it’s with its continual improvements to its iPhone camera. This year, we’re seeing bigger pixels, a better lens, and a bigger sensor, in addition to an LED flash that will automatically adjust its color based on the picture you’re taking.
- 5 element, Apple designed lens
- 15% larger active area on sensor
- Bigger pixels – 1.5 microns
- Sets white balance, dynamic local tone map, autofocus with 15 zones
- Takes multiple photos and picks the best
- True tonal flash – combines both flashes for the best color balance
- Auto image stabilization
- HD video – 120 fps, slow motion, 720p
- 28-megapixel panorama, adjust exposure automatically as you pan
Touch ID
Apple’s much-anticipated fingerprint sensor debuted today, as well. Identify yourself via fingerprint to unlock your iPhone 5s, authenticate to iTunes, and probably much, much more in the coming weeks and months. Your iPhone will make sure that you are actually you, all through the magic of your fingerprint.
- A key you have with you everywhere you go
- Capacitive sensor
- 170 microns
- 500 ppi resolution
- Sub-epidermal skin layer recognition
- 360˚ readability
- Built right into the home button
- Laser cut sapphire crystal, stainless steel detection ring, touch ID sensor, tactile switch
- Can use it to authenticate with iTunes Store
- Can recognize multiple fingerprints
- Fingerprints never available to other software, uploaded to Apple’s servers, or backed up to iCloud
Gaming
Infinity Blade III demo onstage
While Apple hasn’t gotten behind gaming in the same way it has, say, photography, it continues to create devices that push the industry forward. Donald Mustard, co-founder of Chair Entertainement, took to the stage to announce the final game in its award-winning trilogy: Infinity Blade III.
- Play as one of two characters
- Big areas to explore – three times the original IB in each of the areas
- 5 times faster than iPhone 5
- Took Epic 2 hours to port to 64-bit
- Serious lens flare
- Demo is real time, nary a lag or stutter
