Every major iPhone announcement is accompanied with a new iPod touch announcement, and this year is no different. There’s a new iPod touch, a new iPod nano and a new iPod shuffle.

Apple’s starting with a new iPod nano, which they want to reinvent.

“First we want to give it a large display. Give it nice controls. Make it thin and light. And of course, the Lightning connector,” says Eddy Cue.

The new nano isn’t a watch anymore, it looks more like the previous generations: a longer, thinner touchscreen iPod. It’s 5.4mm and 38% thinner.

It has controls on the side, and an iPhone/iPod touch style home button. It also gets Bluetooth and an FM tuner, which are pretty awesome upgrades.

No price or availability yet.

Image: The Verge

Apple just announced when iOS 6 is coming out, and it’s sooner than the iPhone 5: it’ll show up on September 19th.

It will support the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, new iPad, iPad 2 and iPod touch.

If September 19th’s launch day, the GM has to be coming out today. Stay tuned to Cult of Mac: when it’s here, we’ll let you know.

Image: The Verge

This seems new: Apple just announced that in iOS 6, you’ll be able to share photos through Photo Stream with friends, and when you share, you can comment on the photos, have your friends comment on photos and even like photos, with all changes pushed to you by notification. It looks like Facebook integration into Photo Stream, but Apple’s not calling it that. Is this Apple getting into the photography social networking game?

Also, Apple’s right. Alex Heath is a slob. Someone get that poor hobo a clean shirt.

Image: The Verge

One of the biggest upgrades to the iPhone 5, though, is the new 8-pin dock connector. It’s called Lightning, and its going to throw third party accessory makers into havok.

Following the announcement that the iPhone 5 features LTE networking, Apple’s Phil Schiller unveiled the phone’s new A6 processor. According to Schiller, the A6 chip is 2x faster than the previous A5 in both CPU and GPU computing.

“It’s a huge jump in performance, but 22% smaller,” noted Schiller.

Per tradition, Apple invited EA onstage to demo the upcoming Real Racing 3 game on the iPhone 5’s A6 chip. EA explained how the A6 allows for “”full console quality” gaming on a mobile device.

Image: The Verge

The iPhone 5 doesn’t just have a lighter, thinner construction, though. As rumored, it also has “ultrafast wireless.” Yep, that means LTE.

“We have some very exciting news to tell you about the iPhone,” Tim Cook says. And now Phil Schiller’s up.

“I think Time Magazine said it best ‘it is the phone that has changed phones forever’ and boy were they right,” says Schiller. Every year they raise the bar. Here comes a hole new bar.

“Today we’re introducing the iPhone 5.” The iPhone 5 rises from a pedestal in front of the audience. Holy crap.

Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage at today’s iPhone event and opened with an update on the company’s retail presence. Cook started by showing off Apple’s new Barcelona store and playing a video of the store’s launch.

Apple now has 380 retail stores in 12 countries. The company’s first Swedish store will open on Friday, September 14th. 83 million visitors walked through Apple’s retail stores last year, making the Cupertino company one of the most successful consumer electronics retail chains in history. “Apple stores offer the best buying experience and customer service on the planet,” exclaimed Cook.

While Apple retail is definitely a force to be reckoned with, the company’s digital downloads are also setting the industry standard. Apple customers have downloaded 7 million copies of Mountain Lion since its launch in July, according to Cook. That figure makes Mountain Lion the fastest selling OS X release in history.

Image: The Verge

Apple’s beloved digital assistant is up to no good again. Nick Bilton of The New York Times tweeted a fun screenshot just moments ago. When asked about the iPhone 5, Siri redirects to Apple’s “fabulous website” for more information. As we already told you, Apple’s online search engine leaked the iPhone 5 earlier today.

Less than an hour until the keynote starts!

Source: @nickbilton

If it weren’t for the fact that we’ve seen a ridiculous amount of Apple fanboy tattoos, I wouldn’t think this image is that funny. But someone, somewhere, might possibily have this same tattoo conundrum everytime Apple releases a new iPhone.

Source: App Advice