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Apple unveiled two new versions of the iPhone with bigger screens, as the company tries to catch up to competitors who have won over consumers increasingly using their phones to display videos and photos. The company has also introduced a new line of watches.
The Tuesday event is being held at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif., where Steve Jobs unveiled the original Macintosh in 1984.
Washington Post technology writers Hayley Tsukayama and Brian Fung will be giving regular updates and analysis from California and Washington.
Apple closes with the announcement that every iTunes customer will get the U2 album for free, if they download it before mid-October. The company has also made a new ad featuring U2.
Cook says that it will sound absolutely great on your iPhone 6.
As usual, Cook is closing with thanks to Apple employees, particularly his top leads, such as Jony Ive and Craig Federighi.
Now I’m headed to the hands-on area to try everything out — Cook promises he won’t use our credit cards.
Apple’s stock is now not even half a percent above where it began today.
Justin Wolfers puts it into perspective:
Market reaction to #AppleLive: Hated it. Not so bad. Love it. Not really. This sucks. Just as we expected. Terrible. pic.twitter.com/KJYMtFyWwa
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) September 9, 2014
In a somewhat painfully scripted conversation, Bono and Tim Cook talked about how U2 could *possibly* distribute their new album, Songs of Innocence.
It’s free on iTunes right now.
It’s called Songs of Innocence, and according to Bono, this is the first time the public has seen it. The album will be available on iTunes for free.
“It’s the largest album release of all time,” said Tim Cook. “All you have to do is click, and you can begin listening.”
This is a limited-time, offer, though — Songs of Innocence will only be available through mid-October.
The rumors were true! U2 is here.
Cook is giving them a long intro, talking up their humanitarian work.
Tim Cook is wrapping up, recapping all the announcements we’ve had today — iPhones, Apple Pay, Apple Watch, etc.
And he’s also talking up the core place that music has in Apple’s culture, as some drums, speakers and mics roll on stage.
The Apple Watch requires the iPhone (any phone from the iPhone 5 on will work) and will start at $349. It won’t be out until early next year, Cook says.
Apple Pay will work with Apple Watch.
Cook is listing more features that they aren’t showing off, such as the ability to control Apple TV, use the device as a walkie-talkie and use it as a viewfinder for your iPhone camera. So we should expect Apple to talk a lot more about this.
You didn’t think they’d forget this, did you? Wearables have seen the most success with fitness apps, and Apple is focusing on two main fitness features: fitness tracking and workout apps.
The watch has a heartbeat sensor and can also measure how many calories you’ve burned with activity that’s at the level of a “brisk walk” or more. It will also suggest fitness goals for users to give people an idea of how they can improve their health.
Still unanswered: how big is the screen, how much does it cost and when will it go on the market?
I’ve already said my piece about the Apple Watch. Other people might be disappointed that the watch didn’t look like any of these gorgeous ideas:
Lynch is showing off the contacts and directions on the watch now, as well as the device-to-device communication technology, which lets users communicate by tapping or drawing on their own wrists and having those messages show up on their friends’ devices.
He also showed off how navigation and mapping will work on the watch, with step-by-step navigation showing up on the screen.
Notifications from third-party apps such as Facebook or Twitter will also show up on the screen. American Airlines has also designed an app that lets users check in to their flights from the watch. Starwood Hotels and Resorts will let you check-in and even unlock your hotel door (starting this spring) by waving your hand over the door.
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
One problem Apple probably didn’t anticipate with its new branding is that some devices just won’t show the Apple logo () represented as a textual character. I joked on Twitter that this fact is going to cause havoc for newspaper style editors, but actually, the choice was fairly easy: We’re just going to start referring to the watch as “Apple Watch” from now own.
Kevin Lynch, who joined Apple from Adobe to be the tech giant’s vice president of technology last year, is on stage to give a live demo of the watch.
Most of it is showing off how smooth the user interface is. You basically use the “digital crown” knob on the side of the watch for most of its controls, combined with tapping on the screen to select items. Users can control things such as music apps from the watch, and can also store music locally.
Lynch also showed off the way that messaging works on the Apple Watch — the watch will pull keywords out of messages you receive to let you reply more quickly, and also supports dictation.
Siri is also a big part of the watch, with the same search capabilities.
This is pretty remarkable. Usually what happens after an event like this is that Apple shares dip temporarily. But that clearly isn’t happening here. Investors are thrilled.
This isn’t just one watch — it’s a whole range. Apple is releasing two sizes of watch, though the company still hasn’t said in how big the screens will be yet.
The Apple Watch has a stainless steel alloy case. The sport version is made of aluminum and is designed to be more resilient and water resistant.
And the Apple “tradition” line has an 18K gold casing.
Still waiting on hearing what the sizes are — and the pricing.
The intense curves on the edges of the Watch bring to mind many of the company’s old iPod designs. See:
Versus:
It’s a step backward from the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 5S, whose designs involved flat sides and 90-degree edges.
Looking to history for inspiration isn’t always a bad thing. But it’s a curious choice.
Rather than just shrinking the interface of the iPhone, Cook said, Apple has thought carefully about how to navigate through the watch without blocking the screen. The company’s solution: the knob — what Apple calls a “digital crown” on the side of the watch, which will let you scroll, zoom, and return to the home screen.
Cook hasn’t said how big the screen on the watch is, but pictures on models show that it still has a fairly large display, though sits close to the wrist. It looks big, but not terribly bulky. The watch will wake up when you raise your wrist, and has a flexible display that can sense force.
In a narrated video, Apple design head Jony Ive is talking up the intimacy of the device, and noting that it’s grounded in design. Apple hasn’t announced what apps are on the Watch yet, but the demo video shows apps such as Yahoo Digest in addition to Apple’s own core messaging, calendar and other apps. Users can also communicate through tactile, haptic feedback, so you can get a friend’s attention by just tapping your screen and making their watch buzz.
With at least two products announced today, Apple seems to be moving away from its old naming conventions. Instead of naming every new thing an iSomething-or-other, Apple has now taken to using its logo as part of the name of things. For instance, most people will call the company’s new payment solution Apple Pay. But Apple’s own marketing displays the name as Pay. Similarly, the new Apple Watch is branded as Watch.
Update Here’s some more Apple-y branding showing off the new style.
Taking a line from Steve Jobs’s script, Cook said that Apple had “one more thing to show off, and it is a watch.
A very shiny watch. That got a full-minute standing ovation.
The square-faced watch comes with a ton of variations on the band style, from candy-color silicone to leather and metal. It’s called the Apple watch — not the iWatch as it has been nicknamed — and Cook says it’s the “most personal” device Apple has ever made.
“We invented new intimate ways to connect and communicate directly from your wrist,” Cook said.
Other launch partners who will incorporate the system into their mobile apps include Target, Uber, Groupon and Open Table. Users will be able to pay for these services with their Apple Pay credentials.
Apple pay launches next month and is a free update in iOS 8. It will be on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus.
It’s hard to look at Apple Pay, the mobile payments system that Apple just unveiled, and not think about all the retail data breaches we’ve heard about this year. Not only is Apple designing a system that gets rid of the need to expose your credit card number, but Apple also nodded at the U.S. government when it said that it won’t ever store any transaction information.
Apple doesn’t know where you purchase things, what you buy, or how much you pay. Transactions are between customer and bank.
— MacRumorsLive (@macrumorslive) September 9, 2014
Eddy Cue, VP of iTunes and cloud services, is on stage to talk about the technology behind the new payment system.
Users can add cards from their iTunes accounts — or whatever they have on file with Apple already for store purchases. Users can also just take a picture of their cards, which sends the information off for authorization and then adds it to your mobile wallet.
Worried about security? Cue says that the card numbers are never stored or shared with others — it only is stored on the device, with a one-time account number for each transaction.
“If your iPhone is lost or stolen, you can use Find my iPhone” and wipe out the card on the device, he said. And, because the number itself is not on the device, you shouldn’t have to cancel your cards, Cue says.
Launch partners include Whole Foods, Subway, McDonalds (including drive-thru), and Disney stores and Disneyworld, by Christmas. Oh, and Apple stores, of course.
(Hayley Tsukayama / The Washington Post)
Apple’s new iPhone 6 starts at $199 and its larger sibling, the iPhone 6 Plus, starts at $299. Those prices prompted me to look back at how much the original iPhone cost, back in the day.
In 2007, Apple set the price for the 8GB iPhone at $599 and the 4GB iPhone at $499. Apple later lowered the price of the 8GB iPhone to $399.
Of course, carrier subsidies help a lot with the price. But it’s still remarkable to see the changes in price over time, particularly as technology has improved.
“We’ve created an entirely new payment process,” Cook said.
Now back on stage, Cook says it’s time to fix the wallet, running through what he calls a “fairly antiquated payment process.” Instead, Apple Pay is a tap to pay service that works with the Touch ID fingerprint software to authenticate payments.
They’re sending up the way normal payments work, but noting just how many steps it takes to complete a normal transaction, from getting a card out of your wallet to getting ID, etc.
Cook points out that the magnetic strip and “security code” system is out of date, but notes that mobile payments have never managed to get off the ground. Cook says that’s because those who’ve tackled it in the past have only been looking after their own interests and not the consumers’ experience.
With all of those upgrades, Apple has still kept its original price of $199 for the 16 GB phone. But it’s also made the 64 GB version the mid-line model at $299. And Apple’s also added a new memory configuration, 128 GB, for $399.
The iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299, with a 64 GB at $399 and the new 128 GB configuration at $499.
Pre-orders start on Sept. 12; the phone will ship Sept. 19. The new iOS mobile operating system will be available for download on Sept. 17.
Apple’s video software has added the ability to take super-slow motion shots — 120 or 240 frames per second — and the iPhone camera has also added better video stabilization for video. The demo showed off a person shooting video from a bike–and the footage was rock steady.
Apple’s also improved the front-facing camera with what it calls the “FaceTime” camera, which will take burst shots, have better recognition, and will do single-shot HD.
If Jobs were still around, there would be heads on pikes in the background by now. #AppleEvent #Livestream
— Wayne Loftus (@wayne_loftus) September 9, 2014
Apple is getting on board with WiFi calling and Voice over LTE — giving us the ability to make phone calls even if you can’t get a cell signal. This is a next-gen technology that we’ve written about before. Here’s why WiFi calling is a big deal: It gives new entrants to the wireless space the ability to compete with much larger cellular providers without having to pay for expensive infrastructure like cell towers.
Schiller says that the LTE is faster on the new phones, and that they will also support “voLTE,” the latest in cellular network technology. WiFi has also gotten a speed boost.
The phones will also have WiFi calling, and Schiller said the transition between cellular and WiFi networks will be seamless. The feature won’t be available to everyone right away — T-Mobile is the first U.S. carrier to work on this, Schiller says.
As for cameras, the phones will have an 8MP iSight rear-facing cameras, with software designed to let users focus more quickly on the things they want to snap with their phones. Schiller also promises better noise filtering on photos and better facial recognition.
Both new phones have those features. The iPhone 6 Plus will also have optical image stabilization, for super-steady photos.
Schiller is back on stage, and says that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus have equal or better battery life than the iPhone 5 by every metric. That’s good, because the battery life was one of the chief complaints Apple faced with the iPhone 5, and losing any minutes there would have been bad for the firm.
The new phones also have a new motion-sensing chip — the M8 — which can not only track steps but also look at height. So you get credit for all those stairs you’re climbing.
Stephan Sherman, co-founder and chief creative officer of the game studio Super Evil Megacorp, is on stage to show off the Apple iPhone’s processing power and new graphics. Sherman is showing off Vain Glory, a real-time battling app.
Sherman says that he thinks the graphics on this iPhon rival PCs and consoles — the live demo on stage certainly backs that claim up.
Apple has done a lot to make its product launches more accessible over the years. It’s finally gotten on board with livestreaming its events, for example (the glitches today notwithstanding).
So it’s not a total surprise to find out that Apple has also taken a page from the tech press itself: The company is running its own liveblog alongside the streaming video. The blog has high-quality photos that rival the pictures that journalists are taking inside the conference center, key tech specs and facts about Apple’s new devices and even a little blue circular icon at the top of the screen that tells you how many posts you’re missing.
Maybe this is why Apple’s video feed is so terrible. They’d probably just rather you watch their liveblog.
The display means that Apple has the option of playing around with its layouts, offering users the ability to use horizontal, iPad-like displays for Apple’s Mail, and homescreen. To get around the tricky design problem of, well, thumbs, Apple is offering a feature that lets you slide your display down to the bottom of your screen so you can reach everything.
The new phones also have a new A8 chip, which Apple says is is 13 percent smaller and has up to 25 percent better performance. Schiller says that it’s up to 84 times faster at processing graphics than the original iPhone.
Cook dispenses with a lot of the intro and does, as promised, jump right into introducing the iPhone 6 with a 4.7 inch screen and iPhone 6 Plus with a 5.7 inch screen.
Apple’s VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller is on stage to introduce the phones, noting that the new phones have what’s called a “Retina HD” display. The iPhone 6 has 1 million pixels, while the iPhone 6 Plus has over 2 million. Both are thinner than any phone Apple has ever made.
Apple’s livestream has begun, but many users (including me) are reporting hearing an interpreter translating chief executive Tim Cook’s comments into Chinese.
@apple why the chinese on my live stream.????? bit of a disaster..
— John Renfrew (@att_it_ude) September 9, 2014
Oops.
“It is great to be back in the Flint Center,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook says, noting that Steve Jobs introduced the Mac and the iMac to the world. “Today, we have some amazing products to show you and we think at the end of the day that you will agree that this to is a very big day for Apple.”
Cook says he’s going to dive right in, skipping the normal updates to say, “I’m just going to tell you: everything’s great.”
As we’re waiting for this event to kick off, here’s a fun tidbit to chew on. U2, which collaborated with Apple on the launch of a special-edition iPod in 2004, could be coming back to play a song or two today. The New York Times reports that U2 may even announce some kind of integration with Apple products, though the precise nature of that partnership is still unclear.
The lights are down and Apple is kicking things off with one of its normal videos touting its values — in this particular case calling to the part of Apple’s DNA that always looks for new solutions to life’s problems.
“Different” and “differently” feature prominently in the video, and Apple says that will be the “one thing about us that will always be the same.
Apple’s filling every seat in this 2,400 seat auditorium, with media, analysts and special guests. The mainstage has the Apple logo, but no pedestals or screens to give away a hint of what’s to come.
As is customary for Apple — and most tech events — the auditorium is blasting with music as folks file in. People are clearly excited.
Apple’s holding its launch event at the Flint Center, an auditorium on the campus of De Anza College. The auditorium, not far from Apple’s main campus, has played a key role in Apple’s past: the 2,400 seat auditorium is where Jobs launched both the original Mac and the iMac.
For this event Apple’s added a new building to the college’s red-tiled roofs — a roughly three-story, white boxy structure next to the Flint Center, which the company is likely to use as a showroom for the products it wants to show off today.
Security is really tight today — there are staff members everywhere, probably every few hundred feet — sporting De Anza- burgundy t-shirts rather than the normal Apple t-shirts we see on event staff. They’re directing people to the courtyard outside the Flint Center and near the huge white box, where Apple is serving breakfast wraps and coffee.
There is also at least one helicopter circling overhead.
Apple has not actually confirmed it’s launching a new iPhone, but analysts think the phone will have a larger screen and may come in two models. One is expected to have a 4.7-inch screen, while the other could be as large as 5.5 inches. Apple has lagged behind competitors such as Samsung in offering these larger screen sizes, which have become more popular as people watch more streaming videos on their phones.
(Graphic by Darla Cameron)
