Picture source: Apple Inc.
Many people were on the edge of their seats waiting for Apple’s big iPhone reveal today as they sat through news of their other updates and apps. All and all I think most people were quite pleased with Apple’s offerings. Here’s a run down of most of the goodies… Prices are U.S. – don’t know how different it’ll be for Canada.
New iOS5 w/ over 200 new features availailable including notifications, iMessage, reminders, Twitter integration, Newsstand, camera, game center, reader, mail, & PC Free, etc.
*Avail Oct 12 as a free update!
New iCloud stores content (music, photos & docs, etc) & pushes it all wirelessly to your devices, it’ll do daily backups of your iOS device, Find My Friends, etc.
*Avail Oct 12 also for free!
iTunes Match, matches all the music you’ve purchased outside of iTunes and scans and matches songs to your iCloud so you can share btwn your iOS devices.
*Avail end of Oct $24.99/year
New ipod Nano updated w/ big icons for the features on it that you can swipe btwn your fingers. Nano will now track walks & runs – plug into your PC to upload your data to Nike+ website and compete w/ friends, has 16 new clock faces if you want to wear on your wrist, etc
*Avail today in 7 colours, 8G $129 & 16G $149
New iPod Touch will run on iOS5. W/ iMessage, you can communicate with other iOS users even though you don’t have a data plan since it’s free and unlimited over Wi-Fi.
*Avail Oct 12 in blk or wht – 8GB $199, 32GB $299, 64GB $399
Now what we’ve all been waiting for (well ok, me at least…): the New iPhone 4S! It’s not a 5 but with all the improvements & changes it may as well be…
-Same shape & form as iPhone 4 w/ glass front & back (reason it’s a 4S, new body=5)
-super fast now with an A5 dual core processor/graphics (the same one used in the iPad 2)
-switches btwn 2 antennas for sending & receiving for better quality and 2x data download speed (basically 4G speeds)
-8hrs 3G talk time, 14hrs 2G talk time, 10hrs video,
-world phone (GSM & CDMA now combined)
-improvements on an already good phone camera – uses the A5 processor (faster), 8mpx (more detail), 5 element lens (sharper image), backside illuminated sensor (brighter) , f/2.4 (more light) , IR filter (better colour)
-1080p HD video w/ image stabilization
-AirPlay streaming to your Apple TV setup or mirroring to TV
-iOS 5
-iCloud
-and the Siri software, the HUGE feature that blew everyone away – best described as an intelligent digital personal assistant (it’s so amazing it needs a separate post but you can see Apple’s intro below) using voice commands in natural English (also in French & German for now) and at the very least Siri can perform dictation. Sorry iPhone 4 & earlier users, Siri is 4S specific so you can’t upgrade to this 🙁
*Pre-orders start Friday Oct 7, available in store Oct 14! (US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany & Japan)
*Blk or wht – 16GB $199, 32GB $299, 64GB $399 (w/ 2yr contracts)
(8GB iphone 4=$99)
(iphone 3GS=free)