Apple’s iPhone and wearables event liveblog!

September is a month synonymous with the beginning of autumn, but it’s also become associated with something else entirely: The iPhone. Today, we’re in attendance at the Flint Center in Cupertino to hear about the latest products and updates from Apple, and we’re expecting at least four new devices (two iPhones and two wearables). Join us at this space beginning at 1pm ET on September 9th, because we’ll be liveblogging the event and bringing you the latest updates as it happens. Should be a long and intense event, so make sure you bookmark this page and come back for it all!

Filed under: Announcements, Mobile, Apple

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Meet the iPhone 6 Plus and its 5.5-inch, 1080p Retina Display HD

Well folks, the time for wild-eyed rumors and clandestine reports is finally over – Apple CEO Tim Cook just officially revealed the hefty new iPhone 6 Plus and its 5.5-inch screen in Cupertino alongside a long-rumored (and handier) 4.7-inch model. This thing won’t seem all that foreign if you frequent the geekier corners of the web, but it’s a sure sign that Apple wants to give all those other pocket-stretching phablets out there a run for their metaphorical money. The company’s live press event still chugging along (with a sketchy stream, no less), but here’s what we know so far.

There’s no two ways about it: the star of the show here is the spacious 5.5-inch 1080p Retina Display HD riding up front – to hear Apple’s Phil Schiller tell it, it’s SRGB-accurate, has an ultrathin backlight, photo-aligned IPS liquid crystals, an improved polarizer, and ion-strengthened glass. More importantly (and at long last!), the screen runs at 1080p.

You won’t notice any dramatic design differences between this model and its little brother – it’s still dramatically thinner than the iPhones that came before it (the Plus comes in at 7.1mm thick, and the angular edges of the 5s have given way to a smoother, rounder look in line with the company’s most recent batch of iPads. Remember all those leaks? They absolutely nailed it, and the end result looks, well, really comfortable to latch onto. Also new is Apple’s snappy new 64-bit A8 chipset – Schiller says it’s 50 percent more energy efficient (not to mention a hair smaller) than the the A7 that graced earlier models, and about 25 percent more powerful to boot.

Apple’s iOS 8 got the grand unveiling treatment back at WWDC, but (to no one’s surprise) it packs a few extra features to help it feel more at home on bigger screens. Perhaps the biggest is the inclusion of a two-paned landscape mode which makes the whole thing feel a little more like a tiny iPad than an upscaled iPhone. If you give the TouchID button (yeah, you’re not escaping those sensors), you’ll also invoke a one-handed mode that moves everything down to the lower half of the display for easy access — great if you’ve got some short thumbs.

This is a developing story, please refresh for updates.

Filed under: Mobile

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Apple unveils the 4.7-inch iPhone 6

You were expecting it, and here it is: Apple has unveiled the 4.7-inch iPhone 6. As the leaks suggested, it centers around a 1,334 x 750 Retina Display HD and is decidedly slimmer (not to mention curvier) than its already svelte 5s predecessor, at 6.9mm thick. It’s not all about looks, though. The new handset is also running a beefier A8 chip that’s claimed to be about 25 percent faster than the A7 you saw the last time around, even as it’s up to 50 percent more efficient — important in a device this thin.

Developing…

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Live Coverage of Apple’s September 2014 iPhone and iWatch Event

Apple’s highly anticipated September media event is being held today at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino, the site of the unveiling of the original Macintosh and iMac.

Photo via TouchArcade
The event begins at 10:00 AM Pacific Time / 1:00 PM Eastern Time, and Apple is expected to unveil several new products including the iPhone 6 and an “iWatch” wearable device.

Apple will be providing a live video stream on its website for Mac and iOS users and via Apple TV, and the company is also sharing some photos and live blog updates on its event page.

Live Video Stream of Apple’s September 2014 iPhone 6 and iWatch Media Event

In addition, we will be updating this article with summary coverage and issuing Twitter updates through our @MacRumorsLive account as the event unfolds. Separate news stories regarding the event announcements will go out through our @MacRumors account.

Apple’s online stores around the world are currently down in advance of the event.

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Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the Selfie Brush

Imagine waking up one day, wondering what you’d have done with your life if you hadn’t listened to your parents and gone into the family hairbrush business. “Everyone needs hairbrushes,” they said, waggling a warning finger at your infant face, “it’s a stable job, and it’s not as if you’re going to be a Hollywood actor, eh?” they’d add. The only downside to this, of course, is that every day of your life is the same because, after all, every hairbrush that could have been invented has already been invented.

Then, one day you listen to the song Selfie by The Chainsmokers, and all of a sudden a bolt of inspiration hits you. Selfies are, by their very nature, an act of vanity, so why wouldn’t people want to fix their hair before immortalizing themselves on Instagram? Furiously, you run downstairs to your basement design lab and, after a month of sleepless nights, using a coffee can as an impromptu latrine and emaciated from a lack of food, you emerge with the Selfie Brush.

Retailing for $20, the Selfie Brush is an iPhone case with a difference, because it’s also, you know, a brush. On one side, there’s the bristles, and on the other, a sleeve that’ll accept your smartphone so that when it comes time to take a picture, you can ensure that your hair is perfectly de-touseled. There’s even a mirror that runs down the side of the iPhone slot that you can use, assuming that the preview window on the device itself is somehow not to your taste.

You know what? I’m done. I’m just done.

Filed under: Cellphones, Apple

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Via: Mashable

Source: Selfie Brush

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Working next-gen iPhone reportedly spotted with payment support built-in

We’ve seen way, way too many leaks of the next iPhone’s design, but none of them have showing a truly functional device — until today, apparently. With the help of cnBeta, Chinese leaker zzray has posted photos and video that reportedly show off a fully functional 4.7-inch iPhone. On the surface, it’s exactly what you’d expect: it’s the iPhone 5s on a grander scale, with more real estate for icons and other content.

Look closely, however, and you’ll see hints of something more under the hood. Notice that new Passbook icon? A new stripe in the icon shows a credit card, supporting claims that the new iPhone will include a mobile payment system (and thus NFC). It’s hard to say for sure that this is exactly what you’ll see when Tim Cook and crew take to the stage on September 9th — this could still be pre-production hardware or an extraordinarily clever knockoff — but it at least seems to represent the real deal.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Via: MacRumors

Source: cnBeta (translated), zzray (Weibo, translated)

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What to expect when you’re expecting an iPhone 6 (or iWatch)

Look, going off the sheer number of leaks we’ve seen the past few months, there’s no way you didn’t know Apple was planning to unveil a horde of new gadgets next week. Hell, the folks in Cupertino are even counting down to the event (and the livestream that goes with it) on Apple.com. If all those rumors and reports hold true, two iPhones and two wearables will take the stage next week, so let’s take a moment and dissect what we know (and what we think we know) about Apple’s newest batch of gear.

Two new iPhones in 2014

In a concession to how people’s smartphone tastes have shifted, Apple’s been working on not one, but two iPhones: a 4.7-inch version and an awfully phablet-esque 5.5-inch model for those who think iOS 8 really needs some room to breathe. Debates have raged over whether Apple will cover those displays in ultra-durable sapphire crystal (no more battered screens!), but KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts the company won’t take the plunge — instead saying they’ll offer 128GB versions of the new iPhone instead. Naturally, our fingers are crossed for both. The New York Times also points out that iOS 8 will include a one-hand mode for folks who can’t quite wrap their mitts around these bigger phones.

Look beyond those screens and you’ll notice a completely different body — the last time Apple revamped the iPhone’s look this dramatically, we got the angular iPhone 4. Time almost seems to be running in reverse, as leaked component photos and videos point to a thinner, rounder unibody aluminum affair that’s actually very evocative of the original iPhone. One of the possible side effects of that slimdown is a sleep/wake button that now lives on the phone’s right edge and a camera pod that juts out slightly. Speaking of, we’re not quite sure how robust those shooters are (most guesses are either eight or 13 megapixels), but yet another component leak may confirm that the 5.5-inch iPhone has optical image stabilization. Many of the most compelling images of the new iPhones (or what we think are the new iPhones) have come from longtime leaker Sonny Dickson and a high-end Russian accessory maker called Feld & Volk. Meanwhile, some new Russian leakers have apparently slapped some Apple bits and bobs together to give us what may be the closest thing to the official iPhone 6 we’ve seen so far.

So yes, dramatic redesign. Fine — how about what’s inside? There isn’t much known about the iPhone’s new 64-bit A8 processor, but a little sleuthing by MacRumors suggests that it might come paired with 1GB of RAM (just like the 5s before it). Yet more poking around with components revealed that 16GB of storage is still the baseline (well, for the 4.7-inch model, anyway). Oh, and both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have said the new iPhones will come with NFC chips that are meant to work with a new payments system Apple has been slaving away on. That’s, well, huge. Thanks to iTunes, Apple is sitting on top of a seriously silly amount of people’s payment information — turning your iPhone into your wallet (CNET lays out a few interesting possibilities) might wind up being one of the most lucrative things Apple could do.

So, when can you get these things? The ceaseless whispers from the rumor mill says they should officially launch a few weeks after the event, and many expect the 4.7-inch version to start at the usual $199 with a contract. That means — you guessed it — the bigger version would probably start at around $299 on-contract and the 5s would assuredly slide down the price scale to $99.

The iWatch cometh

Prognosticators have been calling for an Apple smartwatch since smartwatches became a thing, and it looks like they’re finally getting their wish. Apple’s expected to pull back the curtain on its first wearable next week too — we just hope it isn’t actually called the iWatch. What do we actually know about the thing? Not a ton, but still more than you might think.

For a company and gadget types that are so prone to causing leak-y hysteria, it’s sort of a shock that we still don’t know what the thing’ll look like (all of the images in this story are renders, natch). The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal just published two of the most detailed peeks at Apple’s wearable we’ve seen yet, and they point to the existence of two differently sized watches with curved (and maybe even flexible) OLED screens coated in sapphire glass. Last time that “two model” rumor made the rounds, Business Insider guessed that Apple was working on distinct versions for men and women, but it’s also possible we’re just looking at two different form factors à la the traditional Samsung Gear and the bracelet-y Gear Fit. Either way, we’ve already seen style play a big part in people’s smartwatch preferences. Remember Google I/O? Attendees were given both Samsung’s and LG’s Android Wear watches, but an audible groan ran through the crowd when they realized they wouldn’t get the utterly handsome Moto 360.

Thankfully, we’ve got a slightly better sense of what the watch will actually do. You can bet Apple’s watch will deliver email, message and app notifications to your wrist, and the Times adds you’ll be able to view maps on it as well. We know that Siri is getting smarter (behind closed doors, anyway), and she may play a role in how apps are displayed on devices with limited screen sizes. Sound familiar? Then there’s the wellness angle. Apple’s making a big mobile health push in the form of HealthKit for iOS 8, and its watch would be the perfect tool to collect some of that data on the fly. All told, the Journal says there will be more than 10 sensors nestled in the watch to help keep tabs on your body — expect mundane components like accelerometers mixed in with more exotic fare. Sweat sensors, anyone? (Fine, maybe not). As it turns out, the watch could tie into the new payments platform Apple has been tinkering with thanks to a built-in NFC chip, so it’s possible you’ll be able to pay for your morning coffee with a tap of your wrist soon enough. Oh, and when it comes time to give the thing some juice? Apple is notorious for being all about appearances, which lends credence to the reports that they’ve eschewed icky cables in favor of a wireless charging system.

For all the uncertainty surrounding the wearable, one thing seems clear — Apple’s probably going to sell a stupid number of them. Better start scrimping now: A report from Re/code (which accurately pinpointed the event’s date in advance) suggests that Apple’s wearable won’t actually start shipping until early next year, and Apple brass has at least talked about selling it for $400.

Filed under: Mobile

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China Telecom Launches Preorder Page With Fictional iPhone 6 Claims, Rendered Images

Following in the footsteps of China Mobile, Chinese carrier China Telecom has also begun taking preorders for the iPhone 6 ahead of the device’s official launch in order to drum up interest with customers. As noted by TechCrunch, the site has a preorder page that sports rendered images of the iPhone 6, along with several suspect specifics about the device that have undoubtedly come from unconfirmed rumors.

The preorder page depicts the 4.7-inch iPhone, which China Telecom suggests has a pixel density of 416, which would be in line with a 1704 x 960 resolution. While that resolution has been rumored for the iPhone 6, recent images of a supposedly functional device have leaned towards a 1334 x 750 resolution with a 326 ppi first proposed by Apple pundit John Gruber.

An A8 processor and a Touch ID fingerprint sensor are highlighted in the image, which are two likely inclusions for the iPhone 6, but the image also points towards a 2,100 mAh battery. While that capacity has been rumored, there have also been several photos of an 1,810 mAh battery bearing an Apple logo and regulatory text. Finally, China Telecom’s image suggest a 3-megapixel front-facing camera, another unsubstantiated rumor.

According to TechCrunch, the graphic originally included a non-blurred version of the word “iPhone”, but it was later updated by China Telecom, likely at Apple’s request.

Earlier this week, China Mobile began accepting preorders for the iPhone 6 and garnered more than 33,000 orders in just hours, pointing towards strong interest in the iPhone 6. Analyst predictions have suggested the iPhone 6 launch could bring a in more upgraders and Android switchers than normal, due to its larger display and redesigned body.

Apple is expected to introduce the iPhone 6 at a September 9 media event, which is now just under four days away. Rumors and part leaks have suggested the device will have an A8 processor, NFC support, and an upgraded camera. It’s expected in two sizes — 4.7 and 5.5 inches — but it is unknown if both versions of the phone will ship to consumers at the same time due to production difficulties with the larger model.

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