So much seems to have leaked in the last couple of months - bigger screen, name of the phone (iPhone 5), new dock connector - that it feels as though the only things that we've yet to find out are the price. And... the "something special", which last year was "Siri", the voice assistant, which many people have put down but is likely to be an increasingly important feature in the future.
So without further suspense here it is:
First: "the thinnest and lightest phone Apple's ever made, 7.6mm thin, 112g so 20% lighter, smaller volume.Phil Schiller quoted "This is the monumental challenge.. have everything the iPhone 4S has even before new features. It's really easy to make a product that's bigger, everyone does that."
"Made entirely of glass and aluminium, unlike anything we or anyone in our industry has made before. Hardware and software engineering is the most challenging our team has ever taken on."
Performance claims
So according to Apple, the iPhone 5 will achieve:
• 225 hours standby
• 40 hours music playback
• 10 hours LTE use (4G when it becomes available in the UK)
• 10 hours video
• 8 hours 3G
• 8 hours Wi-Fi
Those aren't much shifted from the 4S, though the LTE/4G figure is surprisingly high.
As for the camera, there'll be an A6 chip used to process images, and a "smart filter" which looks at the image and figures out where areas should be coloured (sky) or textured. "Faster photo capture, now 40% faster".
Panoramic images... Apple claims that the Panoramic shots will be at the range of 28 megapixel stitching. (This is in the Samsung Galaxy S3 range and the new Nokia Lumia range - will be interesting to see the comparisons.
Photos while recording. The back camera takes 1080 pixel images, and can take photos while recording video. The front does the same but at 720p. This is all feature-competitive with the Samsung top end, but makes it hard for the Nokia Lumia to compare.
Time to connect
OK, now let's kill the connector. "So many things we used to do over the wire we now do wirelessly. We use Bluetooth … Wi-Fi for our stereo … iTunes … it's time for the connector to evolve."
New connector is called "Lightning … so we have Thunderbolt and Lightning". Hurrah for puns. 80% smaller, reversible, "easier to use". Bose already doing it, as are B&W, JBL and Bang & Olufsen.
"But what about all the connectors you have now?" There's a 30-pin-to-Lightning adaptor. Slightly chunky-looking but, OK, (Sold separately of course)
Siri
Siri can now do sports (or at least American sports - can it do British ones?)
Now if you ask Siri "what's the best..." it replies "that's a very subjective question..."
Or: "find a reservation for four for sushi at eight o'clock". That's pretty awesome, integrated with the OpenTable app. (In the US, unclear if it's in the UK too.)
The iPhone 5 will come in black and white, just like the old ones.
Apple didn't just want to make a new phone, they wanted to make a much better phone.
Apple claim "You'll experience a big increase in speed in everything you use the iPhone for ... especially for graphics-intensive apps," Maybe that is going to be a main point the iPhone 5 will be sold on and that it'll have a bigger screen and be faster.
Headphones
Apple has spent three years designing an entirely new headphone. They call them... headpods. They look unlike any headphone you've ever seen before.
Apple claim these headphones reduce the amount of lost sound compared to its predecessor.
The new EarPods will come with the new iPod Touch, iPod nano and, of course, the iPhone 5.
They're also available in Product Red, where a portion of the profits goes to fight AIDS in Africa. Over $50m has been donated so far.
So.........Finally
Price
"Just two questions left: how much do I have to spend?"
The same prices as for the 4S last year: $199 (16GB), $299 (32GB), $399 (64GB).
UK prices will no doubt be the currency equivalent.
"When can I get my hands on one?
You can pre-order on September 21st
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