TUAW meta-liveblog of the Apple "Let's talk iPhone' event
The wait is over. Today we'll all find out what new device(s) Apple has ready to go. Whether it's one or two new iPhones -- an iPhone 4S, an iPhone 5, or both -- we're ready for our questions to be answered during today's presentation.
Want to chat before, during, or after the event? Join #tuaw on irc.freenode.net
As usual, TUAW is providing commentary on the announcements through our meta-liveblog. We're sorry to say that the page does not auto-refresh, so please use Command-R or your refresh button to bring up new content regularly.
12:41PM Cheers, and have a great day!
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12:40PM We know there are lots and lots of other blogs out there, so it makes it even more important to us that you stopped by ours.
12:40PM TUAW wants to thank you for stopping by our metaliveblog today
12:39PM And it looks like we're done here.
12:39PM Rich: "Launch countries: US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, Japan. 22 more countries get it on the 28th, 70 countries by the end of the year. Meanwhile Amazon can't ship the Kindle Fire outside the US. Rollouts that fast are hard and Apple deserves praise."
12:38PM Cook: "Thank you very much". And the event is done.
12:38PM Summing up all the features: Cook says, (via gdgt) "when you look at each of these, they're great, fantastic, and industry-leading. But what sets them apart and puts them way out front is how they work together so well."
12:38PM (Yet is our commentary, not what Cook said.)
12:37PM iPhone 4S: Most amazing iPhone ever. Yet.
12:37PM So now reviewing today's announcements.
12:37PM Rich: "3GS still being around means devs (esp game devs) will have to work a little harder to maintain compatibility."
12:37PM And Tim Cook is back up. Bye, Uncle Phil!
12:37PM "Fastest rollout ever."
12:36PM Canada. US. Australia. UK. France. Germany. Japan.
12:36PM Preorders on 7 October. Launching on the 14th.
12:36PM SPRINT!
12:36PM Plus, what about Sprint?
12:35PM What about out-of-contract-pricing, Phil?
12:35PM With contract, of course.
12:35PM 3GS free.
12:35PM iPhone 4 to be issued in black and white for just $99
12:35PM That's the iPhone 4S. In Black. In White. 16 GB $199. 32 GB $299. 64 GB $399.
12:34PM The lens layout is really spiffy. Let me grab you a screen shot.
12:34PM Engadget: "By the way, the antenna design looks like the current Verizon version, with the same basic groove placement."
12:33PM Video is showing off the camera now.
12:33PM I'm betting they'll be compatible. Especially my $1.98 TPU case from eBay.
12:33PM Engadget are showing close-ups of the 4S hardware. It looks identical to the 4 - I wonder if cases will be compatible between the two, or if there'll be some tiny change (like the mute switch moving on the Verizon model).
12:33PM A lot of great features in this new device. I'm happy about the "worldphone" aspect, but still waiting to hear about whether they'll sell contract-free from day one.
12:32PM If that's not Star Trek come to life, we don't know what is. And you don't have to tap your chest either. Maybe your earpiece, but not your chest.
12:32PM Siri lets you dictate to your pocket.
12:32PM "You can do work, even when working out."
12:31PM Demo video continues, showing many of the same features just demo'ed
12:31PM Of course, if there's no iPhone 5, I also win the Talkcast bet from last Sunday.
12:30PM Rich wins.
12:30PM Rich reads engadget: "It's similar to Android, in that it's happening remotely" and adds: "OH HO DID MY SPECULATION JUST COME GOOD" (we were discussing this this morning, and I was saying, no it all had to be local.) But apparently it does it over Wi-Fi and 3G, with Data Center support.
12:29PM A5 + new antenna system, new optics, HD videos, Siri.
12:29PM Demo video time now wrapping up the iPhone 4S.
12:29PM Use dictation anywhere.
12:28PM Siri does natural language, conversation, it's contextual and personal, and works with built-in apps
12:28PM Whenever you see a Microphone, you can use the dictation feature.
12:28PM "That is the coolest feature of the iPhone 4S"
12:28PM Uncle Phil is back, "Thank you, Scott."
12:27PM And Forstall has left the stage.
12:27PM Engadget: "Scott asks "Who are you?" Siri says "I am a humble personal assistant." Humble for now, maybe. That round of applause might change things."
12:27PM We're guessing right now that there won't be Siri APIs for devs, but we should find out later today.
12:26PM If anyone is wondering how the demo knew who the wife was, I'm guessing it's Address Book/Contacts relationships. They've been in there for years but haven't been used much, especially on iOS.
12:26PM "Get shopping then." Siri won't do that for you.
12:25PM "How long until Christmas?" 82 days.
12:25PM We rofl at that.
12:25PM @davezatz on twitter: "Hey Siri, where's the iPhone 5?"
12:25PM Rich: "depends if Siri can understand calculus!"
12:24PM Currency conversion too -- although I highly recommend you double check that Siri understood the units you spoke.
12:24PM Instant Wikipedia *and* Wolfram Alpha searches by voice.
12:24PM And they DO!
12:23PM We'd love to see Siri hit up Wolfram Alpha to solve spoken equations.
12:23PM Want to define a word? Just ask Siri. Of course, this assumes you can pronounce the word to begin with.
12:23PM "Search Wikipedia for Neil Armstrong". It does that too.
12:23PM Forstall: "Remind me to call my wife when I leave work". Siri asks to confirm and then sets the reminder for you. Siri understands who his wife is, and sets up a geo-fence around work, to notify Forstall as he leaves the office.
12:22PM Siri can create reminders too.
12:21PM C'mon. That's really nifty. Admit it.
12:21PM With iCal integration
12:21PM And help set up your appointments
12:20PM Siri will read your messages for you.
12:20PM Rich: "I'd like to know what happens if I turn Siri on and my friends shout out DELETE ALL CONTACTS in the background."
12:20PM You can "reply" or "read it" again
12:20PM If you're wearing a bluetooth headset, you can interact with the text messages you receive while the phone is in your pocket.
12:19PM (Again, all images are courtesy of Engadget. Thank you Engadget!)
12:18PM We're now about at minute 68 of the presentation. My guess is there's not much more to intro, and we'll be wrapping up on the half hour.
12:17PM That's so cool.
12:17PM "What's the hourly forecast", again Siri replies appropriately. Plus it shows a bubble-cast of the conversation.
12:17PM Plus, hopefully this will work better for women's voices too. Me on iPhone 4: "Play me songs by the Offspring." My iPhone: "Playing songs by...Justin Bieber." Me: "Nooooooo!"
12:16PM Rich: "Demos won't sell me on Assistant. I need to see it work in real-world situations and pitted against my Welsh accent."
12:16PM gdgt: ""What's the weather like today?" Siri gives the forecast. Big applause."
12:15PM Scott Forstall is back, about to demo the Siri-inspired voice features. Just hold down the home button and Siri will listen.
12:15PM Us: "Hey, iPhone, dude, where's our car?" iPhone: "I was not designed for that eventuality"
12:14PM Siri, people! This is going to be so very cool!
12:14PM Engadget: "Phil's wishing that devices could really understand you, that you didn't have to use a restricted lingo when asking for music or searching for directions."
12:14PM Voice.
12:14PM Now the good bit.
12:13PM Summing up the iPhone 4S: 8MP, 1080p, wireless mirroring, iOS 5, etc.
12:13PM (No, it's not legal in NY either.)
12:13PM I have been using AirPlay mirroring for a few months now, and if it were legal in Colorado, I'd marry it. Until now, only available on iPad 2, but now on iPhone 4S and you're going to *love* it. Reason enough to buy an Apple TV 2.
12:12PM AirPlay Mirroring
12:12PM Engadget: "To many customers this will be the best still camera they've ever owned and the best video cameras they've ever owned."
12:11PM iPhone 4S also claims 0.5s shot-to-shot time. That's impressive, very impressive.
12:11PM Demo time.
12:11PM My credit card is even now sobbing to be let out of my wallet.
12:11PM That's...awesome. I'm very impressed.
12:10PM Real time temporal noise reduction
12:10PM Real time image stabilization (not kidding here)
12:10PM That's pretty high quality.
12:10PM Stunning 1080p video.
12:09PM Next: Video recording
12:09PM Showing a picture of a squirrel. "Do you know how hard it is to make a squirrel stay still?"
12:09PM Because it's so fast, you can capture moments like wildlife, etc. much better without blurring.
12:08PM (I still want to call it 4GS. Please forgive me if my fingers slip.)
12:08PM Other phones take 2-3 seconds to get started, not the 4S
12:08PM Engadget quoting Schiller: ""I don't know what Droid Bionic users need to do between pictures, maybe go get coffee.""
12:08PM Comparing "time to first photo", with iPhone 4S beating the HTC Sensation, Galaxy S II, and Droid Bionic by major seconds.
12:07PM Better face detection, auto-white balance
12:07PM 26% better auto-white balance
12:06PM gdgt: ""We have an amazing lens system, five lens elements. It's now a really wide f2.4. Compared to most point and shoots we can let in a lot of light.""
12:06PM Rich: "The better CCD with better light gathering is probably more significant upgrade than the pixel count." Me: "Agreed."
12:06PM High-end IR Filter "for greater accuracy and uniformity"
12:05PM 1/3rd faster capture than iPhone 4
12:05PM CMOS backside illuminated sensory, with 73% better light capture than iPhone 4
12:05PM At 300 dpi!
12:05PM 3264x2448, can print up to an 8x10 in high quality.
12:05PM Camera system improved too. New camera has 8MP sensor
12:04PM iPhone 4 was GSM vs CDMA, 4S is both.
12:04PM Rich: "Still uses externally mounted antennas. So no reaction to Antennagate?" Me: "Just buy a TPU case on eBay."
12:03PM Here's hoping they'll sell it contract free.
12:03PM That's super! So I'm guessing just one model here?
12:03PM 4S is a world phone with GSM and CDMA
12:03PM Engadget: "Phil's taking a shot against the Atrix, Thrill, and Inspire 4G. "The iPhone 4S is just as fast as these phones.""
12:03PM Next: A world phone!
12:02PM gdgt: "Where have I heard these numbers before? This is what our competitors call 4G... the iPhone 4S is just as fast as all of these phones, even faster in real-world use."
12:02PM HSDPA support downstream
12:02PM Data can download 2x as fast, theoretical max performance doubles from 5.8 up/7.2 down to 14.4 Mbps down
12:02PM Can intelligently switch between the antennas for sending and receiving for better call quality. Cool!
12:01PM New intelligent antenna switching technology
12:01PM 8 hours 3G talk time
12:01PM 14 hours 2G talk time
12:01PM 6 hours of 3G Browsing
12:01PM "Fantastic battery life"
12:01PM If you're worrying about battery life with the better CPU, don't be. Increased to 8 hours talk time.
12:00PM New 4S feature list.
12:00PM Okay, demo is over.
12:00PM Plus, they did not announce the iPod touch as a version change. We're going to have to see if this is a 5th gen iPod touch or just an extension into a white colored one.
11:59AM There are a lot of solid features including shadowing, etc. So the quality is great. One assumes this kind of performance will not be available on the iPod touch.
11:59AM The demo is quite nice, very fast, but no one's being bowled over by ultra awesomeness.
11:58AM Are you still holding your breath for an iPhone 5? We're not counting on it.
11:58AM Engadget points out that they're using graphical techniques from the latest God of War
11:57AM Infinity Blade update demo
11:57AM Rich: "With no A5 update for the iPod touch, games devs might find it tough to justify writing games for the A5 with a fairly small market to target"
11:57AM Rich G points out that 7x faster graphics is still slower than the iPad 2.
11:56AM Not to mention voice assistant -- if they announce that! :)
11:56AM It's going to be screaming fast with games.
11:56AM Demo time with Epic Games
11:56AM 7x faster graphics operations than previous iPhone
11:56AM Dual-core graphics.
11:56AM Dual core CPU, 2x as fast.
11:56AM But with the same chassis
11:55AM It's all new-inside
11:55AM Retina display. A5 Chip.
11:55AM "How do you follow up a hit like the iPhone 4? The iPhone 4S."
11:55AM I am quite confused at the feeling of smugness at being right in my predictions. I'm not used to this.
11:55AM iPhone. 4. S.
11:54AM Okay, PHONE!
11:54AM Hmmm
11:54AM But what updates?
11:54AM 8GB 199, 32 $299, 64 $399
11:53AM iPod touch now to come...in White! (Knock us over with a feather. :) We were *right*, Mike!)
11:53AM Ready for updates? We are.
11:53AM Schiller talks about iMessage and Game Center on the touch.
11:52AM Not only is it the most popular music player in the world, but it is now the most popular portable gaming device in the world.
11:52AM Mike G suddenly perks up and pays extreme attention to what comes next. We've been teasing him for months that it would only be a color change to white.
11:52AM Next the iPod touch
11:51AM Nanos will be in 7 colors.
11:51AM As a nano-owner, I love mine and I never expected to. It's a perfect walking/running iPod, much more sophisticated than the shuffle.
11:51AM 8GB nano: $149, 16GB: $179
11:51AM They can color coordinate too.
11:51AM New faces include roman numerals, classic LCD, etc.
11:51AM There's no official support for Nano wristwatches -- so presumably they won't keep going to sleep anymore?
11:50AM And watch bands. :)
11:50AM 16 new clocks
11:49AM (Assuming this is the refreshed nano.)
11:49AM Don't have to add sensors or devices
11:49AM You can walk or run out of the box
11:49AM Fitness experience is now improved.
11:49AM Instead of a 4x4 array of icons, it will have one big icon at a time.
11:48AM First the nano.
11:48AM Now updates on two iPod lines.
11:48AM Schiller is now on stage
11:48AM Engadget: "1:47PM Interestingly it's a white iPhone 4 being used. So, it's obviously not going anywhere if it's in this commercial, right?"
11:48AM Engadget points out that it's clearly an iPhone 4 in the commercial being shown.
11:47AM I warned my husband last night that the credit card was likely to take a hit today. Let's see.
11:47AM We are all, of course, waiting for new toys.
11:47AM Surprisingly, we're now about 45 minutes into the talk and there hasn't been a lot new introduced outside of Cards. Everyone is waiting impatiently for the new iPhone details, which seem to be slow in coming.
11:46AM Video demo time.
11:46AM CNN reporting that new devices will ship October 12th, but we believe it's the 14th. More on that too, as we find out.
11:45AM We here at TUAW are a bit confused by the "streaming" talk. More as we find out.
11:45AM gdgt: "It scans and matches your library against our 20m songs, we'll upload what we don't find, we'll stream..."
11:45AM iCloud storage pricing; 10GB $20/yr, 20GB $40, 50GB $100
11:45AM Engadget: "You can stream your entire library by just tapping on it, playlists too."
11:45AM iTunes match scans your library, and uploads any material that isn't already an iTunes purchase.
11:44AM There are parental restrictions on FindMyFriends as well.
11:43AM iTunes match is also part of iCloud
11:43AM Find My Friends = Cyberstalking made easy, except they've added some simple privacy controls
11:42AM "Family and Friends" location-finding app -- Steve points out: "Woo hoo, there goes Four Square". Four square has been sherlocked.
11:42AM AAPL currently at $372.01, down $2.59, but the rest of the market is down as well, except for NASDAQ
11:42AM There's also a new feature called Find my Friends
11:41AM Find My iPhone is part of iCloud.
11:41AM You can sync contacts, calendars, and mail across devices.
11:41AM You also have daily backups with iCloud. And your documents can easily be restored from iCloud.
11:41AM iWork for iOS with cloud support has been in developer beta for a few months.
11:41AM Docs-in-the-Clouds: your iWork for iOS edits are updated across all devices.
11:40AM Apps are easily re-downloaded thanks to iCloud, as are books and other purchased items.
11:40AM Speaking off-keynote here, there's actually on on-device daemon running in the background that coordinates with iCloud, updating data and downloading it on an account-by-account basis.
11:39AM Photo Stream is like iTunes for iClouds, but for photographs.
11:39AM Also documents. The three big use cases for iCloud: media/photos/documents
11:38AM Discussing Photos and the cloud. They are moved to all devices too.
11:38AM Which propagates data to all registered devices.
11:38AM Keeping sync can be frustrating. He's walking through the iCloud sync process
11:37AM Over 1/3rd of media/apps purchased on device.
11:37AM iOS 5 will launch October 12th
11:37AM iCloud just works -- and it is free
11:37AM And we now have Eddie Cue talking by the way
11:36AM It's integrated into apps, so everything happens automatically
11:36AM Now onto iCloud
11:36AM Support for iOS 5 on iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch 4th and 3rd generation. (No mention yet of iPhone 4S)
11:35AM Ah. Finally. A review of the current hardware
11:35AM Cook continues reviewing all the new elements announced at WWDC. It's a nice review, but I sense that a lot of people are getting a little tense, waiting for new announcements.
11:35AM Mail updates include rich formatting, indentation, address control, flagging.
11:34AM Safari has tabbed browsing.
11:34AM Game Center has even more features than Cook is mentioning here.
11:33AM You just scroll through and read it.
11:33AM "We take the story on-page and format it perfectly fro the device"
11:33AM Safari: Lots of new items including Reader
11:33AM Adding achievement points, photos, friend recommendations
11:33AM Over 67 Million users signed up
11:33AM Next: Game Center
11:33AM Edit your photos on-device. Crop, rotate, remove red-eye (this is a darling new feature set, which is much easier to use than I had expected)
11:32AM You can use volume-up to take a photo
11:31AM There's background downloads for new issues.
11:31AM Updated Camera app, makes it super-easy to take a photo, even from the lock screen
11:31AM Cook is going very quickly through this overview, which is pretty much the same stuff announced earlier.
11:30AM Next: Newstand
11:30AM Twitter is integrated into many built-in apps. And speaking as a developer here, I assure you that it's like 10 lines of code max to add it to your apps as well. Super-easy to integrate and brilliantly done on Apple's part.
11:30AM Rich G: "Scott Forstall just used the word "Geofence", which was invented at flickr a few weeks back for its new geo-locked photos feature. Guess that's a new jargon now."
11:29AM Twitter integration. Cook introduces Twitter CEO Dick Costolo
11:29AM State can be pushed between devices too, allowing you to pick up on one unit where you left off on another.
11:29AM Updates and software pushed to all devices. (And this is, trust me, very nice too.)
11:29AM He's discussing iMessage and notifications. (Notifications, by the way, are fabulous. They are so much better than they used to be.)
11:28AM Me: If Apple doesn't have a schedule-in-advance-then-mail, they're passing up a big opportunity!
11:28AM Steve: "Heh, if Cards can automatically send birthday greetings to friends and relatives, THEN I'll be impressed."
11:27AM iOS 5 introduces over 200 new user features. Here are the top ten.
11:27AM We've seeded more than 100k developers.
11:27AM Now let's talk iOS 5
11:27AM $2.99 per card, mailed within the US.
11:26AM (All pictures via Engadget. Thank you, Engadget. We love you guys)
11:26AM They are quite pretty
11:26AM These are physical real cards
11:26AM You pick, Apple prints
11:25AM Allows you to create and send beautiful cards right from your iOS device
11:25AM New application today: Cards
11:25AM (They are showing a big check, similar to previous keynote announcements)
11:24AM Developers have been paid over three billion dollars
11:24AM There have been over 18 billion App Store downloads
11:24AM iPad-specific apps give iPad owners a better user experience
11:24AM And over 500,000 apps in the App Store in its entirety
11:23AM There are over 140,000 iPad apps alone
11:23AM That number includes the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
11:23AM There have been over 250 million iOS devices sold
11:22AM They are in hospitals. 80% of the top hospitals in the US are now testing/piloting the iPad
11:22AM iPads are in the flight deck. Pilots are replacing 40-lb flight bags with iPads
11:22AM We're actually surprised by that number -- it seems low to us
11:22AM 3 of 4 tablets sold in the US are iPads
11:22AM That's iPad that they are testing or deploying.
11:21AM 92% of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying.
11:21AM A thousand universities across the United States have iPad programs in-place
11:20AM Grade schools, High schools, Colleges, Universities
11:20AM Every state in the US now has an iPad deployment or pilot in place today
11:19AM iOS devices are showing up everywhere. In schools, etc
11:19AM The iPod remains a lot of people's first introduction to Apple. Cook continues bringing the iPhone and iPod stories together.
11:19AM Cook is talking about the size of the opportunity that remains in the mobile market
11:18AM TIMN: Also, for six times in a row, JD Power has rated it number 1."
11:18AM gdgt: "We believe that over time all phones become smartphones. This market is an enormous opportunity. That's iPhone, more coming up on iPhone."
11:17AM However, it's just %5 of the world wide mobile phone market
11:17AM Rated #1 in nearly every customer satisfaction ranking
11:17AM Huge satisfaction: 93% of Fortune 500 are testing or deploying the iPhone
11:17AM The iPhone 4 is the number one smart phone in the world
11:16AM The iPhone 4 has sold over half of all iPhones ever sold
11:16AM Now the iPhone
11:16AM Now 100 times as many. 20 Million songs. It's the #1 music store in the world, with over 16 billion downloads.
11:16AM Launched 8 years ago, iTunes had 200,000 songs to sell
11:16AM gdgt: "You can't talk about music without talking about iTunes"
11:15AM Half of those were first time iPod purchasers
11:15AM Last year, ending in June, Apple sold 45 Million iPods
11:15AM The digital music market is mature, and the iPod remains an important market for Apple
11:15AM (Cassette players for those of you who are young)
11:14AM In context: Sony took 30 years to sell 230,000 (not million) walkmen
11:14AM I get the sense that we're at the part of the talk about the mysterious "Product Transition"
11:14AM Sold over 300 million iPods around the world.
11:14AM In the US, the iPod market share has exceeded 70%
11:14AM During the last decade, the iPod grew to become the #1 music player in the world.
11:13AM It redefined the music industry, reminding us of how much we love music.
11:13AM The iPod was first introduced 10 years ago.
11:13AM Next. Music. iPod, iTunes
11:13AM Engadget: "Every single quarter for 5 years, the mac has outgrown the PC market"
11:12AM gdgt: "We have an incredible ceiling here, and a long way to go."
11:12AM Cook reminds everyone that Apple was in single digits "not too long ago"
11:12AM In US Retail Mac sales are about 25% of PC sales in store
11:12AM In each quarter for 5 years, the Mac has outgrown the PC market. Approaching 60 million users
11:11AM MacBook Pro and iMac are best sellers in US for notebook and desktop. Mac outgrew PC market by 6x
11:11AM Cook is showcasing the Wired "Laptop nirvana" quote.
11:11AM Rich G points out that this is a little disingenuous, given that Win7 costs a lot more than Lion does.
11:10AM That's a pretty impressive installation base.
11:10AM Lion is the first OS digital download. Results? Staggering. Lion has been downloaded 6 million times. It took Win 7 20 weeks to get where Lion was in 2.
11:09AM Mossberg quote: Lion is the best OS out there
11:09AM Six million copies of Lion downloaded. 80% more than Snow Leopard.
11:09AM Starting with Lion.
11:09AM Products are at Apple's core. Cook will discuss four of those products.
11:08AM Rich G. "Interesting that they are focussing on China - on developing markets. They know where the next generation of growth and money is going to come from."
11:08AM They appear to be very excited to be spending money with Apple.
11:08AM The video is about consumers at the Shanghai store
11:07AM Apple is now showing a retail video
11:07AM In Hong Kong, Apple sold more Macs on opening day than in any store in the world.
11:06AM Everyone is mentioning that Cook looks relaxed, happy and confident
11:06AM "We thought we did well by welcoming 100k in LA over one month"
11:06AM Largest store in Asia, welcomed 100k visitors on its opening weekend.
11:05AM Engadget: "Apple has enormous momentum, and nowhere is that more evident than in our retail stores."
11:05AM He's announcing two new Chinese Apple stores
11:04AM Will be announcing today: innovations in mobile OS, applications, services, hardware, and integration into a simple experience
11:04AM He's talking about how excited he is by his new role, and how it is a privilege to work at Apple
11:04AM This is Cook's first product launch as CEO
11:03AM This is the room where the iPod was first launched ten years ago
11:03AM Cook is welcoming everyone to Apple's "Town Hall"
11:03AM Gdgt: "I consider it a privilege of a lifetime to have worked here for almost 14 years and I am very excited about this new role. I want to welcome you to this campus, it serves kind of a second home for many of us."
11:03AM Lots and lots of applause.
11:03AM (Images all courtesy of our big sister blog, Engadget)
11:02AM Tim Cook is on the stage.
11:02AM And here we go!
11:02AM Whoever is calling me with a 651 number? Now is not the greatest time.
11:01AM Rolling Stones: Jumping Jack Flash
11:00AM The white Apple is up on the screen and everyone is excited
10:59AM Take a deep breath, everyone. It's just about iPhone time.
10:59AM They have just announced that the presentation will begin shortly.
10:58AM Now would be a great time to hit the bathroom -- really quick.
10:57AM Anticipation is high. People are on phones, liveblogging on their laptops, etc.
10:57AM The audience is filled to capacity
10:57AM AllThingsD tells us that Apple's exec team is on hand. Phil Schiller, Eddie Cue, Bob Mansfield, etc.
10:55AM gdgt points out that "Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones is now playing
10:54AM Engadget points out that today's event is being held at a relatively small in-house venue. This is normally where employee events are run. Today's intimate non-broadcast event is in marked contrast to the WWDC offerings.
10:53AM Qualcomm's COO Steve Mollenkopf is also on hand, as is longtime Apple Analyst Charlie Wolf.
10:53AM Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, AT&T Mobility President Ralph De La Vega, Verizon CMO Marni Walden, and others are in attendance.
10:51AM Journalists are seated, photographers being escorted to a zone at the back of the room.
10:51AM If you're wondering about the time difference, why the liveblog appears to be off by an hour, apparently our new LiveBlogging system (using it for the first time today!) is picking up my Mountain Time Zone, not the destination Pacific Time. Sorry!
10:48AM The doors have opened to the event, Eric Clapton's "Let It Rain" is playing on the sound system
10:47AM What's more, it looks like the prediction of iPhone 4S without an iPhone 5 holds strong.
10:45AM Looks like an October 14 launch based on this Japanese Apple page
10:33AM At TUAW-local, we're gazing at our simple granola bars, which suddenly seem disappointing in comparison.
10:31AM Looks like Apple is serving breakfast to the press, including on-demand omelets. Yum.
9:43AM Want to chat before, during, or after the event? Join #tuaw on irc.freenode.net
9:33AM We'll be getting started at 9:45 Pacific Time and the event is due to commence at 10 AM sharp. Please join us then!
