“Lets Talk iPhone” event Roundup

Today’s event at Apple’s headquarters was one of the most anticipated events of the year. Not only is Apple taking the cover off the latest generation of iPhones and iOS software, but it also marks the first keynote headed by Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook. The excitement is apparent in the numerous liveblogs that struggled to stay running under the weight of immense internet traffic.

Here we will take a look at a summary of what Apple announced, and what you can expect to be standing in line at the Apple Store to buy:

• iOS 5 pretty much looks like it did when it was announced at WWDC 2011. This isn’t a bad thing but I was curious to see if any major features crept in. iOS 5 will be available October 12th to the iPhone 4, 3GS, 3rd and 4th gen iPod Touch, and the iPads.
• iCloud also drops October 12th. Nothing new hear either, sync all your photos, docs, etc to all your computer’s/devices.
• Apple has released an iCard app that lets you create and send cards through the mail to anyone in the world.
• A new location app called Find My Friends. Track your family or friends for meetups or giving someone directions.
• The iPod Nano and iPod Touch got refreshes today and notably absent was the iPod classic which was rumored to be getting the axe.
• The iPhone 4S carries the same external look and feel with greater horsepower inside with the A5 chip first seen in the iPad 2 reported to be 7x faster than the previous iPhone 4. The new phone also sports dual cell antennas that will optimize the sending and receiving of data. The iPhone 4S will be a dual band GSM/CDMA so every phone can work on any network. The back of the phone has an upgraded 8-megapixel camera for even better photography. The video camera also has moved up to 1080p recording.
• Siri, Apple’s new voice recognition, lets you ask questions in different formats and get answers and command your iPhone. You can set the alarm, ask for directions, if you have a bluetooth headset it will read incoming sms messages. You will then be able to reply and set calendars or tasks with voice recognition.

The new iPhone 4S will be available October 14th at $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB. The iPhone 4 will aos be moved to the $99 slot and surprisingly the iPhone 3GS will still hang on and will be free with contract. It will be on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

Now for some screenshots courtesy of Engadet’s great liveblog.