two new, larger iPhones as expected, one 4.7in and one 5.5in
contactless payments system
new Apple Watch device which syncs with iPhone and gathers health data
Last word goes to our resident gadget expert Samuel Gibbs, who has been living and breathing smartwatches since his first review of the Sony Ericsson LiveView back in 2010:
“Apple’s highly anticipated smartwatch, the Apple Watch, seems uncharacteristically complicated from the company that prides itself on simplicity and ease of use. Compared to the current Android Wear smartwatches from Google, the Apple Watch seems cluttered with too many features packed onto a small screen. The design also looks bulky and the cost significantly more than others.
“Apple’s contactless payment features, advanced health tracking and third-party apps could make the difference, but it seems a difficult sell for users on what we’ve seen today. Apple has about six months to finalise and improve the watch, but it will crucially miss Christmas 2014, which is expected to see wearable technology the gift of the season by analysts.”
And That’s All Folks! Tim thanks the team, the press for coming and with that our guys @charlesarthur and @stuartdredge are making a rush for the hands on demonstrations which we will have up as soon as possible.
Everything - except the live stream - went according to plan. Two new iPhones, Apple Watch, Apple Pay and U2. What did you think? Let us know in comments. Tech summary coming soon.
“We are the blood in your machines oh Zen master Tim Cook,” Bono tells Apple boss. He just Beyoncéd their new album - Songs of Innocence - for free to iTunes. “We are not kidding that just happened,” says Cook. Yes it did.
Cook says half a billion iTunes customers can now download it - making it the biggest album release of all time. Now he’s showing an ad about how excited he is about it. Is this worrying anyone? U2 are getting almost as much play as the Apple Watch. Free iPod Nano to anyone who can name their last album (no, not really).
Tim Cook moves on to music. “Music runs deep in Apple’s DNA. It runs through the core of all of our products. Apple changed the way people listened to music a decade ago, and iTunes has been at the centre of that experience,” he says.
And yes - here we go - it’s U2. Tim could “not be more excited.” Which is nice for him. And of course now, when I wouldn’t mind it cutting out, my feed is perfect.
US play their new single at the Apple Watch and iPhone 6 launch Photograph: Screenshot
Tim Cook is making the case for a massive market for the Apple Watch. “Apple Watch requires the iPhone because it’s been seamlessly designed to work together.” It’ll work with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but also with the iPhone 5, 5c and 5s. That means there are potentially 200m people out there who could use one.
Tim Cook praises former Adobe exec Kevin Lynch, and calls him up on stage to give the first demo of Apple Watch. Lynch says the iPhone “is required with Apple Watch”.
Apple Watch has a feature called “glances” where you can swipe to see specific information from various apps that you’ve set up: stock prices, meeting details, music playing on iPhone, iTunes or “the music that’s stored on your Apple Watch”.
Kevin Lynch shows Siri working on Apple Watch, and then a demo of Apple Maps. And then: “We thought hard on how to enable a new form of communication… we’ve created something called digital touch.” You can draw and tap on the screen, and the other person feels it on their list. “I’ll just do the triple-tap here for going to lunch,” he says, scribbling a blue fish on the screen to indicate ‘Sushi’
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