The biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone was shown off last week: the new iPhone 5. As an incremental upgrade to the current iPhone 4S the design of this new phone was almost completely leaked before release and there are very little surprises. It finally has LTE wireless, is slightly faster, and of course has the rumored 4'' screen. The iPhone 5 will be on sale September 21st for the same suggested price of $199 on contract. The 4S will now be sold for $99 and the iPhone 4 for Free on contract.
On a more exciting note, Apple announced hardware updates to two lines of their iPods: the iPod Touch and the Nano. I was very excited for the new iPod Touch until I heard the price, but I will get to that later. The new iPod Touch is beautiful, and in my opinion much more so than the iPhone with its 6 different colors. As the first update to the iPod Touch in two years it now has the same display as the iPhone 5 yet uses the previous A5 processor instead of the iPhone 5's new A6. The new iPod Touch has a bit of a less terrible camera and therefore is now being marketed as a point-and-shoot. The killer new feature for the iPod Touch is the included wrist strap (Loop) that matches the color of the device - well at least you didn't have to buy it separately.
The new iPod Touch is said to be available in October and starts at the too-high price of $299 for the 32GB model and $349 for the 64GB model. If we put this into perspective, Apple will continue to sell the same outdated model of the 4th Generaton iPod Touch at $199 for 16GB or $249 for 32GB. There is no 8GB option to be found for the iPod Touch 4G and has been replaced with 16GB for the same price. The iPod Touch 5G has no 8 or 16GB model and therefore starts at $300. Many are saying that this conflicts with the price an iPad Mini should be offered at later this year. Someone who is not too much of an Apple-Lover may notice that it is $100 more than the 7-inch Nexus Tablet. Yea, it's pretty, but it's not the best deal in town.
Also in October a new iPod Nano is coming too. The tiniest iPod ever, the iPod Nano is just 5.4mm thin. The new iPod Nano looks like a mini ripoff of an iPod Touch with a 2.5 multi-touch display. It also uses a strange iOS-like operating system with rounded icons. The Nano also comes with built in Bluetooth 4.0 and an FM radio. At $149 for 16GB and the all new design, the new Nano really impresses as a device for listening to music, podcasts, running, or whatever you may do with a small screen.
What else do you have to be excited about? Well, all the new iPhones and iPods from now on will be using the smaller 8-pin connector. Also, Apple has released a new line of headphones called EarPods that are said to rival high-end third-party headphones. I have always liked the Apple headphones, but other people's ear blisters may confirm they are not the best. The iPod shuffle will soon be available in all the colors of the Nano while a new version of iTunes is also coming in October, iTunes 11 - and Windows users are hoping that this may be the update to make it more usable on our platform. We'll see about that when it happens.
Did this Apple event leave you excited, or were you wanting more? Are you an Apple lover or hater? Let us know in the comments below!
