Live Blog: Apple iPhone 5 Event

Apple's much-awaited iPhone 5 handset will be announced today at an invite-only event in San Francisco, at the Yerba Buena Center for the arts (where incidentally the last new iPad was unveiled).

We'll be bringing you the news as it happens from what could be the biggest ever event in Apple’s history. Other than the iPhone 5 (or the sixth generation iPhone) and iOS6, we could also see

- A cheaper iPhone, possibly a cut down version of the iPhone 4S with 8GB onboard storage.

- The iPad Mini which will take on the £159 Nexus 7 and the £129 Kindle Fire.

- A new 13-in Macbook Pro with Retina Display (which our Editorial Director, Riyad Emeran, will SURELY buy).

ITProPortal.com will bring you the latest updates live from Apple's unnamed event, which will be held later today from 6pm UK time (10am local time). You can bookmark this page and come back later today.

This page will be updated on a regular basis from now until the end of the event and we will then be shifting over to our dedicated iPhone 5 page with the latest reports and analysis about the phone's specifications, features, pricing, previews, availability, services and software.

Your comments are welcome in our dedicated Disqus section; tell us what you expect from the event, what improvements you expect from the iPhone 5, whether you intend to stick with your current phone or upgrade when the iPhone 5 becomes available.

20:05 - 12 September

And finally, don't forget to take part in our ongoing iPhone 5 competition.

20:01 - 12 September

A (virtual) round of applause to our team in the office. Aatif, Jay, Will and James. Your host at the helm today was Désiré Athow. Thanks for following us and good bye.

20:00 - 12 September

New iPod Touch is on the Apple website as well as the new iPhone 5. Apple store is still down though,

19:59 - 12 September

keen an eye on our website as we will publish more articles over next couple of hours.

19:58 - 12 September

We're done here.... Feel free to tweet us your impressions, @itproportal @desireathow

19:57 - 12 September

Standing ovation for the Foooos... Tim Cook now on stage.

19:52 - 12 September

Having a Krispy Kreme (thanks Cat) and had pizza earlier. Still the Foos playing. Third song about to play.

19:49 - 12 September

Sounds like a mini concert at Yerba Buena... Do they actually have an after party?

19:48 - 12 September

Still the Foooooooo Fighters on stage.

19:48 - 12 September

No one more thing it seems. TBH, we thought that Apple would be kicking the a*** of other Android manufacturers but the iPhone 5 hardly managed to reach the same level as other vendors.

19:45 - 12 September

Disappointed? Not disappointed? Let us know what you think.

19:45 - 12 September

19:43 - 12 September

19:42 - 12 September

Foo Fighters up there...

19:42 - 12 September

19:41 - 12 September

Almost done it seems. New phone, new iOS, new music players, new iTunes.

19:39 - 12 September

Tim Cook is back onboard. As showing the new iPods shown now. 100 minutes barrier smashed.

19:38 - 12 September

The new Earpods will be available on their on. iPod Shuffle still costs $49, iPod Nano 16GB costs $149, iPod Touch 16GB/32GB for $199 and $249 (4th gen), iPod Touch 32GB/64GB $299 and $399 (5th gen). The new iPods will be available in October.

19:35 - 12 September

Video featuring Johnny Ive showing, explaining what's so great about these phones.

19:34 - 12 September

600 million earbuds have been shipped by Apple, that's 1.2bn little speakers. It is now bringing the new EarPods, three years in development.

19:33 - 12 September

19:32 - 12 September

Siri available on the new iPod Touch, Same Qualcomm Baseband processor it seems without 4G. Airplay mirroring

19:31 - 12 September

Apple store and Apple.com still haven't been updated. Still showing old gen stuff.

19:30 - 12 September

Full HD video recording, Facetime HD camera, image stabilization.

19:29 - 12 September

There's a nifty little button at the back of the iPod called the Loop. Let see what it does... Errmm you can just attach a wrist strap to it.

19:29 - 12 September

19:28 - 12 September

Panorama mode included as well

19:28 - 12 September

That's how thick/thin the new iPod Touch is. The device has a new camera, 40hrs music playback (same as the iPhone 5), 8hrs video. 5-megapixel iSight camera, backside illuminated, 5-element lens, same sapphire lens cover, LED flash. Same as the iphone 5.

19:27 - 12 September

19:25 - 12 September

Kind of chill out time for now. Already 85 minutes into the event.

19:24 - 12 September

Demo tie with Clumsy Ninja.

19:23 - 12 September

Dual core graphics as well, 7x faster graphics. So basically the same chip as the iPhone 4S.

19:23 - 12 September

4in display, speaker at the bottom, lightning connector, headphone jack. So basically an iphone 5 sans communication capabilities and photos. Comes with A5 though.

19:22 - 12 September

6.1mm, 88g, lightest iPod Touch yet. brushed finish, aluminium on the bag.

19:21 - 12 September

New iPod Touch coming. That was expected after the new iPhone 5. 175K ganes and entertainment apps available. 5th generation iPod Touch is best ever.

19:20 - 12 September

Available in seven colours, FM tuner, DVR functionality.

19:18 - 12 September

2.5in display. multitouch. Home button, big rocking button.

19:17 - 12 September

Looks like the luuuuummiiiaaaaa.

19:17 - 12 September

Looks like a tiny iPhone, 5.4mm thick, 38pc thinner.

19:16 - 12 September

New iPod nano coming up. Do people still buy non iOS-based media players? Reinventing the Nano. 7th gen iPod Nano announced.

19:15 - 12 September

Now back to the iPod. 350m sold already over 9 years (BTW Greg Joswick).

19:15 - 12 September

iTunes available in late October. Possibly Friday 26th... Nah, just made that last bit up.

19:14 - 12 September

Not much happening ATM. Still on iTunes.

19:14 - 12 September

Not much happening ATM. Still on iTunes.

19:13 - 12 September

19:12 - 12 September

iCloud integration now. Focusing on movies library.

19:11 - 12 September

There's a mini player as well

19:11 - 12 September

19:10 - 12 September

More about the iTunes, going into the nitty gritty right now.

19:08 - 12 September

Fortunately, the new iTunes will be faster and less resource hungry.

19:08 - 12 September

19:07 - 12 September

New version of itunes. V11. Edge to edge design. 200m customers using iTunes in the cloud, 15bn pieces served from the cloud. iTunes was long due a new design.

19:07 - 12 September

19:06 - 12 September

New itunes coming and new tweaks coming to iOS 6 coming on the 19th.

19:05 - 12 September

19:04 - 12 September

Store is available in 63 countries around the world. 26m songs in itunes, 20bn songs purchased since it launched 9yrs ago, 435m iTunes accounts, 60pc of all downloads directly from iOS.

19:04 - 12 September

Talking about the iTunes, the number 1 music store in the world they say.

19:02 - 12 September

Tim Cook back and he talks about the new iPod + iTunes. One more thing it seems.

19:02 - 12 September

iPhone 4S, 4, 3GS, new iPad and iPad 2 getting free upgrade to iOS 6...

19:01 - 12 September

So just to confirm, the screen is 16:9 ish. No NFC in there, no wireless charging and price stays at $199, $299 and $399 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64 on a two year contract. 8GB iPhone 4 and 16GB iPhone 4S for free and $99. No 3GS. Preorder starts from 14 September. More countries getting the phone from 28 September onboard. 100 countries and 240 carriers by the end of the year.

18:59 - 12 September

Video that how the phone is manufactured and its main features.

18:58 - 12 September

18:57 - 12 September

So ZTE has a phone that is 6.2mm thick, the Athena. That's wayyyyy thinner than the iPhone 5 and it will be interesting to see whether Apple sticks by that statement or whether it will be retracted.

18:56 - 12 September

Note that the white version will haev a raw aluminium back while the black one will have a black anodized backing.

18:56 - 12 September

Note that the white version will haev a raw aluminium back while the black one will have a black anodized backing.

18:55 - 12 September

The phone appears to have an elongated, much bigger but thinner battery.

18:54 - 12 September

So phone's back is different from the iPhone 4 and it is safe to say that the leaks that appeared over the few weeks are truthful.

18:53 - 12 September

Johnny Ive appearing on a video

18:52 - 12 September

Phone is available in white and black. No ivory or ebony here...

18:52 - 12 September

Phil is back on stage. Not much more to say about the iOS 6

18:51 - 12 September

18:50 - 12 September

Still with Siri, historically, the software part of Apple events are the more boring bits. Hence why they are shoehorned between hardware and the "extras".

18:48 - 12 September

Now down to Siri. A more advanced version of Siri, A bit of a recap on what happened at WWDC some months ago.

18:47 - 12 September

Digital wallet. No mention of NFC for now as far as I remember.

18:47 - 12 September

Oh and for coupon lovers, a new feature called Passbook which could bring in big money for Apple, really.

18:46 - 12 September

And in Google Chrome as well. Down to email now, you can VIPed emails and flag them.

18:45 - 12 September

You can now share your tabs form your desktop to your phone, a new feature called iCloud tabs, something that have been available for ages on Opera :)

18:43 - 12 September

More than 100 million points of interest have been inserted in Apple's PoI database.

18:43 - 12 September

Forstall says that the new iOS 6 will have great satellite imagery, with cinematic camera angle to fly users around. So you spend more time looking at your phone's screen rather than driving.

18:42 - 12 September

Forstall discusses Maps, using a search engine for Points of Interest. That's errr...interesting. BTW, no technical details about how fast Lightning is.

18:41 - 12 September

Scott Forstall comes out to discuss the iOS6. BTW, can't believe the old connector was almost 10 years old.

18:40 - 12 September

Major manufacturers like Bose, JBL and the likes are already working on new docks and speakers. Seems that having a new connector was vital to get the size of the smartphone down.

18:39 - 12 September

80pc smaller than the current connector. has an adaptor for existing accessories. Wondering what accessory manufacturers will make up of it.

18:38 - 12 September

New connector. One that has a 5-magnet transducer. It is called Lightning. So Thunderbolt and Lightning hey.

18:38 - 12 September

A few more features about pictures. Wideband Audio (which promises better audio sounds) which should be not unlike Orange's/EE HD Voice. Funny that Skype announced something similar earlier today.

18:36 - 12 September

Official Panorama feature integrated in iPhone 5. Some developers just shook their heads...

18:36 - 12 September

Front facing camea now is 720p, backside illumination, three microphones, facetime over cellular phones. One point worth noting, resulting image is 28-megapixel (so they're trying to match the Nokia Lumia then?)

18:35 - 12 September

18:34 - 12 September

18:33 - 12 September

8-megapixel sensor, backside illumination hybrid IR filter, five-element lens, f/2.4 aperture (same as the HTC One X), dynamic low light mode, precision lens alignment, sapphire crystal. The A6 apparently includes some next generation ISP (Image Signal Processor), spatial noise reduction, small filter which allows for lower-light performance and faster photo capture.

18:33 - 12 September

18:29 - 12 September

8hrs talktime, 8hr browsing on LTE, 225 hours standby, 40hrs audio and 10hrs video. Not bad at all. Exceeds iPhone 4S. So arguably bigger battery in there.

18:28 - 12 September

Phil is back. Now back to battery life of the phone.

18:28 - 12 September

18:27 - 12 September

Showing a number of games for now. Keynote attachment launch 1.7x faster BTW.

18:26 - 12 September

Confirmed that iPhone 5 will be on DT and EE. Almost an exclusive then :)

18:26 - 12 September

18:25 - 12 September

22pc smaller in size than the A5, 2.1x faster than before.

18:24 - 12 September

Will support everything to 802.11n, no 802.11ac. Up to 150Mbps. Now for the SoC. Comes with the A6, 2x faster CPU and 2x faster graphics

18:23 - 12 September

18:22 - 12 September

Uses the new Qualcomm chip. LTE goes up to 100Mbps so must be the new MDM9625 or the MDM9225.

18:21 - 12 September

18:20 - 12 September

These are the pictures of the new iPhone 5. Gorgeous and almost magical. Almost 44 pc more colour saturation. Widescreen video. Full SRGB rendering.

18:19 - 12 September

18:17 - 12 September

Thinnest smartphone ever. 326ppi Retina display, 4in, 1136 x 640 resolution. Same width, taller. five rows of icons and four shortcuts at the button.

18:16 - 12 September

Metal back, Entirely of Glass and Aluminium, thinnest and lightest iPhone yet, 7.6mm thick, 18pc thinner,112g and 20pc lighter than the 4S. It is taller as well.

18:15 - 12 September

Apple calls it the most beautiful product they have ever built, bar none

iPhone 5 that's the name of the new Phone.

Phil shiller come on stage.

Apple sold more than 400 million iOS devices till June 2012

Average user has more than 100 apps

More than 700000 Apps in the App stores and 250000 specially written for the iPad

18:13 - 12 September

iPad accounts for 91 pc of all web tablet and 94pc of Fortune 500 companies use the iPad or deploy it.

18:09 - 12 September

Apple crushing the competition given that the size of the pie has increased as well

18:09 - 12 September

As of June, 84 million iPads have been sold. From April to June 2011 62pc of tablets sold worldwide were iPad, now that has increase to 68pc.

18:08 - 12 September

He adds that more iPads have been sold than any PC manufacturer sold in their PC lines. And with higher profit margins we shall add.

18:07 - 12 September

Now on the iPad, finest tablet you can buy says Tim Cook. In last Q, 17m iPad were sold, that's a new record. Extrapolated to one year, that's 68 million.

18:07 - 12 September

27 pc of the market in the US and #1 ranking in the US in the last three months.

18:06 - 12 September

15 pc year on year growth in marketshare in the UK, vs 2 pc for the PC

18:05 - 12 September

Mountain Lion is fastest selling version of OS X, 7 million units.

18:05 - 12 September

83 million visitors in last quarter April to June. 380 stores worldwide.

18:03 - 12 September

Loads of photos of happy faces, full of enthusiasm. Visually beautiful and viral.

18:01 - 12 September

Giving a few updates on Apple Retail. Apple Store Barcelona...

18:00 - 12 September

Tim Cook comes to the stage.

17:59 - 12 September

It's about to begin.

17:57 - 12 September

Apple iPhone 5 board surfaces shows LTE modem and A6 SoC.. that's the last article before the event starts in 4 minutes now.

17:44 - 12 September

Event countdown. 15 minutes to go. We're going to order some pizzas here.

17:30 - 12 September

Your chance to win an iPhone 5 by answering one very easy question.

17:19 - 12 September

We've got a competition to win an iPhone 5 (or whatever it will be called) coming soon. Stay tuned!

16:48 - 12 September

Apple launch latest: iPhone 5 'Lightning' USB 3 dock connector & 13in MacBook Pro with Retina to be unveiled

16:08 - 12 September

Apple online store is down and has been so for a few hours already. Last year, Apple waited till the end of the presentation to kill the store. Now it's doing it hours before.

15:54 - 12 September

Another dollop of Apple articles including one that mentions Qualcomm as the other big winner of the iPhone 5 launch.

An undercover report from the iPhone 5 production line

iPhone 5 will be Qualcomm’s hour of glory thanks to LTE

Shares of Apple stable as iPhone 5 launch countdown continues

14:52 - 12 September

Even more articles we've written on the iPhone 5 and 4G (one feature Apple's superphone will profusely use).

12:50 - 12 September

Articles we've just published on the iPhone 5. More to come soon.

12:04 - 12 September

Ola to the 400 or so visitors to our live blog. Stay with us as we will bring you the latest rumours about the iPhone 5 (and related products) and a few more surprises along the way.

12:02 - 12 September

Pure coincidence or mercantile Machiavellianism? A number of vendors are cutting the prices of rival smartphones (most of them Android). The Prada 3.0? £149, the Galaxy S3? £399, the Nokia Lumia 800? £239.

11:42 - 12 September

Hitwise confirms that one out of every 1,000 search queries in the UK is about the iPhone 5. How predictable was that.

11:04 - 12 September

And as we approach the launch of the iPhone 5, why not check this article written by Stuart Andrews, entitled "The evolution of the iPhone: Apple's journey to the iPhone 5" which looks back at the genesis of Apple's iconic smartphone.

10:57 - 12 September

Welcome to the first post of our live blog of the day. Apple launched the iPhone 4S on the 4th of October 2011 in a solo event, the first major one after the death of Steve Jobs. Check the live blog covering the launch of the iPhone 4S.