iPhone 5 launch: as it happened

Read our full Apple iPhone 5 review

NEW iPhone 5: click here for all the official details and pictures

NEW iPod touch and nano: click here for details, pictures, prices

CONFIRMED:

• Apple iPhone 5 has 4in screen, 1136 x 640 resolution display

• 4G capable, will work in UK, exclusive to new EE network

• New iOS6 software with new Maps, Mail, deeper Facebook, Siri and iCloud integration; iOS 6 coming to iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, iPad, iPad 2 and iPod touch

• Same price as iPhone 4S

19.42 And now... the Foo Fighters take the stage. We think that could be that.

19.40 New iPod nano and touch are available in October.

5th gen iPod touch 32GB is $299, 64GB for $399.

4th gen iPod touch 16GB $199, 32GB for $249.

iPod nano is 16GB for $149.

19.36 Apple says they look like no earphone you've ever seen before, open-back to "maximise airflow for sound quality". We can't wait to hear them! Who remembers the Apple iPod HiFi? Exactly.

19.34 Apple announces Earpods. New earphones.

19.31 New iPod Touch has five new colours, iOS 6, Siri and mirroring via Airplay. But no 4G.

19.27 Apple iPod touch delivers 40 hours of music playback, 8 hours of video, slight increase over last-generation model.

19.20 Apple confirms new iPod touch. 5th generation. 6.1mm thin, 88g in weight, new Retina display.

Same iPhone 5 display. Speaker and headphone jack on bottom, 4in display, A5 processor, "perfectly matched for widescreen video".

19.16 Apple confirms new iPod nano. 7th generation. "By far the best nano we've ever created."

Larger display. 5.4mm thin, which is 38% thinner. 2.5in multitouch display.

Seven colours, quite a change of design all things told. FM tuner with pause and rewind and... Bluetooth.

19.14 The new interface runs across iTunes, Apps, Books, Music, Movies. Due for launch in late October for dekstop iTunes, after launch of iOS 6. We think...

19.08 Apple confirms new iTunes for iPad and iPhone in iOS 6, out September 19th. Song previews, new layout, share directly to Facebook and Twitter.

"Dramatically simpler" design.

19.04 Music! New changes to iPod and iTunes.

26 million songs in iTunes, 20 billion songs purchases since launch 9 years ago.

60% of all downloads come from mobile devices.

19.01 Same prices as iPhone 4S. 16GB for $199, 32GB $299, 64GB $399

Out on September 28th.

18.55 Apple eager to stress that the new 4in, 1136 x 640 screen will be better for widescreen video.

Apple claiming 4G LTE can "potentially be faster than your home WiFi"

18.50 Available in black or white... Yep, we're surprised, too.

18.48 iOS 6: Updates to Mail, addition of new Passbook feature.

18.44 iOS 6: iCloud Tabs allows you to share your browsing tabs from desktop to phone... just like in Google Chrome?

18.41 iOS 6: New Maps app, navigation thorugh Siri, turn-by-turn functionality.

18.38 Connector: New 'Lightning' cable is official. Improved durability, all-digital, 80% smaller, 8-pin design. And a nice shot of the B&W Zeppelin to show that there will be accessories to use with old speaker docks. Phew.

18.37 Audio! Three microphones, front, bottom and back. One is for noise cancellation, apparently. A noise-cancelling earpiece and "enhanced audio".

18.35 Camera promises to be better with video too. Front-facing is 720p now, rear still 1080p.

18.32 Improved camera: 8 megapixel, 2364 x 2448 resolution. 40% faster response than iPhone 4S. New features within camera app, too, including Panorama and Shared Photo Streams.

18.28 iPhone 5 battery life: looks like 8 hours 3G or 10 hours WiFi browsing. A slight improvement on the iPhone 4S then.

18.26 Apple is showing of the new A6 processor chip with gaming. Should be better for streaming HD content, too.

18.23 iPhone 5 will be 4G in the UK on EE.

New A6 processor chip, faster CPU and graphics.

Everything will be faster, claims Apple.

18.20 So five rows of apps and an aspect ratio that's closer to 16:9.

"44% better colour saturation"

And it's LTE aka 4G.

18.16 As expected it's taller, slimmer. Apple bills the phone as the 'thinnest and lightest' iPhone yet. Retina display.

The new iPhone 5 weighs 112 grams and is 20% lighter. It has a 1136 x 640 resolution and a 326ppi 4in screen.

Another row of apps on the home page as predicted.

18.14 iPhone 5 is official.

18.13 Phil Schiller takes to stage. iPhone time. "It's the phone that's changed phones forever."

18.12 Apps: 700,000 apps in the App Store. 250,00 made for iPad. Average user using over 100 apps.

18.10 iPad: market share has gone from 62% to 68%, says Cook. iPad is 91% of all tablet web traffic. Wow.

18.08 iPad: 17 million sold April - June. 84 million iPads sold so far.

18.05 Tim Cook, Apple CEO is on stage. Obligatory house-keeping begins, much whooping and hollering ensues as Cook announces Apple has had 83 millions visitors to its 380 stores in the last quarter, April to June.

18.00 And we're off...

17.45 15 minutes to go... Wondering how big a deal a new iPhone is? The iPhone 4S, Apple's last version of the iPhone, reached over one million pre-orders within the first 24 hours of it being on sale. Four million units of the iPhone 4S were subsequently sold in the first three days of release. Pretty big, then.

17.15 It looks like iTunes 11 will be announced today and made available in October. We're expecting the new iPhone 5 to get a quicker turn around with expert opinion suggesting that new iPhone could open for pre-order as soon as Friday September 14th.

16.45 A new Apple connector looks pretty nailed-on and leaks point toward the new cable being called 'Lightning' (picture below, via LA Times). It certainly fits with the 'Thunderbolt' name of the connection used on Macs. As well as a new connector, which means it won't work with existing iOS speaker docks out of the box, the Lightning cable may will boost data transfer speeds too, according to reports. Of course this new iPhone 5 connector will mean you'll need to use an adapter for connecting to existing kit. Not ideal. All will soon be revealed...

16.00 So, it looks like the iPhone 5 will also be joined by iTunes 11. While many will no doubt welcome a redesign, could the new version be much more than that? Rumours have circulated for some time regarding Apple offering hi-res music for sale and/or delivering a Spotify-style streaming service, and the WSJ [subscription required] suggests today could be the day that more information is revealed.

15.30 More searching on the Apple website seems to confirm that the iPhone 5 will be a 4G LTE phone, again from 9to5Mac. This doesn't mean it will work in all territories of course – as we found with the iPad, when Apple was forced to drop the 4G part of the name from the UK model – though it looks increasingly likely. Will the EE 4G network get the exclusive?

15.00 Apple appears to have confirmed the name will be the iPhone 5 as well as the existence of new iPod touch and iPod nano models and an update to iTunes. The slip was uncovered by 9to5Mac, who found the primed press releases for the new products via a simple Google search. Oops.

14.30 A reminder that the action at the Apple launch starts at 6pm UK time. In the mean time, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the iPhone 5 could boost the US economy by up to half a percentage point in Q4 of 2012. Not bad for a phone, eh?

J.P. Morgan, who announced the figure, expects Apple to sell around 8 million iPhone 5s in the final three months of the year.

14.00 Four hours and counting to the start of the Apple iPhone launch. We're expecting a taller, slimmer, faster iPhone. A 4in screen looks pretty likely, as does a faster processor, more memory and maybe even a top-of-the-range 64GB model. We're intrigued to hear more about the apparent new dock connector, too, plus whether the iPhone 5 4G will work on the UK's brand new 4G network.

We're also expected new additions to the iPod family, with a new iPod Touch and a new iPod nano looking most likely, plus newly designed Apple earphones. Expect to hear all about the latest iOS 6 software, too, no doubt with some smart new apps to show off what it – and the iPhone 5 – can do.

For a fuller rumour fix, check our round-up of the last few months' iPhone 5 rumours. We'll be updating this page throughout the day and then live throughout the iPhone launch. Let us know your thoughts on everything Apple and iPhone in the comments section below.

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Joe Cox
Content Director

Joe is the Content Director for What Hi-Fi? and Future’s Product Testing, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for almost 20 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff, and the Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).