Let's Talk iPhone Event

The Lets Talk iPhone event concluded with the star of the event being the iPhone 4S. While no other devices were announced, the new iPhone has a lot to offer with an upgrade boasting up to 7x more speed, an 8MP camera with 1080p and a built in personal assistant.

Keep reading for a full coverage of the event

The even took off with Apple's CEO Tim Cook taking the stage. He spoke about the Apple ecosystem and the Apple stores around the world.  He continued discussing the success of OS X Lion which has sold six million copies so far which is 80% more than Snow Leopard.

He also spoke about Apple computers like the Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and iMac. Comparing them to their PC counterparts and talking about their sales figures. Next in line for the iPod, iPhone and iPad. He spoke about their growth and how they stack up against their competitors.

"iPad is the 'undisputed' #1 tablet in the world. Everybody and their brother is trying to compete, but three quarters of all tablets sold are iPads."

There are apparently 250 million iPhones, iPods and iPads out there.

iOS 5

Next on stage was Scott Forstall who spoke about iOS. He discussed statistics and compared iOS to it's counterparts. He then presented the Cards application which allows you to print your own cards using the pictures on your device. You can print and mail it automatically and you will receive notifications when it is delivered. Sending a card will cost $2.99 for a card in the US, $4.99 elsewhere in the world.

The Cards application will be available on October 12.

Next Scott spoke about iOS 5 and it's top 10 features :

1. Notifications - While you can access by swiping down on your iPhone screen.
2. iMessage - A messaging service for iOS works between all iOS devices on 3G and WiFi
3. Reminders - While are location aware and integrate into notifications.
4. Twitter - Which is now integrated into iOS allowing you to share pictures from within photos.
5. Newsstand - A new app which allows you to keep your magazine subscriptions in one app.
6. Camera - Which has been updated to take a picture by simply double tapping the home button.
7. Game Center - Which has been updated to add photos, recommendations and achievement points of friends.
8.  Safari - Which features the Reader function which allows you to make use of the entire screen real estate and Reading Lists which allows you store a list of links which is synced across all your iOS devices. iPad Safari will feature tabbed browsing which allows you to go between tabs with a single click.
9. Mail - Now offers rich formatting, Indentation, moving addresses around and flagging messages.
10. PC Free - Allows you to sync and update your iOS device without having to connect it to your computer.

iOS 5 will be available on October 12th.

iCloud

Next up is Eddy Cue who is here to discuss iCloud. Apple's cloud service which will be available for free on OS X Lion and iOS 5. Eddy talks about iTunes on the cloud, which will allow you to re-download your music and media anytime on any device. Photos you take on your iPhone will be sent to the cloud and across all your iOS devices. Documents will also be synced across all the devices you have connected to your Cloud. Even your apps and your books will be easily synced using the Cloud. The other great feature of iCloud is the online backup, which will store your contacts and calendars across all your iOS devices

iCloud will be available on October 12th

Eddy continues to present the Find My iPhone feature which has been updated to Find My Friends. The Find my Friends feature allows you to share your location with your friends, and you can send a limited time invitation which can be used to quickly find someone who are looking for or to give driving directions to a friend who is lost. For the stalkers out their the application has parental controls so you can protect your privacy.

You will receive 5GB of free storage space, which you can purchase upgrades for  according to your requirements.

Next up is iTunes Match. Which is a music service which scans your music library and matches it with Apple's own Music. What iTunes already has you get from Apple and the rest is uploaded to your cloud. You can stream your entire library and playlists. iTunes match will costs $24.99 a year.

iTunes Match will be available by the end of October in the U.S.

iPod

Phill Shiller then got on stage to speak about the iPod likeup

"We introduced the iPod because we loved music, and that hasn't changed."

The iPod Nano will be updated will a new, user friendly UI. You can even use the iPod Nano as a watch, with an accessory. The iPod Nano will have a price reduction and now cost $129 for 8GB and $149 for 16GB. Next up is the iPod Touch which will also receive the iOS 5 update. The iPod Touch will now be available in Black and White and will also have a reduced price and will cost $199 for 8GB, $299 for 32GB and $399 for 64GB.

The new iPod Nano and iPod Touch will be available starting October 12th.

iPhone 4S

Next in line for discussion is the iPhone and the introduction of the brand new iPhone 4S. The new iPhone will resemble the iPhone 4 on the outside, but is all new inside. It has a dual core A5 chip which boasts to be 2x faster than the A4, which makes the iPhone 4S 7x faster than the previous iPhone.

Infinity Blade 2 is demonstrated by Mike Capps from Epic. It will be available through the App Store on December 1st.

Phil then discusses the other updates on the iPhone 4S. Even with more powerful graphics and processor Apple has increased the battery life. The iPhone 4S will offer 8 hours of 3G talk time. 6 hours of browsing, nine on WiFi. 10 hours of video, and 40 hours of music. Apple has also improved the antenna on their new iPhone, putting an end to the antenna issues which plagued the iPhone 4. Download speeds have been increased to up to 2x faster now offering 14.4 Mbps. Additionally the iPhone will now be a world phone, instead of it's separate GSM/CDMA definition.

Next up is the camera. The iPhone 4 camera has grown in popularity and has become the number one camera on Flickr, beating some big DSLR names while getting there. The iPhone 4S will feature an 8MP sensor with a 3264 x 2448 resolution. Additional to the 60% boost in pixels there is a 73% increase in light thanks to a backside illuminated CMOS and its even 33% faster capture when compared to the previous iPhone. The statistics continue with 30% more sharpness, f/2.4 aperture, 26% better white balance with a new Image Signal processor and amazing capture time of 1.1 seconds for the first picture followed by just 0.5 seconds for the second.

Next in line is the video capture which has been updated to 1080p HD. Video capture includes image stabilization and temporal noise reduction.

AirPlay mirroringis demonstrated next which allows you to share what you are viewing on your phone to your HD TV either wired or wirelessly

Apple leaves the best for last as Scott Forstall demonstrates Siri - A personal assistant within the iPhone who responds to voice commands. Apple has taken voice commands to a whole new level with Siri allowing you to talk to your device as you would to a normal person.

"What is the hourly forcast?" Siri responds in the same way. 

"Do I need a raincoat today?" Siri responds "It sure looks like rain today."

"What time is it in Paris?" Siri responds "The time in Paris, France is 8:16pm." Siri also brings up a live clock.

"Wake me up tomorrow at 6am." Siri responds "Okay, I set it for 6am."

"Find me a great Greek restaurant in Palo Alto." Siri says (courtesy of Yelp) that she found 14 -- sorted by rating.

"Give me directions to Hoover Tower." Siri brings up Maps, shows the route, and you're good to go.

If you receive a text message while your driving and have your bluetooth headset, Just hold down the button on the headset and say

"Read my message" and Siri does so.

The Message reads "Do I have any meetings Friday at noon" When Scott then asked Siri whether he had any appointments, Siri said he did not, and so Scott then said "Reply 'I can do Friday.'" Siri remembers that Scott is referring to Phil and send the response accordingly.

He continued to demonstrate setting up a Meeting appointment using Siri and making a Reminder to call his wife also using Siri.

You can also use Siri to look up definitions and references online

"How many days are there until Christmas?" Siri says: 82 days. Also, 2 months 21 days, 11 weeks 5 days, 58 weekdays, and .22 years.

You can get a list of example of what you can do, including meetings, emails, directions, weather, stocks, looking up contacts, creating notes, searching the web, setting timers, and asking other stuff that gets routed through WolframAlpha.

Scott asks "Who are you?" Siri says "I am a humble personal assistant."

Phil then demonstrates Dictation. Which is an added way of inputting text. The feature works out of the box and improves as it learns from your voice. It Works for English (US, UK, and Australia) plus French and German. It'll be beta to start, but there'll be more languages and services coming. The iPhone 4S will be available in Black and White and will cost $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB and $399 for 64GB with a two year contract similar to the pricing on the iPhone 4, which will now cost $99 for the 8GB model. Leaving the iPhone 3GS for Free, also with 2 year contracts.

The iPhone 4S will be available on October 14th, 

with pre-orders starting on Friday October 7th. It'll be available in the US through Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint and also available in Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Germany, and Japan. On the 28th of October 22 more countries will get the iPhone 4S, and 70 countries by the end of the year. through Over 100 carriers.

Tim Cook then came back to conclude the event. Leaving us with just one device with tons of new features to play with until the iPhone 5 is eventually released.