MacDailyNews presents live coverage of Apple’s September 9th special event

Apple CEO Tim Cook and a team of Apple executives will be holding their “Hey Siri, give us a hint” special event today, September 9th, at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT. San Francisco: 10:00am / New York: 1:00pm / London: 6:00pm / Berlin 7:00pm / Salzburg 7:00pm / Moscow: 8:00pm / Beijing: 1:00am (September 10th) / Tokyo: 2:00am (September 10th) / Sydney 3:00am (September 10th).

The special event will take place at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California.

It is widely expected that Apple today will unveil the new flagship 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus and the smaller 4.7-inch iPhone 6s with an expanded implementation of “Force Touch,” the new larger iPad Pro, an all-new Apple TV, a gold aluminum Apple Watch Sport, and new Apple Watch bands. Mac updates may be announced (although could be limited to press release only).

Apple’s special event will be webcast live by Apple here. MacDailyNews will offer live notes during Tim Cook and company’s special event presentation right here on this page. So, just open both the webcast and this page so you can watch and comment live and we’ll see you here!

Apple’s “Hey Siri, give us a hint” special event live notes:

• End of event
• AAPL: $111.56 Down 0.75(0.67%) 3:09PM EDT
• One Republic takes stage to play (Cook: “One of my absolute favorite bands.”)

• Cook applauds Apple employees
• Apple has hands-on experiences available to attendees
• Cooks recaps the event’s… uh, events.

• New iPhone 6s/Plus commercial

• iCloud Storage upgrades: prices halves
– 50GB $0.99.mo.
– 200GB $2.99/mo.
– 1TB: $9.99/mo.

• A new iPhone each year, choose your carrier, unlocked iPhone, includes AppleCare+, starting at $32/mo.
• New Apple Upgrade Program: annual upgrades for unlocked phone.

• iOS 9 released September 16
• Over 130 countries, over 400 carriers by end of the year
• Available September 25
• Pre-order September 12

• Enjoy your Live Photos with a 16GB iPhone. Make that “Live Photo.” Singular.

• iPhone 6s Plus:
– 16GB $299
– 64GB $399
– 128GB $499
• iPhone 6s:
– 16GB $199
– 64GB $299
– 128GB $399
• New leather covers and silicone covers
• “You can recycle your Android phone for free at any Apple Store.”
• So, Apple has a new app in Google Play store: “Move to iOS” (“It’s the neighborly thing to do.”)
• More and more Android users are upgrading to iPhones
• Wi-Fi twice as fast
• 23 LTE bands, LTE is twice as fast
• Just take a photo as you usually would and “Live Photo” is always on – press on it and you see it moving, hear the sound (they move a bit as you swipe through them in Photo Roll)
• Live Photos: 3D Touch a photo and they animate into video (they can have audio, too)
• Retina Flash, True Tone – entire display acts as flash for front-facing camera
• 5MP FaceTime HD camera
• iPhone 6s/Plus offers 4K video (8 million pixels per frame)
• iPhone remains the gold standard for smartphone photography
• Un-retiuched iPhone 6s/Plus photos shown
• Apple will not add pixels if it degrades image quality
• Apple uses “deep trench isolation” to significantly reduce pixel artifacts
• Improved autofocus – even faster and more accurate
• “As you know, as you add pixels, to degrade image quality in may ways.”
• New camera: all-new 12MP iSight camera
• 2nd-gen. Touch ID
• M9 motion coprocessor (embedded and always on)
• Schiller: The most advanced processor ever in a smartphone
• Pixeltoys demo
• 90% faster graphics – console-class GPU
• 70% faster than A8 – desktop class CPU
• iPhone 6s/Plus: 3rd-gen 64-bit Apple A9, new transistor architecture (more energy efficient), optimized for real-world use
• Phil Schiller retakes stage
• Emergency selfie function
• Take action in apps without having to open them – right from homescreen
• 3D Touch is integrated throughout iOS 9
• AAPL: $111.43 Down 0.88(0.78%) 2:36PM EDT
• Federighi demos iOS 9 and 3D Touch
• Apple’s Craig Federighi take stage
• Mini-tap lasts 10 milliseconds, Full-tap last 15 milliseconds
• Taptic Engine comes to iPhone 6s/Plus
• Provides tactile feedback for your actions
• Light press = Peek. Harder press = Pop.
• iPhone now also recognizes force, enabling new gestures: “Peek” and “Pop.”
• Takes Multi-Touch to the next level – Jony Ive video for 3D Touch
• 3D Touch is a tremendous breakthrough in interacting with our devices
• Introducing 3D Touch
• Displays covered with new Ion-X glass (like Apple Watch)
• New custom 7000-Series aluminum alloy. Silver, Gold, Space gray, Rose Gold
• Phil Schiller takes stage
• The most incredible iPhones Apple’s ever made
• The most advanced smartphones in the world
• “The only thing that’s changed is everything.”
• Come in rose gold finish
• iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus
• Cook retakes stage to talk iPhone.

• Eddy Cue: “Apple TV is the foundation for the future of television” (because we don’t have our content deals, yet – MDN Ed.)
• Eddy Cue: Apple TV dev kit available today
• Available “Late October.”
• 32GB Apple TV – $149, 64Gb Apple TV – $199
• Remote uses Bluetooth 4.4 – no pointing at TV necessary, controls TV on/off, switches inputs, adjust volume, recharge via Lightning
• Apple TV: 64-bit Apple A8, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, IR receiver
• MLB, as usual, makes the best sports apps (which is somewhat strange for such a relatively old sport)
• Watch two game at the same time (split screen)
• Redesigned, updated MLB At Bat app for Apple TV
• MLB games stream via At Bat app (60fps)
• MLB (Major League Baseball) takes stage
• 80% of GILT’s mobile sales come from iOS devices
• AAPL $112.18 Down 0.13(0.12%) 2:17PM EDT
• Bar the windows and ledges over at Roku 🙂
• GILT shopping app
• Remote works like Wiimote. You can swing it to swing a “bat” onscreen
• Harmonix’s Beat Sports music game demo
• Exclusively on Apple TV – Crossy Road goes multiplayer
• Remote as game controller is very precise
• AirBnB, Guitar hero, Crossy Road (think: endless “Frogger”), Shadowmatic – there will be myriad new apps
• Apple TV SDK for developers
• Apple TV runs tvOS is based on iOS (which is based on OS X) and built for the living room
• iTunes Movies, iTunes TV, Apple Music all designed for Apple TV
• “Hey Siri, open music.” Apple Music opens
• You can ask for weather, sports scores while watching and the Apple TV displays the scores, weather forecast
• Channels and networks aren’t important. You ask for the content and whichever service has it is what you are presented with
• “Hey Siri, what did she say?” Apple Tv rewinds 15-seconds and replays automatically, temporarily turns on captions
• “Hey Siri, show me that Modern Family episode with Edward Norton” – Boom! Episode comes up
• New screensavers – high-def slo-mo video exclusively for Apple TV
• Hold down Siri button on remote and ask for whatever you want
• Universal search via Siri: works across iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Showtime and more to come
• 6-button remote with glass touchpad
• Eddy Cue takes stage to present Apple TV
• Siri plays a major role in new Apple TV experience
• Apple working really hand, and really long to deliver the new Apple TV
• Turn the remote sideways an it becomes a gaming controller
• New remote has a touchpad
• Need: Powerful hardware, modern OS, new UX, developer tools, App Store
• The TV experience screams for innovation
• “The future of TV is apps.”
• Over 60% of pay TV streaming happens on Apple devices
• Apple TV
• Cook retakes stage

• iPad Air 2 starts at $499
• iPad Air starts at $399
• iPad mini 2 in entry-level at $269
• $399, iPad Air internals with 7.9-inch display
• Apple debuts new iPad mini 4

• iPad Pro video… narrated by Jony Ive
• Available in “November.” (Ugh!)
• Apple Pencil: $99
• Apple Smart Keyboard: $169
• 32GB (Wi-Fi) – $799, 128GB (Wi-Fi) – $949, 128GB (WiFi + Cellular) – $1079
• Space Gray, Gold, Silver
• iPad Pro offers up to 150 Mbps LTE
• iPad Pro shows it’s GPU chops. Wildly impressive to see a 1.57 pound slab of glass and aluminum doing these things.
• 3D 4 Medical demo – Irene Walsh – human anatomy app (Apple really targeting medical markets)

• Adobe demo proceeds… Adobe Comp, Adobe Photoshop Fix (announced today – for retouching), Adobe Photoshop Sketch – all multitasking, switching back and forth
• Adobe’s Eric Snowden (no relation, we don’t think) demos TypeKit fonts – first time on a mobile device
• Thanks to iPad Pro, Microsoft’s Surface is even deader than it is now – as MSFT employees help sell iPad Pro to the world from Apple’s stage
• iPad Pro shows Word and Excel side-by-side
• AAPL $112.59 Up 0.28(0.25%) 1:37PM ED
• Meh
• Microsoft Office demo for Apple Pencil – draw on Office docs
• Kirk Konigsbauer – Microsoft Office – takes stage

• Precision that gives you the ability to touch a single pixel
• Bar the windows and ledges of the third-party stylus makers
• “Unique tip signature” lets you use Apple Pencil simultaneously with your finger
• iPad Pro enables new classes of applications, which require new precision and accuracy
• Stylus: “Apple Pencil” – cue up the Jony Ive video…
• New connector (Smart Connector) carries keyboard power and data
• “Woven fabric” key structure
• Physical keyboard for iPad from Apple: Smart Keyboard

• 4-speak audio system – auto balanced depending how you’re holding the iPad
• 6.9mm thin, 1.57 pounds
• Edit 3 streams of 4K video simultaneously with iMovie on iPad Pro
• AutoCAD for iPad being shown
• 10-hour battery life
• iPad Pro has desktop class performance
• iPad Pro is faster than 90% of portable PCs shipped in the last 6 mos.
• GPU perfromance 360X original iPad
• A9X processor, 2x memory bandwidth of A8X, 22X original iPad CPU performance
• 2732×2048 pixels
• Multitasking features of iOS 9 designed with iPad Pro in mind
• Most advanced display Apple has ever built
• 5.6 million pixels (more than a Retina MacBook Pro
• Width of iPad Pro is same as length (height in portrait) as iPad Air
• Full-sized virtual keyboard
• Biggest screen on any iOS device. 12.9-inches

• Phil Schiller takes stage
• “The most capable and powerful iPad we’ve ever created.”
• iPad Pro.
• The biggest news in iPad since iPad
• Cook retakes stage

• watchOS 2 available on Sept. 16th
• Product RED band, other new bands
• Apple Watch Sport now comes in gold and rose gold in anodized aluminum. Same price as Apple Watch Sport.
• Apple Watch – new models and new bands
• Apple Watch Hermes available in select stores in October
• Hermes to create Apple Watch band collection
• Williams retakes stage
• SENSE4BABY app monitors pregnant mother’s stats (mother heartbeat, baby heart rate, contractions, etc.) Mother can listen to her baby’s heart rate right on her wrist
• Apple Watch with AIRSTRIP is for medical professionals – patient data that is secure right to the physician’s wrist – live health data from patient
• AIRSTRIP for Apple Watch demo
• Facebook Messenger, iTranslate, GoPro remote coming to Watch
• Now, with watchOS 2, there are native apps
• There are already over 10,000 Apple Watch apps on App Store
• watchOS 2 features and additions recap
• Jeff Williams takes stage
• Apple Watch customer satisfaction is an incredible 97%
• Apple Watch: “Closing those [Activity] rings has become a healthy obsession.”
• We are about to make some monster announcements. No time for updates…

• Apple Special Event begins as Apple CEO Tim Cook takes the stage: “Thank you, thank you. Good morning, good morning.”

• Venue is remarkably large (vs. previous Apple events)
• “Please switch all electronic devices to silent mode.”
• AAPL $112.73 Up 0.42(0.37%) 12:58PM EDT
• Apple’s live stream link: apple.com/apple-events/september-2015/
• Background music for event live from Apple Music’s Beats 1
• AAPL $112.64 Up 0.33(0.30%) 12:52PM EDT

• Event begins at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT. San Francisco: 10:00am / New York: 1:00pm / London: 6:00pm / Berlin 7:00pm / Salzburg 7:00pm / Moscow: 8:00pm / Beijing: 1:00am (September 10th) / Tokyo: 2:00am (September 10th) / Sydney 3:00am (September 10th).

38 Comments

  1. If Tim presents exactly what is known all over the internet and nothing more, then Apple should consider stopping these events. There is no fun in watching what you already know in minutest details. Bring ONE MORE THING surprises or stop wasting everybody’s time.

    1. Apple has always been, and still is, super-secretive regarding their new devices and services. They have always very strongly worded non-disclosure agreements with everyone from outside, and they have always guarded new products very heavily. The problem today is that Apple is significantly larger than it was during Steve’s time, and it has much wider circle of people with whom it collaborates on bringing these products and services to the market. While it was much easier before, to keep the secret about a translucent plastic iMac, when the only ones you had to control were the people making that iMac in Mexico or Ireland, today, with literally millions of people building iPhones, iPads, Macs, AppleTVs and other stuff, any one of them can leak a photo or a story. Even while Steve was alive, products did get leaked (iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air all got plenty of speculation just before they appeared), and some of them with quite a reasonable accuracy, but today, it seems that Apple simply can’t control the vast army of people involved in development of its products and services.

      I can’t imagine how Apple could secretly bring ONE MORE THING when so many people are involved in the development.

      1. True enough. Still,

        (1) They were able to keep Swift, their new programming language, a secret. But in that case, there were comparatively few persons involved, even over a several-year development period; and no blueprints or photos of prototypes to tempt would-be smugglers.

        (2) They were able to keep their 64-bit SoC a secret by sneaking it past Samsung scoundrels using the purloined letter trick.

        (3) Apple retains the ability to surprise from time to time by distracting spies with other, sexier, projects emerging from their pipeline; further,

        (4) they’ll schedule talks with automotive groups, Hollywood moguls, toymakers or firearms manufacturers, and let buzzing clouds of speculation mask the real innovation going on.

      2. Yes, and of course Sandy wants the product and half a dozen developers to show what its capable of – without anyone in the tech media knowing anything about it beforehand. Right, that’s easy …..

    2. So Schiller says “… and who knows productivity better than Microsoft?”; the audience is in shock, silent; Schiller continues, “… right?”, the audience bursts into laughter..!!!

      Can’t make this stuff up.

    3. Apple managed to keep some surprises in the minutest details. The Pencil was a total unknown and excellent.

      Rather than bitch at Apple, please bitch at China. All the bits and pieces of Apple gear we learned about were snuck out of Apple’s contracted manufacturers. That’s one reason I consistently use the phrase ‘China: Criminal Nation.’ (I’ve been bitching at Apple to get the hell out of China for many years).

      Also bitch at the cultish nature of rumor mongering about Apple. How many total bullshit rumors did we read about Apple his year? I can’t count them all. And maybe Steve Jobs encouraged that attitude by making Apple so deliberately and consistently secretive.

      Me: I love watching these events and am thrilled every time! (Apart from those events with major bungling).

      1. Yes, and how many of the rumours we hear about are generated by those with an interest in stockmarket share price movement to help them make daily trades and bet on the direction of travel.

  2. Often, the way something is presented is just as important as what is presented. Steve was passionate about Apple products and Apple events were like Christmas to him – a reveal of all of the “presents” for the world.

    Apple is still producing great designs and great products. Sure, there are some software issues, but those existed during Steve’s time as CEO, too. What is missing is the emotion from the stage during Apple events – the love for the new products, the delight in revealing them to the public, and the showmanship of Steve Jobs – the conversational style, the artful pauses, the “one more thing” that capped it all.

  3. One block from the Bill Graham auditorium:

    KTVU ‏@KTVU 1m1 minute ago
    #BREAKING #SFPD closing off Market St between 8th and 9th to vehicles and peds to investigate a suspicious device at Market and 8th.

  4. iPad Pro has simply obsoleted the Samsung tablets overnight … well on the November release. Good bye Samsung – Galaxy Note Pro.

    iPad Pro is simply astonishing with both the pen and mechanical keyboard and the apps shown.

  5. Well, that was a much better product event.

    Focussed, new gear, not too much of the cringeworthy oversell of the previous event.

    2 new phones and an iPad Pro – its going to be an expensive run up to Christmas ( and that’s not including the kids !!)

  6. Excellent, busy presentation. I only got knocked off the feed 5 times and was rapidly connected again upon reload. Great tunes. Easily the most incredible collection of new Apple gear at one single presentation.

    But when is OS X 10.11 El Capitan ready?

    September 30th!

    1. Totally agree with the product-packed presentation. I couldn’t join until just after the Watch segment, but the video feed wasn’t interrupted for me a single time. Great A/V quality, and great presentation! Nice job, Apple! Firing on all cylinders!!!

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