UPDATE Sept. 9, 15:44 PT: Apple has unveiled two larger iPhone 6s, its first smart watch and a new mobile payments system at a landmark product showcase in Cupertino on Tuesday.
The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will cost $199 on a two-year contract in the U.S., while the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus will cost $299 and be available in stores from Sept. 19. The new Apple Pay mechanism will let users tap their iPhones on a terminal to make a transaction and work with 220,000 merchants when the feature launches later this month.
The Apple Watch, which comes with a heart rate monitor and interchangeable straps, will start at $349 but won't ship till early next year. Apple said nothing about the device's all-important battery life.
----------
You can watch a live webcast of the event here.
Apple has built an enormous white tent in the middle of De Anza College, which could be for showcasing products but whose exact purpose has yet to be explained.
Expectations are high for Apple to not only launch larger-sized iterations of the iPhone, but enter an entirely new device category too, with a wearable device already being dubbed the iWatch.
The pressure is also on for Apple CEO Tim Cook to push forward Apple's most important and profitable business -- the iPhone -- and prove out recent comments by Apple software exec Eddy Cue, that his company "has the best product line that I've seen in my 25 years at a Apple." Will the event's larger-than-usual iteration of fashion bloggers be wowed by a stylish new iWatch? And how might Apple justify a 180-degree change on its stance on phone sizes?
Answers on that and more are coming from 10am Pacific, so check back for more updates.
See also Forbes contributor Maribel Lopez's "Live Updates From Inside Apple's iPhone 6 Event."
----------
Now 15 minutes to go till the event kicks off. Press and researchers have been mingling outside this enormous white structure which Apple built especially for the launch. Apple insiders are referring to it as the MOAT, or mother of all tents.
We're betting that products will be showcased inside, and guests will line up to go in and try the next iDevices after the keynote finishes.
----------
Guests are making their way into the Flint Center in preparation for the big keynote. The front rows of this 2,300-seat capacity theatre are reserved for VIPs and Apple employees.
----------
Lights have gone down and the audience is hollering. And now a tastefully directed Apple promotional video. In silent floating text, Apple says "You never doubted we would change things."
----------
Tim Cook takes to the stage.
“I usually go through a few updates, but we have so much to cover, I'm dispensing with those other than to tell you everything's great... Today we have some amazing products to show you."
Cook walks off stage to be replaced by a slow-motion video of two large, iPhones with curved corners.
"These are the new iPhones. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus," says Cook. "These are the best phones we've ever done." This confirms multiple reports and rumors that Apple was going for bigger sizes with its next iPhones.
----------
Apple's Phil Schiller takes to the stage to talk about the new bigger iPhones. These are a new generation of retina display, retina HD. "They're a lot bigger."
He shows a diagram to demonstrate sizes. While the iPhone 5S display measures 4 inches diagonally, the iPhone 6 is 4.7 inches and the iPhone 6 Plus is 5.5 inches.
----------
Schiller shows off a new landscape mode for emails, messages and the home screen on the larger iPhone 6.
And how much thinner they are:
----------
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be powered by Apple’s A8 chip. Processing power is 25% faster, graphics are 50% faster.
----------
Excellently-named game developer Super Evil Megacorp comes on stage to demonstrate the game Vainglory on the iPhone 6, exploiting the more-powerful A8 chip. Claims are you'll be able to play games in higher resolution on the iPhone 6 than even next generation consoles.
---------
Schiller takes to the stage again. The iPhone 6 has a barometer that senses air pressure to measure relative elevation - whether you're going up a large mountain or small hill. The phone's M8 coprocessor measures motion data from the phone's gyroscope, accelerometer and compass.
----------
Now onto the camera. The iPhone 6 has an 8MP iSight camera has an all-new sensor and feature that Apple is calling Focus Pixels. Apparently it's the kind of technology that was only previously found in professional DSLR cameras.
The iPhone 6 also does slow-motion video at 120 fps or 240 fps. The camera is better at detecting faces and its burst mode detects smiles and blinks to recommend the best photo. There's time-lapse video (not unlike Instagram's new Hyperlapse app) and "cinematic video stabilization."
----------
Now the prices: The 16 GB iPhone 6 will start at $199 on a two-year contract.
----------
Tim Cook is back on the stage, and introduces software exec Eddy Cue to talk about payments. Cue introduces the all-important Apple Pay, a touch-to-pay system built on NFC technology that Apple has built into the iPhone 6.
Apple has partnered with
Apple putting a big focus on privacy here. Cue says Apple also doesn't know what you bought, where you bought it or how much you paid for it.
-----------
And now the moment everyone's been waiting for. Tim Cook takes to the stage to - we assume - introduce Apple's first wearable.
"We believe this product will redefine what people expect from this category. I’m so proud to share it with you this morning. It’s the next chapter in apple’s story. And here it is."
It's called Apple Watch. First look at a slow-motion video shows something not unlike Samsung's Galaxy Gear, except this has interchangeable straps, and most noticeably, a scrolling wheel on the side. Traditionally, these kinds of wheels were used for winding watches or changing the time. Here Apple is cleverly using the motif as a navigation tool, a bit like the original scrolling wheel on the iPod.
A video shows Apple's top designer Jony Ive talking about the scrolling wheel, what Apple calls the Digital Crown. You can scroll, zoom, and navigate the Apple Watch.
Infrared and visible-light LEDs, along with photosensors, detect the pulse rate. Ive says his team has designed six different straps that are easily interchangeable.
Here's another view of the watch face, essentially a square with rounded corners. No talk of measurements yet, though.
Ive finishes by saying Apple is at a stage where it can design technology to be worn, "to be truly personal."
----------
Cook says we've been working on Apple Watch "for a long time... It covered every discipline at a Apple."
Cook invites software exec Kevin Lynch to the stage to talk about the user interface on the watch. The apps are arranged as a bubble of small circles that you can zoom in and out of, by "rotating the crown." The idea of the crown is customers can avoid swiping and taping on a tiny screen.
----------
Lynch demonstrates quick ways to change watch faces, zoom into a huge mosaic of photos using the Digital Crown, use Siri by pressing into the Digital Crown, and intriguingly, reply to messages. Lynch explains that Apple Watch will detect meaning from messages to suggest quicker, automated responses.
Lynch zooms in and out of Apple Maps and swipes around on a map of the local area in Cupertino. One pretty neat innovation: the watch gives taptic feedback when giving directions via Apple Maps, with different types of feedback depending on if you need to turn left or right. Lynch describes it as an invisible guide.
----------
Another neat feature - Watch users can send simple sketches to other uses with their finger. Essentially, do-it-ourself emojis.
Lync introduces WatchKit, a framework that allows developer to extend their existing apps to Apple Watch. A select range of other companies have already built apps for the device, including Honeywell (currently competing head on with Google's Nest on smart thermostats) and Nike.
----------
Tim Cook gets back onto the stage to talk about health and fitness. "This is a very important area for me," he says.
Apple has developed dedicated Activity and Workout apps that track movement, exercise and standing. No indication that Apple has figure out how to passively track glucose levels with this device, as rumors have previously suggested. If that were the case, Apple would be able to vaguely track a wearer's diet - still a ways off, it seems.
-----------
Now for a few more concrete details. Apple Watch will cost $349 and it will work with both the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6. Cook says the watch will ship early next year.
Crucially, there's no mention of battery life, one of the toughest problems besetting smart-watch makers and an issue that Apple was rumored to be grappling with.
-----------
That seems to be the end of the main iDevice presentation. Cook leaves the stage to music from Bono and U2.
----------
Cooks comes back to the stage to announce that Apple will release an entire new album by U2 for free to all 500 million iTunes customers. "This will be the largest album release in history," he says. "Over a half-billion people own it. Right now."
He finishes off by calling out Apple designer Jony Ive, iOS 8 lead Craig Federighi and software lead Eddy Cue for special thanks. Attendees are invited to head out to the mysterious white tent outside to try out the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, and their payment functions. Plenty of celebrities milling about here with Jony Ive and co., including Dr. Dre, Will.I.Am and Stephen Fry, P Diddy and Steve Wozniak.
Here's what it looks like inside:
"We promise we won't take your credit card details," Cook says, before waving and walking off the stage.
Apple investors don't seem hugely enthused by today's unveiling, much of which had already been leaked and, presumably, priced into the shares. The company's stock is down by 0.5% to $98.07 in afternoon trading in New York.
----------
And that's a wrap for this live blog. Check back for more links to commentary and analysis on today's big unveiling.
