Pre-order September 14th or pick one up in a local store September 21st.
Highlights for me:
iPhone 5
- Larger 4" iPhone that's still thinner and lighter than the previous model. Incredible to think how much stuff they're packing into a mere 7.6 millimetres thin device.
- Support for LTE - next generation wireless data communication.
- New A6 chip that is faster and powering a bigger display and still gives you 8 hours talk time or up to 10 hours of video playback
- New lightning connector. Gone is the large 30 pin connector. Replaced by a smaller (and reversible) connector that will hopefully stick around for as long as the 30 point connector did.
- Improved camera with panoramic mode and the ability to take pictures while recording video.
iOS 6
New version of the operating system for mobile Apple devices. The first one that won't work on original iPads while still apparently working on the iPhone 3GS - though I can't imagine it'll perform all that smoothly. Still pretty incredible for a mobile device that was released in June of 2009 to run a modern operating system that's pushed as aggressively as iOS is.
- Maps. Meh.
- Improved Siri sounds interesting. I don't have Siri on my iPhone 4 and I've yet to see anyone really using it all that much.
- Facebook integration. Meh.
- Shared Photo Streams will be nice. But I assume it'll still have weird limitations or issues that crop up when trying to share things like that in Apple's narrow view of social sharing.
- FaceTime over cellular will be good - so long as Canadian carriers don't block it somehow?
- Remodelled aka redesigned iTunes Store, App Store and iBookstore apps. About time.
See the bottom of the What's New page to figure out if your device will run iOS6.
Available September 19th, 2012.
EarPods
New earphones. All the marketing speak (years of research!) won't mean anything if they don't sound good. Have to wait and see.
iTunes Redesign
A redesign of iTunes that is sorely needed. We'll see if user's needs are trumped by iTunes Store needs - pushing people to buy more stuff in the App Store or iTunes Store vs letting them manage their music library is proving to be a difficult line to walk for Apple.
Coming in October 2012 - details available here.