In a rare interview a day before Samsung Electronics Co. announces a new flagship smartphone in New York, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller on Wednesday played down the expected competition from the device and discussed how believes such products — which run Google Inc.’s Android software — are inferior to Apple’s iPhone.

He shared data on the iPhone’s popularity and said Apple’s own research shows that four times as many iPhone users switched from Android than to Android during the fourth quarter, according to company research.

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Wall Street seems to think so. Apple’s shares slipped Tuesday following the mini’s unveiling and the announcement that Apple hadn’t hit the $299 price point that many had hoped for, let alone the $249 “barn burner” that some analysts at predicted. To those folks, the iPad mini may not be cheap enough to resonate with price-sensitive users looking for tablets at the market’s lower end.

But it will almost certainly resonate with others looking for a smaller, best-in-class tablet. And, honestly, when has Apple ever played at the bottom of the pricing barrel? The company’s M.O. has always been to build premium products that command premium prices and offer great margins. As Mike McGuire, research vice president at Gartner, told AllThingsD, “Apple didn’t need to come down to $200; they’ve never done products to hit competitors’ price points.”

And they’re obviously not going to start now. Because they don’t need to. Apple has sold 100 million iPads since it first launched the device two-and-a-half years ago. How did it manage to do that? Apple CEO Tim Cook answered that very question Tuesday: “Why is iPad so successful?” he asked. “Well, there’s a simple explanation. People love their iPads.”

A pat answer, I suppose. But apt. Because that’s what Apple is counting on as it rolls out the iPad mini at a price point well above that of the smaller tablets against which it will compete. Consumers already love the iPad value proposition: Compelling design, high-quality hardware and services, and a massive apps ecosystem. “Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad, and they have failed miserably,” Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller said Tuesday. “Competitors are making compromises with their products. We don’t.”

And by offering iPad’s value proposition in a smaller form factor with a lower price, Apple is very likely dramatically expanding the iPad’s addressable market. And it may make life for low-end tablet makers like Amazon and Google a little bit more difficult in the process. There’s no question that the market opportunity Amazon and Google seized early with the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 will begin to decline in size on Nov. 2 when the iPad mini ships.

“IPad mini will likely pull sales from other 7- and 8-inch tablets for consumers looking for a cheaper iPad but not the cheapest tablet or where form factor was a key purchase factor,” Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg told AllThingsD. “Apple has never made a race to the bottom in pricing as part of their strategy, leaving the lowest price (and lowest margin) sectors for players in that space to battle each other.”

Said J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz, “Should Amazon and Google be worried? Yes, they should be worried.”

So, how will the mini sell?

Well, according to the analysts I’ve spoken with. “Though we thought a sub-$300 price would be optimal, the iPad mini’s specs and app ecosystem should be able to command a premium, while also enabling Apple to generate a higher margin,” Baird analyst Will Power told AllThingsD. “We still expect strong sales, even at $329.”

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At an invitation-only event in San Jose this morning, Apple unveiled the eagerly anticipated device, just as AllThingsD said it would back in August.

The device is largely as the rumors and speculation the past few months have described it: The iPad, condensed. The iPad mini features a 7.9-inch display, with 1024 by 768 resolution that makes it 35 percent larger than the displays of seven-inch tablets like the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7. It has a 7.2mm-thick aluminum chassis (as thin as a pencil) that weighs as much as a pad of paper and is easily held in one hand, and it comes in black or white.

Apple design guru Jony Ive described Apple’s new tablet this way: “iPad mini is a concentration of the iPad, not a reduction. We didn’t want to take anything away from the original, so we built an entirely new product.”

As for the iPad Mini’s innards? Driving it is Apple’s A5 chip. The device includes a FaceTime front camera and five-megapixel back camera, LTE wireless, faster Wi-Fi, the Lightning connector and 10-hour battery life. It will arrive at market accompanied by its own version of the iPad Smart Cover.

As VP Phil Schiller noted this morning, “The iPad mini is every inch an iPad.”

Prices start at $329 for the 16 gigabyte Wi-Fi version, and $459 for the cellular mini. Preordering starts Friday, with the Wi-Fi models expected to start shipping Nov. 2, and the cellular models two weeks after that.

Also unveiled this morning, much to the chagrin of folks who recently purchased the new iPad: A fourth-generation iPad, featuring an A6x chip that doubles performance, and a chipset that doubles the graphics performance, as well. Other features: 10-hour battery life, FaceTime HD and the new Lightning connector. The price stays the same.

“Why is iPad so successful?” Apple CEO Tim Cook asked this morning. “Well, there’s a simple explanation. People love their iPads.” But, he continued, “We are just getting started. We’re not taking our foot off the gas.”

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In an email exchange obtained by 9to5Mac, Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller tells an iPhone 5 owner that the scuffs and nicks he’s seeing on the chamfered edges of his device are not an anomaly, but simply the result of typical wear and tear.

“Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color,” Schiller wrote in a message that sources tell AllThingsD is authentic. “That is normal.”

And Schiller does have a point. Because aluminium is not as hard as stainless steel, it’s more likely to show wear more quickly. So while the iPhone 5 might be rugged as all hell, cosmetically it’s a little more delicate.

But what’s not normal is to find scuffs and scratches on brand new iPhones right out of the box. And there seem to be a fair number of new iPhone 5 owners reporting just that. Three AllThingsD staffers received iPhones in such condition. Schiller didn’t address that at all. Presumably that’s a quality control issue and one that should be addressed quickly if it hasn’t been resolved already.

Apple has not yet responded to a request for comment.

[Image credit: iFixit]

Though some saw Apple’s Passbook feature as a perfect companion to NFC, Apple opted not to include the technology in the iPhone 5. Passbook is used to store loyalty cards and gift cards as well as things like boarding passes and baseball tickets.

In an interview, Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller said that Passbook alone does what most customers want and works without existing merchant payment systems.

It’s not clear that NFC is the solution to any current problem, Schiller said. “Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today.”

As for wireless charging, Schiller notes that the wireless charging systems still have to be plugged into the wall, so it’s not clear how much convenience they add. The widely-adopted USB cord, meanwhile, can charge in wall outlets, computers and even on airplanes, he said.

“Having to create another device you have to plug into the wall is actually, for most situations, more complicated,” Schiller said.

As for why the company is changing the dock connector that has been on nearly all iPhones and iPods since 2003, Schiller said it simply wasn’t possible to build products as thin as the new iPhones and iPods without changing the cord. Hence, the new “Lightning” connector.

That said, Schiller said that Apple doesn’t take changing the connector lightly.

“This is the new connector for many years to come,” he said.

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The company announced this just a few minutes ago at its iPhone 5 event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

“A lot has changed, and it’s time for the connector to evolve,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said onstage.

The new Lightning connector is 80 percent smaller; it’s all-digital, with eight electrical pins, and is reversible.

Partners like Bose, JBL and others are working to support the new connector, Schiller said. There will be an adapter that lets you plug an old cord into iPhone 5.

The Lightning 30-pin adapter costs $29, while a full cable plus adapter costs $39. (No word yet on how much replacements will cost after the first few times you lose the adapter…)

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But let’s be clear. There has also been a lot of downtime. As a result, there has been quite an opportunity for those in the court to familiarize themselves with both their surroundings and the main voices in the trial.

The Setting
All the action is taking place on the top floor of the Robert Peckham Federal Building and Courthouse, a drab five-story building in downtown San Jose.

Though known as the “ceremonial courtroom,” and larger than Judge Lucy Koh’s normal digs, Courtroom 5080 is nothing special. It’s filled with wood and paneling in various shades of brown, along with well-worn carpeting, also of the brown persuasion. Another sign of its age — aside from the decor — is the broken microphone that prevented the judge from easily conferring with lawyers outside the jury’s earshot.

Just beyond the area for the court reporter and other of Koh’s staff sit the large wood tables so packed with lawyers that the opposing sides are practically touching one another. At one point in the trial, there weren’t enough flash drives for both sides to have one. Judge Koh suggested the two sides could push their tables together and share. Apple lawyer Bill Lee said it was fine to leave the drive on Samsung’s table.

“I think we are close enough already,” Lee said.

Behind the main tables are a second row of smaller metal tables for a second group of lawyers. Given the fact that lawyers still outnumber available chairs, it is common to see a changing of the guard as one witness steps down and another takes the stand. For football fans, it looks kind of like when the offense leaves the field and the kicking team comes on after a failed third-down conversion.

The Judge
The most prominent figure in the case is Lucy Koh, the federal judge presiding over the case. A 2010 appointee of President Obama, Koh is a former intellectual property attorney herself, and knows all the tricks. She’s a stickler for deadlines and the clock, putting both sides on a tight schedule, with just 25 hours each to make their case to the jury.

Throughout the trial, Koh has shown an incredible attention to detail, keeping detailed notes on exactly which promises are made and which items are due when. Koh has also displayed remarkable recall, frequently proving to have a better memory of witness testimony than any of the lawyers.

Patient only to a point, Koh has lost her cool on a number of occasions, most often due to a barrage of filings from one side or the other.

The first notable outburst came on the opening day of the case, as a Samsung lawyer literally begged Koh to allow in some late-disclosed evidence relating to phones that Samsung had in development before the iPhone. After his begging failed to elciit a reversal, Quinn made a further motion for reconsideration.

“You’ve made your record for appeal,” Koh said. “Don’t make me sanction you, please.”

Later that morning, Samsung issued a press release commenting on some of the information that Koh had excluded, suggesting that “fundamental fairness requires that the jury decide the case based on all the evidence.” That infuriated Koh, who demanded to know who authorized the release.

There were other temper flares from Koh. Most famously, she asked Apple’s lawyers if they were smoking crack when they planned a long list of witnesses for the short amount of trial time they had remaining. Koh also lashed out at Samsung for poor management of their time, saying it was the company’s own choice to use more than half its time cross-examining Apple witnesses rather than building its own case.

But Koh has also been the voice of reason at times, urging both sides to either narrow their case or else to consider settling.

“I see risk here for both sides if we go to a verdict,” Koh said late in the trial.

The Many Lawyers
While in-house lawyers are present for both companies, all the speaking parts are handled by the companies’ outside lawyers. And, man, are there a lot of them. Apple is represented by two firms — Morrison Foerster and WilmerHale. Samsung is represented by Quinn Emanuel.

While there are dozens of lawyers of record for each side, most of the arguing and questioning of witnesses is handled by just a couple of attorneys per side.

For Apple, the lead counsel is Harold McElhinny, who projects a balance of folksy charm and technical sophistication. Among his trial credits is leading a case where a jury found Samsung guilty of willfully infringing a Pioneer patent, awarding the company more than $59 million in damages. During the earlier part of his career, McElhinny was also part of a team that represented Fujitsu in a major copyright case with IBM.

On some of the patent issues, Bill Lee of WilmerHale is on point.

Bill Lee

The middle-aged, mild-mannered Bostoner is the one who replied that he was not using crack, when Koh suggested Apple’s lawyers were high if they thought they could call all of their witnesses in the time they had remaining.

Rachel Krevans brings two decades of patent knowledge to her questions, able to make the most of just a few minutes of questioning of a witness.

Samsung is most often represented by Quinn Emanuel partner Charles Verhoeven, a fast-paced trial lawyer.

Hard-charging Tom Quinn has been heard from less often, but has had some notable clashes with Judge Koh, in some cases drawing her ire after only having spoken a handful of words.

Quinn Emanuel partner Victoria Maroulis has been the Samsung lawyer most likely to pop up when the judge needs the legal basis for a motion or other quick answer.

A dead ringer for “Lost” star Titus Welliver, salt-and-pepper-haired Kevin P.B. Johnson took a no-nonsense approach in his questioning and cross-examination of several witnesses.

Actor Titus Welliver (but it is also a darn good likeness of Samsung lawyer Kevin P.B. Johnson)

The Jury
After a full day of jury selection, seven men and three women were chosen to hear the case of Apple versus Samsung. However, on the first day of trial, one woman asked to be excused, noting that she hadn’t fully appreciated just how long things would run.

That leaves nine people to decide the multibillion-dollar case. To find infringement on any of the counts, all members of the jury must agree on that matter. It’s an eclectic group, including a 35-year hard-drive industry veteran, a bicycle-store manager and a youthful videogame enthusiast with a penchant for wearing rock-band T-shirts.

The Star Witnesses
Apple’s case began with a bang, as iOS chief Scott Forstall, top marketing exec Phil Schiller and designer Christopher Stringer all told tales of the iPhone’s early days, or “project purple,” as it was initially known. Stringer even took the jury inside Apple’s design studio, explaining the kitchen table around which Apple designs virtually all of its products.

Several Samsung executives also testified, though none really spilled any secrets or told any captivating stories. The most impressive was Jeeyuen Wang, a young woman on Samsung’s design team, who told of the long hours she spent creating icons for the Galaxy, shortly after giving birth.

“I slept perhaps two hours or three hours a night,” she said. “That was about it.”

Wang recalled how she couldn’t breastfeed regularly because of the heavy workload.

“Those were difficult times,” she said.

The Experts
Most of both sides’ cases consisted of expert testimony. For every patent at issue, it seemed, there was another highly paid professional or academic to take the stand. Most had racked up hundreds of hours in bills, with rates ranging from a low of $250 per hour to a high of $1,000 an hour.

“I’d estimate that Apple and Samsung collectively spent more on experts than is normally spent on lawyers in the average mid-sized patent case,” said Santa Clara University Professor Brian J. Love.

The verdict hinges, in significant part, on which set of experts the jury finds most credible.

The Supporting Cast
Judge Koh is assisted by a small “ragtag” bunch — her words. They include her usual staff, as well as a few borrowed hands. Despite the help, and long, long hours, Koh has frequently complained that Apple and Samsung are drowning the staff in paperwork.

Most frequently heard from among the staff has been the court reporter, Lee-Anne Shortridge. Despite the barrage of technical jargon and acronym soup, not to mention some fast talkers and soft speakers, only a few times a day does Shortridge have to ask a witness to repeat an answer.

Each day, there is room in the courtroom about two dozen press and a roughly similar number of members of the public. There is also an overflow room for additional reporters and trial watchers. Two different courtrooms, also on the fifth floor, have alternately served as the overflow room.

The “public” section actually consists of rather few ordinary Janes and Joes. Many of the seats each day are taken up by lawyers for other tech companies with peripheral ties to the case, including companies such as Research In Motion and Intel, that have been seeking to avoid having their secrets spilled.

One of the few regulars not representing any outside entity is Deborah Burns, a recent law school grad and self-professed Silicon Valley bystander. Arriving early each day to get a seat, Burns said that the trial is giving her a chance to view theory turned into reality.

“Where else would you better see what you’ve studied?” she said.

The press section is composed largely of a group of regulars who have been there throughout the trial, including reporters from Forbes, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, the San Jose Mercury News, CNET, several legal publications, and assorted others, along with — of course, AllThingsD.

Another seat is reserved for the courtroom sketch artist, whose images have been carried by Reuters. Her work is especially valuable in federal court, where cameras are generally not allowed. Both photography and audio recording are verboten in the San Jose courthouse.

Like all good Broadway shows, the current production of Apple versus. Samsung must come to an end. Final arguments over jury instructions are scheduled for Monday, with closing arguments slated for Tuesday. But if you missed this trial, there are dozens of similar cases winding their way through court dockets across the globe. Plus, regardless of which way the jury goes, there’s a good chance that some of the same players will reprise their roles in front of an appeals court.

Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller testified on Friday that, following the iPod, Apple was looking for another category it could reinvent. The iPod, Schiller said, allowed Apple to move beyond being a successful but niche player in the computer market.

Adam Tow / AllThingsD.com

“This really changed everybody’s view of Apple both inside and outside the company,” Schiller said on Friday, resuming testimony that began toward the end of the day on Tuesday.

People suggested all kinds of things Apple could do, Schiller recalled: “Make a camera, make a car, crazy stuff.”

Schiller said the company had been working on the tablet computer that would later become the iPad, but decided to shift its attention to the phone.

“At the time, cellphones weren’t any good as entertainment devices,” Schiller said.

Apple is charging that Samsung “slavishly copied” the iPhone and iPad, infringing on various patents, and seeks more than $2.5 billion in damages. Samsung denies that, and also argues Apple’s patents should be declared invalid.

To bolster its case of the iPhone and iPad as revolutionary, Apple is having Schiller go through a list of reviews for the iPad and iPhone. We’ll spare you that part.

Schiller also noted that with both the iPhone and iPad, there were plenty of doubters.

With the iPhone, Schiller recalled top executives from Palm and Microsoft predicting the device’s failure.

“Probably the biggest reason was that Apple had never had a phone before,” Schiller said. “They expected we would fall on our faces.”

There were similar concerns voiced about the iPad, Schiller said, with plenty of people in the tech industry doubting the success of a device without a physical keyboard, particularly for content creation.

Earlier in the day, Judge Lucy Koh, the federal judge overseeing the case, denied Apple’s bid to have Samsung sanctioned for a press release it issued discussing evidence that had been excluded from the case.

Koh also ruled that Apple couldn’t keep secret a survey that Apple has done of iPhone buyers. Schiller is now testifying about that, but making reference only to excerpts. Apple has said it will appeal Koh’s ruling and, for now, the company is only referring to bits and pieces that it says it will file publicly.

Update, 10:20 a.m.: Schiller revealed some interesting statistics on just how much it spends on iPhone and iPad advertising.

In fiscal 2008, the company spent $97.5 million on iPhone ads in the U.S. alone. That figure climbed to $149.6 million in 2009 and reached $173.3 million for all of fiscal 2010. On the iPad, the company spent $149.5 million in 2010. (Note: The iPad figure was briefly stated incorrectly.)

10:41 a.m.: Schiller was asked what his first reaction was when seeing Samsung’s first Galaxy S phone.

“I was pretty shocked at the appearance of the Galaxy S phone and the extent to which it appeared to copy Apple products and the problems that would create for us,” Schiller said.

“Customers can get confused as to whose products is whose,” Schiller said, noting that particular challenge with billboards and TV advertising “where customers only get a glimpse of the product.”

Competition is great, Schiller said, saying plenty of people compete with Apple fairly, developing their own products with their own design. But Schiller said when company’s copy they are trading off the goodwill and investment Apple has made.

Schiller said he was even more shocked when he saw the Galaxy Tab.

“I thought ‘They are just going to copy our whole product line,’” Schiller said.

Schiller said that some customers are choosing to buy a Samsung product because it looks like Apple’s product. Then, as a result of owning that device, Schiller said, they are more likely to buy another Samsung device.

“I absolutely believe it has had an impact on our sales,” Schiller said.

Now it is Samsung’s opportunity to cross-examine Schiller.

10:49 a.m.: Samsung’s attorney is working to get Schiller to agree that once you have a software keyboard, there is an opportunity to remove a physical keyboard and therefore have a physical screen.

He gets half. Schiller agrees that you can remove the physical keyboard but says there are many factors that go into screen size.

Samsung is going to try, over the course of the case, to lay the foundation that a large rectangular screen is an obvious outgrowth of having software keyboards. This was a part of its opening argument.

10:53 a.m.: Schiller now being shown an email between two Apple employees with one discussing that there were many things that the iPhone wasn’t first with, but was rather the first commercially successful with those features. For example, the LG Prada had a big touchscreen and, when it comes to being the first with lots of apps, the e-mail notes that Palm had 10,000 or more apps prior to 2005.

11:01 a.m.: Samsung’s lawyer is focused on trying to get Schiller to agree that some of the design characteristics of the iPhone are “functional” versus “ornamental.” He’s not using those words, but that’s the goal. That’s because Apple is asserting several design patents in the case and design patents are limited to features that are ornamental and not functional.

11:03 a.m.: Next up, Samsung is trying to show that people take a lot of time when making a phone as it is a major purchase. The goal here is to rebut the idea that customers are confused into buying Samsung products.

11:13 a.m.: Samsung’s lawyer asks if Schiller has heard the iPhone home button as the belly button.

“The kids refer to it as the bellybutton,” he said. “It’s an innie.”

Schiller said he hadn’t heard that. Neither have we.

11:44 a.m.: So close.

Schiller was asked by Samsung’s lawyers if Apple plans to change its design with iPhone 5.

Apple, of course, objected, but the judge overruled the objection. There was just enough time for all the press in the room to drool and imagine getting details on the next iPhone.

Schiller, though, said he would rather not give confidential information and Samsung didn’t press the point.

11:51 a.m.: Schiller testified that Apple was going for a certain “lust factor” with the iPhone. Schiller was asked by Samsung’s lawyers if Samsung’s designs with multiple buttons create that same “lust factor.”

Schiller said they are trying to be as beautiful, but added, “I don’t think they are as beautiful as iPhone.”

With that, Schiller is excused and Senior VP of iOS Scott Forstall is brought in. He probably won’t get to say much other than name, rank and serial number before lunch, though.

11:58 a.m.: A couple tidbits. First, Forstall says about 1,000 people report to him.

Also, asked when he first met Steve Jobs, Forstall said it was during his 1992 job interview at NeXT, the company Jobs started after leaving Apple. Forstall said he was being interviewed by someone at the company when Jobs burst in. The two conferred outside and Jobs returned and asked a few questions.

He said “he expected I would get an offer, and he also expected I would accept the offer.”

The original interviewer returned, saying, well, if there was any question whether Jobs was hands-on, there you go.

And with that, lunch. One hour.

Apple versus Samsung Full Coverage

At times, the lawyers in the case are playing to the judge, while at other times they are trying to score points with the press and the so-called “court of public opinion.” And, since the attorneys arguing the case are from outside law firms, sometimes they have to do things just to look good for their clients — Apple and Samsung.

Beyond that, both sides are also preparing for another audience — the appeals court. Whichever side loses, and perhaps both companies, will inevitably appeal to a higher court. Indeed, among the many lawyers in court, each side likely has at least one whose sole job it is to take notes about goings-on that could lay the groundwork for appeal, something known in legal speak as “reversible error.”

Samsung has been the most upset by Judge Lucy Koh’s rulings, arguing that the jury is not getting to hear key evidence both that Apple was influenced by Sony and that Samsung had its own large-screen touch devices in the works before the iPhone debuted.

Lawyers for Samsung have objected, made motions for reconsideration and, at one point, literally begged the court to change its mind.

While most appeals are handled once the case is wrapped up, certain kinds of appeals can be taken up even while the jury is still hearing arguments. If one side feels it has been deeply and clearly wronged, it can make an emergency appeal to a higher court. As disappointed as it has been with some of the decisions in the case, even Samsung hasn’t taken that step. Of course, the trial is only two days in.

Samsung’s lawyers have also been laying the groundwork for the inevitable post-trial appeal, should it lose its jury case. That fact has not gone unnoticed by anyone in court, particularly Judge Koh.

During Monday’s arguments, Koh interrupted attorney John Quinn as he was begging the court to allow evidence of touchscreen phones Samsung was developing prior to the iPhone.

“You’ve made your record for appeal,” Koh told the Samsung attorney, noting the court had already considered and reconsidered Samsung’s request. “Don’t make me sanction you, please.”

There’s a fine line for Samsung.

While it wants to create the impression that it was aggrieved at trial should it lose, it still would like to prevail in the case. And, displeased as it may be with some of Koh’s rulings, this case is slated to go on for a couple more weeks, so the lawyers also don’t want to completely alienate the judge, who will no doubt be called on to make many, many more rulings on what is and isn’t allowed to be heard by the jury.

Apple, too, might benefit from losing at least a couple significant procedural battles to help its appeals case, should the jury find for Samsung in all or part of the case.

While it is Apple that filed the initial suit in the case, Samsung is also countersuing Apple for patent infringement, alleging that the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch infringe on its patents.

The case resumes on Friday at 9 am PT, with Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller set to retake the witness stand, after testifying for only a few minutes before the court ended for the day on Tuesday. Schiller is slated to be followed by Scott Forstall, the head of iOS, the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

AllThingsD will be in court, to make sure you get the latest.

Apple versus Samsung Full Coverage

In an order on Thursday, Koh upheld a magistrate judge’s contention that, for example, Samsung cannot use devices shown in the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” as part of its case that Apple’s patents are invalid.

Samsung has been highly critical of Koh’s rulings in the case, arguing that she is not allowing the jury to get a proper picture of things. In particular, the company has been trying to introduce evidence that Apple has been influenced by Sony and that Samsung had products in the works prior to the iPhone that consisted of a rectangular design with rounded corners dominated by a large touchscreen.

After losing the battle in court, Samsung issued a press release on Tuesday, a move that has drawn the ire of the judge and for which Apple is now seeking sanctions.

As part of her ruling Thursday, Koh again made clear that Samsung won’t be able to use some Sony-inspired iPhone designs produced by Apple. She has allowed in one internal Apple email that makes reference to Sony, and Samsung mentioned that during its opening argument on Tuesday.

Samsung also can use a Compaq and Fidler tablet to argue that Apple’s patents are invalid, but not as part of its case that it didn’t infringe on Apple’s patents.

The trial resumes on Friday with Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller due to return to the witness stand. Schiller testified only briefly on Tuesday before court ended for the day.

That’s the fastest start to any of the eight versions of Mac OS X. AllThingsD reported on Friday that Mountain Lion was off to a roaring start due to its low price and the fact it was available as a digital download and update.

“Just a year after the incredibly successful introduction of Lion, customers have downloaded Mountain Lion over three million times in just four days, making it our most successful release ever,” Apple Senior VP Philip Schiller said in a statement.

Mountain Lion includes a number of features brought over from iOS, including notifications, dictation, AirPlay mirroring and sharing features.

In a filing on Sunday, Apple said that it planned to call as its first witnesses Samsung Telecommunications America strategy chief Justin Denison, along with early iPhone team member Chris Stringer and Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior VP of worldwide marketing. It then plans to introduce the testimony of three Samsung employees by deposition.

After that, it lists Peter Bressler, an industrial designer and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania

Apple also said that it plans to call iOS team head Scott Forstall on Friday, which may mean he testifies before others it listed in the filing.

Apple is seeking billions of dollars in damages, alleging that a variety of Samsung’s Android-based products infringe on several patents. Samsung has countersued, saying Apple’s wireless products infringe on its patents.

Apple released a list last week of all of the witnesses it might call during the trial, as did Samsung. The trial is expected to begin Monday with jury selection, to be followed by opening arguments.

Apple versus Samsung Full Coverage

Among the host of documents that have arrived in the last 24 hours are the set of witnesses that each side says it may call in the trial.

Apple’s list includes iOS chief Scott Forstall and marketing SVP Phil Schiller, operations exec Tony Blevins, and director of patents and licensing Boris Teksler. Other notable names include Samsung’s Justin Denison and early Apple employee and designer Susan Kare.

Others named are: Ravin Balakrishnan, Peter Bressler, Richard Donaldson, computer scientist Paul Dourish, Tony Givargis, Hyong Kim, Ed Knightly, Terry Musika, Janusz Ordover, Karan Singh, Mani Srivastava, Chris Stringer, Michael Walker and Russell Winer.

Samsung, meanwhile, says it may call Hyoung Shin Park, an employee, to testify regarding the company’s design efforts, as well as a few other Samsung workers. Also listed are Apple employees Steve Sinclair and Richard Howarth, along with Intel’s Marcus Paltian and a host of expert witnesses.

That list includes: Robert John Anders, Clifton Forlines, Adam Bogue and
Benjamin Bederson.

The witness lists are just two of more than a dozen filings that have come in, documents that include all sorts of allegations back and forth as well as arguments about why various points should not be allowed to be made to the jury.

Apple is saying that Samsung was fully aware that its designs were copying Apple, while Samsung says the iPhone itself borrows from Sony’s designs.

It’s enough to keep an army of lawyers (and reporters) working through the weekend.

AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski contributed to this report.

Apple versus Samsung Full Coverage

Three million is a big number — bigger than expected, perhaps. And with the device headed to 24 more countries this Friday, Apple is just getting started.

Indeed, UBS analyst Maynard Um says sales for this quarter could be massive.

“Apple has sold ~750,000 new iPads per day since launch on Friday,” Um said in a note to clients. “If there are no supply shortages, this would imply a run rate of ~12 million new iPads between launch and the end of the quarter. We continue to believe there could be upside to our 12 million estimate for the quarter.”

Notably, Um here is referring to sales of the new iPad only. Which means there’s likely even more upside to that upside he mentions when it comes to sales of the new iPad and iPad 2 both.

The satellite trucks are parked, the signs have gone up and the pundits have placed their bets.

Everyone seems to think they know what Apple has in store at its event on Wednesday: Namely, a higher-resolution iPad and, perhaps, a revamped Apple TV.

But it’s Apple, so you can never be too sure that there won’t be a surprise.

Whatever the company has to say, AllThingsD will be on hand to give live coverage and analysis. Check back here, starting just ahead of the event at 10 am PT.

9:35 am: We are being let in now.

9:54 am: Okay, took us a bit to get set up, but we are online and with a backup system in place, as well.

9:57 am: Tim Cook has taken the stage and offered up his “good morning,” to applause.

He promises he has a great morning planned. “I want to get started by talking about the post-PC revolution. … It is happening all around us, and at an amazing pace.” And, of course, he says Apple is leading.

9:59 am: Such devices have to be way easier than any PC has ever been.

We have three blockbuster post-PC devices, Cook says: The iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

“Any company would be thrilled to have just one of these devices,” he said. Apple has all three. It sold 172 million post-PC devices, accounting for 76 percent of the company’s revenue, he said.

“Apple has its feet firmly planted in the post-PC future,” he said.

10:02 am: Stores are important because these devices are new to many people, Cook said, showing pictures of the company’s newest store, in Amsterdam, which marked its 362nd outlet.

Some 110 million people visited a retail store last quarter, Cook said.

10:04 am: Cue video of Apple’s new Grand Central Terminal store.

10:04 am: Another key element of our post-PC success is iOS, Cook says, showing an iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, with 315 million such devices sold through last year, including 62 million last quarter alone.

Now he’s talking about Siri and playing some clips of Siri from other parts of the world, such as Australia and France.

“Siri is your best friend, your intelligent personal assistant who gets things done just by asking,” he said. “Our customers tell us that they love it.”

In France, by the way, Siri is a guy.

Today we are bringing Siri to Japan, Cook announces.

10:07 am: Siri in Japan is part of iOS 5.1, an update being made available today.

10:08 am: More stats:

There are now 585,000 apps in the app store, which Apple announced on Monday has crossed 25 billion downloads (free and paid).

10:09 am: Talk has shifted to iCloud, which will now support movies in addition to music and TV shows. You can re-download movies you have purchased, and movies and TV shows will now be available in 1080p.

New Apple TV will now support 1080p. “I’ve been using one of these; the (quality) is off the charts.”

10:11 am: Eddy Cue comes out to demo the new Apple TV.

10:12 am: Tweaked interface. Also easier to get to third-party content, Cue said. Photo Stream also shows up automatically on new Apple TV, and in 1080p.

10:15 am: New Apple TV remains $99 and goes on sale next week, though you can order now.

“That brings us to iPad,” Cook said. “We think the iPad is the poster child of the post-PC (era).”

10:16 am: The set-up for the new iPad is classic Apple — momentum stats, glowing reviews, etc.

10:17 am: Goal of the iPad was to be the best device for some of the tasks people do every day, such as Web browsing and checking email.

“This is a tall order,” he said.

But, he said, Apple’s research seems to bear this out. Many iPad owners who have a PC and smartphone said iPad was their favorite Web browsing and email device. The iPad also won out over e-readers for book reading, and against game consoles and handheld game players for gaming, Cook said.

10:19 am: Cook notes that more than 100 tablets came to market last year, but they don’t offer the experience of the iPad. He shows Twitter running on a Samsung tablet, saying it is more like a blown-up phone application experience, while on the iPad it is a totally different experience.

Same thing with Yelp, he said.

“This is a key reason why momentum on iPad continues to build and the competitive tablets aren’t gaining traction,” Cook said.

Everyone keeps wondering who will come out with a product better than iPad 2.

“Stop wondering,” Cook said. “We are.”

A screen of new iPad shows in background. “It is amazing,” he said. “We are redefining the category that Apple created.”

10:22 am: Marketing chief Phil Schiller on stage to show off the new iPad.

10:23 am: First new feature is the Retina display, as expected. “Until you see it, you can’t understand how amazing this is,” Schiller said.

10:23 am: The giant wall display behind him, Schiller said, actually has fewer pixels than the new iPad.

The new iPad has 31 million pixels, with resolution of 2048 by 1536 pixels. That’s one million more pixels than an HD TV, Schiller said, and 264 pixels per inch.

“That is enough to call it a Retina display,” Schiller said. The iPhone has it when held at 10 inches from the face. The same is true of the new iPad, when held at 15 inches away or even somewhat closer.

10:27 am: The new iPad is powered by an A5X chip, with quad-core graphics needed for new high-resolution display. Apple says the older A5 chip had twice as much graphics power as Nvidia’s Tegra 3, while new A5X has four times the graphics power — again, according to Apple. “This is the best mobile display that has ever shipped,” he said.

10:28 am: New iPad has 5 megapixel camera with technology brought over from the iPhone 4S.

Schiller shows off some of the photos taken with the new iPad.

10:29 am: For more on the new iPad, check out this post from colleague Peter Kafka.

10:30 am: The iPad now has 1080p video recording, Schiller said.

10:31 am: The new camera also has image stabilization, Schiller said, showing a demo of that.

10:31 am: The new iPad also has voice dictation, thanks to a microphone button on the iPad’s virtual keyboard.

It supports U.S., British, and Australian English, along with French, German and Japanese.

10:33 am: New iPad will also support next-generation 4G LTE networks, such as the ones from Verizon and AT&T.

It will also support two other faster network technologies — HSPA+ and dual-channel HSDPA. That’s important, because LTE is rolling out slower globally than it is here in the U.S.

10:35 am: And we’re getting a demo of the real-world difference such high-speed networks can make when doing things like playing streaming video.

10:36 am: Working with AT&T and Verizon in the U.S., and Rogers, Telus and Bell in Canada on LTE, with other high-speed network support elsewhere in the world.

10:36 am: In the U.S., there will be two versions of iPad with LTE — one for AT&T’s LTE network, and the other for Verizon’s LTE network, because the two use different bands. It also can act as a hotspot, and can roam onto 3G networks worldwide.

10:37 am: Schiller in sales mode, recapping key new features.

He notes that a lot of these things sound like they would eat up a lot of batteries.

The iPad 2 boasted 10 hours for regular use and nine hours for 3G data use. And the new iPad has the same battery life.

10:39 am: It’s 9.4 millimeters thick and 1.4 pounds.

The new iPad will start, as the iPad 2 did, at $499 for 16 gigabytes, with $100 more for 32GB, and $200 more for 64GB. 4G wireless models cost an extra $130.

This is all the same as with iPad 2.

New iPad available March 16, with preorders starting today.

10:41 am: Schiller is talking about how software looks on the new display. Some stuff happens automatically, such as text size. But if developers do some work on their own, they can more fully take advantage of the new chip and display.

10:42 am: Schiller said they asked a few companies to try out the technology for a week and see what they could do. First demo is from Namco, a game designer known for Pac-Man and other titles.

They show a glimpse of a new flight-simulation game. The new iPad helps make the game more immersive, the company said, making it easier to lose yourself in the game with things like heat haze coming off of the plane’s engine.

Nice fly-by of the Golden Gate Bridge, too.

Game is Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy, Namco said, which comes out later this month.

10:45 am: Next app demo is from Autocad creator Autodesk.

The company already has a line of programs, including SketchBook, for iOS.

Program being demoed is a new title, SketchBook Ink, a drawing app for line art.

10:47 am: Meanwhile, here are some of the things we are waiting to hear about: What will the data plan pricing be for new iPads? Will Sprint have an iPad to sell?

SketchBook Ink will be available in April, Autodesk said.

10:49 am: Third and final app demo from Epic Games, with president Mike Capps onstage.

It’s the latest version of the Infinity Blade saga: Dungeons.

The gamers in the crowd seem happy.

10:54 am: Apple’s productivity software, iWork, is being updated for the new iPad. So is iLife, with GarageBand players now able to jam with one another.

10:56 am: The iWork apps are available today in the App Store, for $9.99 apiece for new buyers. GarageBand remains $4.99 for new buyers, and both are free updates for those who have already bought them.

10:57 am: The iMovie app for iPad is also getting an update, including some new features, such as creating a faux movie trailer (or a real one, I suppose).

11:00 am: Apple is also bringing the third iLife app, iPhoto, to iPad. The iPhoto app joins the camera and photo library apps, Schiller said, for those who want to do more with their photos.

Among features are multitouch editing, professional quality effects, brushes, etc. Photos can be beamed among iOS devices. New way to share photos with friends — photo journals using iCloud.

11:03 am: Colleague Peter Kafka notes that while iTunes will now support re-downloading purchased movies, not all studios are behind the feature, so it will work with some flicks, but not others.

11:06 am: Apple demoing how multitouch can make photo editing more intuitive, such as changing the shadow or saturation in one part of a photo.

11:08 am: There are finger-powered brushes for doing all kinds of things, such as lightening a dark face in an otherwise well-exposed photo.

All the editing tools are nondestructive, meaning you can go back to the original.

There are a bunch of different effects, too, from different monochrome options to artsy and vintage ones.

Photo Journal creates a layout of photos, with those favorited or with a caption made larger. It looks a bit like how Facebook’s Timeline handles photos from an album.

You can throw in a map of the location, a date based on when photo was taken, even a weather icon that will use historical weather data to show what the temperature was like.

The resulting “journal” can then be stored on iCloud and shared as a Web link.

The new iPhoto works on both iPhone and iPad.

It will be $4.99 on App Store, starting today, Schiller said.

“We’ve now brought all of iLife to the iPad,” Schiller said. “Don’t let anyone ever tell you you can’t create on an iPad.”

11:14 am: And, cue video for new iPad.

11:14 am: So far, it’s just being called “the new iPad,” not iPad 3, iPad HD, or other names thrown about in recent days.

11:17 am: My recap:

Here’s what they’ve announced

New iPad with higher-res display, A5X processor, LTE support, improved 5 megapixel camera and 1080p recording. Same models and prices as iPad 2 was priced at. Separate LTE versions for AT&T and Verizon.

Apple TV with support for 1080p at $99.

And iPhoto for iOS, $4.99, starting today. Other iLife and iWork apps updated.

Apple also keeping iPad 2 in the lineup, starting at $399 for 16GB model, a $100 price chop.

11:21 am: Consensus seems to have nailed things pretty well, so far.

Cook now showing Apple’s TV ad for new iPad.

11:22 am: Cook, as Jobs did before him, wraps up by thanking Apple staff.

Again repeats his phrasing that leading Apple is the “privilege of a lifetime.”

Cook ends with a tantalizing tease.

“Across the year, you are going to see a lot more of this kind of innovation. We are just getting started,” he said.

11:23 am: And he exits, stage right.

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Loosely modeled on the iTunes App store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Apple created the store last year as a reliable place to get Mac software. It follows the same 70-30 revenue split, where software makers share 30 percent of their sale with Apple, unless the app is free.

Unlike the iOS App store, the Mac App store isn’t the only place to get Mac software. You can still find good Mac software from sites like MacUpdate.com which has been a go-to for Mac fans for years; it is still buzzing along, referring users to software and generating 100,000 downloads a day.

Still, the Mac App store is now the biggest online software store in the world.

Apple’s statement is below:

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Apple today announced that over 100 million apps have been downloaded from the Mac App Store™ in less than one year. With thousands of free and paid apps, the Mac App Store brings the App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes account, and download and install them in just one step. Apple revolutionized the app industry with the App Store, which now has more than 500,000 apps and where customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps and continue to download more than 1 billion apps per month.

“In just three years the App Store changed how people get mobile apps, and now the Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world.”

“With Autodesk products in both the App Store and Mac App Store, we can reach hundreds of millions of Apple users around the world,” said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president of Platform Solutions and Emerging Business at Autodesk. “With our free AutoCAD WS and the more powerful professional drafting tools of AutoCAD LT, we’re using the Mac App Store to deliver new products and reach a growing base of new Mac customers.”

“The Mac App Store has unparalleled reach and has completely transformed our distribution and development cycle,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. “Offering Pixelmator 2.0 exclusively on the Mac App Store allows us to streamline updates to our image editing software and stay ahead of the competition.”

“In less than one year we’ve shifted the distribution of djay for Mac exclusively to the Mac App Store,” said Karim Morsy, CEO of algoriddim. “With just a few clicks, djay for Mac is available to customers in 123 countries worldwide. We could never have that reach through traditional channels.”

The Mac App Store offers thousands of apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews. The Mac App Store is included with Mac OS X Lion and is available as a software update for any Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard. For more information visit, www.apple.com/mac/app-store.

Mac developers set the prices for their apps, keep 70 percent of the sales revenue, are not charged for free apps and do not have to pay hosting, marketing or credit card fees. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit, developer.apple.com/programs/mac.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

As we’ve said, there are some differences on each network, even though all three carriers are selling the exact same iPhone.

AT&T’s and Verizon’s data plans all have a limit, while Sprint will offer an unlimited data plan. Each carrier has different prices and policies for additional features, such as using the iPhone as a Wi-Fi hotspot.

As for the phone itself, it looks nearly identical to the iPhone 4, but packs a more advanced eight megapixel camera, a faster A5 processor and the voice-controlled Siri feature. A 16 gigabyte model sells for $199 with a new two-year contract, while a 32GB costs $299 and a 64GB model will cost $399. Apple also plans to sell an unlocked version of the phone.

The devices are scheduled to hit store shelves (at least briefly) on Oct. 14.

UPDATE, 9:48 p.m. PT: Apple’s online store now appears to be offline, ahead of the start of preorders.

Among them were the new iPhone 4S, Siri voice commands, white iPod touches and a host of cloud services.

AllThingsD was on hand to capture everything in pictures, and we’ve compiled the gallery below from the best of those photos.

And then there was Schiller and Gore.

That would be Apple’s SVP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller and former Vice President Al Gore, who round out the stellar list of speakers at our upcoming AsiaD conference.

Taking place from Oct. 19 to 21 in Hong Kong, the lineup is already impressive, with a mix of speakers from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, as well as Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

The previously announced speakers include: Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma; Google Android head Andy Rubin; Twitter inventor and product guru, as well as Square co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey; Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang; Asus Chairman Jonney Shih; Sony president and second-in-command Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai; Google+ guru Bradley Horowitz; Hollywood big shot Peter Chernin; Huawei’s North American R&D head John Roese; Microsoft’s Windows Phone head Andy Lees; and a panel of Silicon Valley start-up stars — Joyus’ Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky; Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Asia head Rose Tsou; LivingSocial’s Tim O’Shaughnessy, along with founders of two of its Asian units, Daniel Shin and Paul Srivorakul; Samsung mobile head Dr. Won-Pyo Hong; HTC CEO Peter Chou, who replaces Chairwoman Cher Wang.

Schiller, who reports to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook (and before that, Steve Jobs) is a member of the executive team of the tech icon, where he has worked for 17 years. He is responsible for a swath of Apple’s outward-facing businesses, including product marketing, developer relations and business marketing.

Today, in fact, he was onstage at Apple’s iPhone event, outlining some of its new product offerings. In addition, Apple just opened its first retail store in Hong Kong.

Gore, who had a memorable interview at the fourth D: All Things Digital conference in 2006, needs little introduction. The former VP and Nobel Peace Prize winner is now chairman of Current TV and also continues as a prominent environmental activist.

Gore is on the board of Apple, while also being a senior adviser to Google, which is a neat trick. At the same time, he is a partner in the famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins, and co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a partnership that is focused on sustainable investing.

And, as most people know, he knows a thing or two about the Internet.

Walt Mossberg and I could not think of two better people to add to the lineup we have for AsiaD, which has very few seats left.

See you in China in two weeks!

Even in 2009, the machine learning-assisted software was pretty compelling — enough to get the company bought by Apple a short time later.

Then, Siri sort of went into hiding.

Today, Apple unveiled what it had in mind for Siri and showcased a host of features that will be added to the iPhone 4S thanks to Siri’s intelligent voice recognition features.

Here’s Siri’s entire tech demo from back at D7.

And if you are an old-school Apple geek, check out Apple’s vision for a voice-activated personal assistant, circa 1987.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111004/in-depth-with-siri-the-full-demo-from-the-d7-conference-plus-an-old-school-bonus/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20111004/apples-quiet-iphone-move-more-price-pressure/ http://allthingsd.com/20111004/apples-quiet-iphone-move-more-price-pressure/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:43:37 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=128321 Apple may not have delivered a big-screen iPhone 5 on Tuesday, but the combination of a more powerful iPhone and price cuts to existing models could well make life even more difficult for its rivals. The new iPhone 4S, with its faster processor, improved camera and Siri voice control feature, will start at $199 when it goes on sale Oct. 14.

Meanwhile, Apple plans to continue selling an eight gigabyte iPhone 4 for $99 — and an 8GB iPhone 3GS for free — with new contracts. Also, the iPhone 4S will be coming to Sprint, meaning Android models will no longer have the run of their stores; this leaves T-Mobile USA as the only national carrier without an iPhone.

With a new two-year contract, a 16GB iPhone 4S will sell for $199, while the 32GB version will sell for $299 and the 64GB model for $399. Preorders start on Friday, and the new phone will be available Oct. 14 in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan.

Apple is also adding a second major carrier — KDDI — in Japan, in addition to longtime partner SoftBank.

More than 70 countries will be supported by the end of the year, Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller said, making it the fastest iPhone rollout in the company’s history.

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• Just Like We Didn’t Tell You: No Apple-Facebook Tie-Up Today
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• Apple Launching iPhone 5 in October
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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111004/apples-quiet-iphone-move-more-price-pressure/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111004/so-what-puts-the-s-in-the-new-iphone-4s/ http://allthingsd.com/20111004/so-what-puts-the-s-in-the-new-iphone-4s/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:10:32 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=128254 While Apple’s new iPhone 4S resembles the iPhone 4 in many ways, there are several key changes that make the new phone different from its predecessor.

First up is the new A5 processor — the chip used in the iPad 2. The chip also packs an Apple-designed digital signal processor that can help with things like face detection on the camera, according to Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller, who led the part of Tuesday’s event focused on the new iPhone.

Second, Apple has tweaked the wireless networks and antennas, allowing a single phone to be a world phone, and also supporting a faster flavor of the kind of wireless networks used by AT&T, known as HSPA+.

Third, the phone packs a higher-resolution eight megapixel sensor with backside illumination, which Schiller said allows the camera to grab 73 percent more light and to be up to a third faster at snapping pictures. It can also take higher-resolution 1080p high-definition video.

“It really is the one camera you want to have with you all the time,” Schiller said.

The new iPhone, like the iPad 2, also supports mirroring to a TV over AirPlay and Apple TV or a wired connection. And, naturally, it packs iOS 5.

“It’s the best iPhone yet,” Schiller said.

Saving the best for last, though, Schiller talked about the new voice control features.

While other phones — and the iPhone itself — have had voice control, Schiller noted they have largely been limited to very specific commands, such as playing a song or calling a person.

“It is such a letdown,” Schiller said. “What we really want to do is just talk to a device.”

Apple’s new feature is dubbed Siri, with the name coming from a “virtual personal assistant” company that Apple bought last year.

The event is still going on, with talk having shifted to the new iPhone 4S. For live coverage, click here.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111004/so-what-puts-the-s-in-the-new-iphone-4s/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111004/apple-updates-ipods-with-cheaper-ipod-touch-and-nano/ http://allthingsd.com/20111004/apple-updates-ipods-with-cheaper-ipod-touch-and-nano/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:57:34 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=128228 Ahead of introducing its revamped iPhone 4S, Apple on Tuesday introduced a white version of its iPod touch and dropped the price on iPod nanos.

The company made only modest changes to the iPod line, but pledged its continued support for that business, which it says still accounts for more than three in four MP3 players sold.

“We’re going to continue making the world’s best music players,” Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said.

The iPod touch stays largely the same, but now comes in white as well as black — both models will pack iOS 5 when they go on sale Oct. 12. The entry-level 16 gigabyte model drops by $30 to $199; there will also be a 32GB version for $299 and a 64GB model for $399.

The iPod nano drops a bit in price to $129 and $149, and also gets new features, including the ability to track walks and runs without additional sensors or software. Apple also added 16 new clocks to the iPod for those who like to use their iPod nano as a watch — there are retro-styled LED models and Disney options, including Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse designs.

Apple said it will continue to sell the 2GB iPod shuffle for $49. The company appeared to quietly ax the iPod classic.

The event is still going on, with talk having shifted to the new iPhone 4S. For live coverage, click here.

Update: Although Apple showed a picture sans iPod Classic on stage and called that “the fall lineup,” the company notes at the bottom of a press release that the lone hard drive-based model remains in its product line at the same price: $249 for the 160GB variety.

RELATED POSTS:

• Commas, Zeros and No. 1: Apple’s iPhone 4S Event by the Numbers
• In Depth With Siri: The Full Demo From the D7 Conference (Plus an Old-School Bonus)
• Tim Cook Follows Steve Jobs’s Footsteps Closely in Big Stage Debut
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• Apple Launching iPhone 5 in October
• Apple’s Next Event to Be Held on October 4, Starring Its New CEO
• October iPhone Event to Be Held on Apple Campus
• Apple Announces October 4 Event: Let’s Talk iPhone

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111004/apple-updates-ipods-with-cheaper-ipod-touch-and-nano/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111004/apple-lets-talk-iphone/ http://allthingsd.com/20111004/apple-lets-talk-iphone/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:45:08 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=127793 More than 15 months after it launched the iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010, Apple is finally ready to unveil its successor.

Later this morning, the company will debut its latest iPhone, the fifth in the handset’s history. Though it’s not precisely clear what form it will take, most observers expect the fifth-generation iPhone to boast a dual-core A5 processor, one gigabyte of RAM, an improved camera, a dual-band GSM/CDMA chip that will transform it into a so-called “world phone” that can support multiple wireless network standards, and a rumored virtual personal assistant that arose out of Apple’s 2010 acquisition of Siri.

Beyond that, we’re likely to hear more about iCloud (which may steal the show) and its promise of a simple, seamless sync, iOS 5 and its nearly 200 new features, and perhaps an update or two to the company’s long-running iPod line. We’ll also get to watch newly installed CEO Tim Cook make his first big product introduction, an event that may well set the tone for his new role.

So join us here for what promises to be an exciting morning. Our live coverage begins at 10 am PT.

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Live Blog

8:50 am: We have arrived on the scene at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, Calif.

9:22 am: The real reason why they held the event in Cupertino: omelettes!

9:44 am: The doors have opened and attendees are filing into the auditorium to the sound of Eric Clapton’s “Let It Rain.”

9:48 am: Lots of tech luminaries in the audience here today. A quick scan of the room reveals Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, AT&T Mobility President Ralph de la Vega, Verizon chief marketing officer Marni Walden, longtime Apple analyst Charlie Wolf and newly minted Qualcomm COO Steve Mollenkopf.

9:54 am: Most of Apple’s executive team — Phil Schiller, Eddie Cue, Bob Mansfield, etc., are now seated down front. The auditorium’s pretty much filled to capacity. We should be starting any moment now.

9:58 am: Five minute warning.

10:00 am: The lights dim and here’s Tim Cook, ready to deliver his first big product announcement. Lots of applause.

10:02 am: This is my first product launch as CEO — I’m sure you didn’t know that. I love Apple, and I consider it a privilege to work here. I am very excited by this new role.

10:03 am: I want to welcome you to Apple and to this room, which has a particular significance for us. In this room we launched the MacBook Air and other products … this room reminds us of the innovations we’ve announced at Apple.

10:04 am: This is an extraordinary time for Apple, says Cook, before running through some metrics. He talks briefly about Apple’s new store in Hong Kong, which recently launched.

10:05 am: Tim Cook is using Steve Jobs’s playbook, beginning with a series of updates, starting with Apple retail. Apple just opened two stores in China — one in Hong Kong and one in Shanghai.

“There is amazing momentum here,” Cook said, showing the all-glass staircase. “Only Apple could do this.”

Also doing good business — it had the best Day One store performance of any store.

10:06 am: We sold more Macs on opening day in Hong Kong than we sold at any other store opening in the world, says Cook. Now a video documenting the launch of the Hong Kong store.

10:07 am: Cook steps back into the spotlight. “We now have six stores in China. We now have 357 stores in 11 countries.

10:08 am: Moving on now to product updates. First up, some thoughts on Lion. Cook cites Walt’s review of Lion and his remark that it’s one of the best operating systems ever. “I don’t think I could have said it any better,” says Cook. He adds that, to date, six million copies of Lion have been downloaded.

10:10 am: At the same time we announced Lion, we announced the MacBook Air. It’s wicked fast. Our customers love it and our competitors are desperate to copy it, Cook says. The Mac and MacBook are the number one best-selling desktop and notebook in the United States.

10:11 am: More metrics, the Mac’s installed base is approaching 60 million around the world.

In U.S. retail, says Cook, Macs are selling one out of four PCs.

10:14 am: Next up: Music. “It was only 10 years ago that iPod launched and it not only revolutionized the way we listen to music, but it revolutionized the entire music industry. It reminded us why we love music so much. It made music part of our lives again. … The iPod quickly became the number one music player in the world.” To date, Apple has sold more than 300 million iPods.

10:15 am: Cook notes that the iPod is still an important business for Apple and the halo effect still remains strong. “The iPod is still a lot of people’s first introduction to Apple.”

Sixteen billion songs downloaded on iTunes.

10:15 am: Moving on to iPhone now. “This is probably why most of you are in the room today.” Cook notes the device’s extraordinary growth. Ninety-three percent of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying the iPhone.

Customer satisfaction for the iPhone is very, very high, says Cook. “The iPhone is pummeling the competition.” He cites the recent ChangeWave and J.D. Power customer satisfaction surveys.

10:18 am: Talking now about the iPad. “IPads are showing up everywhere. IPads in schools are helping kids learn in amazing new ways. … Every state in the U.S. now has an iPad pilot program or deployment. And almost 1,000 schools have a one-to-one program … About 1,000 universities across the U.S. have iPad programs.”

10:20 am: “IPads are also showing up in airplane cockpits and in hospitals. Over 80 percent of the top hospitals in the U.S. are either testing or deploying iPads. … 92 percent of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying the iPad.”

A stunning metric considering the device has only been available for 18 months.

Three out of four tablets sold in the U.S. are iPads.

10:22 am: Nice. Cook name-checks ATD. “Consumers don’t want tablets, they want iPads.”

10:23 am: Cook welcomes Scott Forstall to the stage to talk about iOS.

“IOS is the number one mobile operating system with 43 percent of the market,” says Forstall. He also notes that the iTunes App Store is the number one store for mobile apps. Customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps to date. There are one billion downloads per month. Apple has now paid out more than $3 billion to developers.

10:25 am: Forstall talking about a new app called Cards. Allows you to create greeting cards on your iPhone or iPad. Apple will produce them and distribute them. “You make the card. We do the rest. … We’ll even send you a push notification the day your card is delivered.”

10:26 am: Price: $2.99 in the States, $4.99 internationally.

10:28 am: Now, a broad overview of iOS 5. Developers love it, says Forstall. He notes the OS has more than 200 new features, though he’s only going to talk about 10. Notifications: iMessage, a new messaging service between iOS users. “IMessages are pushed to all your devices so you can start on one and pick up on another.”

Next up, a brand-new app called Reminders. Offers location-based reminders via geo-fence. “Remind me to pick up my laundry when I leave work.”

10:31 am: More: Twitter integration. “We’ve deeply integrated Twitter into iOS. You can tweet photos, Web sites from Safari, videos from YouTube.”

Next up: Newsstand. “There are a lot of publications that are now building subscriptions for the iPad — the New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair. Newsstand organizes your subscriptions and downloads new issues in the background.”

10:31 am: Moving on now to the camera, which Apple has also significantly updated. Better-quality photos and new ways to edit and improve them on your iPhone.

Next, Game Center: 67 million people are using Game Center. Apple has added friend discovery and game recommendations to the service, among other things.

10:34 am: Next up, Safari: Forstall talks briefly about Reader, which makes Web pages easier to read. He moves on quickly to tabbed browsing before jumping ahead to Mail, which has been enhanced with better search functionality, etc.

Now, PC-free. “There’s no need for a computer. You take your iPhone out of the box and you can set it up.” Also: wireless updates.

10:35 am: IOS 5 will be available as a free update on October 12.

10:36 am: Eddie Cue takes the stage to talk about iCloud. Quick overview of how iCloud manages photo storage and distribution. “It just works.”

“Over a third of the music we sell in the iTunes store is purchased on iOS devices,” says Cue. He notes that once iCloud launches, “songs purchased via iPhone or iPad on iTunes will automatically be downloaded to a user’s Mac for no additional charge.”

Moving on now to PhotoStream. “With PhotoStream, photos taken on your iPhone are automatically sent to iCloud and then pushed to your other devices. They even download right to iPhoto on your Mac.”

10:38 am: Now, Documents In The Cloud. Same scenario. Documents synced to iCloud are updated across devices. Start editing on your Mac, continue on your iPad and finish on your iPhone.

10:39 am: More from Cue: “Buy a book on your iPad, start reading it, move to your iPhone and continue right where you left off.”

Contacts and Calendars work the same way. Update once, update everywhere.

10:40 am: Find My iPhone has been updated to find Macs as well.

New app: Find My Friends. Locates family and friends via same sort of Find My iPhone mechanism. Timed location sharing. Easily locate friends and family, temporary sharing option, simple privacy controls and great parental restrictions.

10:42 am: Moving on now to iTunes Match. “With over 20 million songs, Apple has the largest music store in the world. We’ll scan your music library and match it, and if we find something we don’t have, we’ll upload it.” Again, the goal here is data ubiquity across devices.

ITunes Match is $24.99 per year.

10:45 am: Cue wraps up with a broad overview of all the iCloud services he just mentioned. ICloud ships on October 12. ITunes Match goes live closer to the end of the month.

Now, a video break. Promo for iCloud that touts the same features Cue just described.

10:46 am: Phil Schiller takes the stage to talk about iPod.

10:47 am: “We’re still making great iPods. In fact, it’s the best lineup we’ve ever made.”

Apple’s rolling out a few updates to the line today. First, the iPod nano, which has been made easier to navigate and enhanced with some fitness-related improvements, plus UI additions (new clocks, etc.). Mickey Mouse watch!

New prices, $149 for 16GB, $129 for 8GB.

10:50 am: Next up: the iPod touch. Schiller notes that the device is now the most popular portable game player in the world.

10:51 am: Schiller says iOS 5 and iCloud will bring tremendous upgrades to the iPod touch.

Apple’s now offering a white version of the touch.

$399 for 64GB, $299 for 32GB, $199 for 8GB. They’ll be available on the 12th.

10:53 am: Here we go. Moving on now to the iPhone.

10:54 am: “Despite competitors trying really hard to copy the iPhone,” says Schiller, “they just haven’t been able to do it. … How do you follow up a hit product like the iPhone 4? … With the iPhone 4S.”

Retina display. Same design with metal band around exterior.

10:55 am: IPhone 4S will run on the same A5 chip that’s in the iPad. Also up to seven times faster graphics, which will do some amazing things for games.

Mike Capps from Epic Games takes the stage. Talks about Infinity Blade and its forthcoming successor Infinity Blade 2. Amazing graphics. Dynamic Light Rays, something the company used in Gears of War, has been brought to the iPhone.

This is really impressive. Very cinematic, but running in real time.

10:58 am: Infinity Blade 2 will be available December 1.

10:59 am: Schiller returns to talk about battery life. Eight hours of 3G talk time, 10 hours of video, etc.

11:00 am: Moving on to the antenna, which now intelligently switches between two antennas to transmit and receive. Better call quality and faster data. Downlink speeds are double the iPhone 4: 5.8 up, 14.4 down.

Heard these numbers before? Schiller says these are the same numbers that rivals often claim are 4G.

11:02 am: As expected, Apple has unified its CDMA and GSM devices into a single world phone.

11:03 am: There’s a new camera system as well.

“For the iPhone 4S, we set our sights on competing not with other phones, but with point-and-shoot cameras. … So we’ve added an eight megapixel sensor that shoots 3264×2448. … we’ve also added backside illumination with a sensor that gathers 72 percent more light. … On top of that we’ve placed a hybrid IR filter for better color accuracy … and we have a five-element lens that offers 30 percent more sharpness, f/2.4 aperture.”

11:06 am: Built in to the camera: Face detection and better auto-white balance. The new camera is also significantly faster. Takes just 1.1 seconds to take a first picture and .5 seconds more to take a second.

“I don’t know what Droid Bionic users do between pictures,” says Schiller. “Get coffee, I guess.”

11:08 am: Showing some photo examples now. Great sharp colors and detail.

11:09 am: Moving on now to video. The 4S shoots 1080p HD video. Some applause for that. Also features video image stabilization, temporal noise reduction.

Quick video demo. Hot air balloon ride.

11:11 am: Moving on now to AirPlay. Quick overview of the technology and then the news: Apple is bringing AirPlay mirroring to the iPhone.

11:12 am: Schiller wraps up by rehashing the announcements he’s just made. He’s really stressing iOS 5 and iCloud.

11:13 am: “But we really haven’t discussed the best feature yet … it’s all about voice.”

New feature: Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.

“What we really want to do is just talk to our device and we want to talk to it any way we’d like.”

11:14 am: Schiller invites Forstall back on stage to do a Siri demo, but cautions that it’s still in beta so things could go awry.

Forstall asks Siri, “What is the weather like today?” The phone replies with, “Here is the weather for today,” and a screen detailing the weather.

11:16 am: “Do I need a raincoat?”

Siri: “It sure looks like rain today.”

Siri actually understands the concept of “raincoat” and how it relates to weather. Pretty sweet.

11:16 am: “What’s the time in Paris?”

Siri gives an accurate time and shows a clock.

“Wake me up tomorrow at 6 am.”

Siri sets an alarm and tells the user that it has done so.

11:17 am: “How’s the Nasdaq doing today?”

Again, an accurate vocal reply and a screen showing a market chart.

Apple has partnered with Yelp to integrate restaurant reviews. It has also integrated maps. “Give me directions to Hoover Tower.” Siri provides them.

11:19 am: You can also ask Siri to read your text messages.

Forstall demonstrates an exchange in which he receives a lunch invitation, checks his calendar, and sends a reply to the original sender with a suggested date for lunch. This is all done hands-free, simply by talking to the phone.

11:21 am: “Remind me to call my wife when I leave work.”

Siri creates a reminder with a geo-fence so that when he leaves work, it will remind him to call his wife.

11:22 am: “Search Wikipedia for Neil Armstrong.”

Siri heads right for Safari and pops the Armstrong page on Wikipedia.

Apple has also partnered with Wolfram Alpha to do dictionary searches, calculations. “Define mitosis.” “What’s the exchange rate on the Euro right now?”

11:24 am: “How many days until Christmas?”

Eighty-two, in case you were wondering.

11:24 am: Forstall notes that you can’t use Siri to do everything, but you can use it to do a pretty broad spectrum of things — call people, create reminders, compose and dictate email, traffic and directions, weather, stocks, set timers, contacts, search Web, create notes, search “wolfram alpha.”

“Who are you, Siri?”

“I am a humble personal assistant.”

11:27 am: Schiller returns to the stage. He adds that Siri takes dictation, before noting that the service is both contextual and conversational.

When iPhone 4S launches, Siri will be available in English, French and German, with more languages to follow.

11:28 am: Now, another video.

Typical Apple reel with the company’s executive bench talking about the design and development of the iPhone 4S.

11:32 am: For more on Siri, check out this story.

11:30 am:

iPhone 4S
64GB for $399
32GB for $299
16GB for $199

iPhone 4 will now be available for $99, 8GB only.
iPhone 3GS, 8GB for free.

Very aggressive pricing.

IPhone 4S preorders begin Friday. The phone will ship on October 14.

11:35 am: IPhone 4S will be available on AT&T, Verizon and, yes, Sprint.

When the rollout is done the iPhone will be in 70 countries, on 100 carriers.

11:36 am: Cook returns to wrap things up with another overview of the morning’s news.

“When you look at each of these things, they’re industry-leading in and of themselves, but what puts them out front is how they’re engineered to work together so well. Only Apple can make such powerful hardware and services like this and bring them together. I am so proud of Apple and all the people that worked so hard to make these things a reality.”

And with that, he leaves the stage.

And so ends a workmanlike job by Cook in his first big product introduction. But you can’t help but miss the showmanship that Jobs always brought to these events; he would have made the Siri technology explanation really sing.

The event’s over. Thanks for reading.

RELATED POSTS:

• Commas, Zeros and No. 1: Apple’s iPhone 4S Event by the Numbers
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• Tim Cook Follows Steve Jobs’s Footsteps Closely in Big Stage Debut
• Just Like We Didn’t Tell You: No Apple-Facebook Tie-Up Today
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• Apple’s Next Event to Be Held on October 4, Starring Its New CEO
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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111004/apple-lets-talk-iphone/feed/ 0