Isaiah's Tech

Apple's awaited event has come and gone but it was one to remember. Tim Cook, the new CEO, showed up to announce a bunch of new things. First off, he announced that Lion was downloaded 6 million times which is a great number for digital downloads. Afterwards, Tim boasted numbers for their iPod, iPhone, and iPad devices which are pretty astonishing. An unexpected twist happened when Apple announced the new "Cards" app which will allow you to create a card on your iPhone and Apple will do the rest: print it out and mail it for you. All for $2.99 in the US.

Moving along, they recapped the great parts about iOS 5 which you should already know about: new Notifications, iMessage, Twitter integration, Reminders, Newsstand, improved Camera, Tabbed Browsing, etc. Along with mentioning Find my iPhone, there's also a new feature called Find my Friends which does what it says. Oh yes, of course, they briefly mentioned iCloud again and 5GB of storage will be free!

Apple decided that the first thing they would announce would be a new iPod Nano. Since Apple noticed that a bunch of people last year were using the Nano as a watch, they decided to add 16 new clock faces so you'll be able to stay fresh. The 8GB model will be $129 and the 16GB model will be $149. It'll be available today.

Next up is the new iPod Touch which will, obviously, have iOS 5 at launch. It's touted as having an ultra-thin design, a gyroscope, a Retina Display, and as the number 1 portable game player. 8GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399. It'll be available in black and white on October 12th. Oh, there's also a new Shuffle which is 2GB and costs $49.

Now, the good stuff! Apple has also announced the iPhone 4S - it's official! This one has a similar design to the 4 and sports an 8MP camera (with a Hybrid IR filter, face detection, better colour accuracy, etc.) with 1080p video recording, HSPA+ (14.4Mbps), Siri (voice control), and iOS 5 with the dual-core A5 CPU - same as the iPad 2. Yeah, it'll reportedly be great at playing games so they demoed Infinity Blade 2 which looked very impressive. Yes, they also boasted battery life, a new antenna system, and the fact that it's a world phone - finally! So, the 8GB iPhone 3GS is now free on a 2-year contract, while the 8GB iPhone 4 will be $99.

On October 14th, the 4S will be available in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Germany, and Japan for $199 (16GB), $299 (32GB), and $399 (64GB). Yes, it'll hit Sprint, geez! Seriously!? That's it, a mediocre update. I was hoping for more Apple!

[This Is My Next, Engadget]

If you don't care what Apple announces on Tuesday then you can head over to AT&T and buy your Samsung Galaxy S II right now. This smartphone packs a pretty darn good spec sheet and should be able to hold its own against the next iPhone. If you want, this smartphone's available right now for $199.99 on a 2-year contract. Check it out on AT&T.