By Jason Snell

October 13, 2020 9:39 AM PT

Apple Oct. 13 event – live updates

Note: This story has not been updated since 2020.

Apple held its latest media event, and introduced new iPhones and a new HomePod.

We provided a little live commentary as the event unfolded on Twitter, attached below.

You can hear me discuss the event live with Myke Hurley on Upgrade at noon Pacific, streaming on Relay FM. Dan and the boys of The Rebound will be live at 12:30 Pacific.

Happy event day! We’ll be providing live commentary here during the Apple media event, which is expected to begin in about 20 minutes

The best part of pandemic Apple events is that they start exactly ON TIME. —DM

Also, without these videos, I feel like we, the public, would not have spent nearly as much time seeing these parts of Apple Park. —DM

“An exciting new product for the home that we know you’re going to love.” Apple’s psychics working overtime, apparently. —DM

Unsurprisingly, it’s the HomePod mini. Looks like it still uses touch controls, which isn’t surprising, but is kind of disappointing. —DM

I wonder if you can put a HomePod mini in a stereo pair with a HomePod. Thinking face —DM

HomePod mini uses the U1 chip to automatically let you handoff music from your phone. —DM

A lot of this Siri stuff reads like “Hey, did you know Siri can do that?” rather than actual new announcements. —DM

Intercom is a new feature, sending messages via the HomePod or Apple’s other devices. (I hope it works better than the Walkie Talkie feature.) —DM

As predicted, HomePod mini is just $99. Inarguably its best feature, as it puts it in the impulse buy territory for a lot of people. —DM

Also makes us ask the question: Is there still a new HomePod in the future too? Seems like maybe. -J.S.

Suffice it to say that this is Apple recognizing that it overshot in terms of features and price with original HomePod.

GGGGG —DM

Hey, the Verizon CEO is here to tell us how REAL 5G is.

I’m not going to lie, I’ve tuned out a bit during this 5G cheerleading. I know that Apple needs to explain why people should be excited about this, but it’s a lot of time to spend on a marketing pitch for a single carrier. —DM

Here’s the 5G iPhone! Flat sides and colorsssss. —DM

iPhone 12 is thinner, smaller, and lighter, with the same display size as iPhone 11. Displays go further to the edge. —DM

Twice as many pixels as iPhone 11?! 1200 nits of brightness. And iPhone 12 adds a new cutting edge material called Ceramic Shield to improve toughness. 4x better drop performance. —DM

Smart Data Mode only uses 5G when it’s actually useful, throttling down to LTE when it isn’t. —DM

All iPhone 12s support mmWave, which is the much faster flavor of 5G. But it’s not widely deployed yet. —DM

It’s our old friend the A14, last seen powering the new iPad Air. —DM

Who had game demo on the bingo card? —DM

Improved camera on the iPhone 12. Seven-element lens in wide lens. Also ultrawide, but telephoto seems like it’s still held back for the Pro. —DM

Night Mode now on the front camera and ultrawide lens. —DM

Night-mode time-lapse mode, shown off with a video shot in Vegas… —DM

iPhone 12 is doing some wacky magnetic things?! MagSafe is back from the dead! —DM

Still compatible with Qi chargers, but includes magnets. (This could be nice for car mounts with wireless charging.) MagSafe accessories snap onto the back of the iPhone and work through cases. There’s a MagSafe wallet that works even on top of cases. —DM

New wireless charger!? AirPower 2.0? —DM

Weird to spin to environmental in the middle of an iPhone spiel…so of course going to be about removing the chargers and headphones, right? —DM

What I like about the MagSafe announcement is that it’s Apple embracing and enabling third-party accessories, which it doesn’t always do. -j.s.

USB-C to Lightning cable now standard in the box. But still no USB-C on the phone. —DM

“With its amazing size, it fits in the palm of your hand.” SHOULDN’T ALL PHONES FIT IN YOUR HAND? —DM

Let me be clear: I think it’s great that Apple’s bringing a smaller phone into its line-up. It’s about time; I know plenty of people who will be really excited about being able to get a modern iPhone in a handheld size. —DM

Lineup starts at $699 for iPhone 12 mini and $799 for iPhone 12. There’s a trade-in deal with Verizon if that appeals to you. —DM

It’s just half of the iPhone story, so here are the Pro models. —DM

Very shiny iPhone 12 Pros with stainless steel. Same Ceramic Shield. IP68 rating. Up to 6 meters for 30 minutes. MagSafe as well. 6.1-inch display on the Pro, 6.7-inch on the Pro Max. Form factors nearly identical. —DM

Deep Fusion on all four cameras of iPhone 12 Pro (including front camera). Ultra Wide, the new Wide camera, plus the 4x(!) optical zoom on the telephoto. The Pro Max apparently does even more. —DM

Optical zoom range of 2.5x on the Pro Max (going from the ultrawide?). (So maybe not 4x zoom on the Pro.) —DM

New optical stabilization system stabilizes the sensor rather than the lens to reduce jitter. 5000 microadjusments per second. —DM

New feature combines computational photography with power of shooting in RAW, Apple ProRAW. Available on iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max later this year. —DM

ProRAW can be edited directly in Photos app or third-party apps, and there’s an API coming to let other apps shoot in the format. —DM

iPhone Pros can shoot HDR video, including Dolby Vision HDR. —DM

LiDAR scanner on the Pro models. Object and room scanning, photo and video effects, and AR objects. Improve focus accuracy and capture time in autofocus, especially in low-light. —DM

The price is the same as today. iPhone 12 Pro starts at $999, with 128GB of capacity; iPhone 12 Pro Max at $1099. Fastest rollout ever. Both available for preorder on Friday, available next week. iPhone 12/mini preorder on November 6, shipping a week later. —DM

That’s it! As expected, no Apple silicon Macs today, which potentially means another event next month. If so, we’ll see you then. —DM

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