Apple New Product Showcase Begins With Colorful iPhone 5C, Powerful 5S

New Colors

At 10a PT, APPLE CEO TIM COOK took the stage to kick off APPLE's new product showcase at APPLE headquarters. Tech sites such as ENGADGET.COM and CNET.COM have been live-blogging the event; ALL ACCESS will provide real-time updates of many of the new developments.

Updates on iOS7 was first on the agenda. Available at no cost starting SEPT. 18th, Among the new features is, of course, iTUNES RADIO, as well as the ability to choose a male voice for SIRI.

The 5C

Next up was the introduction of the iPHONE 5C, which will come in five colors -- green, white, blue, red/pink, and yellow. It has a multi-touch front surface, made in one piece of hard-coated polycarbonate, with a 4-inch retina display, integrated touch, full sRGB, widescreen video; as well as an 8MP iSight camera, BSI, hybrid IR filter and 5-element lens. The 16 GB will go for $99; the 32GB version is priced at $199 -- with a two-year contract.

New cases for these iPHONES, going for $29 each, are environmentally friendly, as the APPLE spokesman noted that they were "arsenic-free, mercury-free, and ANDROID-free" -- which elicited a few laughs in the auditorium.

The 5S

Next up was the iPHONE 5S, made of a high-grade aluminum with diamond-cut, chamfered edges -- much like the iPhone 5. Coming in silver, gold and "a new space gray," the  big improvement is that the 5S is "the world's first 64bit mobile phone," which is "up to twice as fast" as the previous-gen system, and has twice the graphics performance. Overall, the 5S has 56 times the performance of the original iPHONE.

Also new is the M7 chip, a motion co-processor that aggregates and monitors accelerometer, gyro, and compass data and offloads it from the A7. This will enable a "whole new level" of fitness apps.

The battery life offers 10 hours of 3G talk time, 10 hours of LTE browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music and 250 hours standby -- which is about the same as the iPHONE 5

Camera: Bigger Pixels And Slow Motion

The camera boasts several improvements, starting with a new, 5-element, APPLE-designed lens with f/2.2 aperture. The 15% larger sensor and larger aperture creates bigger pixels, which they claim is better than more pixels. The iPHONE also has a True-tone flash that seems to analyze and present the proper-color flash. When you do take a picture, the camera automatically takes several pictures, then picks the sharpest one

What else is new? How about a 120fps slow-motion camera and 28 megapixel panorama shots that automatically adjusts exposure as you cut across.

Fingerprint ID

Last but certainly not least, APPLE unveiled a fingerprint Touch ID sensor for the 5S. It's capacitive, 170 microns thin, with 500ppi resolution that can scan in 360 degrees, so you don't have to have the orientation right, and it can learn multiple fingers. It's built into the home button that you need to push down, but there's a metal ring that senses your finger.

The fingerprint info is stored inside the A7, deep in some chip sub-section -- and not stored anywhere on APPLE's servers, online or backed up to the iCloud.  Touch ID will likely show up in all APPLE products.

The 5S will cost $199 for the 16GB, $299 for the 32GB and $399 for the 64GB. There will also be leather iPHONE 5S covers for the 5S

The presentation finished with an ELVIS COSTELLO solo performance. "When I left school, the first job I did was I was a computer operator," he told the audience of 300. "Looking at all the magic today I wonder if I didn't get into the wrong business."

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