Apple unveils iPhone 5

Apple fans, the wait is over — the new iPhone goes on sale September 21.

After months of speculation, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook announced the iPhone 5 release at a media event in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon.

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The new iPhone has a bigger screen, a full 4 inches, making use of Apple’s patented Retina Display.  iPhone 5 is slimmer and faster than its predecessors. Weighing in at 112 grams, it’s 20 percent lighter than its older brother, 4S. The new A6 processor chip allows for faster web browsing, graphics and even better battery life. The latest iPhone also boasts Apple’s best wireless connectivity speeds to date, the first iPhone to support 4G LTE technology.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 5 will begin September 14; the phone will be available to the public on September 21. The prices for the new iPhone 5 were released. Like the previous model, iPhone 5 comes in both black and white with three options for memory capacity. The 16GB will sell for $199, the 32GB is $299 and the 64GB is $399.

One of the biggest changes to the new iPhone is the new multipurpose connector. Since 2003, Apple has used a 30-pin connector, the opening on the bottom of the iPhone and iPod that plugs it into a power source or computer. The new connector is 80 percent smaller and has 8 pins. This new connector, called Lightning, is reversible as well as more durable. Apple will now begin to offer an adapter for the old, 30-pin connector in a new, 8-pin device.

There are also considerable updates to applications currently used on the iPhone. The Google Maps App now provides audible turn-by-turn navigation, along with realtime traffic updates and re-routes to help users get where they’re going faster.

Apple’s other products (iTunes, the iPod Touch and iPod Nano) are also being updated.