All the news from Apple's new iPhone event

Proud new iPhone 6 and Apple Watch owners will be able to use their devices to pay with a tap for everyday purchases, Apple announced today, a feature the company has been preparing for a long time.

The feature is called Apple Pay, and it aims to revolutionize the "fairly antiquated payments process" we're all used to by replacing it with a near field communication (NFC) antenna, Touch ID, Passbook, and something Apple is calling the Secure Element, a dedicated chip that stores encrypted payment information.

Silence isn’t very effective.

That, more than anything, is the message of the iPhone 5C. In previous years, the arrival of a new iPhone was accompanied by the low-key repositioning of the previous model at a lower price tier — a strategy that allowed Apple to sell $99 iPhones, but didn’t allow the company to advertise them as new, interesting products. The old models sat with quiet pride in the corner of the Apple Store as people flocked in to see the latest magic from Cupertino, heralded by no banner except that of glories past.

Apple may deserve more credit than anyone for the way our smartphones look and work, but six years after our first glimpse of the iPhone a lot has changed. Google continued to design and re-design Android; Windows Phone introduced a colorful, vibrant operating system; yet iOS stood mostly still. Until this June, that is, when CEO Tim Cook announced Apple had been working on “the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone.”

That change is iOS 7, a complete aesthetic overhaul of the interface millions of iPhone owners have known for years. From the moment you turn on an iPhone running iOS 7 through nearly every interaction you have with it, it’s different. This free update changes every menu, every option, every app. Even Siri has become an entirely new person, with new thoughts and a new voice.

Apple has quietly discontinued its iOS Cards app that allowed users to customize, order, and automatically mail out letters. The app was introduced nearly two years ago alongside the iPhone 4S, but it was never included on a device by default. Though the app wasn't Apple's first foray into printing — it had done that for years in iPhoto — it was billed as a fun and simple way to get just a little more tactile at a time when most cards are going digital. Apple says that all cards ordered before 4PM ET yesterday, shortly after its press conference, will be delivered, but suggests that interested parties should head back over to iPhoto for future letter customizations, where a similar tool continues to function.

Yesterday, many expected Apple CEO Tim Cook to announce that the company had finally partnered with China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile provider, to sell its devices into its previously untapped market of 700 million subscribers. But even though plans for the deal haven’t been publicly announced, things do apppear to be coming together: the Wall Street Journal writes that a Chinese regulator has approved Apple’s new iPhones to run on China Mobile’s network. What’s more, certain models of the newly announced phones support the TD-LTE bands (38, 39, and 40) in use on the carrier’s fourth-generation hardware.

While neither fact proves that a deal is imminent, it certainly looks like things are moving in that direction. Rumors have been swirling about the possibility of the iPhone coming to China Mobile since its chairman Wang Jianzhou claimed he was in discussions with Apple two years ago.

Apple didn't mention any updates to its range of iPods at today's event, but one small change has been made apparent: the iPod touch, nano, and shuffle are now all available to order in the same "space gray" shade that is making its debut with the iPhone 5S. For the touch and nano, the new gray replaces the darker slate shade also seen on the iPhone 5 and now only available on the iPad mini.

The change is a minor one, but the fact that Apple is taking the time to produce the older models in the new color suggests we won't be seeing any more significant additions to the iPod line in the near future. The iPod classic, meanwhile, remains unaltered despite not having received any updates at all since 2009.

700 million iOS 7 devices (estimated). Five free apps (iWork). Two new iPhones (5S and 5C). Three songs (Elvis Costello). Less than four minutes of highlights (this video).

His stylish print made him the perfect finishing touch. The cherry on top. He was sleek. Sexy. Real. Teasing the camera all day, he knew how to work it. How to stand out, but not take complete focus. He was Ross Miller's tie.

Stories of the day:

Apple's June preview of a huge redesign for iOS — its first since launching in 2007 — drew a fair amount of criticism. Designers took to sites like Dribbble and Behance to show off their "improved" versions of iOS 7, with common complaints including typography, iconography, and transparency. Three months and six betas later, Apple is gearing up to ship a pair of new iPhones with the new OS, as well as preparing to push iOS 7 to all iPhones and iPads dating back to the iPhone 4 and the second-generation iPad. Although at first glance it might appear that little has changed since June, Apple has actually spent the past three months making adjustments. So what's new? And is it an improvement over what we saw at WWDC?

A lot of small changes have occurred since June 10th.

Part of The Verge Live: Apple's 2013 iPhone event

You've probably already read the news, but now you can hear it right from Tim Cook and Apple's top executives themselves. Apple has posted a video of the full keynote presentation for the new iPhones. It covers a lot of ground — two brand new iPhones, Apple's major changes to iOS, and the latest statistics of how the company has performed. If you're interested, we have our first impressions of the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c, and you follow along with the complete series of announcements through our StoryStream on the right side of the page.

The era of one-tap authentication is about to begin. Apple's announcement today of a fingerprint scanner in the iPhone 5s brings biometrics into the mainstream, enabling fast and secure access to your smartphone while also enabling one-tap purchases through iTunes. Touch ID has already raised hopes that it can replace, or at least complement, the humble password — while also leading to fears that tying smartphone activity to your fingerprint could lead to Orwellian surveillance from the government.

In its announcement, Apple played up the feature's speed, security, and purchasing power. "It's a convenient and highly secure way to access your phone," the company says. "Your fingerprint can also approve purchases from iTunes Store, the App Store, and the iBooks Store, so you don't have to enter your password." And where other manufacturers have released balky, unreliable scanners, Apple says Touch ID can read prints from any angle — a key consideration for making logins fast and accurate.

iPhone buyers have never had it this good. With two similar and competitive iPhones about to hit stores, the options are more compelling — if not harder to choose between — than ever. We’re taking a look across Apple’s new pair of iPhones to see how they stand up to one another, and how they can handle the crowd of competitors at large.

Until today, it almost always made sense to go for the best iPhone you could buy. The flagship always had the best features, while the lower-cost models were usually just recycled from last year. But today, that's changed, and both new iPhone models in Apple’s latest lineup have their strengths and weaknesses. Here’s what the line’s basic breakdown looks like:

Apple’s iPhone event on Tuesday brought us the two new devices we expected — and not much else. At a comparatively subdued and small event, the company replaced last year’s iPhone 5 with two models: the iPhone 5c, a colorful plastic phone that starts at $99, and the iPhone 5s, a high-end device that includes a 64-bit A7 chip, an enhanced camera, and a fingerprint sensor called Touch ID. Not seen today: iPad, iPod, or the mythical iWatch. The new phones arrive September 20th. Here’s what you can expect in the new models.

Part of The Verge Live: Apple's 2013 iPhone event

As it turns out, everything that we'd seen from the rumors were true: the iPhone 5s is faster, of course, with a dual-LED flash and the much-vaunted fingerprint scanner on the home button. And yes, it comes in a gold color, which actually looks better in person compared with the many leaked images we've seen. After all that, however, you would be hard-pressed to distinguish the iPhone 5s from the iPhone 5 — if you are picking one up in "Space Gray" or white, the only visible difference will be the ring around your home button and the slightly larger flash.

For once, flagship phones weren't all Apple had to talk about. At its Cupertino event today, the company announced the iPhone 5c, a decidedly lower-end version of its once-flagship device. We've had a couple of minutes to check out the device, and basically? It's an iPhone 5, only a lot thicker and a lot more plastic. And a lot more colorful.

It's nearly an Apple tradition at this point: whenever the company unveils its latest iPhone, older models are used to fill the free and $99 on-contract price points. But with the announcement of the iPhone 5c today — which starts at $99 —Apple's decided to discontinue the iPhone 5. It's simple, really: the 5c fills the price point that would have been occupied by a discounted iPhone 5. The ancient iPhone 4 has been discontinued as well, but, surprisingly, the company will continue to sell the nearly two-year-old iPhone 4s. It will be sold for no upfront cost on a two-year contract.

It's possible that the iPhone 5 remained too expensive a product for the company to drop the price significantly, and with the iPhone 5c there's just less space for older devices — especially since the new device is very similar to the iPhone 5 internally.

Biometric security has arrived on the smartphone — again. For the first time since Motorola’s Atrix 4G arrived in 2011, a major US mobile device will carry a fingerprint scanner. The iPhone 5s’s new Touch ID sensor, embedded in the home button, will allow for faster and more secure logins, Apple said today at its event in Cupertino. The scanner, which uses technology Apple acquired last year when it bought security company AuthenTec for $356 million, will ship with the new iPhone on September 20th. It will not ship with the iPhone 5c.

At its keynote today, Apple announced the M7 "motion coprocessor," a key feature in the iPhone 5s, which measures the accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope continuously in the device. The processor identifies user movement and can tell apps if you're stationary, walking, or driving based on what Phil Schiller calls "contextual awareness." Schiller briefly demoed the functionality with a new app from Nike called Nike+ Move that tracks your activity and ties in with Game Center.

Apple frequently shows off its favorite apps that take advantage of new hardware or software features in its upcoming devices. Last year, Apple demoed Real Racing 3's performance on its new A6 processor.

As a part of the iPhone 5s announcement today, Apple is eager to talk about the improved camera. It's got a 5-element lens with an aperture of f/2.2 on top of a sensor with a surface area 15 percent larger than the device it replaces (though it's still 8 megapixels). Larger sensors typically mean low-light sensitivity is improved — you can take better pictures with less noise with less illumination.

At today's iPhone event, Epic Games announced the final entry in the Infinity Blade trilogy. Details are slim, but Infinity Blade 3 will let you play as one of two different characters, including a new female warrior, and will feature both bigger worlds to explore and bigger bosses to battle — like the fire breathing dragon shown in today's demo. The new and improved graphics, aided no doubt by the new A7 processor, mean that the game will feature "lens flares that would make J.J. Abrams proud," according to Epic.

Apple typically uses games to showcase its new mobile processors — last year the company used Real Racing 3 to demonstrate the power of the A6 on the original iPhone 5. Epic's announcement comes not long after the company revealed that it was cancelling series spin-off Infinity Blade Dungeons, which was originally announced last March. The first Infinity Blade, meanwhile, proved to be the studio's most profitable game ever. Infinity Blade 3 will be launching in the App Store alongside Apple's newest smartphone, the just-announced iPhone 5s on September 18th for $6.99. It will also be compatible with the iPhone 5c, as well as older devices dating back to the iPhone 4 and iPad 2.

Love it or hate it, the gold iPhone is real. You may be one of the naysayers who calls it tacky, but admit it, you know deep inside that you probably adore it — humans just have an unnatural attraction to gold. What do you need to know about the new model other than the glamour shots below? Well, Apple says it'll be available alongside the slate and silver models, and it's officially called gold, not champagne, if you were wondering. And a fun fact before you check out those photos: the last time Apple made a broadly available device in gold was with the original iPod Mini nearly a decade ago. Gold's back!

Check out our iPhone Live Blog for the latest updates — and join us after for The Verge Live!

Smartphone processors get faster every year, and the new iPhone certainly isn't bucking that trend. The iPhone 5S will come with the Apple A7, a new 64-bit system-on-chip Phil Schiller described as "a leap forward." Schiller said the A7 is "up to twice as fast" as its predecessor, introducing speed gains in both performance and graphics. Apple's iOS operating system has been completely rebuilt to take full advantage of the chip's 64-bit architecture, Schiller said. The company brought Epic Games on stage to showcase the increased horsepower provided by the A7 with its latest title, Infinity Blade III. Schiller said that in certain instances, the A7 offers CPU boosts 42 times faster than the original iPhone, with graphics up to 56 times faster.

As expected, Apple's just announced the iPhone 5s, its latest flagship smartphone. It runs iOS 7, and looks almost exactly like the iPhone 5 but comes in different colors: silver, a new "space gray," and gold — as was heavily rumored. The standout feature is Touch ID, which is an integrated fingerprint sensor in the new sapphire home button that scans your "sub-epidermal layers" at 500 points per inch to read your fingerprint and unlock the phone. You can also authenticate purchases, so buying apps, music, and movies in iTunes and the App Store just got a lot easier. There's a capacitive ring around the home button that activates the sensor, and it can read your fingerprint in any orientation. You can also have it authenticate multiple fingerprints, so you can share your phone with specific family members without having to reveal your passcode.