Apple’s homepage is counting down the hours, minutes and seconds until a “special event” streamed live today at 10am PDT (or 12 noon CDT for those of you in my timezone). Apple has not officially stated what they will cover but we expect from the past to see a new iPhone along with the launch date of iOS 8, the latest operating system for iPhone and iPad. We should also find out the launch date for the next Mac operating system, OSX Yosemite. Apple announced iOS 8 and OSX Yosemite at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in June.
2 new iPhone Models
Unofficially, we’re expecting two new iPhone models: one with a 4.7 inch screen and one with a 5.5 inch screen.
The following image illustrates how the new iPhones would compare to current iPhone models and popular Samsung phones.
iWatch
We’re also expecting a new product category from Apple, a “wearable device” possibly called the iWatch or iBand. This device can monitor health information and integrate with other apple devices. It’s launch is not expected until early 2015.
Mobile Payment Platform
The new iPhones and possibly the iWatch are expected to include an NFC (near-field communication) chip for mobile payments allowing these devices to integrate with a new mobile payment platform. This would allow you to pay by tapping your watch or phone to a special payment pad instead of swiping a credit card. The iPhone’s fingerprint reader along with geolocation and other sensors would make such mobile payments more secure.