LIVE BLOG: The Apple Watch, a Pair of iPhones and Digital Payments — Oh My!

[Author's note: Check out my Apple Special Event wrap-up]

One Last Thing: #Untucked. See you next time ...

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U2 is playing us out ... The EP Songs of Innocence is free on iTunes as of 5 seconds ago. Offer good through mid October.

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Apple Watch also works with Apple Pay.

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Apple Watch requires an iPhone. Works with 6 and 6 Plus and also 5s, 5c, 5

starts at $350. Available early 2015.

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Activity monitor includes tracking of standing (!) and anything from a brisk walk and harder.

And it's integrated with separate health monitoring.

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The range of apps are already make Apple Watch a platform for road warriors: American Airlines check in, "W" hotels checking (and even unlocking your hotel room), BMW EV battery gauge. Is this actually going to be part of Apple's enterprise strategy?

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Touch screen utilization actually seems useful. I was wrong that it might be a mistake.

Voice: Siri integration works great in the live demo.

Texting: It appears to interpret messages, and offer customized replies.

Maps: Directions and "taptic" turn-by-turn navigation.

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Kevin Lynch confirms it, but — of course — Apple Watch only works with an iPhone. Somehow I don't think that will be the problem it's been for Samsung ...

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Two sizes — one for smaller wrists! Three finishes, including 18 carat gold, multiple bands. Live demo now!

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Apple Watch design elements are so sweeping, it begs the question how Apple can keep the material facts about such a thing so secret.

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Main input is via the "digital crown" — watch stem for you old timers. Sapphire glass, which (awesome) video narrator Jony Ive says is the second-hardest transparent material, after diamonds).

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Did I just see Siri Integration ?!?!?

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Apple Watch, Apple Pay — is this the end of the iDevice meme? Well, it's not Apple Phone — yet.

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"Apple watch is the most personal product we've ever created." — Tim Cook

"Incredibly customizable."

"Because you wear it, we invented new intimate way to connect and communicate directly from your wrist, and it works seamlessly with iPhone."

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"We're not quite finished yet. we have one more thing." Crowd goes wild. "We've been working for a long time on a brand new product."

Heres the smartwatch! Awesome intro video.

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Adding cards to Passbook looks wicked simple — photograph your card. On security, it uses a disposal token approach. Each transaction has a different hash, so the card details can't be stolen at POS. Also: "Apple pay doesn't know what you bought, where you bought it or what you paid." Initial partners: Macy's, Bloomingdales, Subway, Walgreens, Duane Reade, McDonalds (even drive through), Whole Foods, Staples.

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[Author's note: My speculative advance piece on the Special Event is here]

"We've created an entirely new payment process. And we call it Apple pay." — Tim Cook. "It is so cool!" This is an NFC and Touch ID combo.

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Here we go with payments: "Our vision is to replace this" (Tim Cook in front of a picture of a wallet)

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Pricing:

6: $200 (16 GB) $300 (64) to $400 (128)

6 Plus: $300 (16GB ) $400 (64) $500 (128)

Starts shipping Sept. 19 (US and eight other countries). Pre-oder 9/12. Aim to be in 150 1250 countries by the end of the year.

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THIS JUST IN: Burst selfies, so you can NAIL it from the front-facing camera.

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Major camera enhancements: 8 megapixel iSight camera, 43 megapixel panoramas, image stabilization (digital on the 6, but optical on the 6 Plus). Video now up to 240 fps.

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20 LTE bands, "more than other smartphone." Supports Wi-Fi 802.11ac. And — this is cool — seamless hand off of a call from data to WiFi and back as necessary.

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All that new processing power and more pixels won't be a power drain, Apple asserts. "Equal or better battery life in every metric as the iPhone 5," says Phll Schiller

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I'm trying to keep it lean and real here — not every darn thing going on stage, and not a lot of the technical specs — plenty of time for that later. But have to mention the cool gaming kids from Super Evil Megacorp are on stage, because in real life you don't get a lot of chance to actually write Super Evil Megacorp

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Rounded edges, and the power button on the side, where it's easier to reach. This are re-imagined iPhones that, with the extra power under the hood Phil Shiller is outlining, make this potentially a genuine hardware-justified upgrade.

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These are thin phones, as well as larger. The 6 is 6.9 mm and the 6 Plus is 7.1 mm. iPhone 5 is 7.6 mm. Screen sizes were are speculated: 4.7" for the 6 and 5.5" for the 6 Plus.

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No monkey business. Tim Cook gets right down to business: "Today we are launching the biggest advance in the history of the iPhone — and I couldn't be more exicted and more proud to show it to you now."

Assuming Apple wants to end strong, this is going to be a wild ride ...

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It's a big day for Apple: Tim Cook & Co. will be putting on a show for which there are enormous expectations.

At the risk of repeating myself, the great expectations are for two new larger iPhones and a smartwatch lazy tech journalists have dubbed the iWatch.

My own little rooting corner will be for the introduction of near field communication (NFC), which could jump start the nascent e-wallet business. With larger iPhones Apple would be chasing thunder and introducing products that will do better in other parts of the world — big screen phones are favored in China, for example.

But with a smartwatch and NFC Apple will be endorsing what I think are great ideas that haven't really caught on yet. That's a lot on the table.

I'll be live blogging Apple's special event at this URL (which is lnkd.in/appleliveblog).

See you later!

Photos: via #applelive