Few surprises today. All the rumors were true, and most of the new features were pretty obvious. I won't bother covering all of that here, just a few highlights.

  • The New Dock Connector

It being called Lightning and touted as a Thunderbolt counterpart, you would think it would be compatible with Thunderbolt. Nope, USB 2 only. Not even USB 3.

And a single adapter costs $30? That's highway robbery, even by Apple's standards. I understand the reasons why a new connector was needed, but Apple should be softening the blow, not milking it for all it's worth.

  • CDMA and GSM Are Seperate Again

Edit: This is incorrect. Please see my correction.

One of the cool things about the 4S was that they managed to squeeze CDMA (Verizon, Sprint) and GSM (AT&T, the rest of the world) onto one chip, into one model. So you could buy a Verizon 4S, have them unlock it after 60 days, then use it anywhere in the world.

For some reason, the iPhone 5 has them seperate again, so make your choice. To make matters worse, AT&T's LTE chip will only work in the U.S., but Verizon's will work worldwide. Data only. Strange.

These first two complaints have left me seriously considering a $99 4S to replace my iPhone 4.

  • EarPods

By all accounts, the new earbuds fit and sound better. It's about time. I can't wait to try them. If they're good, I'll buy a second set for my MacBook.