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THE LONG AWAITED iPhone X is official, with the firm unveiling the 10th-anniversary device at its much-hyped Apple Event on Tuesday.

The iPhone X (pronounced iPhone 10) is the company's first smartphone to feature a full-screen display, as it sets its sights on the likes of the Galaxy Note 8. There's also an all-new 'Super Retina' resolution, a reinforced glass design and support for wireless charging, with the iPhone X arriving with support for the Qi charging standard.

We've rounded up everything we know about the iPhone X below, and will update this article as soon as we hear more. 

Release dateAs expected, the iPhone X won't be released at the same time as the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which will start shipping on 22 September.

PriceThe iPhone X will be made available in 64GB and 256GB configurations, which will fetch £999 and £1,149 in the UK, respectively. Pricing in the US starts at $999. 

Apple will also make the handset available through its iPhone Upgrade Program, with monthly payments starting at £56.45.

Naturally, Carphone Warehouse has been quick to announce that it'll be stocking the three new iPhones, and pre-registration has kicked off for the iPhone X. It has also started taking pre-orders for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. 

EE will be selling the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, and has been quick to launch a registration page for interested customers. It will also be the only UK network to offer the Apple Watch 3. 

O2 will be ranging both the iPhone 8 and iPhone X when pre-orders begin on 15 September and 27 October, respectively. 

UK operator Three has been quick to announce that it will offer all three new iPhones but has yet to cough on pricing details. 

Vodafone has confirmed that it will offer the iPhone X, as well as both the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. Interested customers can register their interest here.

Virgin Mobile has confirmed that it will be selling the iPhone X, as well as Apple's iPhone 8 and 8 Plus handsets.

Specs- 5.8in Super Retina (2436x1125) OLED edge-to-edge display
- New 'all-glass' design with IP67 certification
- 143.6x70.9x7.7 mm, 179g
- Wireless charging support
- Apple A11 chip with Apple-designed GPU
- Face ID
- iOS 11 with improved Siri, P2P payments
- Vertical 12MP dual cameras with OIS, 7MP front-facing camera
- Support for LTE speeds up to 450Mbps
- Wireless charging/fast charging support
- Battery life quoted at 21 hours of talk time
- 64GB/256GB storage

Latest news
26/10/17: Apple has confirmed that iPhone X pre-orders will begin at 8.01am on Friday, and is advising buyers that the quickest way to order will be via it's official Apple Store app.

25/10/17: Apple has reportedly told suppliers to reduce the accuracy of the phone's flagship Face ID system in order to speed up production times. "People familiar with the situation" have said that although the downgrading of the feature is only slight, it won't be as good as the original specs, despite supplier Foxconn being given a two year lead time. "It's an aggressive design," the source said, "and it's a very aggressive schedule."

18/10/17: Apple has responded to a letter from Senator Al Franken, who raised concerns about the implications of Apple's new Face ID feature, in particular, customer security, third-party access to data and whether the tech could recognise a diverse set of faces. In its response, Apple says that that the chance of a random person unlocking your phone is one in a million (in comparison to one in 500,000 for Touch ID), adding that after five unsuccessful scans, a passcode is required to access your iPhone. 

The firm has also detailed how it stores Face ID biometrics, saying: "Face ID data, including mathematical representations of your face, is encrypted and only available to the Secure Enclave. This data never leaves the device. It is not sent to Apple, nor is it included in device backups. Face images captured during normal unlock operations aren't saved, but are instead immediately discarded once the mathematical representation is calculated for comparison to the enrolled Face ID data."

17/10/17: According to reports, Apple's manufacturer Foxconn recently began shipping the first round of iPhone Xs to various countries, but that first batch only includes 46,500 devices. This is likely due to issues holding up production of the TrueDepth camera, with some reports speculating that the biggest production challenges surround the dot projector, which projects more than 30,000 dots on the user's face to create a depth map to enable FaceID, animoji, and other features.

16/10/17: Apple's manufacturing partners Foxconn and TSMC are still struggling to produce enough TrueDepth camera sensors ahead of the iPhone X's launch next month. So says reports out of Japan, which claim that the firms can't get high enough yields of the 3D sensors required to make the TrueDepth camera work properly.

Jeff Pu, an analyst with Taipei-based Yuanta Investment Consulting, backed up the reports and said that he now expects Apple to produce 36 million iPhone X handsets this year, down from his previous 40 million estimation. 

13/10/17: The iPhone X comes with a new feature that will ensure nobody snoops on your notifications. Phone Arena reports that the phone will only show lock screen notifications with content when it knows that you are the one looking at the phone. If it's someone else, they will only see the notification source. This feature will also be coming to older devices, but given their lack of Face ID, users can choose for their iPhone to only show notifications with content once it has been unlocked.

9/10/17: Ming-Chi Kuo has re-affirmed previous comments that Apple will be lacking iPhone X stock in 2017 and said in a note that the so-called 'supercycle' - which refers to a large number of existing iPhone users upgrading - won't begin until next year. 

Kuo said: "The market generally refers to 2017 as the supercycle of the iPhone, but we think the real supercycle will be in 2018 for the following reasons: (1) TrueDepth Camera's production issues will be significantly addressed in 2018F; (2) new models launched in 2018F will enjoy a longer sales period than those unveiled in 2017; and (3) the product mix, specifications and designs of new iPhone models from 2018F will be more competitive. We estimate that for 2017, iPhone shipments will come in at 210-220mn units, which should grow to be 245-255mn units in 2018."

5/10/17: iDrop News has looked into its crystal ball and imagined what the future of the iPhone X might hold. A plus-sized model is the answer, and the website has shown off what this might look like in renders (below). Er, unsurprisingly, it looks like the iPhone X but bigger, and houses the same irritating notch at the top of the display. According to rumours, Apple will launch at least two OLED iPhones next year, measuring in at 5.85in and 6.46in, respectively.

In a letter sent to 32 top companies, Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), first vice chair, asked for detailed diversity statistics and an accounting of how much partnership and philanthropic spending is allocated to Hispanic-serving and Hispanic-led institutions. 

"The tech sector employs 7 million people in the U.S. and accounts for more than $1.3 trillion in economic activity in the nation’s economy. Unfortunately, in tech and 'gig economy' companies, Hispanics are routinely underrepresented and underfunded," they wrote. 

Apple, Airbnb, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Uber were among the companies to receive a letter from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The inquiry comes at a critical moment for the tech industry, which is grappling with its lack of racial and ethnic diversity, especially Latinos. 

By 2060, more than a quarter of the U.S. population will be Latino, representing more than $1 trillion in economic power and a major opportunity for the tech industry to appeal to a tech-savvy group with its products and services.

Yet in Silicon Valley tech companies, Latinos comprise a distinct minority, making up 6% of employees, versus the 22% of employees in non-tech firms in the area, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hispanics are also underrepresented nationwide in the tech sector at 8% of employees and 3% of executives. At major Silicon Valley tech companies such as Google and Facebook, that percentage is far smaller.

Top universities turn out black and Hispanic computer science and computer engineering graduates at twice the rate that leading technology companies hire them, a USA TODAY analysis showed.

And it's not just computer science: Minorities are also sharply underrepresented in non-technical jobs such as sales and administration, with African Americans faring noticeably worse than Hispanics, according to USA TODAY research.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is following the example of the Congressional Black Caucus, which has been pressing Silicon Valley on diversity. It launched the Tech 2020 initiative, a campaign to boost recruitment of African Americans in the tech industry over the next five years. Next week the Congressional Black Caucus is sending its second delegation to Silicon Valley for meetings with top tech companies.

Some of the pointed questions Hispanic lawmakers asked tech companies: How many Hispanics are senior executives or on the board of directors? Who are the three most senior Hispanics? How many Hispanic full-time employees are employed in public policy, federal government relations, state and local government relations, public relations/communications, marketing and legal?  How many Hispanics lead those departments? How many Hispanic-owned firms do companies contract with?

Lawmakers say the information will provide a baseline on staffing and corporate social responsibility priorities for the companies.

"The Hispanic community in the United States has played and will continue to play a pivotal role in the social, economic and political development of our country. As we look to the future, the Hispanic community, as the nation’s largest minority group, is well-positioned to help lead the way as our economy undergoes its most recent transformation," the letter reads. "But we cannot do so if we are not given a seat at the table."

source: USATODAY

reland's High Court on Thursday ruled that a 850 million euro ($1 billion) data center planned by Apple in the west of Ireland may proceed, dismissing an environmental challenge made by three people.

Apple announced plans to build the data center in 2015, but the project has been delayed by planning objections. A similar Apple center announced at the same time in Denmark is due to begin operations later this year.

The update is available now over-the-air through the Software Updates section of the Settings app.