iPhone X live updates: Apple reveals its most ambitious device ever – latest

The "X" in iPhone X might partly be to sound cool. But it's also a reference to the fact it's ten years since the first one. While you're waiting, you can relive that first moment – surely one of the best keynotes ever – on YouTube, here.

Tim Cook is up and tweeting. That's the Steve Jobs Theater, which is now filling up. 

Here's my guess at what's going to happen in an hour or so:

Tim Cook comes on stage, and introduces the updates Apple Watch and 4K Apple TV. Then he gets onto the iPhone 8 and gets all the boring stuff out of the way. (Read about why that's boring and why it matters here.) Just as we think he's all finished – except of course not – he says "this would be exciting if that was all we had to say, but there's something else". And that's the iPhone X.

Of course, all of that would be a lot more exciting if the iPhone X and almost every detail about it hadn't leaked days before the actual announcement...

One fleeting thought (and what else is a pre-event live blog for): There probably won't be an iPhone 9. How would Apple release that without it sounding inferior to the iPhone X? And what would the next one be called?

What's more, will Apple always introduce a normal iPhone and a more futuristic one? Will next year's normal one look like this year's futuristic one?

Apple's plan this year is radical and odd, to say the least. (More on that here.) But it'll be next year's strategy that will be the big puzzle: how to follow an event that seems to be entirely singular, and throw the entire narrative out of joint? 

It's fair to say that they've thought about all these questions, and answered them. But even Apple can't know for sure that the answer is satisfactory.

While we're waiting, feel free to send any questions or observations over to me on Twitter, where I'm @_andrew_griffin.

You might think the leaks were bad news. But they actually show something good, according to one analyst.=

David Barker of technology marketing firm Amobee said online discussion of the upcoming announcement was focussing on the alleged new features, which he claimed was a positive sign for potential sales.

"Part of the challenge Apple faces around the upcoming announcement of their 10th anniversary iPhone is, after a decade spent improving the product line, it's increasingly difficult to come up with new features to wow consumers," he said.

"During that time, the smartphone market has gone from huge growth potential to achieving scale, and now the biggest competition for a new iPhone model is often old iPhone models as the audience needs to be convinced an upgrade is warranted.

"In that context, the high amount of digital interest for facial recognition and wireless charging around the upcoming iPhone is an extremely positive sign for Apple, and the early indication is if those features are announced on Tuesday, that would generate the necessary excitement to lift iPhone sales."

Apple's official Twitter account doesn't officially tweet. Instead, it sends out strange "shadow" tweets to remind people about events, if they ask for it. Anyway, with less than half an hour to go, the account is waking up and sending forth its messages. 

Here's the inside of the Steve Jobs Theater, via Apple commentator Rene Ritchie. This is the company's first big reveal of the day – nobody had seen the underground auditorium before, and it looks just like a big, round Apple Store.