Apple Let's Rock Event [Live Blog]

[Engadget 11:04] Steve: "Thank you all for coming!"

[Engadget 11:03] "Thanks again." And it looks like we're done!

[Macworld 11:00] JS: Now Jack's playing "Better Together," Mr. Frakes tells me. As for me, I know that one song from the "Curious George" movie, but that's pretty much it. Boy, I'm glad Dan Frakes is here.


[Engadget 11:00] Big cheers from the crowd. A few journalists have been moved to tears. I think I see Dan Lyons in the corner sobbing. Jack is thanking us and being quite modest. "I'm used to 20-something girls right here, I'm doing my best." Guffaw. "Apple has been really supportive... I wanted to say thank you."

[Engadget 10:51] "We get excited when we can bring products to market that make enjoying music better..." Looks like a musical guest is about to step out. "He's sold over 60 million albums, he's the #1 selling male artist in iTunes history... Jack Johnson."

[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:50] "Back to iTunes and iPod. We've got the best lineup we've ever had. We've sld over 160 million iPods. We're ready for this coming season. And we really appreciate the chance to share that."


[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:49] "Some great new performance enhancements... free to all owners, available this Friday."

[Engadget 10:49] iPhone 2.1 Firmware. "This is a big update, it fixes lots of bugs. Fewer dropped calls, big battery life improvements. No crashes with Apps. Backing up is faster." Nice.

[Engadget 10:47] "It's the best portable device for playing games..."

[Engadget 10:47] Touch with games played on it, lots of games. Ah we get it... look out Nintendo. That's basically an ad for a gaming device. They're going for the throat here.


[Engadget 10:46] "This is the funnest iPod ever. We think people will really like. We've got it in 3 models." 8GB, $229, 16GB for $299, and a 32GB for $399. All three are available today. "Now we've got a new ad."

[Engadget 10:45] iPod touch: 36 hours of music, 6 hours of video, environmentally sound design.

[Engadget 10:45] Okay, Steve is back!

[Engadget 10:44] Ah, 'Need for Speed'. Looks like it uses some real car models. This looks fun, but we're still holding out hope for some more hardware... that might be wishful thinking, of course. Again, pretty impressive 3D graphics, it continues to be shocking what the touch / iPhone can do. Phil wiped out... crowd: "oooooooh!" He's on the run from the cops, good stuff. "Don't try this at home."

[Gizmodo]


[Gizmodo 10:41] Now Gameloft’s Real Soccer 2009. Shipping today. He’s picking US vs. Italy, customizing his uniforms and picking a stadium. Graphics are PS1-level 3D, but the 2D stuff looks nice.


[Macworld 10:38] DM: Phil is pretty excited about games. (I wonder if this is just because Steve's not big on games). He's going to show off "Spore Origins" for the iPod touch; we're looking at the creature creator. "You may not recognize me, but that's me." He's changing colors, patterns, etc. "I don't know why a single-cell organism has eyes but no brain." Good question, Phil. Control the character by tilting the iPod touch. Phil's little dude is getting his butt kicked, unfortunately. And that's Spore, which just started shipping on the App Store yesterday.

[Engadget 10:38] "This couldn't be more fun, hundreds of games. Here's some you haven't seen before. I'm going to start with a game that just shipped... Spore. The iPod touch version, 'Spore Origins'." Man they love Spore.

[Engadget 10:38] A clip from 'Iron Man' -- "And I can go to the App Store and download games. We've got a treat today." He's inviting Phil Schiller on stage. Phil's going to demo some games it seems.


[Engadget 10:36] "Let me show you some of this stuff." "I'm going into music, I'm gonna pick Green Day, 'American Idiot' -- tap the Genius button..." This looks real familiar. They are pushing this so hard. Hmm, Hendrix? Not exactly like Green Day, is it? And now U2, okay, that makes a bit of sense. Refresh brings up a whole new list. "It's pretty nice." "I can make playlists on the touch. Let me go to movies, let me remind you how great it is."

[Engadget 10:34] "Today is only the 60th day the store has been open. Right on the iPod touch. There are about 700 games on the App Store, some of them are getting pretty fantastic."

[Engadget 10:33] "And of course... the App Store. I'm pleased to announce that users have downloaded 100 million apps...." Yeah, 99 million were total crap.

[Engadget 10:33] "The receiver is built in, you just need the transmitter for your shoe." Big cheers for that one. Now he's going on about Genius again... okay Steve we get it, we'll never have to think about music ever again. Steve clearly never made a mixtape for a girlfriend.

[Engadget 10:32] "We've enhanced the UI, better artwork on albums. Of course it's still great to watch video. The UI is even nicer. We've also built in Nike+ to the touch." Wow, now that's kind of handy.

[Gizmodo]




[Engadget 10:31] "What's different? We've integrated volume controls into the side. Built-in speaker... which is hard for something this thin... for casual listening... Genius playlist creation... and the App Store built in."

[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:30] "Let's move on to the iPod touch. We've brought our multitouch interface to the iPod. It's unlike anything in the market... for this holiday season we're making it better. Same display, but even thinner. Contoured stainless steel design... they're just fantastic."

[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:29] They've got a new ad... and here we go. Funky music... very funky electroish beats. And flipping, melting / paint dripping nanos. Short, but cute.

[Gizmodo]





[Engadget 10:28] "We've also got some new in-ear headphones. They ship with 3 earbuds, and they've got 2 drivers each, a woofer and tweeter -- they're going to sell for $79." Ooh, what a bargain... that's knocking the price up a bit.


[Engadget 10:27] 8GB in stock in the next few days, the 16GB hopefully this weekend. "We've also got some great accessories... armband, some headphones as well... we have a pair we're introducing... these headphones have a pause / play and volume control, double click goes to next song, triple click goes to previous, right from the cable, and there's a microphone for voice recording."

[Gizmodo]


[Macworld 10:27] JS: Score! The nano comes with headphones with a built-in inline remote, with volume controls as well as next/previous. Of course, you have to use Apple's headphones. Some of us love them, some of us hate them, but that's pretty cool.

[Engadget 10:26] "Now there's one thing I haven't talked about: colors." Wow, a whole rainbow of super bright colors. Bright blue, purple, orange,m green, pink. These look pretty slick. "Entry price of $149 for 8GB, $199 for 16GB."

[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:25] "We want to be environmentally sensitive. We're constantly worrying about it. But the biggest thing is toxics -- we have an internal checklist, but the new iPods look great from this point of view. They're highly recyclable... we're really trying our best. We think these new nanos are the cleanest we've ever built."


[Engadget 10:24] 24 hours battery life for music, 4 hours for video.

[Engadget 10:24] "I wanna show you photos... here's some photos, we can thumb through... tilt it for landscape, look at some photos. It just works really well. That's what I wanted to show you." Nice, a decent upgrade, but a lot we've seen.

[Engadget 10:23] "New feature... shake to shuffle!" huge cheers, you just shake it to change. Nice, very cute.

[Engadget 10:22] "Let's go into music, artists... we'll pick Beck... 'Guess I'm doing fine' -- I just rotate it sideways and I?m in cover mode." This looks handsome, but not mindblowing.

[Macworld 10:22] JS: It's interesting, Apple is rolling in features that used to be more advanced or only available with add-ons, right into the product. The nano is basically the mainstream iPod now, if it wasn't already.

[Engadget 10:20] "Calendar, stopwatch, voice recording when it detects a mic." Demo action... now.

[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:19] Songs are displayed in a touch / iPhone manner. "Turn it sideways and you're in coverflow -- you get full size album art -- again with photos, just turn the nano. Video is fantastic, and another cool thing is you push and hold the center button for a popup menu, you can use the Genius, you can browse."


[Engadget 10:19] "Features? New curved aluminum design with curved glass -- and enhanced UI with new features. We've taken the accelermoter from the touch and iPhone and it does some great things, and you can use the Genius function on the iPod."


[Engadget 10:18] It's quite small, extremely thin! It almost vanishes when he turns it on its side. "You'll be blown away with how thin it is."

[Engadget 10:18] "Exactly the same display, but it's the thinnest iPod we've ever made. It's an oval shape, and it fits in with the line. The first and second gen, but exactly the same... he's pulling one out."

[Macworld 10:17] DM: iPod nano. Shipped the first nano in 2005. Second generation in 2006, third-gen in 2007. Only three years. But we have a new iPod nano for this holiday season. And it looks a lot like the spyshots that have been going around: much taller with a larger screen. "Best of both worlds." Portrait aspect ratio and same display in portrait mode. Thinnest iPod they've ever made. Looks to be about the same height as the 1G and 2G. He's got one in his pocket. Nice looking screen. Pretty darn thin; it's got an oval cross-section. (Is it just me, or does Steve's shirt have a seam down the front of it?)

[Engadget 10:17] "We went from 1,000 songs to 30,000 in your pocket. The iPod nano. You know we shipped the first nano in 2005, it's only been 3 years." Showing off the older generations now, boasting of the improvements. "But we have a new iPod nano for this holiday season."


[Engadget 10:16] "Total sales since we started are over 160 million." "So with that, I'd like to tell you about some new products. Let's start with the classic. We've offered in two models, thin and thick, but we're discontinuing the thick one. We're upgrading to 120GB at $249."


[Engadget 10:15] "Now let's talk about the iPod. NPD data shows iPod with 73.4% marketshare. Number 2 is "other", number 3 is Sandisk, and number 4 is Microsoft, 2.6%." "There are over 5,000 accessories, they announce products before they want them to... it's funny."


[Engadget 10:14] "That's available today as a free download."

[Engadget 10:14] "Some songs I'm missing, some songs by other artists." Little Richard. "We think you're really going to like the Genius feature." Big cheers!

[Engadget 10:13] "Alright I'm going to buy music. Elvis... and uh, I'm gonna buy 'Heartbreak Hotel' now let me make a playlist -- and it's pulled together songs that go with that song."

[Engadget 10:12] "You get the idea." "Here we are watching HD on our iMac. Going back to music, I'm going to search for John Mayer..." Oh joy. "All I do is push the Genius button.. and boom, that's it... I can refresh, and here's songs that go with that song."

[Engadget 10:11] "I can see music by genre." He's scrolling through panels. "I can see by composer. It also works great for movies and TV shows." Ha, 'The Office' -- the phone gag.


[Engadget 10:10] "I've got albums, I can click to artists... let me go to Aretha Franklin... and you know, play songs." Aretha! Nice.

[Engadget 10:09] "The results are tailored to your tastes and library. Automatically make playlists with just one click."

[Engadget 10:08] "You've got your music library, you turn on Genius -- it sends information about your library to iTunes. We can learn about your musical tastes... but completely anonymously... but we're going to combine your info with other users, and as that happens Genius gets smarter and smarter." Tee hee!

[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:07] "Let's say you're listening to a song, Bob Dylan, and you push the Genius button -- 25, 50, 75 or 100 songs. They're amazingly good. You can bring up the Genius sidebar which makes recommendations from the iTunes store." Ah, making that easier to sell eh?

[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:06] "We're introing a new featuring called 'Genius' -- it allows you to make playlists from songs in your library that go together. It helps you rediscover music in your library. And it really works well."

[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:06] "This also scales to movies, TV shows, podcasts, but it will be used most for music."

[Engadget 10:05] "HD TV shows, accessability... voice over... new browsing in iTunes, and something called Genius." well what do you know? "Old browsing wasn't efficient, in iTunes 8 you can look by album cover, and this new bar at the top let's you look at anything graphically in little tiles."

[Engadget 10:04] "We're introducing iTunes 8 today."

[Engadget 10:04] "NBC is coming back to iTunes." Big cheers "The Office is coming back, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock... and they're coming back in HD."]


[Engadget 10:03] "So we're adding new content to iTunes. HD TV shows. You can buy them for $1.99 in SD, HD will be $2.99... and you can watch them on your computer."

[Gizmodo]


[Engadget 10:02] "We've got over 65 million customers. It's enabled us to become the #1 music distributor in any format."

[Engadget 10:02] "So let's get on with it. The topic this morning is music. Let's start with iTunes. It's the ubiquitous store and music player. It now offers 8.5 million songs. It's amazing. Over 125,000 podcasts, over 30,000 TV shows, 2600 movies... and we now offer over 3,000 apps for iPhone and touch."

[Engadget 10:00] Steve is out!


[Engadget 10:00] And the lights are coming down... here we go!


[Engadget 9:53] Announcer: please turn off all cell phones and PDAs. The presentation will begin shortly.

[Gizmodo 9:49]


Live blogging coverage of Apple's Let's Rock Event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco will begin shortly!