Apple Music Event September 2009: Live Blog

MacWorld 11:05 PDT:
So, iPod plus iTunes. An incredible release, iTunes 9, available today. And a great lineup, a very strong lineup for the holiday season, again, available today. That's what we wanted to show you, we're very pleased that you came.

"We've got great teams of people who make these products. And like you, we love music. That's probably the primary reason we do this. And there's no better way to remind us all, than by having a live performance. And we are really lucky today in that Norah Jones is going to join us."

MacWorld 11:04 PDT:
Now running an ad for the iPod nano. People in bright colored clothes matching the iPods, taking videos while dancing to music.



Gdget 10:01 PDT:
“So, pretty amazing to always have a video camera of that quality in your pocket. The nano is an incredible device: it’s the most popular music player in the world, we’ve sold over 100m. It’s a great music player.”

“It’s got CoverFlow, and we’re adding VoiceOver and Genius mixes. We’ve also built in for the first time an FM radio. And we’ve built in a voice recorder app and a pedometer to keep track of your steps and sync to Nike+.”

So, the new iPod nano: video camera, larger 2.2-inch display, polished anodized aluminum, mic and speaker, VoiceOver, FM Radio, pedometer. And it comes in awesome colors this year.”









Engadget 10:58 PDT:
Steve is back. One more thing! "That thing is a video camera."

"People are using these portable SSD cameras..." He's showing off the Flip. "4GB, $149. We want to get in on this. SO what are we going to do?" Well we're going to start with 8GB, and we're going to lower the price... to free." "This is the new Apple, isn't it?"

"How are we going to do that? We're going to build a camera into the back of every nano." "So how good is it? Turns out it's great. Let me show you some video." "So you can watch it on your nano, and you can sync it to your computer. And with one click, you can send it to YouTube."




Gdget 10:55 PDT:
“Next: iPod shuffle. The shuffle is literally the smallest music player in the world. It’s the easiest to use iPod as well — there are no controls on the device, the controls are on your headset.”

“So what’s new with the iPod shuffle? Today we’re bringing out all new colors. And making more affordable: $59 for 2GB. Those are all shipping today.”


“We also want to make one more that we really think is beautiful, we call it the Special Edition: made out of polished stainless steel, it’s $99 for 4GB.”


Gdgt 10:54 PDT:
“Next: iPod classic. It’s a great device for customers with a large music library, and want to keep all those songs plugged in… what we’re going to do is up that capacity to 160GB, same size and same price, $250.”


MacWorld 10:53 PDT:
New iPod touch ad, and it's more of what we've seen, hands holding a series of iPod touches, playing games.

Engadget 10:51 PDT:
Phil is back. "The touch is the most affordable gateway to the App Store. And there's something for everyone there. For anything you want. It's affordable at $229, and there are no monthly fees."

"We learned something a few years back in the iPod business. We asked engineering to get the costs down -- when we did that, the sales doubled. We learned that $199 is a magic price point... so that's what we're going to do with the iPod touch."

"8GB $199, at $299 we're doubling the memory... and at $399 we're doubling to 64GB"

"We're making it faster too. We're bringing to power to run Open GL."


Gdgt 10:47 PDT:
Last up from the devs: EA. “They’ve been a hit on all other platforms, and on the App Store as well, with three number one hit titles.” Travis Boatman up to demo Madden ‘10.

Draw the play with your finger. “Super intuitive, unparalleled control!” Applause.


MacWorld 10:43 PDT:
Next up: Mark Hickey from Gameloft. This is another first-person shooter, Nova. It's got media integration, so you can listen to your iPod while you're fragging aliens. It's very Halo-like, this game.


MacWorld 10:40 PDT:
Parade of game developers. First Assassin's Creed, now Tapulous. Game that mixes music and racing. You race down a road and moves a ball down a green line, to the beat. Take different paths for different remixes, and if you do badly you lose a part of the music and get dropped back to a bass beat.


MacWorld 10:38 PDT:
Demo of Assassin's Creed II. This must be a Rated-M event, as the demo is averaging ~10 brutal on-screen kills/minute.


Gdget 10:35 PDT:
10:36AM - “Games are expensive — $25-35 per title. Worse isn’t the price, it’s the buying experience, going to a store is just not a lot of fun. Built into every iPod touch is the App Store… you’ll see a big difference.”

“Just amazing. I wanted to share a few of the things we’ve been seeing. First, I’ll invite up Ubisoft, and Assassin’s Creed became the fastest video game brand ever, and to tell us what’s coming we have Ben Mattes.”


Engadget 10: 34 PDT:
"And people are starting to see what a great gaming device this is. When you think about the companies that came before us... when you played those other systems, they seemed so cool, but now when you look at them, they don't stack up against the iPod touch."


Gdgt 10:31 PDT:
“You may ask: why? We think the things that set it apart: it’s a great iPod. It’s an amazing way to listen to your music and play videos. It’s also great for discovering new music, because built into each is WiFi and iTunes.”

“You don’t even have to select a song, it creates mixes for you. The iPod touch is a great iPod. Customers already started to figure out, it’s also something else: it’s a great pocket computer.”

“Not everybody’s computer fits in your pocket.”


Engadget 10:29 PDT:
"Good morning everyone. If you haven't heard, the iPod has been a big hit. We've sold over 220m iPods to date, and growing. It's incredible. Customers love it. If you look at the latest market data, the iPod is at 73.8%"

"And in the rear... Microsoft has about 1.1%."

"The fastest growing product in the line is the iPod touch. Now I'm proud to tell you that we've sold 20m touches. Couple that with 30m iPhones -- this technology is taking off so quickly."


Gdget 10:28 PDT:
“Thank you Jeff. Again, very cool features of iTunes 9. Free today, and that’s iTunes. Now let’s move on to the iPod.” Phil’s on stage.


MacWorld 10:26 PDT:
New "iTunes Extras" for movies. Extra features, graphical chapter picker. It looks to me like the equivalent of DVD extras, except part of the iTunes experience.


Engadget 10:19 PDT:
"Now I want to show you home sharing. I turn on my sharing -- my wife's is already on. Her list shows up in this list on the left, and everything is available to me. Even Apps."

"The thing you can't do with regular streaming, is to select the tracks and drag to your library."

"Let's look at the store now. It's got a clean look."

"You may notice these arrows next to 'buy', well you can gift music, you can add to a wish list -- and I can send directly to Facebook or Twitter."

"So that's the iTunes 9 store. So Steve mentioned LP. Here are 5 albums I bought from the store... let me show you the Doors."






Engadget 10:17 PDT:
"Here's iTunes 9. I'm going to begin by showing you one of my favorite features -- App organization."

"When I click on Apps, I can see everything that's on my iPod. If I want to rearrange, I just click and drag. Drop it on another page, or I can select more than one at a time and drag those."

"On the left you can see all the Apps in the library. If I double click on it, it will take it right to your iPod."






Macword 10:!4 PDT:
"And unfortunately, most of that left us when we went to CDs, and even moreso when we went to digital music. And that shouldn't be the case. So that's what we're doing with iTunes LP."

Example: American Beauty by Grateful Dead. Lyrics, liner notes, videos, album chronology, all displaying within iTunes. Bob Dylan, The Doors, Norah Jones, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, all showing as examples. And the artists and labels can have the tools to build this. We think it's going to be really outstanding.

These are just a few of the features of iTunes 9, and I'd like to invite Jeff Robbin up to give us a demo. (Jeff Robbin, by the way, is the guy who wrote the original iTunes.)


Gdgt 10:13 PDT:
“Next up: home sharing. We’re going to let you copy songs, movies, shows to up to 5 authorized computers in your house.”

“Next up, a redesigned iTunes store. New artist pages, new TV pages. It’s just a much cleaner layout. Finally, something I really love: iTunes LP. Some of us here are old enough that we actually bought LPs — you got the music and you got great photography. Who could forget some of these classic albums?”

Engadget 10:11 PDT:
"Next, improved syncing. When you want to sync, we can make it better. When you sync music now, you can say I want to sync a particular playlist, but you can also sync everything by Dylan, or everything in the rock genre."

"In photos, on a Mac, you can sync albums with events. Same with movies. I want the last 3 movies I rented..."

"The biggest thing we're doing is allowing you to manage your apps in iTunes."





Engadget 10:08 PDT:
"I want to cover a few features of 9. First off, we're applying Genius to another area. People have submitted over 27m libraries. Over 54b songs. The Genius database has gotten smarter and smarter. They've enabled us to make Genius playlists. Well, we're applying that same tech to something new called Genius Mixes."

"Imagine a genius DJ that plays endless mixes of songs from your library that go great together. You just click on one of the mixes, and start playing it -- and it will go on and on and on. It's like a great radio station."




Engadget 10:07 PDT:
"3.1 is free, and it's available today."

"So let's move on to music. Well to start, let's start with iTunes. We love it, we use it everyday. So do people around the world. It's in 23 countries, and iTunes is the #1 music retailer in the world."

"We've sold over 8.5bil songs. But a more amazing stat is that we've recently crossed over 100m accounts on iTunes. All with credit cards."

"Today we're introducing iTunes 9"

Gdget: 10:06 PDT:
“It’s got a lot of nice features. I’ll highlight a few: first is our Genius technology. It works really well… we’ve applied that same technology to the App Store.” App recommendations based on the apps you own!

“It’s got a lot of nice features. I’ll highlight a few: first is our Genius technology. It works really well… we’ve applied that same technology to the App Store.” App recommendations based on the apps you own!

Engadget 10:05 PDT:
"During the last year, one of the reasons has been the App Store. We have over 75000 apps in the store. Users have downloaded 1.8bil apps. Isn't that incredible?"

"And that doesn't include updates."

"Today we have something new for iPhone and iPod touch owners -- iPhone OS 3.1."

"I want to highlight a few things -- first off, the Genius function. We've applied that tech to apps in the Store. Wouldn't it be great if the Genius could make recommendations to you based on what you own. It's really nice."


Gdgt 10:04 PDT:
“I’d like to thank everyone in the Apple community for the heartfelt support — it meant a lot. I’d also like to thank Tim Cook and the rest of the Apple team, they really rose to the occasion.”

“So, I’m vertical, back at Apple, loving every day of it, getting to work with our incredibly talented teams to come up with some great new products. Today, we get to talk about music.”

“Before we do, I’m going to have Phil Schiller, as well as Jeff Robbin, our VP of iTunes engineering. I’d like to talk about the iPhone: thrilling to report to you today that in a little over two years we’ve sole 30 million iPhones."

Engadget 10:03 PDT:
"I'm very happy to be here today with you all. As some of you know about 5 months ago I had a liver transplant, so I now have the liver of a mid-20's person who died in a car crash. I wouldn't be here without such generosity. I hope all of us can be as generous and become organ donors."

Jobs is receiving a standing ovation...


Engadget 10:01 AM PDT:
Steve is out! And he's getting a standing ovation!

We will be live blogging the Apple Music Event 2009 Keynote address here starting at 10am PST. Highly anticipated events like this tend to bring down servers so we will use a collection of quotes from a various sources to give you the best coverage possible.

Stay tuned....