MacDailyNews and iPodDailyNews coverage of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ presentation at Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event, which kicked off at 10am PDT/1pm EDT today (Tuesday) at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts.
Live coverage of Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event in reverse chronological order:
• Apple’s “Let’s Rock” special event ends.
• Steve Jobs: “Thank you all for coming.”
• Standing O for Johnson.
• Johnson starts next song…
• Johnson ends song. Applause. Johnson thanks Apple for being very supportive.
• Jack Johnson onstage playing. Jobs off stage…
• Jobs introduces special guest, the No. 1 selling male artist in the history of iTunes Store: Jack Johnson
• Jobs: “We think we’ve got the best lineup we’ve ever had for this holiday season. We’re ready for this holiday shopping season.”
• iPhone: 2.1 update is free, of course. iPod touch owners who paid to update to OS X 2.0 get free update to 2.1. If not: it’ll be $9.9.
• 2.1 is a big update. Fixes lost of bugs. Fwere dropped calls. Significant battery improvements. Fewer App crashes.
• iPhone, iPod touch 2.1 software update available today…
• New iPod touch ad: “The funnest iPod ever” – Ad focuses mainly on games (Nintendo and Sony can’t be happy)
• iPod touch pricing: 8GB for $229, 16GB for $299, 32GB for $399. All three models available immediately.
• iPod touch is also environmentally-friendly: arsenic-free, BFR-free, Mercury-free, PVC-free, highly recyclable.
• Steve Job: “This is the funnest iPod ever.”
• Steve Jobs back onstage: iPod touch battery: 36 hrs. audio, 6hrs. video.
• “Need for Speed” demo.
• Phil shoots, he scores!
• Spore, then “Real Soccer 2009” demos…
• VP of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller now onstage to demo some App Store games for iPod touch/iPhone.
• Steve demoing iPod touch (videos, music)
• Wireless App Store currently available in 62 countries and counting.
• 100 million App Store apps downloaded in first 60 days. Whoa! (Jobs does not give paid vs. free apps breakdown)
• Genius can create playlists directly via iPod touch.
• Volume controls now on side of touch, built-in speaker for “Casual listening.”
• iPod touch. Enhanced UI as with nano. Niek+ now built-in…
• New earbuds – 2 drivers each (woofer + tweeter) = $79. Jobs: “They finally got it right this time.”
• 4G iPod nano pricing: 8GB for US$149, 16GB for $199. 8GB here today, 16GB by next week at the latest. “Hopefully this weekend.”
• 4G nano environmentally-friendly: arsenic-free, BFR-free, Mercury-free, PVC-free, highly recyclable.
• 4G nano colors: black, silver, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink – no white.
• 4G nano battery: 24 hrs. audio, 4 hrs. video.
• Shake nano and it’ll shuffle: “Shake to Shuffle.”
• iPod nano display auto-rotates based on orientation – landscape to portrait and vice vrsa – like iPod touch/iPhone.
• If you attach a microphone to nano, you get a voice-recording option.
• iPod nano features a curved glass display. iPod nano gets accelerometer.
• New iPod nano 4th-gen. Display covers half of device’s front side. Click-wheel on bottom as usual.
• iPod classic now in 120GB only. No 80GB or 160GB.
• Over 160 million iPods sold to date.
• Over 5,000 accessories – some makers even announce products before we want them to (iPod nano skins).
• Pie Chart: NPD: iPod has 73.4% market share. “Other” has 15.4%, SanDisk has 8.6%, Microsoft Zune has paltry 2.6%.
• iTunes 8 available for free download today.
• Jobs demos… Aretha, John Mayer…
• 65 million iTunes users now… Genius will get very smart.
• Of course, users can choose to opt-out of Genius.
• Genius works completely anonymously – sends weekly info about your library to Apple. Genius gets smarter and smarter.
• Genius will also recommend iTunes Store music based on your library/listening patterns.
• Genius auto creates playlists based on your taste (or lack thereof) in music.
• Accessibility, new browsing options, “Genius Sidebar”…
• iTunes 8…
• $1.99 for SD TV shows, $2.99 for HD TV Shows.
• HD TV shows. NBC back in iTunes Store. Zucker finally wised up?
• iTunes now has over 8.5 million songs; over 3,000 apps for iPhone/iPod touch.
• Jobs: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
• Jobs looks thin (same as last time or close to it), but seems to be energetic, smiling…
• Lights go down, Steve Jobs takes the stage.
• The Doors’ “Touch Me” playing… (hint, hint?)
• …presentation will begin shortly.
• Announcement: Please turn off cell phones and PDAs…
• White Apple logo on black screen as those assembled wait for Steve Jobs to take the stage.
• 9:39pm PDT – getting close now…
• 8:17am PDT – Apple Store currently offline.
I hope they are using that Silverbug technology….
…Will it work with Flip4Mac ? lol
when you are patient enough you can get the spoiler free keynote a few hours later here: http://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/08/lets-rock-spoiler-free-keynote-stream/
i am glad i am out for a party tonight so i don’t sit in front of my computer waiting for apple to relaese the damn video-stream and avoiding to look at all the sites covering the the big news.
I think they found the guy that screwed up MobileMe
http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com/
PLEASE SAY THE TOUCH RUMORS ARE FALSE! Apple, please add camera, mic, GPS to the touch…….
Ray Arnold: “Hold on to your butts.”
Please GPS for iPhone Apple
silver,
iPhone does have GPS. You mean turn-by-turn stuff? I want copy/paste.
WTF with the “Jobs looks thin?” AAPL stock down to $120.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />
Oh No! Steve is on stage, but he’s using a “WALKER!”
Thanks TowerTone
That was hilarious!!!
While the Genius feature seems okay, it sounds like it’s a far cry from “Pandora-like”.
The Ars coverage is really good, as usual (hint, hint).
” . . . he’s using a “WALKER!”
Ever since Chuck Norris’ gig with Huckabee ended, he really needed the work.
How about some freggin tv show RENTALS!!
What’s with the reddish turtleneck… IT’S NOT HIM.
wow, i Tunes 8!
Yes, that nytimes link is good to flesh things out… the Ars site is fast and has good detail. As much as I love MDN, theirs is the worst. Too abrubt of reporting, not enough detail, spattered smarmy comments, and slower than the others. Of course, it’s a third over now, but still.
Regarding Genius: So basically I make one or two choices, and then a machine starts making my choices for me – I’m not quite sure how to feel about that. There’s something about mining for your own info that I might miss.
I read MDN but look at pictures here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ipodlounger/
nice side by side on my iMac
Shake for shuffle might be interesting for joggers! Hope that can be disabled.
Oh yeah, and welcome back NBC – DUH!
Come on – What about an iPod Touch update…
Anyone else notice MDN’s coverage today is of the 2007 WWDC??
ok, now MDN is recycling points…
“They finally got it right this time.”
You mean they will stay in?……
I think the problem with MDN reporting these things is that their representative is giddy like a school girl, and isn’t really reporting so much as gushing. And probably taking several pee breaks due to all the excitement.
Dumb question: What is Niek+?
@bildad
i think they mean nike+, the fitness add-on thing.
@bildad:
It’s that add-on from Nike where you put the sensor on your shoe and it gives you data about running (jogging) and interacts with your iPod. Works only with Nano right now (I think). And now the new touch. Pretty cool.
now included with iPod…
http://brunnchen.nomadlife.org/
back to work for me.
later guys.
If microphone earphones work with the touch, then a VOIP can’t be far away.
HA! Those rumor mongers are so stupid. No purple nano!
Violet, people, violet!!
So it seems Zune is still the best player if we put aside our prejudices.
So this iPod is ‘funner’ than all the rest?
“Funnest” iPod??
You’re looney.
Disappointed key note, I was expecting something bigger…
Very disappointing. I was hoping for something more, something unexpected–maybe games for AppleTV or GPS on Touch or something, ANYTHING!–but this was weak.
Hopefully, when we get the MAC updates we’ll see something more exciting.
boring, just like the Auto big 3, put some new chrome on, give it a new colour and we know how that sort of product development ends
Is that it? Apple promised major announcements, these are all awesome, but …..
if it ends with Jack Johnson… meh
For viktor, Dave McKee, halapeño:
It should go nicely with your whine.
And the stock drops $5. Buy buy buy!
Nice new features, lots of good stuff. We “knew” this was going to be a music event, so those expecting new Macs etc were being unrealistic. Wait for the next event, I’m sure it will have something more for you.
C’mon! I at LEAST thought maybe a revision to Apple TV….That would at least tie in the iPod/iPhone/iTunes refresh….WTF
Drat…and AI got me all excited about an AppleTV that I would actually have bought…
I’m a bit underwhelmed 🙁
Silly disappointed fanboys, how could you read so much into an announcement when the tagline was “Let’s Rock.” That doesn’t imply games, or new Cinema Displays, or MacBook redesigns, or even phones. That tagline is so music-specific it’s staring you in the face.
I liked what they announced. Finally a volume control on the touch that you can use without taking it out of your pocket to read it. Finally a nano for widescreen. Apple swept away my remaining objections to their existing line.
very disappointed…no major announcement! shaw wu is right.
Since the new Touch works with the new headphones+microphone the existing WiFi VOIP App (Truphone) will work with it. When the Skype App comes out that will work with it also.
So what did the progress bar at 20% at the bottom of the Let’s Rock announcement mean?
Here come the astroturfers and trolls.
Apparently, either school got out early or iwantapinkzune.com is not keeping their attention.
RE: Comment from Viktor
“Disappointed. I was expecting something bigger.”
That’s what SHE said.
Is it just me or is anyone else wondering if Steve still has any interest in the Mac or the OS?
WTF, have they revised the MB or MBP or MBA this year? or Mini or iMac or iLife or….
Lame.
Looking foward to iPhone OS 2.1!!!!
i was holding out for iChat and push notification
Yes, but is Apple still going to ship the new iPod Touch with version 1 of the system software forcing new users to pay the $10 upgrade fee out of the box like they were doing just yesterday?
Okay, enough iPod, iPhone stuff, I’m ready for Mac news/speculation.
Where’s the HD movies for Macs? MacMinis hooked to two TVs and only SD rentals. Come on Apple!
Sony’s making some money off me via the PS3 (which does a great job of upscaling the $2.99 SD rentals).
Apple needs to stop doing these events. It doesn’t make sense to have them when rumor sites have all the details days before the event. Apple should just update their site and send out a press release. Try as they might, Apple will always get screwed by rumor sites.
Just a note, I’m on rumor sites constantly so I really don’t have any expectations of these events. The last three or four major events have all been fully revealed or close to revealed by rumor sites. I’m all for the events and I love to be wowed, but spoilers are just ruining it for Apple. And seeing that news outlets read rumors to it just makes Apple look like one big flop. Apple should have Jobs heath check events. People seem more interested in that stuff.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
It’s completely just you. Look at the history of these events. These are always almost completely (if not completely completely) iPod events. Plus, “Let’s Rock”… hello?
When will people learn. Mac announcements are coming people, cripes!
If you honestly think Steve has no interest in the Mac or OS X, then you just don’t get it at all. Please return to your space under the rock.
totallyagree@Just Me
okay where is the 2.0 software?
Oops, meant 2.1
Hmmm, any ideas where iPhone 2.1 software is?? I still don’t see it…
Well, iPhone 2.1 for the iPod Touch is out, but not for the iPhone itself apparently. Interesting.
Must have missed this somewhere but it appears that Friday is the day for iPhone 2.1. So say AppleInsider and Ars Technica.
@tc60045:
You said “WTF, have they revised the MB or MBP or MBA this year? or Mini or iMac or iLife or….”
All hardware other then the Mini and MBA has seen a revision this year. The MBA only started shipping this year but we have already seen slight price drops on the SSD models. My understanding of the situation was that products would be announced over the next several weeks. That may not mean that every week something will be released but it was clear from this invitation that this even would be about music related stuff.
please sombody tell me where can I download the let’s rock event video other than podcast
i need it urgently