September 2010 Music Event on September 1st, 2010
Now that the event's over we're digging into a few things for you (answers coming at www.macobserver.com):
Is iTunes still Universal, or Intel only?
What happened to the iPod Classic?
...and more!
Seems that's it folks. Thanks for tuning in! Now head over to www.macobserver.com and get the details.
It's called "Wedding Bells" -- "this might be terrible, but... f*** it" -- and off he goes to play.
OK, but he's a funny man. "Is Steve here to tell me what to do?" He also joked about Apple's product secrecy and Jonny Ive's design awesomeness.
"This is a new song called Coldplay 2.6. It features 7 different kinds of chord, including a new one that even our closest rivals have no idea about that Jonathan Ive designed. It's the chord of iMinor."
"I'm afraid I've played all the hits, now let's try the misses."
Mind you, I'll be first to point out that he's way more talented and infinitely more successful than me, but ouch. :)
"I think that might be the finish, but I'm not sure. Is Steve around to tell me what to do?"
Song finished. There's an acoustic guitar on the floor of stage next to the piano.
Chris is missing more notes than a drunken postman.
Took a minute to review our friends coverage over at Macworld. Had to laugh at similar comments from Jason Snell (on liveblogging a live musical performance) and Chris Breen (picking on all the musical bits)
His voice is getting better now... seems like he needed some warming up.
Now playing "Viva la Vida"
Chris says Apple's marketing people can sell anything because they took "this piece of [crap] and turned it into a hit"
"Yellow" is finished. He removed his outershirt, and now we're into Storytellers mode. He's wearing a "Flaming Lips" shirt.
You know, I like being the play-by-play guy for you all when I can do it, but doing play-by-play of a musical performance is a much tougher job than recanting what Steve Jobs is saying.
Comment after first chorus: "Ok so far?"
Crowd applauded, he continues (back down the octave).
(ok now he's up the octave...)
Starting with: Yellow (which sounds like it's being sung down an octave)
"I'll just play one song, then if you want another one I'll play another one and we'll go like that until you want lunch."
Chris Martin from Coldplay is now on stage. Just him at the piano, no band ("they're too lazy" according to Chris)
Coldplay...Zzzzzzz...Your mileage will vary.
"There's no better way to do this than to ask one of our favorite musical artists to perform."
"This group has had 4 albums out so far, with 50MM album sales worldwide"
"There's a lot of us Apple that really love music." "Whenever we have our music events, we like to remind ourselves why we do this."
Continuing review: new iOS - 4.1 next week, 4.2 November. And finally, a new Apple TV.
New iTunes 10 with Ping (also on iPhone, iPod touch)
Steve now reviewing. First, iPods: new shuffle, new (multitouch) nano, new iPod touch.
New Apple TV ships in "about 4 weeks" and you can pre-order today.
And the $99 price point rumors were right! This thing is going to be hot!
New price for Apple TV (it was $229, remember). Now: $99 (wow!)
Unless I missed it, Steve hasn't said Apple TV is an iOS device, but I noticed that he's demoing it from an iPad.
iPad acts as a streaming remote in this implementation.
We can stream from iPad to AppleTV using AirPlay. Save yourself $29 on the iPad-to-TV connector window.
I am delighted to see the Netflix support in Apple TV. It's a nice change to see the company supporting a popular 3rd party product.
Getting back to AirPlay
Netflix implementation is way better than what I have on my TiVo, it seems.
Apple TV is about to get an upgrade from "Hobby" to "Business," at least from analysts.
That looked like a 48-hour rental for TV shows on the screen that went by. Thank GOODNESS they negotiated that. Now how about for movies?
Showing an HD rental of Iron Man. Was able to skip to a future chapter immediately.
Now demoing Apple TV
Audio and video podcasts all available on AppleTV, too. Netflix interface looks great.
You can't buy from iTunes on Apple TV, but can one still buy TV shows and movies from the desktop iTunes app?
Rotten Tomato's tomoatometer and related reviews listed inside Movie listings pages.
Steve is drawing a line (of profits) in the sand for the head-in-the-sand networks.
YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe supported, as well. And, of course, you can stream content from your computer.
Yes! Netflix streaming to Apple TV now natively supported.
ABC and Fox on board - "Not all the studios wanted to take this step with us."
HD TV shows: $0.99 (as opposed to previous purchase price of $2.99)
All available the day and date they come out on DVD (note this is likely 1 month sooner than Netflix gets them now)
$4.99 First run HD movies (all prices are rental prices, no purchases)
All streaming - no syncing (I wonder if it has some small amount of flash memory inside to buffer/cache)
No storage management.
Apple TV is *all rental* -- there's NO PURCHASES WITH APPLETV ANY MORE.
Comes with an aluminum remote. All HD (when available).
Small enough to fit into hand. Power supply built-in. HDMI connector, ethernet, and Digital Audio, built-in 802.11n WiFi, too.
This is going to be a game changing device for both Apple and the broader industry.
"Silent, cool & small." Heck yeah! Holy smokes, it is SMALL!
Second generation Apple TV is 1/4 the size of original Apple TV.
Want hardware to be silent, cool, small. Steve's hitting all the right talking points.
Steve's bullet points for settop boxes rings true with me.
Users don't want to manage their storage, either. They just want to watch. They also don't want to have to sync. (here comes the cloud?)
Steve says people don't want a computer on their TV. (I agree 100% here, by the way)
"HD revolution is over and HD won." ;)
Apple talked to users. The top thing everyone wants: Hollywood movies & TV shows in the living room... and in HD.
Steve is clearly excited as he starts talking about Apple TV.
Walking through the history of Apple TV. Steve says that neither Apple TV nor any competitive product has "hit" yet.
We have one more thing (er, one more "hobby"). I smell Apple TV. ;)
No standalone app, but it looks like it has a special iOS interface. I look forward to checking it out.
iTunes 10 is available TODAY.
Ping is available on iPhone and iPod touch (inside iTunes store App) as well as inside iTunes 10
(not sure why I need that separated from my OTHER social networks, but hey)
Ping looks pretty darned cool. I hope we get a standalone app for iPad and iPhone.
"Ping is a social network all about music."
Location-based Concert listings. You can tag the ones which you plan to attend.
Visiting Katie Cotton's profile. Cheers from the crowd (no doubt to keep the lovely Katie in everyone's good graces ;)
Steve visiting Jack Johnson on Ping. Hey, anyone wanna bet Jack's not too far away?
iTunes 10 Demo coming now
Over 17,000 concert listings. Ping is open to over 160 million iTunes user in 23 countries immediately.
"You can get as public or as private as you want." Dear Facebook, take notes, please.
"Circle of friends" concept with closed-group followers. You can get as private or public as you want. "The privacy is super-simple"
You can follow people and be followed. Most artists will allow anyone to follow them. You have same option, OR you can approve followers.
Ping doesn't threaten Facebook, but that distant sound you hear is Taps being played for MySpace.
Showing how to follow artists (like Lady Gaga) and friends (some random guy)
Oh my...Apple is ambitious. Super ambitious. Audaciously ambitious. Launching a new social network concept today is ballsy.
<sarcasm> ...and I'm sure Ping will have an open API just like all the other social networks, yup. </sarcasm>
New iTunes 10 feature: Ping. A social network for music "like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes" (but it's not Facebook and Twitter)
iTunes has focus on discovery: what are my friends listening to? what are my favorite artists up to? what concernts are my friends going to?
New hybrid view -- if you have more than 5 songs of the same album in list view it shows you album art instead of the album name repeating.
The new iTunes icon looks great!
Next spring iTunes is likely to surpass CDs in terms of new music sales, so Apple decided to ditch the CD in the logo. New iTunes 10 logo.
Apple has clearly failed with iTunes, having only 2.4% of the world's population signed up with accounts...
iTunes 10 announced.
11.7 billion songs downloaded from iTunes. 450 million TV episodes downloaded. 100 million movies downloaded. 35 million books.
"iPods are part of a great duet with iTunes"
Whither iPod classic? Alas, we knew thee well...
Apple is going to have a remarkable December quarter,I should think. Indeed, Oppenheimer's guidance for the September quarter makes more sense.
Now showing some new ads. The nano with the clip looks fantastic.
"Amazing new line-up of iPods" -- still no mention of Classic.
All available next week, available for pre-order today.
New iPod touch: 8GB - $229, 32GB - $299, 64GB - $399
Just for clarification: FaceTime *will* be compatible between iPhone and iPod touch.
Yes, that's right: a front-facing camera. Added a rear camera, too with HD video recording (seems to not have a flash)
It's just amazing how thin Apple has been able to make the iPod touch, especially considering the new features. The competition is screwed.
Apple A4 chip (same as iphone), 3-axis Gyro, iOS 4.1 (with Game Center) and front-facing camera with FaceTime
Yep, it has the retina display. 326 pixels per inch. 24-bit color, LED backlit. "Best display in the world" - same as iPhone 4.
New iPod touch - *even* thinner. From the looks of the screenshots it looks like it might have a retina display
1.5 billion game and entertainment downloads to the iPod touch alone.
iPod touch outsells Nintendo and Sony portable game players combined. Best selling portable game player in the world. 50+% market share.
iPod touch is an iPhone without a phone... "it's also an iPhone without a contract"
"New shuffle, new nano, that leaves... the iPod touch" What about the Classic?
The Product(Red) version will popular, I think, It looks good, and it supports a great charity.
All the same colors as the new shuffle, plus Project (RED). 8GB is $149, 16GB is $179 "for the lineup this holiday season"
You can use the two-finger twist motion to rotate photos on the screen. He stumbled a bit, then jumped to summary
Steve looks great, BTW. He's gained weight, and he's been smiling a lot.
Whoa... pause from Steve while looking at his notes. He's either unrehearsed or skipping something.
iPod nano has "jiggle mode" and you can rearrange and put your favorites on the home page, etc.
Bryan's Prediction: Watchband straps for the new iPod nano will be a hot item this next year.
Enjoying "Let's Do It" from Ella Fitzgerald as the soundtrack to this new nano demo.
It's got a clock app and "one of the board of directors is going to clip it onto an armband as a [wrist]watch"
The new nano is simply incredible looking. It's very SciFi looking, to me, and in a cool way. :)
24 hour audio playback battery life. SHowing some screens -- looks like a 4-icon-at-a-time iPhone interface, no persistent dock
When showing prior models of the iPod nano, Steve talked about every generation except the third, which he just sort of skipped over. Funny.
It's square, looks like a slightly larger version of the shuffle, no buttons, all screen, WITH a clip.
We'd like to make it smaller [...] and better. No more click wheel, all screen, all touch-based, uses multitouch.
Same formula -- walking through the 5 generations of iPod Nano
$49? Wow. I don't think the competition will be able to touch that.
"We're just gettin' started - Now let's look at the iPod... nano"
New Shuffle, 15 hours of music: $49, comes in 5 different colors, blue, pink, green, gold, silver.
The new shuffle looks great! I really liked the form factor of the 2nd Gen model over the other two models, and the new one is even better.
New iPod shuffle - Buttons + VoiceOver+ Playlists -- looks like 2nd gen shuffle, but is apparently even smaller. Has a clip.
Walking us through the history of the first 3 models of Shuffle. "People clearly miss the buttons"
First up: iPod shuffle
All new designs for every single iPod model
"Just because iPod has a very high market share, we've never rested on our laurels" ... "This year we've gone wild"
275,000,000 (yes 275 million) iPods sold
Interesting...This may be the longest (planned) lead time on a release we've seen from Apple at a media event.
Now it's time to get onto iPods. "This is the event where we talk about cool music product."
iOS 4.2 coming out... in November. For iPad, iPhone, iPod touch.
Showing folders. During the process of creating one, Jobs referred to it as "jiggle mode"
Did a search from Mail and it "multitasked over to Safari" -- stopped music with iOS4 double-tap music countrols.
Playing some Jack Johnson music via Pandora to demo background multitasking. Multithreaded mail.
Demo of iPad running iOS 4.2
AirPlay is AirTunes (renamed) but now allowing video and photos in addition to music streaming.
Glad to see printing finally come to iOS! It's silly it took so long, but better late than never.
Demoing printing on iPad. Just appears in "Tools" menu inside apps. new "Print Center" app for seeing active jobs, managing them, canceling.
Adding "AirPlay" to iOS 4.2 -- details "later today"
iOS 4.2 brings *everything* to iPad (HDR photos, multitasking, wireless printing, more)
Steve always looks like he's faking it when talking about Games. Apple clearly gets the importance of gaming for iOS, but I don't think Steve is personally interested.
"A little surprise for you today: A sneak peek at iOS 4.2"
iOS 4.1 available (for free via normal iTunes channel) next week for iPhone and iPod touch (no mention of iPad).
That game looked amazing.
Live multiplayer battle scene where one huge character got stabbed (and killed) with a sword. Looks pretty cool.
Showing a great battle scene. Fantastic.
The 3D world shown by this game -- on the iPhone -- looks fantastic. Like watching an HD movie.
Today Epic is introducing a new game codenamed "Project Sword." Role playing game with epic sword battles.
New game coming out later this year from Epic games. Mike Capps, President of Epic Games, on stage to show new game.
Now talking GameCenter for multi-player online gaming. "If you don't have any friends, it'll automatch you with some"
HDR Comment: sometimes looks great, sometimes looks WAY overdone.
HDR end result: a photo with much richer colors, sometimes pulling out of shadows.
With HDR 3 photos are taken, one normal, one underexposed, one overexposed, then combined. More detail on recent @MacGeekGab discussion.
HDR Photos being explained. Normally photos are often blown out by too much light.
HD video upload over WiFi, too.
HDR photos INCLUDED in iOS 4.1. @johnfbraun will love this.
Bugs fixed: proximity sensor, bluetooth, 3G Performance bugs
Today they're introducing iOS 4.1
6.5 billion apps downloaded from App Store, 250k apps on store, 200 downloaded every second. 25,000 iPad apps.
"We think some of our friends are including upgrades in their numbers. If we did that, our number would be WAY higher"
230k *new* activations in their numbers. That's NOT including upgrades.
120 million (total) iOS devices shipped.
"Now I want to talk about iOS" -- A revolution in touch & apps
80,000 one-to-one classes per week. 50% of buyers buying their first Mac.
"Remember when Macworld used to get 30,000 people coming to it? We now have [some] days where we see 1MM visitors to our stores."
Covent Garden (London) was Apple's 300th retail store to open. Now in 10 countries, Spain coming.
London store in Covent Garden. Another restoration project.
You can Tweet your questions to us here @MacObserverLive and we'll attempt to answer on-the-fly
"Really excited about our second store in China, which we opened recently in Shanghai. It is a 40-foot-high glass cylinder"
Starting with an update in Apple retail. Paris, near the opera house, showing the restored old bldg (18 month project)
Seems I wasn't the only one who noticed Woz, as Jobs just acknowledged him in the crowd.
...and down goes the sound, and out comes Steve
If you're in a place where you can watch the event live, www.apple.com will provide you with the stream. If you can't, we've got you covered
Stream just showed a nice shot of a well-dressed Woz ready to watch the show.
Technology seems to be cooperating, they're playing Alanis Morissette, and we're waiting for the action to begin. Oops, make that Clapton (acoustic). Still waiting.
At 1pm EDT you can get both play-by-play and color commentary here at http://liveblog.macobserver.com/ and @MacObserverLive (on Twitter).
Welcome. Just getting ready for today's live event.
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