Live from the Steve Jobs Keynote -- "It's Showtime"
P.S. - Yes, we know that the Apple Store is down.
8:50AM PST - Still in line, all the press are waiting on Howard Street outside of Yerba Buena. As usual, it's a who's who of the tech press.
9:10AM - A few people are on Segways, including Woz. Since when does he crash Apple events? It's been awhile, but today he's back.
9:20AM - Everyone is waiting still,. People here won't stop talking about the video iPod -- it almost seems like the bigger surprise would if they didn't announce one.
9:43AM - People are starting to shuffle in. They're letting broadcast media in right now, then the rest of press.
9:51AM - It's a small event.
Attendees: 300-400
Segways: 3
Number of tracks until "Feel Good Inc" comes on: probably 2
The Guy Who Gets Mistaken For Mossberg: He's in our row
9:55AM - "Does that make me craaaaaaazyyyyy?"
9:59AM - We've just been asked to turn off our cellphones, so it's almost Showtime!
10:01AM - Five seconds of Bob Dylan and STEVE IS ON!
10:03AM - "We're going to give you an overview of the iPod and then move onto some other products. we've shipped over 65 million ipods as of june, and there are lots of acccessories. There's a new place you can use your iPod [shot of ipod toilet paper dispenser]. 70 percent of the new cars sold in the US offer iPod connectivity as an option."
"We've sold over 450,000 Nike +iPod Sport Kits and it's been less than 90 days."
10:04AM - "So let's delve into the products!"
10:05AM - "Let's start today with the iPod. It plays music, TV shows, videos. We're going to enhance it a lot. We're going to start with the screen. It's 60 percent brighter. We're increasing the battery life from 4 hours to 6.5 hours on the big model.
We're improving the earphones too, they'll come standard."
10:06AM - "You might be listening to Abbey Road or Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and one track doesn't flow seamlessly into the next. We are going to put this back together as it was intended and offer Gapless Playback for songs encoded with MP3, AAC, and Apple Lossless."
10:08AM - "Instant Searching: lets you search more like Spotlight. Faster scrolling, shows the alphabetical section (L) as an overlay on the screen. We're also adding something new today, which is: Games. These are much more robust and funner games. They're all designed for the wheel."
10:09AM - Game clips: Zuma, Texas Holden, Mini Golf, Cubis 2, PacMan, Tetris!, More Tetris! Mah-jong. ... "You can buy them today off the iTunes store, and they're going to sell for 4.99 each."
10:10AM - Video battery life: 75 percent longer
The most important feature today is we're going to make it more accessible: We're lowering the price to $249.
10:11AM - 30GB, 7,500 songs, 40 hrs video, $249. 80GB, 20,000 songs, 100 hrs video, $349. Now, let's take a look at the iPod nano. It is the most popular MP3 player in the world. So today, we're going to introduce an all new nano. It's made out of aluminum, and it's even thinner than the previous ipod nano
Maybe the most obvious feature is we're bringing back colors: Blue, Pink, Green, Silver, and Black. Battery life: 24 hours.
10:12AM - So, second generation nano: thinner alumninum case, 5 colors, 40 % brighter display, 24 hour battery.
2GB (aluminum only) $149
4GB colors $199
8GB (black only) $249
10:13AM - We've got some new packaging for the new nano as well. It turns out the be 52 percent less volume. It reduces the amount of fuel burned to ship them around. All of these new iPods are available today.
10:16AM - We've got a new charger, it's 40 percent smaller. We've got the new lanyard earbuds. I'd like to show you a few ads.
[The ads show dancers who aren't silhouettes, but 3d black and white dimly lit figures. they're painting the air with colored ipods as they groove]
Get the word out that there's a "Completely remastered" nano. [That's the slogan]
Now, let's talk about the iPod shuffle. i'm pleased to tell you that we've sold 10 million ipod shuffles so far. today we're announcing the second genration."
[IT'S SMALL AND SQUARE AND ALUMINUM. IT'S TINY]
10:22AM - The #1 thing that came back from customers using the first ipod shuffle was wearability. The 2nd generation shuffle comes in a beautiful aluminum case. but we started with wearability - it's got a built-in clip. I've got one here. On the bottom it's got the switches that say turn off and on or shuffle or linearly. it comes with a [TINY] dock and plugs into your Mac or PC.
it comes in one model. "So: the world's smallest MP3 player":
Aluminum case with clip
1GB
Comes with dock and earbuds
New packaging.
$79
We're taking orders today, and we'll ship them in October in plenty of time for holiday season.
"So, that's the story with iPods. I wanted to talk about that first."
"But as you know, iPod is only part of the story. What I'd like to do now is talk about iTunes. iTunes has a market share of 88% for legal US downloads. We have sold over 1.5 billionsongs. If you look at all the music that's legally distributed in the US, and CDs and online ..."
#1 Wal-Mart
#2 Best Buy
#3 Target
#4 Amazon
#5 iTunes
"iTunes is now the fifth largest legal reseller of music in the US. we're on a trajectory to surpass Amazon and become #4 in January."
"Outside the US, there are iTunes stores in 21 countries . It's #1 in every single country."
"Today we're introducing the biggest single enhancement: iTunes 7 You say, 'It looks the same,' but it isn't."
[The left nav is more cleanly organized without being radically different]
"We've added a View switch, a 3-position swtch. we've added a 2nd view called album view, so you can scroll through your music library and look at it by album. what if you ripped your CDs and don't have the covers? Today wer'e announcing free missing album cover art for all the music in your library if you have an iTunes acct. iTunes will automatically download it for free."
"But there's something even better. That's the third view, it's called Cover Flow view."
[LOOKS LIKE FLIPPLING THROUGH YOUR CD RACK]
10:26AM - "Now, we were just talking about TV shows, let me give you an update there. Customers have downloaded over 45M TV shows. We started last October with only 5 shows. We now have 220 shows from over 40 networks."
"We're adding a new network, the NFL network. they're bringing the whole 2006 NFL season highlights to iTunes today. $1.99 per game or $24.99 for a season pass."
"Now, all of this video is encoded with the best encoding in the world, H.264. We've been distributing it at 320x240. Today, we're going to take that up a notch to 640x480. That's 4x the resolution. iTunes 7 also has seamless playback for video."
10:27AM - "You can update your iPod from right inside iTunes now, you don't need to go to Preferences. You can say, 'I want to sync the 10 most recent unwatched episides of all my TV shows.'"
10:31AM - "If I buy a new episode that's more recent, it'll update the iPod and swap out the other one. It'll automatically keep your iPod up to date. It's also easier to move your iTunes from one computer to another. Let's say you have one computer at home and at work, both authorized with the same account. You can transfer purchased content between authorized computers - it'll upload from your iPod to your work iTunes"
"What I'd like to do now is give you a demo of iTunes ."
10:33AM - [Steve is whizzing through features. The most eye-popping thing is Album Cover Flow, which merges the look of the size-changing Dock icons with iChat's black reflective surface]
"Gapless playback isn't just for new songs you buy. iTunes 7 goes back through your library and unites tracks that were meant to be played together.
10:35AM - [The new layout of iTunes 7 is hard to describe verbally. It's the same but different -- tidier, cleaner, more whitespace and more obvious organization of items. It's as if design guru Jef Bekes gave it a makeover].
10:36AM - "It's available today, and it's a free download at iTunes.com."
"So, in one fell swoop we've gone from this, to this, but there is one more thing...And that is Movies. Today we're going to talk about adding movies to the iTunes store."
10:38AM - "Today we're starting out with films from Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax - four studios owned by Disney. Today we're making over 70 films available online today ... including Pirates of the Caribbean. They'll be available the same day they're out on DVD."
"We're going to price them at ... [TEASES AUDIENCE] ... new movies will be $12.99 if you pre-order them or buy them during the first week. Other movies are $9.99. The movie store is integrated into iTunes and you can preview new releases in album Cover Flow mode."
"Movies will be downloaded at 640x480, nearly DVD resolution."
"It'll take about 30 minutes to download a movie over a broadband connection. You can start watching it during the first minute as it downloads."
10:41AM - So: Movies
near DVD image quality
Dolby surround audio
Same day as DVD
Pre-order with one click
Usage rights = same as TV shows
Parental controls etended to include MPAA ratings
International in 2007
10:42AM - "So now I'd like to show you what these movies look like..."
[Scrolling through movie titles in Cover Flow mode is like browsing the shelf at a video store]
[Steve shows a widescreen preview of PoC2 that plays inside iTunes. he scrolls through the covers to find it again, then clicks on it to play the preview in fullscreen mode.]
10:44AM - [Steve plays Cars preview] "You can click around to see other movies by John Lasseter. We're really exited about this. It is my pleasure right now to introduce Bob Iger, the CEO of the Walt Disney Company."
10:47AM - Iger: "Deep down we knew the marriage of great content with great technology is truly a killer application. Today we're going to take the next step in moving movies to new media platforms. People love to watch movies at theaters, when the curtain comes up and there's pirates or cars ... People also like to watch movies at home, with their wife or a date ... Now, we're provding a way to watch movies on this new platform. [We can't keep up with his list of titles, but it runs from The Sixth Sense to Cars to Curse of the Black Pearl] I want to make one brief introduction, that's Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney company [whose seat back we've been kicking, sorry about that]."
10:48AM - Iger: "We're confident that movies are going to work as well as TV on iTunes."
10:51AM - [Steve is back] "So, you can now buy movies on the iTunes store. You can watch them on a computer near you, and you can watch them on an iPod near you. To summarize what we've seen today:
A new enhanced iPod
A ground up new design for the second generation nano
AND, a second generation iPod shuffle. the smallest mp3 player in the world, and the most wearable MP3 player
iTunes 7, with Cover Flow view
and of course, movies
What I'd like to do here is have all the folks who've been part of the engineering team, marketing, operations, I'd like you all to stand up."
"But there is one last thing ...."
10:52AM - "It's a sneak peek of a product that will be announced in the first quarter of 2007. I think it completes the story, so we've decided to go ahead and show it to you today."
10:53AM - "We've now got all sorts of great digital content on the iTunes store. And you can take that content and download it to your computer. It can be a Mac or a PC -- I'm going to use a mac because i'm biased - and you can sync it to your ipod. But what about that big flat-panel TV you bought last weekend? Well, you need a box to drive that screen..."
"But how is this box gonna talk to the computer? Do I want to string cables through the house? I'm gonna talk to it through a wireless network. That's gonna get my content from the computer to the box on the TV. Now let's talk about that missing piece."
10:54AM - "It looks like this [a flatter Mini]. It's called iTV. That's a codeword. we need to come up with a better name."
10:55AM - No power brick
802.11
USB2
Ehternet
HDMI connector for all new big-screen flat panel TVs
Component video (RGB)
analog audio RCA jacks
Optical audio
Controled with the familiar white remote
Hooks directly to your screen or to your set-top box as another input, or to your receiver.
[Steve brings one out.] "This is it. More importantly I have a WORKING one plugged in right here ... [he flips through iTV super-FrontRow app]"
10:56AM - [Steve finds and plays The Incredibles.]
11:04AM - [Still demoing!]
11:07AM - "You can do movie trailers form Apple.com right from your couch. This is big screen over the internet, live as we watch."
[Trailer for All the King's Men with Sean Penn]
["Casino Night" episode of The Office]
[Album art scrolls by ... Steve chooses Dylan, than Highway 61, which plays through the home theater setup]
"A lot of us have our stereos hooked up to our new TV's, it's the best stereo in the house now."
"Let's go to podcasts. [Joanne from Rocketboom onscreen] These have a wide range of professionalism [LAUGHTER], but they're fun to watch."
"The last thing i want to show you is photos. Photos are now in high definition. Cameras have so many pixels now that these photos just look gorgeous on a big screen TV. Let me go down to my photos ..." Road Trip [photo slide show with Chili Peppers soundtrack]
"We think iTV is going to be pretty popular: Movies, TV Shows, Music, Podcasts, and Photos. So what do you think?"
iTV
"Enjoy your media on big screen TV, works with PCs or Macs, Coming in Q1 2007, $299."
"So, you can download all this great content online
It's: Now playing on a computer near you
Now playing on an iPod near you
Coming soon to a TV near you
Apple is in your den
Apple is in your living room
Apple is in your car
Apple is in your pocket."
11:11AM - "So we'll see you all soon. Oh, we do have one more thing! All this technology is amazing, but it all comes down to artists because otherwise we don't have anything to listen to or watch. We like to remind ourselves of that. So today we have a great artist here to perform for us. his name is John Legend. He was nominated for 8 Grammy awards and won 3."
"He's got a new album coming out next month called Once Again, so I would like it if you would please joing me in welcoming John Legend!"
[Legend appears at a full-size piano to sing an acoustic version of Save "Room"]
11:21AM - Legend: "It was nice to see all the goodies I'm going to buy this Christmas. I'm going to do one more song. You might know this one..."
[He slides into an acoustic piano rendition of "Ordinary People." Legend gets a standing ovation, except from the two dorks still typing. You rule, John!]
"We'll see you again soon. thank you all for coming."
[U2's Beautiful Day comes on, the lights come up, and we're outta here]
That's it!
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 5)
lee @ Sep 12th 2006 12:49PM
"And iTunes 7 is out!!!!!
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mac.html" , no QUICKTIME 7 is out...
Euan @ Sep 12th 2006 12:49PM
http://stream.qtv.apple.com/events/sep/sept_2006/sept_2006_audio_ref.mov, live voice stream from the event.
kalmbach @ Sep 12th 2006 12:51PM
As posted above:
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/sep_2006/event/index.html
I keep getting "Not found" message. I guess Quicktime is not up to the task of streaming video. 8)
Todrick @ Sep 12th 2006 12:52PM
why is the video feed file named sept_2006_1...
is there going to be a 2?
Michelangelo @ Sep 12th 2006 12:53PM
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/sep_2006/event/index.html
harry @ Sep 12th 2006 12:53PM
@Jitaroo
RTFC!
Nate @ Sep 12th 2006 12:53PM
It... hasn't... started yet.
Chris Byrd @ Sep 12th 2006 12:54PM
THERE WILL BE NO LIVE BROADCAST.
Seriously, what concrete evidece other than Quicktime saying live broadcast have you seen?
Occum's Razor very much applies here.
scott @ Sep 12th 2006 12:54PM
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/sep_2006/event/index.html
sid @ Sep 12th 2006 12:54PM
so no new ipod unless those two segments of the huge poster can be changed from inside or something.
damn.... i sense another let down.
1. new nano
2. old ipods - new hdd's
3. ITVS
sucks man.
robert @ Sep 12th 2006 12:56PM
you might want to try this site.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/specialeventoct05/index.html
dag @ Sep 12th 2006 12:57PM
they are not going to put the new iPod (if there is one) on a poster that everyone can see...
rpg @ Sep 12th 2006 12:57PM
Apple Store is down.
Lars @ Sep 12th 2006 12:57PM
Could this be fake? Look at the URL edgesuite.net:
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/sep_2006/event/index.html
Would Apple stream from non-Apple sites?
kalmbach @ Sep 12th 2006 12:58PM
@ Robert
Why do you think it says "Special Event Oct 05" in the adress?
lee @ Sep 12th 2006 12:58PM
video link is live nowwwww
Little Joe @ Sep 12th 2006 12:59PM
has noone noticed that that video broadcast link is edgesuite.net???
phoney???
Jason @ Sep 12th 2006 1:00PM
Watch "Its Showtime", apples live event on quicktime at the following link:
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/sep_2006/event/index.html
Harper @ Sep 12th 2006 1:00PM
To 'Chris Byrd' just pack up your balls and leave,turn off your Pc and shoot yourself.. the 'live feed' is from the offical site .. ofcourse its real..
To 'sid' "so no new ipod unless those two segments of the huge poster can be changed from inside or something."
They never have and never will show off there new products without Stevie boy talking about it.
Andy Brown @ Sep 12th 2006 1:00PM
I'm sitting in my Business Law class in the very back row so that I could watch this video...can't hear the audio though! This better be worth zoning out in my BLAW class!
Jordan @ Sep 12th 2006 1:01PM
Did something wierd just happen to the engadget text size? Maybe it's just me.
G @ Sep 12th 2006 1:01PM
Sorry guys but that edgesuite.net page says (c) 2005 on the bottom : obvious fake, and a bad one that is.
Plus, the copy sounds weird : "See the video-on-demand event right here exclusively in QuickTime and MPEG-4. Voiceover users click here to listen to keynote address." Who would ever care it's mpeg-4?
Mike @ Sep 12th 2006 1:01PM
if you notice that link says specialeventoct05... and whats up with the copyright info at the bottom of the edgesuite link it says "Copyright © 2005 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved." where as if you go directly to apple.com they have all been updated to 2006
Nate @ Sep 12th 2006 1:01PM
Jesus.. It's already been freakin' mentioned that edgesuite is a content delivery system by Akami.
RTFC.
Ryan @ Sep 12th 2006 1:01PM
yes that makes me craaaaaaaazzzzaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!
asjk @ Sep 12th 2006 1:02PM
Testing, testing...1...2....
scrrreeeeEEEECHHHH!
reraiL @ Sep 12th 2006 1:02PM
They are going to announce a partnership with Bungie and Apple will be entering into the console game market with the iGame with launch title Halo 4.
Jeff @ Sep 12th 2006 1:02PM
Edgesuite is Akami. Akami is one of the largest content distributors in the world, and it would not be strange for Apple to be showing live content through them.
ben @ Sep 12th 2006 1:03PM
its live
Blaha @ Sep 12th 2006 1:04PM
Jordan, same thing happened to me, that's a bit strange.
KaosDGq @ Sep 12th 2006 1:05PM
The edgesuite site is probably just a pre-built page for when the event is OVER...
Just like they do with WWDC, and the "One More Thing" event.
newswede @ Sep 12th 2006 1:05PM
Engadget. Why don't you do an RSS Feed of just this topic. Wouldn't tht make things easier on your servers?
Matt @ Sep 12th 2006 1:07PM
Hey you guys said its a small event... 300-400 people.. Can someone with a good history of watching these events tell me how does that compare to previous announcements including ones of new *significant* products (obviously not the iPod HIFI... and for comparison.. not the Intel transition announcement). Thanks
Kevin @ Sep 12th 2006 1:12PM
REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!! REFRESH!!!!
Jay @ Sep 12th 2006 1:13PM
why isnt the live stream working? ARGH!!!
DarkFader @ Sep 12th 2006 1:19PM
Jordan: yes... and just now engadget wouldn't load at all.
The stream length is 1:21:36, yet it doesn't play.
Michael @ Sep 12th 2006 1:31PM
Microsoft has been doing all that album art stuff in WMP for a while and doesn't even require an account.
Jeff @ Sep 12th 2006 1:32PM
Will someone post their impression of the announcement to NewsCloud.com after? Is this the biggest announcement from Apple in the past few years? Did it live up to the hype?
Fronda @ Sep 12th 2006 1:32PM
iPhone down
iNewton down
iPod wifi down
:(
chezzo @ Sep 12th 2006 1:33PM
Methinks I'll be the first to comment on the news... no new ipod which is disappointing, but the updates and cheaper price probably means i'll be getting one. Updates to iTunes sounds cool... everything else? Couldn't really care less.
Jeff @ Sep 12th 2006 1:33PM
the new nano looks just like the old mini... which is what it shoulda been in the first place!
finally - a flash based player that's as tough as a flash based player should be.
quahogian @ Sep 12th 2006 1:35PM
Maaaan, I love you guys but common! Didn't all that time warner mucho millions make sure that you servers don't get fcuked up? sheesh
Andy Brown @ Sep 12th 2006 1:35PM
How come the video isn't working for me?
Raj Nigam @ Sep 12th 2006 1:36PM
I believe I'm the ONLY person that called CoverFlow to be integrated into iTunes on tuaw's post.
skinner @ Sep 12th 2006 1:38PM
it looks like there isn't going to be a virtual scroll wheel ipod, unless he does a "one more thing" at the end - what people are forgetting is if you are touching the screen, you are getting the screen dirty, and who wants to watch movies with hand prints all over the screen; you will be forced to wipe it with your shirt sleeve etc. but don't forget to flip the lock switch. people jumped on this bandwagon after the rumor sites started talking about it but it's not realistic.
christian @ Sep 12th 2006 1:58PM
oh nevermind did the image search. thanks
steve @ Sep 12th 2006 2:03PM
hahaha... no ipod video
thomas @ Sep 12th 2006 2:04PM
Cover Flow is has been an app for quite some time! I found it a month ago! Great idea though! Love it!
Tim Quernemoen @ Sep 12th 2006 2:41PM
Well that was a total letdown! Where is the inovation? There was nothing in this presentation that will send people in droves to buy NEW apple products. I use my 3rd generation ipod for music and podcasts and until they come out with something revolutionary there is no reason to upgrade. If my old ipod died today I'd probably be checking out ipod alternatives or I'd just buy another 3G ipod off ebay. That's how innovated Apple has been. In the meantime mp3 cell phones and other alternatives are catching up with ipod.
JamesB @ Sep 12th 2006 2:44PM
I sense a new xbox media center skin in the works!