Steve Jobs live -- Apple's "The beat goes on" special event
By Ryan Block 
posted September 5th 2007 12:57PM
posted September 5th 2007 12:57PM
9:20AM PDT - They kept everyone outside a little longer than we would have liked, but they're finally admitting. This is the Moscone West -- we're assuming the huge hall Steve launched the iPhone in back in January.
Hold me closer, tiny dancer
9:32 - We're upstairs, the press is gathering. All the usual suspects are here; Mossberg just cruised up. This event space seats thousands, so we're a little surprised Steve's doing an event here for just a few hundred journalists. We're expecting a lot of empty seats... or a Cirque du Soleil performance on the open floor.
9:55am - It's pretty well full up, but definitely not crowded to the brim. White Stripes, Alicia Keys, cameras on cranes and booms to film the event, all the familiar sights and sounds.
9:57am - "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this special Apple event. We'd like everyone to take a moment to turn off ALL electronic devices." Apparently this special privilege is reserved for Stevie, and Stevie alone. Well, this isn't an airplane, and if they think we're NOT going to liveblog this, they've got another thing coming. But yeah, we'll def switch off our ringers.
9:57am - "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this special Apple event. We'd like everyone to take a moment to turn off ALL electronic devices." Apparently this special privilege is reserved for Stevie, and Stevie alone. Well, this isn't an airplane, and if they think we're NOT going to liveblog this, they've got another thing coming. But yeah, we'll def switch off our ringers.
10:01am - Lights are dimming, here we go! Music's over, lights go up, Steve takes the stage!
10:02am - Rounds of applause and cheering. And more. "Thank you." He's grinning. "Today we get to talk about music, so let's start with iTunes." "iTunes is a pretty amazing phenomenon." Facts and figures: 600 million copies of iTunes distributed. Over 3 billion songs bought on iTunes. "We're pretty amazed at this." Giggles. "This is the number one music store in all 21 countries we operate in."
10:06am - Big applause. "We're going to do ringtones in our own special way. Of course these are for the iPhone. What we want: rather than let someone else make ringtones, we people to be able to make their own." Build your own from songs bought in iTunes, 500k participating songs...
10:07am - "Our ringtones are going to cost just $.99 in addition to the song." Psh! You have to pay a second time to use a purchased song as a ringtone?!
10:08am - "Here's how it works... when you plug in your iPhone a new column will pop up with bells -- that shows how many songs you can make ringtones out of." Any segment up to 30s long, fade ins/outs. "When you're ready to buy, push the buy button and for 99c you have a ringtone." Demo time.
10:09am - "I like Aretha Frankin's Respect -- I can just tell this is going to make a great ringtone. I can put it on my iPhone, make it my default ringtone. I'm going to assign this one for when my wife calls..." laughter.
10:10am - Steve's grooving to R-E-S-P-E-C-T on stage. "There we go, that's what I want, and I'm going to just buy this ringtone right now." The clip appears in the ringtones folder along with other clips of music Steve didn't mind buying twice.
10:12am - "You can assign it as your default ringtone, or to your favorite people when they call... custom ringtone maker built in, over half a million participating songs, sync 'em right on your iPhone. We're going to turn this on next week. You'll need the new version of iTunes we're going to ship tonight. So that's the first thing today." Applause.
10:13am - "Let's start out easy... iPod shuffle. Refresh for this product. Holiday 2007 we're going to give it some new colors, when you see these in person you're going to love them. We also have something called the PRODUCT(RED) nano..."
"Games. More storage, and a full metal design. We're introducing a new nano here today... let me show it to you." It's the fatty!
10:16am - "It's incredibly tiny, this is the new nano, it's incredibly thin. It's REALLY nice." Huge applause. "Let me show you some bigger pictures of it... comes in beautiful colors. So what's the video like? New nano: larger 2-inch screen, it's going to look the same as it did on the iPod video, it's the same QVGA resolution. We've achieved this with a screen with the highest pixel density we've ever shipped."
10:17am - "We've also got an enhanced UI. It's going to show you album artwork floating by. When you're on videos... photos... it will even show you what you're going to get when going to extras. And we've got Cover Flow. Take your thumb, roll it around the wheel, it looks really nice. It's pretty stunning, all in such a tiny device. We're really, really happy with this."
10:18am - "We're also including 3 games bundled in with the nano. Let me show you one now, it's called Vortex." Demo time -- it's basically Arkanoid made circular. "We've also done some other games we're selling on iTunes."
Demoing EA's Sudoku game.
10:20am - "Isn't that incredible? All in a product this big. Video, new UI with Cover Flow, games... let's take a look at the new iPod nano." Demo time again, Beatles album artwork in screen. He does this every time!
He's scrolling in Cover Flow -- it looks decent, but a bit choppy and slow. Not super surprising considering the nano doesn't exactly have a lot of horsepower under the hood. Don't expect the iPhone Cover Flow experience, people!
10:21am - "It's that simple to browse your music collection." Doing video now. "I love Jon Stewart, I hope all of you watch his show. It's the best place to get the news every day." Showing the John Hodgman clip on net neutrality, trying to get Hodgman to admit to being a PC. Highlarious.
"These new nanos have left our factories, they've shipped and will be in our stores by this weekend."
10:27am - "A little video for everyone, that's what we set out to do with the new nano. We hope you love it as much as we do... That brings us to the iPod. The iPod... it's got a... it's got a funny name. It's got a funny name. It's time to give it a name: we're calling it the iPod Classic because it's the original iPod." Ha!
"When we introduced the iPhone in Jan, we said it was the best iPod ever. and iPhone owners agree with us, it's incredible with its multi-touch interface, it is the best iPod ever. People have been asking us when we're going to bring this technology to the iPod. The answer is we're going to do it today. And this is what the product looks like." It's a friggin iPhone!
It's called the iPod Touch.
10:32am - "It's the same size screen as the iPhone, but it's even thinner. It's 8mm thin. Unbelievable. The new iPod touch. It's one of the 7 wonders of the world." Laughter.
10:33am - "It features our revolutionary multi-touch interface that you've come to know and love on the iPhone. If you've used an iPhone you'll feel at home, it's exactly the same. Scroll through the artists with a flick of your finger. Turn it into a landscape position, it goes into Cover Flow, it's just magical."
10:34am - "All on this 8mm device. Let's look at video... all on this gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen display. And photos... just like the iPhone this is the best way to share photos on a portable device. Ever. Flick through them, pinch them to make them larger or smaller."
Demo time!
Steve's browsing by Cover Flow -- note: it has WiFi! The WiFi meter is up at the top where it would be on the iPhone.
10:37am - Steve's watching, um, Wild Hogs. He's not having a mid-life crisis, too, is he?
10:38am - "Let's take a look at photos here... it's great, let's go into an album... I can just go like this, flick through these photos. There's just never been a better way to share photos with friends on the go. It's sooo nice. Turn it back. Boom." Icons: calendar, contacts, clock, calc, settings, music, videos, photo..."I showed you the clean side... I was keeping a secret. We've built in WiFi to the iPod touch." The antenna looks, um, bad.
10:39am - 802.11b/g -- "Others have done this and it's failed. We understand why it's failed, and we know what to do make it successful. Well, what's the problem with WiFi? Well, part of the problem is getting onto WiFi... you may be fine at home and the office, but anywhere in between can be challenging."
10:40am - "You may log in but you'll get a screen. Even walking through Stanford University you get a login page... so you can build in the hardware but you can't get the network [without the page]. So what do you do about that? We're going to add an application to the touch: the Safari web browser."
10:41am - This really is the phone-less iPhone. "But besides being able to log into WiFi, you get an incredible web browser! It is the best web browser on any mobile device, and it's built in to the iPod touch."
10:42am - "We're very, very excited about this. First time EVER on a music player to have a browser built in." Uh, totally not true: look at Archos. "Why stop there?" YouTube's on the Touch as well.
Looking on the NYT. "We can go over here... boom." Aw, it was a little boom that time.
10:45am - Bookmarked videos... "You get the idea, this gives you a feeling for what Safari and YouTube are like on the new iPod touch. We've built WiFi in and we've made it USABLE. We're REALLY excited about this."
10:46am - Connector on the bottom, but no speakers. "This is a worldwide product, the first touch product Apple's going to ship outside the US, it's going to be shipping all around the world."
"The battery life is fantastic: 22 hours audio, 5 hours video playback. All in something this thin. It's... it's... amazing to me. The new iPod touch."
10:48am - So, 8GB is $299... the price for the 16GB is $399." Less applause on the second one. "Both models are available in just a few weeks... they'll be shipping this month."
10:49am - Not shabby -- and thankfully no more Orba Squara iPhone music. But there is one more thing... if you'll bear with us for a few more minutes.
Four buttons: featured, top tens, search, downloads... "If you see something you like, tap it, free preview of the song." "You are now downloading the song... when it's done you can listen to it on your iPod touch, and it syncs back up to iTunes." Applause.
10:52am - "You can search for anything in the entire iTunes store. You can search for any artist, any song name, any album name, preview it, and if you love it go buy it. This is the new iTunes WiFi music store. Let me show it to you now."
10:53am - "Demo time: This is live coming over WiFi. I love John Lennon... so I'm going to buy this. It's now downloading... it takes a few seconds and once it's downloaded I can go to the downloads playlist and I can play it with album art and everything else. This is all live."
"Isn't this incredible?" Applause and cheers.
10:54am - He plays a wacky R&B track: "Ooook." Chuckles. Now he's listening to Coco -- "That's now being bought, as you can see. I want to search for something, so of course I'm going to search for Dylan. Live search comes back from the store...
10:55am - "WiFi, as you may know, is faster than any 3G cellular network, so it's really fast." Zing!
10:56am - "So, not so bad for the new iTunes WiFi music store." Applause. "The new music store will be available internationally in every one of those 22 countries Apple operates in. We're gonna do something else, too: we're gonna bring it to the iPhone." Big applause.
10:58am - "I can't tell you how much pleasure it brings me... we have a GREAT partnership with Starbucks we're announcing today. We love Starbucks. It's an incredible phenomenon in our culture. We want to combine our great iPods and our love of music and their great coffee and their great love of music."
Demo time. "So they just built a Starbucks back stage." Laughter. "They're playing a KT Tunstall song... I can go in here and preview it."
11:03am - "Who would have thought that a coffee company could win a Grammy? Let alone 8, when we co-produced with Concord Ray Charles's last album."
11:04am - He's going on about how this is going to transform the marketplace. Dude, let's not delude ourselves here. It's big, but it's not that big.
11:07am - It's exclusive with iTunes -- we wonder how T-Mobile feels about partnering indirectly with Apple. Ok, rollout plan: 5800 WiFi-enabled stores nationwide. Starting October 2nd: New York and Seattle. 600 stores, followed up in November with 350 stores in SF.
"We think this is going to set a lot of peoples' worlds on fire. And I'm going to include the iPhone, because as we've said, it's the best iPod ever."
11:12am - "But we want to get even more aggressive with this. Take a look at the iPhone. You know, the surveys are in: the customer satisfaction numbers on the iPhone are off the charts. They're higher from iPhone owners than any Apple product. Ever. They LOVE them. We want to make the iPhone even MORE affordable for even more people."
"So we're going to do something about that today. We're on track to ship our 1 millionth iPhone this month -- to get ready for the holidays here's what we're going to do. It's clear customers want the 8GB model -- it's not going to sell for 599 anymore.
"We want to put iPhones in a lot of stockings." But what about the 4GB? Does that mean it's being discontinued?
11:13am - Applause... "A lot of people at Apple have worked on these products. Some are here today, some are watching from our campus in Cupertino. I'd like those folks to stand up..." Wow, this is like half the audience.
11:16am - Her drum machine messes up: "Technology, eh?"
11:19am - KT's performing on stage.
11:21am - KT: "I'm very much looking forward to the 'iLoop pedal'." Waaah. "It's fantastic that Steve Jobs is making it more fun to pay for music than steal it!"
11:22am - Looks like that's it! We're out of here!
you'd think by now Steve heard about storage cards... ? guess not. apple releases some great great things, but then screws it all up in the end with something... course I guess if they let people put in cards for extra space, they couldn't sell their larger versions, which is half their stupid business model. which does make them money...but not from me =) though I may indeed have to look into a little nano.
Why the hate at Starbucks? They're a great company. :\
Great, so instead of doing the simple work of adding the most basic PDA & phone functionality, not to mention flash, Apple is hard at work adding useless crap to suck more money out of us. Go gPhone!
Starbucks is the goddamn devil. Peddling substandard wares to a bunch of uneducated sheeple that dont know what coffee is... it really disgusts me.
I mean... if you actually enjoy that burnt to a crisp sludge that Starbucks calls coffee, more power to you, to each his own, etc. But dont fucking call it coffee. Thats just deceptive.
Hmmmm... since I make a pretty damn fine cup of coffee (whole bean, ground on the spot, two tablespoons of grounds per 6 oz. of water), I'm calling your bluff. Starbucks actually educates their staff (the green aprons aren't just pretty - they mean something) and, frankly, I'll take Starbucks over 90% of the commercially brewed coffee out there today.
Furthermore, Starbucks sells some of the best whole beans on the market. I know I'm getting quality beans when I have to go to Target to get whole bean coffee for the next work day. Period. There is no argument on that point.
So, frankly... I think you're just part of the jealous sheeple herd who want to hate something, and chose Starbucks to hate. So, as we usually see anti-MA or anti-Apple fanboys around here... you're just an anti-Starbucks fanboy.
Agreed. The irony is that the guy who started Starbucks claims that he was inspired by the coffee he drank in Italy. He wanted to bring that to Americans. So why didn't he? The shit they sell doesn't even resemble Italian coffee (also known as: coffee).
Bullshit. If starbucks has any decent coffee it must be a recent phenomenon. And as for the average level of coffee knowledge among starbucks employees - double bullshit . Their ignorance is always astounding. One employee hadn't even heard of Ethiopian yergacheffe. Let's not even get into quality of espresso shots. Deplorable. You may be an exception, but overall starbucks is on average by far the worst coffee chain there is. I'm being brief since
I'm on iphone
curses.. put the "classic" and the "ipod touch" in the viva pinata dance room and give me the offspring!!!
I want a 160GB touch player with wifi
I think Apple may have just jumped the shark
I wish the guy who's doing the updates here would leave personal commentary out. I want to know what's being released, not that he doesn't think this won't change the marketplace!
The interesting thing isn't the fact you can download the songs in a Starbucks. The interesting thing is that two non-traditional music market changers are getting together and starting a partnership. Both of them have a vested interest in screwing with the big labels, Starbucks has gone so far as to start producing it's own albums.
It's an interesting move given the balance of power and the Universal pissing match.
i disagree, at least he injects a bit of realism to it - starbuck thing everybody applauds buts lets be honest what a lot of crap, yet just writing lots of applause from fanbooy journos makes it seem like The. Best. Thing. Ever. yeah, Apple! what a lot of tosh.
The touch does look mint tho.
They've spent two years working on giving people the ability to buy songs they hear in Starbucks...? Talk about priorities.
"Is anyone else as annoyed as I am at the stupid commentary this a-hole of a "blogger" keeps injecting into his coverage???"
Yes.
""When you get near a Starbucks a fifth button will come up in the WiFi music store -- you may have been in a Starbucks wondering what song is that playing? Now you can buy it with a tap of your finger. And if you just missed it, you can still find it..." Is anyone else underwhelmed by this "feature"?"
What's wrong with that? Have you never been in a situation where you've heard a song but don't know what it is and want to get hold of it? I know I have! I know a lot of other people who have been in that situation too. Nothing wrong with it at all.
Yeah, it would be great if they added this feature to work anywhere and not just in Starbucks like that Verizon phone though! Pretty useless in Starbucks, you can usually find out just by asking them.
There will never ever ever be an iPod magical enough to make me go into a Fourbucks. Charred, crappy coffee with funny little names that I have to perform if I want service. Bah!
Speaking of which, the Fourbucks songs will probably cost $3.99. No reason, just cause it's Fourbucks, and that's what they do: charge you four bucks for things that a lesser retailer might charge you a dollar four.
I dont know about you, but the wiFi itunes and the starbucks deal is BIG... this is the start of a change in the ay we buy music. This is HUGE!
So i take it you like the wretched garbage Starbucks spews out of its speakers. I guess thats why people that go there bring MP3 players when they sit and contemplate where their next job is going to come from and the next day they plan on sitting at a starbucks contemplating the same thing all over again.
I agree... Starbucks itself isn't the big deal here, but this technology is. If we could figure out what song was playing anywhere and everywhere, that's a pretty big deal for everyone. And then to be able to buy right there on the spot, that's an even bigger deal.
I also feel this ease of obtaining music could be something that could help slow down piracy. You hear a song you like, you have the ability to browse right there and buy right there... its only a dollarish.. so, why not?
Whether or not you like what's playing at Starbucks does not change the fact that this is a whole new distribution model.
Netrokid is right on.... this is a new distribution model and huge in the long run. Just watch... in two to three years... you will be able to listen and purchase songs everywhere. Good move Apple!
Ok, so we got web access on the touch, but where is the mail client? That's a deal killer for me.
Is anyone a little disappointed on the HD space of the touch ?
"It's big, but it's not that big."
Huh... someone doesn't know exactly how big Starbucks is, do they? Nor do they understand how big Starbucks has become in the music industry.
This is not small. And it's not as small as you think, Ryan. Do some research into Starbucks and then make those comments.
I think he was being generous calling it big. Star bucks isn't as popular as you think it is. Where i'm from everyone I know would choose tim hortons over starbucks any day.
I like Tim's. I prefer Starbucks' coffee, though. Furthermore, there are only ~3,000 Tim Hortons. There are ~7,500 Starbucks locations. And they're worldwide, whereas Tim Hortons is only in Canada plus the upper midwest and the northern part of the east coast in the US (well, basically everywhere that hockey is really popular in North America).
Seeing as how there's a Starbucks just about every block in my city and you can access the wifi for free with your iPod Touch, I would call this VERY big. The song buying thing isn't so exciting, but it's a neat, uh, touch.
Why is everyone hating on Starbucks?
The Nano styling doesn't appeal, but the features seem great. Screen looks ace. The iPod Touch looks awesome.
But Steve... What we really want to know is... when are we going to get the iPhone in the UK!?!
Will try to get more photos and specs up asap.
http://www.consumer-review.org.uk/new_ipods.html
So Apple and Starbucks are going to get paid to play certain playlists. AWESOME! /sarcasm
If they gave free wi-fi like every other coffeeshop in the world this could be cool, but no, just free access for you to buy more on top of your overpriced coffee. Thanks a lot.
two years to figure out how to connect to a server that shows the last couple songs played? Wow.
the blogger is dead wrong. the starbucks integration is going to completely change the market place. Just think 5 years from now: you go into any restaurant or store, hear a piece of music you like and buy it with your ipod touch in a few seconds. if this goes beyond Starbucks then it is revolutionary.
Ipod touch with 16G or Archos 605 with 160G...hmmm
the only thing disappointing about the ipod touch is the hard drive. man! 16gb only? i guess we're still going to wait for the one with the large hard drive
add CHAT, and a iSight, who needs a mobile
And if there isn't a wi-fi Starbucks in your area, just go to the coffee shop across the street: it probably has free for anyone wi-fi!
When will Engadget learn that updating from the bottom is a terrible idea? The worst is that comments are at the bottom too so refresh then hit End and now you have to scroll up 5 pages.
it would be interesting if starbucks SOLD iPods. That would be far more interesting than getting track info.
Hey Ryan, anyone point out to you lately how amazingly un-entertaining your editorializing is? Just report the damned news already, and stop acting like a member of the Peanut Gallery.
Hey BJ, why don't you just watch the live feed through Apple then, and stop being a whiny bitch? That's why it's called an editorial
maybe you should stfu and leave if you dont like it, go read something else, asshole
Wow! I guess you guys told me, huh? Now I'm confused...am I an asshole, or a whiny bitch?
Christ...how shallow do you have to be to waste your time sticking up for a guy I'll bet a dollar neither of you have even met?
Knock yourselves out, then.
Hopefully this will lead to hacked free wifi @ starbucks
I don't know if i can live with 8gb :[
Apple and Starbucks now? If you walk in there watching a FOX tv show/film whilst wearing your Nike+ kit, you'd be part of the ultimate conglomaration of evil!
Oops, my bad. I was mistaking this guy for a jounalist. Won't happen again.
Starbuck marketing gimmick is a necessary evil for free internet access for iPod users.
"Dude, let's not delude ourselves here. It's big, but it's not that big."
That's what your girlfriend says. Stop with the smartass comments, jackass!