Steve Jobs live -- Apple's "The beat goes on" special event
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!
Reader Comments (Page 17 of 18)
Steve Sucks @ Sep 5th 2007 4:42PM
I feel like I was just robbed, this left me jaw dropped allright. What an asshole!
Typhoid Mary @ Sep 5th 2007 4:44PM
"It's fantastic that Steve Jobs is making it more fun to pay for music than steal it!"
He is?
Chris Kraynik @ Sep 6th 2007 5:45AM
If all goes as expected, someone will hack the music store to download the song while it's being previewed. ;)
Devin @ Sep 5th 2007 4:45PM
I cant wait to see someone hack the ipod touch to be an iphone
adam bergstein @ Sep 5th 2007 4:49PM
Will it be possible to get skype on the touch? That would pretty much be the end.
sgt_easton @ Sep 5th 2007 5:10PM
Well, I almost called it the other day.
"First time EVER on a music player to have a browser built in."
I said Jobs would claim the first music player with wifi.
Does anyone else want to throw up from listening to this guy's ego?
Michael Whitney @ Sep 5th 2007 5:11PM
I really want one bad, but the touch is going to be 500 dollars to I have a feeling
gradaz @ Sep 5th 2007 5:32PM
http://www.iphonesr.us/?p=38 - I was watching Apple stock during this event and combined a stock char with the time stamps of each announcement based on Engadget. It is interesting how Steve Jobs sunk shares from 144 to 141 during the event.
G Test @ Sep 5th 2007 5:43PM
Here's an idea: Skype calling functionality for this new iPod Touch, perhaps using a 3rd-party headset with microphone.
peter1.chapman @ Sep 5th 2007 5:54PM
Wow, a $200 iphone reduction already. My mate ordered one for $570 the other day from ebay, he's gonna be pissed.
Why can't you use edge for downloading tunes? Who cares if its slow, sometimes you're on a really long journey, 5 minutes to donload a tune is gonna seem pretty reasonable. Oh I see, AT&T couldn't possibly handle that much bandwidth so it's not an option, brilliant way to cripple what otherwise might be quite a good feature.
Cobranding with starbucks, I've just gotten onto the apple bandwagon as i really like OSX and was starting to think it was cool, but cobranding with starbucks!?! Seriously who drinks that stuff and likes that image. I don't want a McIphone with a skinny late all wrapped up in MTV garb, I like to make my own decisions of what to listen to, what coffee to drink and how and where i get my music from. Onward to the death of DRM.
Plus, (I know I'll get shot for this one but), still no OGG Vorbis. Damn you Steve, Damn you straight to the depths of Starbucks.
Chris Shepherd @ Sep 5th 2007 6:31PM
Too much choice... The nano will be the most popular. I think having classic and the touch ipod is too much.
brian Rojas @ Sep 5th 2007 6:39PM
I was ready to buy an ipod touch today, but why o WHY does it only have 16 gigs! Stick the damn 160gb drive in there and i'd buy it in a second...good job apple, you just lost a customer
Jake @ Sep 5th 2007 6:54PM
I could REALLY do without all of your dumbass comments throughout the whole thing Engadget. If you hate Apple then do cover the goddamn events you lame-ass fanboys!
sanosuke001 @ Sep 5th 2007 7:20PM
seriously, I wish they would stop using the iMoniker. Everytime I see someone with an Apple product I feel like they're a snobby Venti-drinking motherfucker. Seriously, the OSX GUI sucks and the iPod controls aren't much better. Get off your high horse.
But Apple Flatscreen displays have an AMAZING picture
Andres @ Sep 5th 2007 7:24PM
Thanks steve jobs.i have buy iphone 8gb yesterday..
and now you tell me 399..fuck u asshole!!..apple's shit!!!i'll buy surely the next amazing samsung yp-s5 and i'll put all your ipod's family up to your bottom!!shit shit apple shit!!
Mike Smith @ Sep 6th 2007 1:31AM
You realize that, you can take it back/get money back equal to the price change because of apples policy. So if you want that 200...go take it back to an Apple store, show the receipt and they will give you money back. Maybe you should stop fucking complaining, look into return policies, or hell just read more. Dumbass.
dansus @ Sep 5th 2007 7:35PM
...and the Starbucks thing works in the rest of world right?
I bet not. :rolleyes:
Jay @ Sep 5th 2007 8:43PM
$200 price drop? Makes you wonder what is coming on the 25th at Apple Expo.....
hz2008 @ Sep 5th 2007 8:58PM
So Cool~~
Dude wanting wi-fi podcasts @ Sep 5th 2007 9:10PM
Will the iPod touch be able to download podcasts (audio or video)over wi-fi. If it does then I'll be the first in line. Thier is so much good material for free offered over podcast rss feeds.
mE @ Sep 5th 2007 9:33PM
new iPod touch - sweet interface and features, crappy storage capacity...no way i'm giving up my 5g 60gb for a larger screen and only 16gb!! why couldn't they make the damn things a little thicker and put an actual hard drive in?!?
Jay @ Sep 5th 2007 10:18PM
can someone tell me the file size on a tv show or movie from itunes?
Ron Mexico @ Sep 5th 2007 11:58PM
$.99 isn't too bad for a ring tone... what's that $2.98 for the song and tone? Or just the ringtone for songs you already bought. I have Verizon and pay more than that for just the ringtone and I don't even get to pick what part of the song that will be used.
brenan @ Sep 6th 2007 12:05AM
16gb ipod touch?? i have twice that much music....oh man, i guess i'll be waiting for another year.. =[[
lmdugger @ Sep 6th 2007 12:54AM
Apple unravels more toys? I love it! See my writeup.
http://www.helpdesknotes.com
Tom @ Sep 6th 2007 1:37AM
WHEN are they going to wave the friggen' chrome backside already? Is it really so strange to expect to be able to just put an iPod in your pocket without worrying about scratches (caused by miniature dust present nearly everywhere)? Why not just go for the full aluminum casing like the old Nano and the Shuffle, and use it on the full size aswell? I personally prefer this look, it's more uniform and also a lot more scratch-proof!
CJ @ Sep 6th 2007 2:11AM
Great, so now we get a wonderfully thing and high-capacity iPod 'classic' (I don't hold with touch screens, no matter how amazing they claim to be) that's got an aluminium face, and a chromed back. Wait, chromed back?! So essentially, all that's changed is that the FRONT is slightly more scratchproof, but the back I still wouldn't put into the pocket of my jeans.
reah @ Sep 6th 2007 2:17AM
IMHO, Apple should have released these new iPods one by one..that way, consumers and upgrade whores will be confused more than ever...smarter marketing :D
Chris Kraynik @ Sep 6th 2007 5:44AM
Dude, don't spam. Reading your first copy of this useless comment was more than enough.
FindalFox @ Sep 6th 2007 6:48AM
I sure hope the Apple Apologists stay at home today.
Rob @ Sep 6th 2007 7:27AM
All who got screwed by such a sudden and uncharacteristic price drop should submit your thoughts here:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/share/
and here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
REPEATEDLY
I have worked in computer tech for 20 years and while some of you morons want to act like this move was to be expected, if you truly were a student of the game, you'd know that this is not standard Apple pricing strategy and should not have been expected so soon. New features, other lower-priced models with somewhat less functionality such as the iPod Touch, yes. That would be expected, in fact, welcomed.
Rob @ Sep 6th 2007 7:28AM
Of course price drops are expected, but NOT $200 in less than 1.5 months. That just shows disrespect for their early advocates, a lack of planning or both. I'll be looking to spend as little with Apple as I can.
If they want to show that they care about their early audience, they can give us a 2 year extended warranty including battery and screen replacement.
Thank you Engadget for another awesome play by play. Your commments were right on.
Big Al @ Sep 6th 2007 8:36AM
"Give Peace a Chance" isn't a Beatles tune. It's John and Yoko. Yes, it DOES matter.
Kelly @ Sep 6th 2007 9:43AM
Man! 99 cents for a ringtone of a song I already own!! More of Apple's way to suck money from us!
Daniel @ Sep 6th 2007 11:50AM
nice nice, greetings from Belize
Valeska @ Sep 6th 2007 1:33PM
I think $399 is a fair price, but I can't help feeling ripped off by paying $599 just a little over a month ago. Maybe Jobs will return my $200 ;-)
Ian Eisenberg @ Sep 6th 2007 1:36PM
Would it be possible to get a report on the event without the reporter injecting personal comments?
Did you really expect the rights-holders to allow conversion of songs to ringtones without some remuneration?
Daveo @ Sep 6th 2007 2:19PM
To the author of the article:
I don't understand why you have to be such a cynical smartass. Steve's presentation was great, and the products are great. Your superior attitude is just annoying and it detracts from any semblance or real "reporting".
rhcpsfan @ Sep 6th 2007 3:25PM
ray,what are you thinking!!!!!!! RAY:"what are they thinking?? Only 4 and 8GB??? That's really pathetic for the price ."
HOW ON EARTH IS THAT PATHETIC FOR THE PRICE.150 FOR THE FOUR GIG IS AMAZING.CONSIDERING THAT THE ORIGIONAL 4 GB NANO WAS $250!!!!!!!!!GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER AND STOP HA'TIN.
Rav Casley Gera @ Sep 6th 2007 3:53PM
Presumably the reason why there's no 160GB Wifi iPod touch is simply that it would cost the GDP of a small African country. And this does make sense - the nano sells more than the "classic", it's the logical one to supe up. I do hope we get it one day though. Preferably soon.
Rav Casley Gera @ Sep 6th 2007 4:01PM
Guys, this is a bloody BLOG. It's not BBC News. It's not like this is an election or something that desperately requires impartiality. Personal comments are fine - he's there, we're not. Grow up.
Enrique @ Sep 6th 2007 5:22PM
The iPod Touch disappoints me because his poor 16 GB space. It should be 30 GB
The Utilitarian @ Sep 6th 2007 6:05PM
Zomg entire product line!
Meeko @ Sep 6th 2007 6:10PM
I'd be sold if the new ipod could be tracked via GPS, you know, for when it's inevitably stolen from me.
HECTOR @ Sep 6th 2007 8:33PM
wow i have been sitting here for about an hour reloading my screen waiting for the news but it was worth it apple rules and I AM GOING TO BUY AN IPHONE 399 YAYYYY
Hari @ Sep 7th 2007 4:15AM
Oh ! Thats an awesome post.
Matthew @ Sep 7th 2007 5:30AM
Wow i am excited now! lol ;)
Matthew @ Sep 7th 2007 5:30AM
wats up with the icons????
trongod @ Sep 7th 2007 9:07AM
I don't think someone who has an 80G ipod full of content will be interested in buying an iPod touch, which is basically an iPhone with no service. If this thing was hard drive based and set to replace the iPod it would have been a better idea. I don't think this will sell a ton of product to current iPod users but it may appeal to those that have not had a PMP before.
Jpooh @ Sep 7th 2007 12:35PM
Is anyone a little disappointed on the HD space of the touch ?