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« Chrome Goes Portable... And German | Main | Video: Apple's "Let's Rock" September Event »

Live Blog: September 9th Apple "Let's Rock" Event - Done!

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Welcome to our live-blog coverage of the September 9th Apple Event, entitled "Let's Rock!"

My live coverage of the event, complete with running commentary, will begin at 10AM PST, 1PM EST Tuesday morning/afternoon.

To go directly to my live coverage, hit the "read more" link at the bottom.

If you're here before the event has begun, you can take a gander at yesterday's rumour post to get an idea of what to expect in the ways of announcements for today. Most likely we'll be seeing iPod-centric announcements, as well as a major new version of iTunes and the 2.1 iPhone/iPod Touch firmware, and as always, we could be in for a big surprise!

After all that, you should be ready! Hit the jump for our live coverage!

Live Event Coverage:

NOTE: I will be updating this page as the event progresses to bring you my running commentary on each new announcement. This page will not automatically refresh for you; you will have to refresh manually. Please be kind to our servers and limit your refreshes to once every few minutes - thanks!

Also be advised that Apple will probably be posting a video recording of the event on their site later in the day. I'll provide the link when it becomes available.

---

- Waiting for the event to begin!
Apple Store is down
- And of course - The Apple Store is down! The Apple Store is down!

- NOTE: Our tech team has made us aware that our server is in need of repair. They're trying to hold off until the end of our live-blog event, but our server could go down for 10 minutes. We're sorry for the bad timing, but I'm assured that it won't happen until at least 2PM EST. If you are completely unable to load our coverage, we should be back within 10-20 min. We should be able to provide you coverage of the complete event before having to go offline for maintenance.

- 1:02PM EST: Steve Jobs is on stage

- Talk about music and iTunes first

- 65 million users, #1 music store, 3,000 apps for iPhone, iPod Touch.

- NEW: HD TV Shows being added to iTunes Store!

- NEW: iTunes 8!

- Pricing on HD TV Shows: $1 more ($2.99/episode)

- FRACKING AWESOME: NBC IS BACK! Yay Battlestar Galactica on iTunes again!

- 1:05PM EST: iTunes 8 lets you browse by album cover (alá iPhoto Events, score one for Kevin Rose) and includes "Genius"

- Better accessibility (for people who are differently abled)

- Genius allows you to push a button and generate a playlist of songs from your library that go together. Can also press a button for recommendations from the iTunes Store, to buy, of course.

- Wonder if Genius is one of the "secret" features in the iPhone 2.1 firmware? That'd be awesome!

- How it works: Genius algorithms are "in the cloud." When you press the button, your library information is uploaded to iTunes Store anonymously. The server aggregates information for all users and learns from it, becoming smarter over time.

- DEMO TIME!

- 1:13PM EST: Can use the Events like interface to browse by genre, album, composer, and artist.

- Play a song (John Mayer's "Gravity" in this case) and press Genius button.... Boom! Instant playlist of songs that go with it.

- iTunes 8 available today for free.

- Moving On: iPods

- iPods hold 73.4% of the market (o.O)

- Steve made a crack about there being tons of accessories, some of them announcing their products for them (referencing the iPod nano form factor leaks by case manufacturers)

- iPod Classic: no more thick one (no one buying it). Now just 120GB for $249.

- iPod nano: Exactly as the cases showed: tall widescreen form factor. Oval shape, with a black scroll wheel. (Black is the new white!)

- Made of curved glass and aluminum. Added accelerometer from iPhone/iPod Touch. Thinnest iPod they've ever built.

- Integrated Genius! (that means it's coming to iPhone as well, w00t!)

- Can reorient the display by turning the iPod, just like the iPhone (yay built in accelerometer!)

- DEMO TIME

- 1:23PM EST: New: Shake to shuffle! (aww, how cute! Though please tell me you can turn it off for jogging.)

- Battery life: 24hrs. for music, 4hrs. for video.

- Green info: "arsenic-free glass, BFR-free, mercury-free, PVC-free, highly recyclable" (ArsTechnica)

- Available in lots of colours! (silver, magenta, indigo, blue, yellow, green, orange, red) A whole Rainbow! Thanks Apple!

- Price: $149 for 8GB, $199 for 16GB. Ships today (8GB), 16GB available next weekend.

- New in-ear Apple headphones! 2 drivers in each earbud, $79.

- Also, normal headphones will also have the built-in iPhone clicker, to advance and pause/play songs like the iPhone PLUS volume up/down from the headphone cord.

- new iPod nano advert playing.

- iPod Touch: new thinner design, curved stainless steel. Integrated speaker, volume controls on the side.

- Software: better album artwork, enhanced UI, built-in NIKE+ for you exercise freaks.

- NIKE+ hardware also integrated, no longer need to plug-in receiver.

- App Store time: over 100 million apps downloaded in 60 days (wow.)

- 700 games, 62 countries.

- 1:36PM EST: iPod Touch feature demo.

- Sidenote: Wow. Twitter isn't dying. Good job, Twitter team.

- Phil Schiller coming on stage to demo upcoming games. (There better be some good stuff coming up, or I'll find you, Phil ¬.¬)

- Talking now about the recently release Spore game for iPod Touch. Yadda yadda yadda.... new stuff, please?

- Real Soccer 2009 (finally, new stuff!)

- Shipping today (yay fútbol!)

- The game uses gesture based control and a transparent D-pad on screen.

- Need For Speed from EA. Same Need for Speed gameplay we've come to know...

- 1:45PM EST: Steve is back!

- iPod Touch battery life: 36 hrs. music, 6hrs. video.

- Same green feature list as iPod nano.

- Price: 8GB - $229, 16GB $299, 32GB $399

- OK, Apple, so far nothing you've revealed has made this as important as you made it out to be. You BETTER have a "One more thing," Steve.

- Wow. Steve Jobs just called out Nintendo, calling iPod Touch the "best portable device for playing games."

- Debut of an advert all about games on the iPod Touch. Wow, they're seriously going after Nintendo?!

- New iPhone/iPod Touch firmware 2.1

- Significantly shorter backup time (THANK THE GODS!), less crashy, less dropped calls, lots of bug fixes.

- 1:51PM EST: 2.1 will be available on Friday.

- Jack Johnson is today's special guest. He's now performing.

- I have a horrible feeling there is no "One more thing..." LAME, Apple, very lame.

- (Please prove me wrong?)

- Waiting on Jack to finish up.

- Jack is playing a second song. Gah!

- 2:04PM EST: Steve Jobs is back.

- That's it. It's over!

- Stay tuned to Homotron for continuing coverage of the new iPods and iTunes! Thanks for joining us!

- Apple Store is back, with all the new iPods in place.

7 Comments

Dustin said:

Awww ... I want to see more games for the iPods ... dangit ...

Although I do like that they gave you more choices in colors (and the accelorometor)

David said:

I know this will never happen, but I would love it if they sold the Touch with bluetooth so I could tether it to my phone for internet access. The reason I don't think that will ever happen is it would possibly cannibalize iPhone sales.

It would be a great option though for those of us who refuse to switch to AT&T for our mobile phone service.

Scooby said:

So let me see if I get this straight, so to speak.

You had uber-cute/mega-talented Jack Johnson performing on stage and you couldn't wait for him to get off so Apple would do the horribly predictable "one more thing" stunt?

Dude.

dyefononserob said:

Hello.
:)

Martha Louise, who is the only daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja, gave up the title of 'royal highness' upon her 2002 marriage to writer Ari, and has a reputation for not standing on ceremony.
Bye.

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