Were at Apples Lets Rock iPod event at the Yerba Buena Center, check after the break for all our updates.
9:08AM PT - Were outside the center, journalists are milling about in preparation for the event! Everyones roped in, kind of like a small pasture.
9:22AM - Apple Store is down. Shocking!
9:35AM - Hmm, Hurley from YouTube is here, wonder what new Rick Roll-enabling apps theyll be talking about today!
9:44AM - Okay, were in and in our seats. Sunshine of your Love is pounding out. Rock indeed.
9:51AM - Oooh, Gimme Shelter -- suddenly the whole thing feels like a Scorcese picture.
9:53AM - Announcer: please turn off all cellphones and PDAs. The presentation will begin shortly. Sweet.
9:57AM - Ah nice, The Doors -- Touch Me -- is it some kind of sign? Were not gonna say its not, okay?
9:59AM - It should be noted that this Doors jam is playing considerably louder than the other tracks weve heard. Nice and subtle.
10:00AM - And the lights are coming down... here we go!
10:00AM - Steve is out!
10:01AM - Big cheers. "Weve got some exciting stuff..." he cracked a joke about the obit. Ha!
10:02AM - "So lets get on with it. The topic this morning is music. Lets start with iTunes. Its the ubiquitous store and music player. It now offers 8.5 million songs. Its amazing. Over 125,000 podcasts, over 30,000 TV shows, 2600 movies... and we now offer over 3,000 apps for iPhone and touch."
10:02AM - "Weve got over 65 million customers. Its enabled us to become the #1 music distributor in any format." Big applause for that one.
10:03AM - "So were adding new content to iTunes. HD TV shows. You can buy them for $1.99 in SD, HD will be $2.99... and you can watch them on your computer."
10:04AM - "Were introducing iTunes 8 today."
10:04AM - "NBC is coming back to iTunes." Big cheers "The Office is coming back, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock... and theyre coming back in HD." About time.
10:05AM - "HD TV shows, accessibility... voice over... new browsing in iTunes, and something called Genius." well what do you know? "Old browsing wasnt efficient, in iTunes 8 you can look by album cover, and this new bar at the top lets you look at anything graphically in little tiles."
10:06AM - "This also scales to movies, TV shows, podcasts, but it will be used most for music."
10:06AM - "Were introing a new featuring called Genius -- it allows you to make playlists from songs in your library that go together. It helps you rediscover music in your library. And it really works well."
10:07AM - "Lets say youre listening to a song, Bob Dylan, and you push the Genius button -- 25, 50, 75 or 100 songs. Theyre amazingly good. You can bring up the Genius sidebar which makes recommendations from the iTunes store." Ah, making that easier to sell eh?
10:08AM - "Youve got your music library, you turn on Genius -- it sends information about your library to iTunes. We can learn about your musical tastes... but completely anonymously... but were going to combine your info with other users, and as that happens Genius gets smarter and smarter." Tee hee!
10:09AM - "The results are tailored to your tastes and library. Automatically make playlists with just one click." Demo time!
10:10AM - "Ive got albums, I can click to artists... let me go to Aretha Franklin... and you know, play songs." Aretha! Nice.
10:11AM - "I can see music by genre." Hes scrolling through panels. "I can see by composer. It also works great for movies and TV shows." Ha, The Office -- the phone gag. Priceless stuff.
10:12AM - "You get the idea." "Here we are watching HD on our iMac. Going back to music, Im going to search for John Mayer..." Oh joy. "All I do is push the Genius button.. and boom, thats it... I can refresh, and heres songs that go with that song."
10:13AM - "Alright Im going to buy music. Elvis... and uh, Im gonna buy Heartbreak Hotel now let me make a playlist -- and its pulled together songs that go with that song." Ah, Buddy Holly... Roy Orbison... yeah, thats a no-brainer though, isnt it Steve?
10:14AM - "Some songs Im missing, some songs by other artists." Little Richard. "We think youre really going to like the Genius feature." Big cheers! "Thats available today as a free download."
10:15AM - "Now lets talk about the iPod. NPD data shows iPod with 73.4% marketshare. Number 2 is "other", number 3 is SanDisk, and number 4 is Microsoft, 2.6%." "There are over 5,000 accessories, they announce products before they want them to... its funny." Ha! Big laughs for that one... nano anyone?
10:16AM - "Total sales since we started are over 160 million." "So with that, Id like to tell you about some new products. Lets start with the classic. Weve offered in two models, thin and thick, but were discontinuing the thick one. Were upgrading to 120GB at $249."
10:17AM - "We went from 1,000 songs to 30,000 in your pocket. The iPod nano. You know we shipped the first nano in 2005, its only been 3 years." Showing off the older generations now, boasting of the improvements. "But we have a new iPod nano for this holiday season."
10:17AM - Its just like the spy shots!
10:18AM - "Exactly the same display, but its the thinnest iPod weve ever made. Its an oval shape, and it fits in with the line. The first and second gen, but exactly the same... hes pulling one out."
10:18AM - Its quite small, extremely thin! It almost vanishes when he turns it on its side. "Youll be blown away with how thin it is."
10:19AM - "Features? New curved aluminum design with curved glass -- and enhanced UI with new features. Weve taken the accelerometer from the touch and iPhone and it does some great things, and you can use the Genius function on the iPod."
10:20AM - Songs are displayed in a touch / iPhone manner. "Turn it sideways and youre in Cover Flow -- you get full size album art -- again with photos, just turn the nano. Video is fantastic, and another cool thing is you push and hold the center button for a popup menu, you can use the Genius, you can browse."
10:20AM - "Calendar, stopwatch, voice recording when it detects a mic." Demo action... now.
10:21AM - "Lets go into music, artists... well pick Beck... Guess Im doing fine -- I just rotate it sideways and Im in cover mode." This looks handsome, but not mindblowing.
10:23AM - "New feature... shake to shuffle!" huge cheers, you just shake it to change. Nice, very cute.
10:24AM - "I wanna show you photos... heres some photos, we can thumb through... tilt it for landscape, look at some photos. It just works really well. Thats what I wanted to show you." Nice, a decent upgrade, but a lot weve seen.
10:24AM - 24 hours battery life for music, 4 hours for video.
10:25AM - "We want to be environmentally sensitive. Were constantly worrying about it. But the biggest thing is toxics -- we have an internal checklist, but the new iPods look great from this point of view. Theyre highly recyclable... were really trying our best. We think these new nanos are the cleanest weve ever built."
10:26AM - "Now theres one thing I havent talked about: colors." Wow, a whole rainbow of super bright colors. Bright blue, purple, orange, green, pink. These look pretty slick. "Entry price of $149 for 8GB, $199 for 16GB."
10:27AM - 8GB in stock in the next few days, the 16GB hopefully this weekend. "Weve also got some great accessories... armband, some headphones as well... we have a pair were introducing... these headphones have a pause / play and volume control, double click goes to next song, triple click goes to previous, right from the cable, and theres a microphone for voice recording."
10:28AM - "Weve also got some new in-ear headphones. They ship with 3 earbuds, and theyve got 2 drivers each, a woofer and tweeter -- theyre going to sell for $79." Ooh, what a bargain... thats knocking the price up a bit.
10:29AM - Theyve got a new ad... and here we go. Funky music... very funky electroish beats. And flipping, melting / paint dripping nanos. Short, but cute.
10:30AM - "Lets move on to the iPod touch. Weve brought our multitouch interface to the iPod. Its unlike anything in the market... for this holiday season were making it better. Same display, but even thinner. Contoured stainless steel design... theyre just fantastic."
10:31AM - "Whats different? Weve integrated volume controls into the side. Built-in speaker... which is hard for something this thin... for casual listening... Genius playlist creation... and the App Store built in."
10:32AM - "Weve enhanced the UI, better artwork on albums. Of course its still great to watch video. The UI is even nicer. Weve also built in Nike+ to the touch." Wow, now thats kind of handy.
10:33AM - "The receiver is built in, you just need the transmitter for your shoe." Big cheers for that one. Now hes going on about Genius again... okay Steve we get it, well never have to think about music ever again. Steve clearly never made a mixtape for a girlfriend.
10:33AM - "And of course... the App Store. Im pleased to announce that users have downloaded 100 million apps...." Yeah, 99 million were total crap.
10:34AM - "Today is only the 60th day the store has been open. Right on the iPod touch. There are about 700 games on the App Store, some of them are getting pretty fantastic." Ah yes, fantastic Sudoku!
10:36AM - "Let me show you some of this stuff." "Im going into music, Im gonna pick Green Day, American Idiot -- tap the Genius button..." This looks real familiar. They are pushing this so hard. Hmm, Hendrix? Not exactly like Green Day, is it? And now U2, okay, that makes a bit of sense. Refresh brings up a whole new list. "Its pretty nice." "I can make playlists on the touch. Let me go to movies, let me remind you how great it is." Oh yeah, wed forgotten how good that looks. Thanks.
10:37AM - A clip from Iron Man -- "And I can go to the App Store and download games. Weve got a treat today." Hes inviting Phil Schiller on stage. Phils going to demo some games it seems.
10:38AM - "This couldnt be more fun, hundreds of games. Heres some you havent seen before. Im going to start with a game that just shipped... Spore. The iPod touch version, Spore Origins." Man they love Spore.
10:39AM - Now hes into the Creature Creator, Phil is making a new life form. Ths graphics do look pretty slick, but this isnt exactly new territory. "You can create your character any way you want..." Ah, so thats how it works.
10:41AM - "Im controlling my character by tilting the iPod touch. Just got bitten there." A little laughter... the crowd seems content to watch Phil game. "Its kind of like life... and the graphics are just incredible. So thats Spore. Okay, on to Real Soccer 2009, just shipping today." Mmm, football.
10:42AM - This game looks pretty sharp -- wed imagine from Fifa fans will go in for this. The graphics are impressive. Theyve overlaid a transparent D-pad on the screen -- but the game also uses gestures. Phil just scored... huge applause, weve got some sports fans here. Instant replay!
10:44AM - Ah, Need for Speed. Looks like it uses some real car models. This looks fun, but were still holding out hope for some more hardware... that might be wishful thinking, of course. Again, pretty impressive 3D graphics, it continues to be shocking what the touch / iPhone can do. Phil wiped out... crowd: "oooooooh!" Hes on the run from the cops, good stuff. "Dont try this at home."
10:45AM - Okay, Steve is back!
10:45AM - iPod touch: 36 hours of music, 6 hours of video, environmentally sound design.
10:46AM - "This is the funnest iPod ever. We think people will really like. Weve got it in 3 models." 8GB, $229, 16GB for $299, and a 32GB for $399. All three are available today. "Now weve got a new ad."
10:47AM - Touch with games played on it, lots of games. Ah we get it... look out Nintendo. Thats basically an ad for a gaming device. Theyre going for the throat here.
10:47AM - "Its the best portable device for playing games..." gauntlet: THROWN.
10:48AM - Weve just spied Howard Stringer in the front row... we think. Interesting.
10:48AM - Uh oh... 2.1 firmware for the iPhone!
10:49AM - "This is a big update, it fixes lots of bugs. Fewer dropped calls, big battery life improvements. No crashes with Apps. Backing up is faster." Nice.
10:49AM - "Some great new performance enhancements... free to all owners, available this Friday."
10:50AM - "Back to iTunes and iPod. Weve got the best lineup weve ever had. Weve sold over 160 million iPods. Were ready for this coming season. And we really appreciate the chance to share that." Round of applause please...
10:51AM - "We get excited when we can bring products to market that make enjoying music better..." Looks like a musical guest is about to step out. "Hes sold over 60 million albums, hes the #1 selling male artist in iTunes history... Jack Johnson."
10:52AM - Hi Jack. Lay it on us. We better be righteously chilled out when this is over or we want our money back.
10:52AM - One thing about Jack Johnson, he doesnt mind being a corporate shill.
10:55AM - Hang back folks. Well see what happens when Jack finishes.
10:56AM - Jack is truly rocking us to our very cores. Actually, its ironic that for the Lets Rock event they end with some soft acoustic folk stuff.
11:00AM - Big cheers from the crowd. A few journalists have been moved to tears. We think we spied Dan Lyons in the corner sobbing. Jack is thanking us and being quite modest. "Im used to 20-something girls right here, Im doing my best." Guffaw. "Apple has been really supportive... I wanted to say thank you."
11:03AM - "Thanks again." And it looks like were done! Thanks for joining us!
11:04AM - Steve: "Thank you all for coming!"
Photography by Ryan Block.
