MacDailyNews live Apple Event coverage

MacDailyNews will feature live coverage of Apple’s Special Event announcements to be presented by Steve Jobs. Live presentation updates will be available on this page on Monday, April 28, 10:00 a.m. PDT / 1:00 p.m. EDT…

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– Satellite feed color bars / slate changed to audience shots and on-location audio.
– Waiting for Steve Jobs and RDF to appear.
– Jobs takes the stage.
– Jobs reviews recent hardware introductions; PowerBooks, etc. Jobs shares Walt Mossberg Wall Street Journal review snippets.
– Jobs reviews recent software introductions; Safari browser, iLife, and Keynote.
– Jobs presentation to day is using Keynote. Jobs mentions Final Cut Pro 4.
– Jobs, “today we’re going to innovate more – this time in music.”
– Jobs shows old “Rip. Mix. Burn.” TV ad featuring various artists.
– Jobs talks about how iTunes led Apple to create the iPod.
– Jobs says, “Rip doesn’t mean ‘rip-off.”
– Jobs changes “Rip. Mix. Burn.” to “Acquire. Manage. Listen”
– Jobs says 700,000 iPods sold, “iPod is the number one MP3 player in the world.”
– Jobs introduces the new 3rd gen iPods: 10GB, 15GB, and 30GB (holds 7,500 songs in your pocket)
– New iPod is lighter than the weight of 2 CD cases and thinner than the 2 cases, too.
– New iPod hardware Dock announced.
– iPod now features line out for hooking iPod up to your stereo.
– News iPods add USB2 for WIndows customers.
– Firewire cable included with all new iPods.
– AAC decoding added to iPod.
– On-The-Go playlists – build them on your iPod.
– Alarm clock.
– Two new games – Solitaire and
– User customizable main menu feature in the new iPods.
– iPods feature backlit displays and four buttons above the scroll wheel.
– Pricing: 10GB = $299 (no dock, case and remote), 15GB = $399, 30GB = $499. Available this Friday everywhere. One week later availability internationally.
– iTunes 4 introduced. Added AAC encoding. AAC sounds better at any given bitrate. AAC is state-of-the-art CODEC. Rendezvous support now integrated into iTunes 4.
– Macs can share playlists between Macs with iTunes 4.
– Album artwork supported. And DVD archiving.
– Jobs demos iTunes 4. Shows off Rendezvous sharing with Phil Schiller.
– Jobs, “How do we acquire our music?” Jobs says, “Internet was made for music distribution.”
– Jobs, “we think subscriptions are the wrong path” for online music services.
– Jobs reviews all of the problems between content creators and file-sharing services.
– All of the Big Five music companies are signed up – 200,000 tracks and growing. When you buy these tracks – unlimited CD burns – you have to modify the playlist every 10 burns to limit mass distribution.
– You can put your music on an unlimited number of iPods, past and present models.
– You can play your music on up to 3 Macs.
– You can use your music in other apps.
– Cost: 99-cents per song.
– Every song is encoded in 128 kbps in AAC – Sounds as good as “or better” than CD quality.
– Including album cover art. Free 30-second previews of every song in the store.
– Entire store is can be browsed by Genre, Artist, etc.
– Music store included in iTunes4.
– Jobs demos iTunes 4 Music Store feature.
– One Click music purchasing/download included.
– Buy whole albums for $9.99.
– iTunes provides “bread crumbs,” so you can navigate as you search thru tracks.
– Jobs plays some tunes that he “bought.”
– Now you can just buy the songs you want, if you don’t want the whole album.
– Jobs show how easy it is to sample many, many different versions of the same song by different artists.
– Store contains spoken word books and comedy albums.
– Jobs shows off exclusive tracks form U2, Bob Dylan, etc.
– Store contains MPEG-4 videos as well.
– Jobs, “to do this… you’ve gotta process millions of transaction, hopefully.”
– Jobs, “only Apple could’ve created the iTunes music store.”
– iTunes Music Store available only in the U.S. for now.
– Older iPods are ugradeable via software download – later today.
– iTunes 4 available today.
– Mac only “to start with… will bring to Windows by the end of this year,” says Jobs.
– Music service video now playing that shows off service.
– Video contains testimonials from U2’s Bono, Wynton Marsalis, and Alanis Morrisette.
– Site is AppleMusic.com.
– TV Ads for AppleMusic now being shown show various people with iPods singing songs without accompaniment.
– Jobs says “‘bye.”