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.”