Live Coverage: MacWorld Expo 2008 Steve Jobs’ Keynote

Live coverage of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ Macworld Expo 2008 keynote in reverse chronological order:

• Keynote ends.

• Randy Newman out to play live.
• MacBook Air measures an unprecedented 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 0.76-inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks. MacBook Air has a stunning 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing, and a large trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe. MacBook Air is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1.
• Intel CEO Ottelini talking about shirinking processor some 60% to fit inside.
• Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz standard, with 1.8GHz upgrade option.
• Multi-touch gestures on trackpad
• LED backlit display that’s instant-on, built-in iSight camera, full-sized keyboard.
• 13.3-inch widescreen display
• MacBook Air ships with 1.8-inch hard drive, same as in iPods – 80GB drive, with option of 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD).”
• Jobs debuts “MacBook Air” – 0.76 inches on one end, 0.16 inches at the even thinner end.
• Twentieth Century Fox and Apple announced Digital Copy for iTunes, which provides customers who purchase a DVD with an additional Digital Copy of the movie. Just like movies purchased from the iTunes Store, an iTunes Digital Copy can effortlessly be transferred to iTunes and then viewed on a PC or Mac, iPod with video, iPhone or on Apple TV. The first DVD to make its debut with iTunes Digital Copy is the Special Edition DVD premiere of the Family Guy “Star Wars” parody, “Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest,” which is being released in stores today. Fox and Apple are planning to deliver many more DVDs with iTunes Digital Copy this year.
• Movies available 30 days after the DVD release. 30 days to start watching, 24 hours to finish.
• “With the new Apple TV and iTunes Movie Rentals, movie lovers can rent DVD-quality or stunning HD movies from their couch with just a click of a button,” said Jobs. “No more driving to the video store or waiting for DVDs to arrive in the mail.”
• Apple has lowered the price of Apple TV to US$229 for the 40GB model, and for $329 for the 160GB model.
• The new Apple TV software will be available as a free automatic download to all Apple TV customers later this month.
• iTunes Movie Rentals featuring movies from all the major movie studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate and New Line Cinema. Users can rent movies for as low as $2.99 and watch them on their Macs or PCs, all current generation iPods, iPhone and Apple TV. iTunes Movie Rentals launches today and will offer over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which users can rent directly from their widescreen TV using Apple TV. iTunes Movie Rentals are priced at $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are one dollar more with library titles at $3.99 and new releases at $4.99.
• The software upgrade for iPod touch is available immediately. New iPod touch products shipping from the factory will include the software upgrade and existing iPod touch customers can get the software upgrade for $19.99 by purchasing and downloading it from iTunes. iTunes Movie Rentals are available in the US only.
• Maps on iPod touch features the ability to automatically find your current location using nearby Wi-Fi base stations – Availability and precision of Maps positioning features will vary depending on actual location.
• Mail on iPod touch is a rich HTML email client that fetches email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services and displays photos and graphics along with the text of the email. Users can configure Mail for Google’s Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, .Mac Mail or most POP or IMAP based mail services with just a few clicks.
• iPod touch: Apple is adding five more mobile applications — Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes. The iPod touch software upgrade also includes new features such as Web Clips, a customizable home screen and beginning today, the ability to watch iTunes(R) Movie Rentals. New iPod touch products shipping from the factory will include the software upgrade and existing iPod touch customers can get the software upgrade for US$19.99 by purchasing and downloading it from iTunes
• Rental movie pricing: $3.99 for old titles, $4.99 for new. $2.99 for SD.
• Rent movies on Apple TV – no computer required. It still syncs with your Mac, too.
• HD movies with Dolby 5.1
• iTunes movie rentals launches toda. Free software update for iTunes
• The iPhone software update 1.1.3 is available immediately for free via iTunes 7.5 or later for all existing iPhone customers in the US, UK, Germany and France. New iPhone products shipping from the factory will include the software update and existing iPhone customers will automatically get the update for free when they sync their iPhone with iTunes.
• Users can now create Web Clips — icons on the home screen that take you directly to your favorite websites, including to the exact spot you have zoomed into. Web Clips are a great way to easily track websites that you frequently check such as news, blogs, sports sites and movie listings. In addition, users can now customize their home screen by repositioning any of the icons, and even create up to nine different home screens that they can easily flick between.
• Users can automatically find their location using the redesigned Maps application; text message multiple people in one message; create Web Clips for their favorite websites; customize their home screen; and watch movies rented from the new iTunes Movie Rentals right on their iPhone.
• Jobs intros iPhone Maps with location, ability to do multiple SMS addressees at one time.
• 4 million iPhones sold in 200 days (today’s day 200) that’s 20,000 per day on average.
• Time Capsule is also a full-featured Wi-Fi base station with the latest 802.11n technology.
• Jobs debits new Time Machine companion hardware: Time Capsule. Airport Extren=me 802.11n + hard drive in two configs: 500GB for US$299 and 1TB for $499 – backup all your Macs wirelessly
• Steve Jobs takes stage
• Shows new “Happy New Year” recap of last year “Get a Mac” commercial.
• Getting close to the start…
• Please DO NOT RELOAD this page manually to minimize server activity due to expected high traffic. Thank you.
• Several banners are shrouded in black and should be revealed as Jobs’ keynote ends.
• People are in the process of taking their seats…
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• Keynote is scheduled to begin at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT.