Live coverage of Apple’s ‘Let’s Rock’ event

MacDailyNews and iPodDailyNews coverage of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ presentation at Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event, which kicked off at 10am PDT/1pm EDT today (Tuesday) at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts.

Live coverage of Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event in reverse chronological order:

• Apple’s “Let’s Rock” special event ends.
• Steve Jobs: “Thank you all for coming.”
• Standing O for Johnson.
• Johnson starts next song…
• Johnson ends song. Applause. Johnson thanks Apple for being very supportive.
• Jack Johnson onstage playing. Jobs off stage…
• Jobs introduces special guest, the No. 1 selling male artist in the history of iTunes Store: Jack Johnson
• Jobs: “We think we’ve got the best lineup we’ve ever had for this holiday season. We’re ready for this holiday shopping season.”
• iPhone: 2.1 update is free, of course. iPod touch owners who paid to update to OS X 2.0 get free update to 2.1. If not: it’ll be $9.9.
• 2.1 is a big update. Fixes lost of bugs. Fwere dropped calls. Significant battery improvements. Fewer App crashes.
• iPhone, iPod touch 2.1 software update available today…
• New iPod touch ad: “The funnest iPod ever” – Ad focuses mainly on games (Nintendo and Sony can’t be happy)
• iPod touch pricing: 8GB for $229, 16GB for $299, 32GB for $399. All three models available immediately.
• iPod touch is also environmentally-friendly: arsenic-free, BFR-free, Mercury-free, PVC-free, highly recyclable.
• Steve Job: “This is the funnest iPod ever.”
• Steve Jobs back onstage: iPod touch battery: 36 hrs. audio, 6hrs. video.
• “Need for Speed” demo.
• Phil shoots, he scores!
• Spore, then “Real Soccer 2009” demos…
• VP of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller now onstage to demo some App Store games for iPod touch/iPhone.
• Steve demoing iPod touch (videos, music)
• Wireless App Store currently available in 62 countries and counting.
• 100 million App Store apps downloaded in first 60 days. Whoa! (Jobs does not give paid vs. free apps breakdown)
• Genius can create playlists directly via iPod touch.
• Volume controls now on side of touch, built-in speaker for “Casual listening.”
• iPod touch. Enhanced UI as with nano. Niek+ now built-in…
• New earbuds – 2 drivers each (woofer + tweeter) = $79. Jobs: “They finally got it right this time.”
• 4G iPod nano pricing: 8GB for US$149, 16GB for $199. 8GB here today, 16GB by next week at the latest. “Hopefully this weekend.”
• 4G nano environmentally-friendly: arsenic-free, BFR-free, Mercury-free, PVC-free, highly recyclable.
• 4G nano colors: black, silver, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink – no white.
• 4G nano battery: 24 hrs. audio, 4 hrs. video.
• Shake nano and it’ll shuffle: “Shake to Shuffle.”
• iPod nano display auto-rotates based on orientation – landscape to portrait and vice vrsa – like iPod touch/iPhone.
• If you attach a microphone to nano, you get a voice-recording option.
• iPod nano features a curved glass display. iPod nano gets accelerometer.
• New iPod nano 4th-gen. Display covers half of device’s front side. Click-wheel on bottom as usual.
• iPod classic now in 120GB only. No 80GB or 160GB.
• Over 160 million iPods sold to date.
• Over 5,000 accessories – some makers even announce products before we want them to (iPod nano skins).
• Pie Chart: NPD: iPod has 73.4% market share. “Other” has 15.4%, SanDisk has 8.6%, Microsoft Zune has paltry 2.6%.
• iTunes 8 available for free download today.
• Jobs demos… Aretha, John Mayer…
• 65 million iTunes users now… Genius will get very smart.
• Of course, users can choose to opt-out of Genius.
• Genius works completely anonymously – sends weekly info about your library to Apple. Genius gets smarter and smarter.
• Genius will also recommend iTunes Store music based on your library/listening patterns.
• Genius auto creates playlists based on your taste (or lack thereof) in music.
• Accessibility, new browsing options, “Genius Sidebar”…
• iTunes 8…
• $1.99 for SD TV shows, $2.99 for HD TV Shows.
• HD TV shows. NBC back in iTunes Store. Zucker finally wised up?
• iTunes now has over 8.5 million songs; over 3,000 apps for iPhone/iPod touch.
• Jobs: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
• Jobs looks thin (same as last time or close to it), but seems to be energetic, smiling…
• Lights go down, Steve Jobs takes the stage.
• The Doors’ “Touch Me” playing… (hint, hint?)
• …presentation will begin shortly.
• Announcement: Please turn off cell phones and PDAs…
• White Apple logo on black screen as those assembled wait for Steve Jobs to take the stage.
• 9:39pm PDT – getting close now…
• 8:17am PDT – Apple Store currently offline.