Apple Let’s Rock Event Live Meta-Blog
Welcome one and all to the iPhone Blog’s Live Meta-Blog for Tuesday, September 9th Apple pre-Holiday Event: Let’s Rock.
Well, are you ready to rock, TiPb style? The event is now over, but if you want the full play-by-play coverage of the coverage, along with the unique analysis, color, and insight only the TiPb writing team can provide, check it out in reverse chronological order, after the break:
11:05: Steve: “Thanks, and don’t let the lack of really big iPhone news hit you on the Apps on the way out!”
Thanks everyone!
JEREMY: No mention of any hidden features. That is sort of a let down. Dang rumors…
JEREMY: I’d say forget the Touch and go straight to a iPhone. Sure you have a monthly fee but come on… internet, phone, iPod all wrapped into one device? Does it get better? Not really.
CHAD: OMGZ, JJ is singing another song… zzz
Another song! If the event isn’t over, that’ll kill it right there!
CHAD: There may not be one more thing afterall..
No Boom?
11:00: Steve, a little help? One more thing? Heard of it?
Would anyone buy a Touch now instead of, or in addition to, and iPhone at $199?
What, no John Mayer??
JEREMY: I’m actually very pleased with the sound of this firmware. And Friday? I’ll take it.
CHAD: I can’t believe Steve spent all of 30 seconds talking about the iPhone. Waiting for “One more thing”….
JEREMY: Again… poor poor Dieter. [For missing this!]
CHAD: Well, that was a disappointing 10 seconds spent on the iPhone, now Steve is talking about the iPod again.
JEREMY: Finally the good stuff! iPhone update this Friday!
Less app crashes, less lost calls, big bug fixes, longer battery life. Available FRIDAY!
10:48:FIRMWARE 2.1!!!
CHAD: Who needs a PSP now, LOL!
8GB: $229. 16GB $299. 32GB: $399. Why still have an 8GB? To get more people on the platform for $40 less?
iPod Touch: 36hrs music, 6hrs. video. Greenpeace please don’t hurt us!
JEREMY: Need for Speed… November. Graphics look amazing.
CHAD: Enough game demos Phil… The soccer game does look good though… move along Whoa! Need for Speed Undercover looks hot!
JEREMY: Still on games… Why do they torture us so?
JEREMY: Ok we have all seen Spore, lets move onto the good stuff. iPhone firmware anyone?
Phil’s still playing Spore…
Chad’s investigating. Pending feature?
JEREMY: Maybe I’m wrong but with the iPod Touch version you can go online? Not a option for iPhone. Makes no sense.
JEREMY: Demo of Spore. Really is a cool game. I have to admit.
Phil Schiller’s on stage. Unreleased games. Where’s Carmack??!!
Spore Origins. Will it look like Ballmer??
Demo time!
CHAD: NIke+ receiver is built into the Touch. Awesome.
JEREMY: You think the iPhone 3g scratches easily… This iPod looks like it’s going to be a lot worse.
700 games on App Store. 100 Million Apps. (How many CrApps? Insert joke here!)
No wireless N yet. Scratch that differentiator…
CHAD: Better release this for the iPhone or Chad smash!
Stronger, better, faster, artwork for albums. Nicer UI
Built in Nike+…
CHAD: Volume control and speaker for the iPod Touch. Good idea! Whoda thunk?
I guess the leaks on the Touch were spot on to. Someone in the iPod division is so going to get Steved!
CHAD: iPod Touch now looks like a silver iPhone. Cool.
Same display, thinner iPod Touch, aluminum…
10:30: iPod Touch!
NEW AD!
The button ear-phone, a la iPhone had to happen…
CHAD: Apple in ear headphones for $79? Hmm, k
$149 for 8GB, $199 for 16GB. No $99 for Chad…
CHAD: I was hoping the process would be less… where is my $99 Nano? However, 16GB for $200 isn’t too bad
JEREMY: 8 gig Nano’s in stock today.
CHAD: holy rainbow of Nano colors batman. What took so long for this?
CHAD: I like the orange
Nano chromatic: More colors than a bag’o’skittles!
BRIAN: D’oh! Stuck in meetings!
Environmentally friendly, but Greenpeace will make them a strawman full of forks anyway…
CHAD: So, 1 model of classic (120GB)…
24hrs music, 4hrs video. Nice.
Nice metaphor. New photo viewing to.
CHAD: Shake to shuffle, cute.
Nano is the most popular iPod, and Apple’s bread and butter over the holidays. Makes sense to emphasize it first.
CHAD: Steve Jobs has an 80yo man’s hands.
JEREMY: Nano also has voice recorder when it detects a microphone attached.
Calendar, stopwatch, voice rec., Demo time!
CHAD: sideways accelerometer cover flow. cool.
Same footprint as the 1st and 2nd gen Nano.
CHAD: iPod Nano= accelerometer and curved glass, Genius playlists? say it ain’t so Steve!
JEREMY: Plus it has a accelerometer.
Nano can has accelerometer… It’ll need it!
JEREMY: Kevin Rose finally was right about some stuff. iPod Nano is just like the leaked pics.
Same display, thinnest iPod ever made. Oval shape. Steve’s got one in his pocket!
And the worst kept secret at Apple is made all official! Long-boy Nano!
JEREMY: Moving on to iPod talk now…
CHAD: Steve says that iTunes 8 will be free. Really? I mean, since when do we pay for iTunes?
Take that, Ballmer!
CHAD: Microsoft has 2.6% of the portable music player market, ROFL!
JEREMY: iTunes available today!
So iTunes 8 wraps up Pandora/Last.fm functionality just as the labels get ready to kill Pandora!
Crackberry Kevin must be laughing…
JEREMY: He’s playing John Mayer… he carries around a Bold…
Grid view. Browse by genre. The Office is back, baby!
Sends your music to the cloud, but completely anonymously. Social network aspect to mine/leverage user tastes to make GENIUS more… GENIUS-like?
Addresses big complaint of it being hard to “discover” music in iTunes…?
CHAD: “Genius” icons look different then smart playlists… they look like the Apple Genius logo
“Let’s say you’re listening to Bob Dylan, push GENIUS button, 25-100 songs recommended to you in sidebar…”
Accessibility, voice over, GENIUS! New way to browse…
JEREMY: No mention of HD content on the iPhone…
iTunes 8! iTunes 8! Kevin Rose drinking game is on!
CHAD: What is wrong with $1.99?
CHAD: NBC… OMGZ is finally back!
NBC is back on iTunes!
CHAD: HD TV Shows. $2.99… but why? I hate that.
HD TV on iTunes!
CHAD: iTunes is #1 Music distributor! Whoot!
CHAD: 3000 apps for iPhone/iPod Touch. Not bad, eh?
10:00: “We’ve got some exciting stuff!” Steve looks good!
CHAD: Steve is on stage!!!!
CHAD: Two iMacs are on stage? Hmm, what could Steve be showing?
9:55: They’re in! Big honking white Apple logo.
9:45: Warming up the meta-blog, and Chad is getting ready to join us! (Crackberry Kevin has also chimed in, comment-style, to help keep us grounded — thanks Kevin!)
September 9th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
yeyeah lets rock! i mean work
September 9th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
So for a BlackBerry Addict that doesn’t really follow iPhone news, what exactly is Let’s Rock?!
September 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I guess its a convention that apple put up once a year to reveal all the new products. i like the name
LET’S ROCK!!!!!!!!
September 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
@Kevin: Let’s Rock is this year’s title for Apple’s annual pre-holiday special product announcement event. New iPods, iPhone goodness, and anything else that will restore our childlike sense of wonder — and deplete our wallets — this December!
(AT&T will be getting coal for the Bold delays, no doubt…)
September 9th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Has an agenda for the event been released or leaked?
September 9th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
@MPKU: iPods, iPods, iPods!
September 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I’m home sick in bed but I’m going to follow you guys from my iPhone. Let’s Rock!
September 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I can’t believe I’m falling for the hype too!
September 9th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
LOL, nice.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
waiting….
September 9th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
so essentially genius will build your playlists like other people, with similar tastes, build theirs?
Intersting. I was hoping that some secret deal with Pandora had been reached, as its by far my favorite musical recommendation service. And yes, iTunes “Just for you” was bad. Really bad.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
ooohhhhh, so we can use our iphone headphones microphon on the new Nano?! Please say yes and I might buy one of these things.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Hey guys!! Great job! I’m follow you on my iphone and I have al suggestion. Could you remove (during the event) the (nice indeed) top image from the post? It takes a lot of time to load it when I refresh!!!! Thx!
September 9th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
so new iTunes out today!? I hope there is something more exciting than a new nano does seem nice though. Touch seems awesome
September 9th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
What I’d really like Genius to be able to do, and I can’t tell if it can is expand playlists I’ve already made. The one song expansion is somewhat useless to me, I think.
But if I could make a short playlist of maybe 10 songs and it could tease out a common theme and expand on all of those songs into a kind of optomized partly playlist that just keeps rolling, that would actually be genius.
What it looks like from the demo is essentially “Just For You” that you can turn into a playlist. Which doesn’t seem that Genius to me. Hopefully Apple didn’t really have time to show all the truly Genius things that Gemius can do, although that seems unlikely.
What Genius really seems like (again, from what little info we have) is a way to get usage statistics more efficiently and thus be able to better run the iTunes store. Sure, your info is sent anonomously, but its still really valuable data. Heck, I could even see them selling it in bulk form to radio stations and the RIAA.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
thanks for removing the image!! Sitting at school refreshing image every five seconds professor is looking at me funny everytime I say ooh and aahh
September 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
steve, you better freaking tell me if nike+ works on the iPhone, like now.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
So wait, if I am seeing this right, the iPod Touch is actually getting MORE in the firmware update than the iPhone? iTouch seems to be getting Nike+ and Genius, while (unless it was just assumed but unsaid) iPhone is not. So if I ever hear an iTouch complainer, I mean owner, complain about getting the short of the stick again…
September 9th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
maybe one more thing will be done in song format by jack johnson?
September 9th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Nike+ for iTouch and NOT iPhone…say it’s not so!
Will 2.1 offer us the same things as the new iTouch or did the iPhone just become obsolete in 2 months?
September 9th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Lame.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
honestly…pretty weak event from apple. nothing special at all. where are the macbooks?
September 9th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
um, it was pretty clear this was going to be an iPod event for a long time.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
No Itunes 8 yet? Or Firmware 2.1? Just woke up…