Wickedly exciting event tonight, Apple are hosting this launch event entitled "Let's Rock" in San Francisco. Carry on reading for the rundown of the exciting announcements as they happen. All timings are GMT (UK time).
18:00 Steve Jobs has taken to the stage.
- Screen shows text "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated", hilarious joke, well done Steve.
18:05 Covering off the content on iTunes. 8.5 million songs, 30,000 TV shows, 125,000 podcasts and 3,000 applications.
18:08 New content being added to iTunes. High Definition TV Shows for $2.99 whilst Standard Definition will be $1.99.
18:09 New iTunes 8 is launching today with the grid view (rumored) and Genius (also rumored) for making automatic playlists and suggestions of tracks.
- Genius sends your artist, track names, play count etc to the cloud anonymously. Then feeds suggested tracks back to you. Info is analysed against other iTunes users... sounds clever.
18:20 New 120GB iPod classic at $249, this replaces the 80GB which is no more. 160GB model also discontinued (strange decision, won't be liked by everyone).
18:25 New iPod Nano. Yes, this is the slim, curved shape one that was rumored. New user interface on this too, akin to the iPhone and touch.
- New Nano has accelerometer, so turn it on its side and the screen display rotates.
- 8GB at $149
- 16GB at $199
- New colours, silver, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red & green
- 8GB in stock today, 16GB next week
- Very environment friendly. Arsenic-free glass, BFR-free, Mercury-free, PVC-free & highly recyclable
- Battery lasts for 4 hours of video, 24 hours of music
18:30 New headphones for the Nano too, with a click, double click, triple click trick to control the Nano and a built-in microphone for recording, $29.
18:35 Redesign to the iPod touch. All steel back, curved like the iPhone. Built-in speaker (yes!). Volume controls on the side (yes!) and Nike+iPod built right into the touch (wow!). Genius playlist creation is also possible on-the-go.
- Seems like the Nike+iPod receiver is built into the new touch, so all you need is the transmitter in your shoe. The older iPod touch will also need the receiver plugged into the bottom.
18:42 Phil Schiller now on stage demonstrating new Apps. Kicks off with Spore Creature Creator, then moves on to Real Soccer 2009. Phil likes his games. Last up is Need for Speed, great graphics apparently.
18:45 Steve is back on stage. (Where oh where is the 'One More Thing' everyone is waiting for?).
- New Nano battery life is 36 hours when playing music and 6 hours for video.
- 8GB at $229, 16GB at $299 and the 32GB model is $399.
- All three models available today!
18:50 iPhone and iPod touch software 2.1 (which includes the Nike+ software) is also available today. Free for iPhone (from this Friday), but $9.95 for iPod touch owners.
18:53 Wrapping up with music from Jack Johnson.
Well, that's it. I am sort of OK with the updates, pretty much as expected. Just a big shame that there was no really big announcement of a brand new product. I guess we all expect too much nowadays.