Revealed: All New Super Thin MacBook Air — Movie Rentals on iTunes — No Computer Required For Apple TV 2 — Time Capsule Back Up Appliance — New iPhone Features
(Photos by Jon Snyder. Live blogging by Mark McClusky and Dylan Tweney.)
__8:44am: __Wired editors Dylan Tweney and Mark McClusky plus photographer Jon Snyder are in a sort of press holding area waiting to enter the Jobsnote. Don't worry — they're free range!
8:53am: Press is being seated. Won't be long now.
8:58: We're in and seated! Black apple logo, backlit with a burst of white light.
when we entered, the inevitable Coldplay is on: Yellow. Jobso loves himself some Coldplay.
__9:04: __There are at least 200 people here setting up to liveblog.
9:05: Today's color scheme for ushers — egg shell blue. A nice soothing shade.
Forrest of broadcast folks here — 50 TV cameras lined up stage right.
Twitter.com is unresponsive. It appears the servers have crashed from all the Macworld traffic. Wah wah wah.
9:08: What's the sound of thousands of microbloggers screaming?
Still no action. More music to entertain us. Feist, "1234"
9:11: ATTENTION! Fake Steve Jobs is right behind us. He's liveblogging his own keynote. Which is pretty brilliant if you think about it.
Lights are dimming. Here we go.
We're starting out with a new Mac vs PC ad:
Happy New Year theme.
PC says it was a terrible year.
But '08 will be better, as the PC will copy what Mac did in '07.
Jobs out. In the uniform.
S.J.: "There's something in the air today."
9:14: "I want to take a moment to look back at 07. Extraordinary year for Apple. iMac, ipods, and the iPhone. I want to take a moment to say thank you. So I have four things I want to talk about with you today. First, Leopard. 5 million copies on first three months. Most successful release of OS X ever."
9:16: "20% of installed base has upgraded to Leopard. Been a critical as well as a commercial success."
He lists Listing Mossberg, Pogue,
Baig, and Ed Mendelson's reviews.
"It's been well received by our developers."
Walt Mossberg, WSJ; David Pogue, NYT; Ed Baig, USA Today; Ed Mendelson, PC Mag.
Office was announced today. Last big application to go native. Great new features in Leopard. Like Time Machine. If you have a notebook, you have to plug and unplug your notebook.
A rare slip: introducing Time Machine, Jobs says "In Tiger ..."
"Today, a companion product to time machine. 'Time Capsule.' A backup appliance."
9:19: Airport base station and HD in the same enclosure. 802.11n and server grade hard drive. Full base station. Four ethernet ports. Can back up wirelessly to the unit. Two versions. 500 GB will sell for $299, 1 TB for
$499. "We want people backing up their content. It'll be shipping in February.
So that's time capsule. That's the first thing I wanted to share with you this morning."
#2: the iPhone.
"I've got some great news for you. Today is the 200th day since it shipped. We have sold 4 million —20,000 a day on average. What does this mean in the overall market?"
US smartphone market ending in September:
RiM at 39%, iPhone at 19.5 %, Palm, 9.8%, Moto 7.4%, Nokia: 1.3%. Other: 21.2%
9:23: iPhone almost equaled the next three. We're going to release the SDK in late Feb.
We wanted to give you something today too. Great new features.
Maps with locations. Webclips: can make clips of favorite sites and put them on home screen. Custom home screens. SMS multiple people.
Chapters and subtitles in videos.
Demo time for Steve.
Going to maps. New UI for the app.
One button press, and it zooms into our current location.
Directions default to your current location as a start.
9:25:
Can now drop a pin anywhere you want. Can add bookmarks on the fly using the pins.
"We develop maps with Google. It's a great collaboration, and we love working with those guys. Now showing multiple recipient SMS. You can message to four people and it also keeps track of the group you've sent it to."
Webclips: go to Safari. New button, a plus that lets you add a page to the home screen.
these can be more than just a website. they can remember where I've zoomed and panned to. Just touch the icon to go to the website.
Custom home screen. Touch any icon for a few seconds, and then you can drag things around. Everything wobbles to show that you're in editing mode. Can drag into other screens. Very simple interface. Can make up to nine home screens.
How do we do some of this stuff?
__9:32: __Let's take maps. There's no GPS. We're working with Google and Skyhook Wireless.
Skyhook has mapped Wi-Fi hotspots. When we go to pick up a location, we look up the Wi-Fi spots, triangulate, and then find your location. Google does the same thing with cell towers.
New interface for films. navigate by chapters.
"We use both of them, it and works pretty doggone good."
These are some of the new features on the iPhone.
All available today as a free software update. The iPhone is not standing still. We keep making it better and better and better. That's the iPhone. What about the iPod touch? What can we do for the touch today.
We're adding five apps to the touch: Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather.
Same stuff we just did on the iPhone on the iPod Touch. Starting today, built in to every Touch.
$20 upgrade for existing users. On iTunes today.
(Crowd didn't like the price. Low rumble in the seats.)
That's the second thing I wanted to talk about today.
Now, #3.
"It's a good one, too. It's about iTunes. We sold our 4 billionth song last week."
9:35am:
"We sold 20 million songs on Christmas day; a new one day record."
"We've also sold 125 million TV shows. That's more than everyone else put together.
7 million movies. That didn't meet our expectations. We've looked at it a lot.
Today, we're introducing iTunes movie rentals. We've never offered a rental model in music, because we don't think that people want it. In movies, it's less expensive.
Takes up less space."
"We have every major studio supporting us with iTunes Movie Rentals.
We're going to have all the films that are out on DVD."
Great library of titles as well:
Pirates of the Caribbean, Spiderman 3, Hairspray, Ratatouille, Matrix, Jerry Maguire, Austin Powers, 300, ...
So what's the deal? Here's the deal: Over 1000 films by end of Feb.
Jobs plugs "Away From Her" - a movie that got a 95 rating on the Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes even though no one saw it — available on iTunes
30 days after DVD release.
Watch anywhere. Mac, PC, all iPods, iPhone.
Watch instantly. 30 second start time with broadband.
30 days to start watching it. 24 hours to finish watching it once you start. Can transfer to device while you're watching. Start on computer, finish mobile.
Rent library title: $2.99. New releases, $3.99
9:40am:
New "rented movies" collection in iTunes.
Slick "move" interface in iTunes to send it to iPod.
Launches today.
iTunes, iPods, iPhones all get updates. US now, international later this year. Current gen iPods only, it seems.
But what about your TV?
I have to say, all of us have tried. We have, Microsoft, Amazon, Tivo, netflix, vudu.
We've all tried to get movies off the internet to your TV.
We've all missed.
We tried with Apple TV.
We're back with Apple TV take two.
No computer required to use is, but still syncs to computer if you like.
Can rent movies directly.
Can rent HD with 5.1 sound.
(Big cheers)
Or DVD quality
podcasts right from Apple TV.
Photos from flickr and .mac.
YouTube as well.
Over 50M videos.
Can buy TV and music directly from TV, and will sync back to computer if you like.
Can play iTunes content from computer.
Let me focus on HD movies.
9:45am:
In HD, movies are a dollar more.
$3.99 for library titles, $4.99 for new releases
Entirely new UI for Apple TV. Demoing now.
Whole thing is centered around the movie rental experience.
Some suggested rentals from each screen.
Preview from the movies page.
Ready to play in 10 seconds over the connection here. Finishes the DL in the background.
So this is DVD quality I just rented, now I'm going to show you HD.
(Showing the helicopter stunt from Live Free or Die Hard.)
9:50am:
(Ending with Justin Long running, which gets a chuckle.)
Demo of search:
Live search updates.
over 600 TV shows in iTunes.
$1.99 per episode
The search interface works like an old-school video game high score screen: you have to navigate through an alphabetic grid, selecting letter by letter but it seems to do well at guessing what Steve wants to type. Going through each menu item. Music, podcasts...
He shows off a free HD quality video podcast.
Showing some crazy guys skiing off a cliff.
(Okay, that was nuts.)
Going to photos now...mac integration.
For browsing videos, photos, etc there's a coverflow-esque scroll on the left, showing images of sample titles.
9:55am:
Standard Apple slide show, with music. Live off the .mac server
Movies also on .mac.
Demo of the movie they showed at the iMovie launch.
Flickr integration. Live from the servers.
Explore all the contact that people have. Integration of some of flickr's social stuff.
Oh teh noes! Demo problems. Photos not loading from the person Steve selected.
(Not often you see demo problems.)
"I'm afraid Flickr's not serving up the photos on that one."
Maybe private photos?
Someone behind us -- Dan Lyons? -- muttered "Gizmodo" heheheh.
(Referring to Gizmodo's recent TVBGone trick.)
Wrapping up the Apple TV segment with the features.
But what's the price? What about existing users?
This is where we're at with Apple TV. I think it's a revolution.
Free upgrade!
It'll be a software upgrade for existing users
Right now, it's $299, new price is $229.
10:00am:
Two weeks for the new Apple TV.
I think we have it all together with iTunes movie rentals.
First studio to sign up was Fox. My pleasure to introduce Jim Gianopulos, CEO of 20th Century Fox.
Jim Gianopulos: I'm backstage getting all excited, and I already knew about it.
We spend a lot of time talking about business models.
All that complexity distill to make great movies, and give it to as many people as you can as easily as you can.
They want to control when and where and how they watch it. Choice, control, convienience.
Little Simpsons slide, with a "doughnut iPod."
When Steve came to us, we thought it was the most exciting thing we have ever heard.
He's poking fun at his own company's ability to come up with technology.
VOD isn't new. Apple does things in an intuitive, insightful, innovative way.
We think this will transform the rental model.
There's another idea we've talked to steve about. That's DVD.
And next generation, Blu-Ray it looks like.
10:05am:
People will still buy DVD. But we developed a digital copy of discs going forward. DVD's will contain a digital copy to move to iTunes and iPod.
It's free with the DVD. Today's an exciting beginning. We couldn't be happier and prouder.
(Steve back on stage.)
Steve: That was the third thing today.
So that brings us to #4.
There's something in the air.
What is it?
As you know, Apple makes the best notebooks on the planet.
These are the standards in the industry.
Today, third notebook. Macbook air.
What is it?
In a sentence: World's thinnest notebook.
Looked at all the thin notebooks. Sony TZ. Usually about 3 pounds, about .8 inches to 1.2 inches.
They compromise on the display size and keyboard size.
They don't run them as fast as they could.
Can't support faster procs.
We thing 3 pounds is a good target, but too much compromising to get there. We think you can do better.
Thinness first.
Macbook Air: .76 to .16 inches thick, back to front.
The thickest part of the air is thiner than the thinnest part of the TZ series.
10:10am:
Fits in an interoffice envelope.
(Here's the reveal. In an envelope.)
It really is thin!
Lots of 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the audience.
Holy crap, that's thin!
Flashes exploding.
Full size keys and display.
Fullsize keyboard, fullsize screen
He spends a little time showing it off, edge-on, so we can admire its thinness
Magnetic latch.
13.3 inch widescreen.
LED backlit.
iSight camera built in.
Full size keyboard.
Best notebook keyboard we've ever shipped. Backlit.
Large trackpad. Multi touch gestures on the trackpad.
All sorts of gestures. Move windows. Pan in windows. Rotate photos. Some of the things we've learned in the iPhone.
Flip through photos. Zoom by pinching in and out.
More 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the crowd.
How did we fit a mac in here? I'm still stunned.
1.8 inch HDs.
80 GB standard, 64 GB SSD option.
10:15am:
Real magic is in the electronics. Complete Mac on a board the size of a pencil. Amazing feat of engineering. Core 2 Duo.
1.6 GHz standard. Can go to 1.8 We've got a great relationship with
Intel. When we were building this product, we asked them to consider something. We want the Core 2 Duo, but it has to be a smaller package.
It's 60% smaller.
Steve is inviting Paul Otellini on stage.
It's pretty much unheard of in the computer industry for a computer manufacturer to get Intel to repackage their chips
about a year ago you challenged us to get the processor into this impossibly small machine.
Paul Otellini is onstage, saying the new package is about the width of a dime and about as thick as a nickel.
"Working with you and your team has been a challenge, but we did what we do best together, which is innovate. Let me give you this chip as a souvenir."
Aaaand Steve back talking.
That's how we fit a mac inside.
On one side, magsafe power connector.
On the other side, a door for one USB port, micro DVI and a headphone jack.
802.11n networking, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Built to be a wireless machine.
No internal optical drive. $99 accessory optical drive.
10:20am:
What do we do with optical drives? Movies, software, backups, and burn cds?
We can now install software wirelessly.
New feature — remote disc. It will show you macs or PCs in your vicinity. You can pick one of those machines, and borrow it's optical drive. You can then see what's in their optical drive. PCs can read mac installers. Use it just like a local optical drive.
We also didn't want to compromise battery. 5 hours claimed life.
3 pounds. 0.16-.76 inch thick. 13.3-inch display, full size keyboard, multi-touch gestures, iSight, 1.6GHZ core 2 duo 2 GB memory,
80 GB HD standard, 802.11n
Price: $1799. Shipping in two weeks.
New ad for MacBook Air:
Just a simple product show. Shot, that is.
10:25am:
I wanted to cover one other side of Macbook Air. That's the environmental side.
Best part of the ad: the porno-like closeup of the Air sliding out of the manila envelope.
Recyclable aluminum case, Mercury and arsenic free display
BFR-free, less packaging.
(BFR = brominated flame retardants)
We're very conscious of this. It joins our other two great notebook families. That's the fourth thing i wanted to talk to you about today.
It's 2008. In the first two weeks, we've announced the most powerful Mac we've ever made.
Today, time capsule to keep data safe. Upgrades for iPhone and iPod touch.
iTunes movie rentals. A new way to enjoy movies on your computer and iPod. A reinvented Apple TV.
And, the Macbook Air.
All of this in the first two weeks of the year. We've got 50 more weeks to go. This is what we have to share with you today.
Thanks so much for coming.
We have a special treat today. I wanted someone who could help us bridge the gap between iTunes movie rentals and music.
The best person to do that was Randy Newman, who accepted our invitation for us.
17 Oscar nominations. (Any wins though?)
10:30am:
I first met Randy when he was doing scores for Pixar. It's my pleasure to introduce you to Randy Newman.
Here he comes on a motorized platform.
And now he's singing a song about the us and it's standing in the world.
Randy Newman is weird.
He finished his first song, and now he's talking rather indirectly about what a good guy Steve Jobs is and what a tough act Jobs is to follow. But actually rambling in a really entertainingly obtuse way.
"I couldn't understand most of what he said, but I understood more of what he said than what most people say."
Not exactly sure what he's talking about.
(Randy speaking about Steve)
"I'll always root against corporations, because that's the way I am, but not this one."
Now he gives a shout out to Jim Gianopolus - "Actually the best studio head I've ever met"
"That's just a little thing to make sure I make some more money."
Now he's playing a song from Toy Story -- "You Got a Friend in Me"
Randy Newman is coming across a bit like your crazy, drunk old uncle
... if your uncle was a brilliant songwriter and pretty good singer/piano player.
That's it for Randy.
Steve comes to shake his hand.
10:40am:
And then he's ushered quickly off stage.
Someone helps Randy off the stage.
So, we can't wait for you to get your hands on these products. They're in the booth. Thank you for coming.
Outro: U2, "Pride (In the name of love)"
That's all from us here at the keynote.
One huge new product, a couple of nice revs.
Hit refresh or click on this link for the latest updates from the keynote.
