Earlier Wednesday, we brought you live coverage of Apple's rock 'n' roll-themed event, which kicked off in San Francisco just after 10 a.m. Pacific time. The event has concluded, but for more iPod-related coverage, click here.
9:55 a.m. PDT: Good morning. We're inside and seated, just waiting for the event to begin. There's quite a crowd in here with some notable names already appearing. Greg Grunberg from TV's "Heroes" is sitting right behind us, and Herbie Hancock and Google's Eric Schmidt have also been spotted.
The crowd awaits Apple news inside the Yerba Buena center in San Francisco.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)9:59 a.m.: Now playing "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" by the Rolling Stones, also the title of the event per the invitation. It looks like we'll be starting momentarily.
10:01 a.m.: Steve Jobs walks out. Standing ovation.
10:02 a.m.: People are still clapping.
He encourages everyone to be an organ donor, and extends a heartfelt thanks to the Apple community. Also, on Tim Cook: "He ran the company very ably during that time." "I'm back at Apple, and loving every day of it," he says.
10:03 a.m.: "I'm very happy to be here today with you all," he says. "As you may know I had a liver transplant. I have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash. Without that, I wouldn't be here without that person's generosity."
10:04 a.m.: Today we're talking about music. Phil Schiller and Jeff Robbin will join him. First, iPhone stuff. "Thrilling to report that in two years we've sold 30 million iPhones."
10:05 a.m.: In the last year, the reason is the App Store, he says. There are 75,000 apps. 1.8 billion apps downloaded by users, he reports. That doesn't include updates, though.
10:06 a.m.: Today: iPhone OS 3.1. Some bug fixes and new features are coming. The Genius playlist technology is now going to work for apps in the App Store. It will recommend apps to you based on the apps you already own. The recommendations will get better as people say what they like and buy, he says.
Steve Jobs announces iPhone OS 3.1.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)10:07 a.m.: Also: as Greg Sandoval previously reported, there will be ringtones for sale for $1.29 each. You can buy them the way you'd buy music.
10:08 a.m.: iPhone OS 3.1 is free for iPhone and iPod Touch users who have 3.0. It will be made available today. Update 2:58 p.m.: Earlier, it was reported that it would cost iPod Touch users $4.95. The update only costs money to those who had not yet upgraded their iPod Touch to 3.0 or higher.
10:08 a.m.: Now on to iTunes: Steve says iTunes is the No. 1 seller of music in the world. 8.5 billion songs have been purchased and there are 100 million accounts.
Jobs says the iPhone is popular internationally.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland)10:09 a.m.: Today, iTunes 9 is out. A new look. Cleaner-looking, better navigation.
10:11 a.m.: In iTunes 9: Genius Mixes. Like Genius Playlists, Genius Mixes is like a DJ that plays mixes of songs that go together from your own library. Will make up to 12 mixes at a time.
Steve Jobs takes the stage.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)10:12 a.m.: He says syncing will be better now, too. When syncing playlists you can also sync particular genres or particular artists. Also specific photo albums or specific faces from iPhoto, and specific movies from iTunes. You can also manage your apps syncing in iTunes.
10:13 a.m.: Also something called Home Sharing. With it, you can copy songs, movies, TV shows to up to five authorized computers in your house. Can see what's in all the other authorized computers right from your iTunes account.
10:14 a.m.: The iTunes Store also gets a new look, along with improved artists, movies, and TV pages--a "cleaner" layout, Jobs says.
10:15 a.m.: Another new feature: iTunes LP. "Some of us here are old enough to have bought LPs," Steve says. You can get album art, videos, liner notes, credits, etc. This is clearly the "Cocktail" we've been hearing about. The artists and labels can now have access to adding extras to their albums now.
10:17 a.m.: Jeff Robbin, vice president of consumer applications and lead software designer for iTunes, is now demonstrating the new iTunes. He shows how to drag and drop apps in iTunes to rearrange how they appear on an iPod Touch or iPhone. You can check and uncheck which games or apps you want on the device.
10:19 a.m.: He also shows us how Home Sharing works. You can drag a song or series of songs from other authorized computers to your own library. Can sort by songs that others have that you do not, and can set it so that when others buy new content from iTunes it can be automatically transferred to your library.
10:21 a.m.: There's a new navigation bar in the iTunes Store: music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, audio books, etc.
10:22 a.m.: Can also preview songs directly in the Top Charts section. When browsing the store, you can click an "i" button for a preview of the songs on the album which will allow a quick listen without going to the actual artist or album page. You can also Twitter info and post to Facebook about songs you find in the iTunes Store.
Album view in iTunes 9.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)10:24 a.m.: Now Jeff is showing us iTunes LP. He picks a Doors album. You can see all the songs, all the lyrics, and lots of photos.
10:25 a.m.: There are also videos that he says are exclusive to iTunes LP. For example, Ray Manzarek is talking about how they decided to name the band The Doors.
10:27 a.m.: There's also something called iTunes Extras. Using the movie "Wall-E," he shows there are extra features like short videos, and a way to navigate chapters in the movie.
You can see lyrics with the album view in iTunes 9. Shown here are Dave Matthews lyrics.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland)10:28 a.m.: Jobs is back on stage. He says iTunes 9 is free and ready to download today. Phil Schiller will come up to talk iPods now.
Twenty million of those sold are iPod Touch, he says.
Schiller mocks Dell's non-pocketable small PC.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)10:29 a.m.: First Schiller's going to talk sales numbers. 220 million iPods sold to date, he says. He says they have 73.8 percent of the market, "with Microsoft pulling up the rear with 1.1 percent." There are a few giggles.
10:33 a.m.: Now Schiller's talking up the computing aspect of the iPod Touch, with Wi-Fi, browsing the Internet on Safari, e-mail, etc. "It fits in your pocket. Not everybody can say that," he says. And he shows a picture on screen of a Dell Netbook. More giggles from the audience.
10:35 a.m.: He says the iPod Touch is a better gaming platform than the PSP or Nintendo DS. He points to $30 game titles on those devices and the buying experience as "too expensive" and "not a lot of fun." He says there are 21,178 "game and entertainment" titles on iPhone OS, compared to 3,600 on Nintendo, and 600 on Sony.
Phil Schiller brags about the iPhone as a gaming platform.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland)10:37 a.m.: A few developers of those games are going to come up on stage now. Ubisoft is up first. Ben Mattes from Ubisoft is talking about Assassin's Creed II and how it's coming to the App Store. It'll be out November 11.
10:42 a.m.: Now, Bart Decrem, founder of Tapulous (maker of Tap Tap Revolution) is up. Riddim Ribbon is their new game built "especially for iPhone and iPod Touch." It's a DJ game where you race down a rhythm of a song, Guitar Hero-style. You can remix the song by going different directions down the "ribbon."
10:44 a.m.: Mark Hickey from Gameloft, one of the more prolific App Store game makers, is up. He's showing a new first-person shooter called Nova, where you have to defend humanity against an alien attack in space.
10:47 a.m.: Only one more game developer, Schiller promises. It's Travis Boatman from Electronic Arts. He's talking Madden NFL 10, which is coming to the App Store for the first time.
10:49 a.m.: You can draw plays right on the screen, which draws lots of applause from the audience. Madden 10 is available today in the App Store, Boatman says.
Travis Boatman from Electronic Arts shows the new interface to control the Madden game.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)10:52 a.m.: "$199 is a magic price point in the iPod market," Schiller says. As of today, the iPod Touch is $199 for 8GB and $299 for 32GB. It now also comes in a 64GB model for $399.
10:53 a.m.: OpenGL ES 2.0 is also on the iPod Touch now, so games are faster--except for the $199 version, which will not have that.
Phil Schiller shows new prices and memory configurations for the iPod Touch.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)10:54 a.m.: Now Schiller is discussing the iPod Classic. Now it will be 160GB for $249, which is up from 120GB.
10:57 a.m.: The iPod Shuffle gets its turn. Now it will come in more colors. Pink, green, and blue in addition to the silver and black. It's also now $59 for 2GB and $79 for 4GB. There's also a special edition in stainless steel for $99.
Phil Schiller talks new iPod colors.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET )10:58 a.m.: Steve's back up. One more thing...a video camera.
10:59 a.m.: "Video has exploded in the last few years," he says. All those streams are coming from solid-state video cameras. He shows a picture of the Flip Video and its 4GB $149 price point. "We want to get in on this," he says. There will be a video camera in the back of every iPod Nano. There's also a mic and a speaker inside.
11:00 a.m.: He says it's just as thin as before, and shows a quick demo video from the device's camera. The videos will sync back to your iPhoto or to YouTube, with one click (another feature of the Flip Video camera).
11:02 a.m.: The voice-over feature from the iPod Shuffle will also be in the Nano, as well as Genius Mixes which were discussed earlier. The Nano will also have an FM radio, a voice recorder app, and pedometer. The pedometer will sync online with Nike Plus.
Jobs shows new iPods.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)11:04 a.m.: It will come in a variety of colors: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, silver, black. 8GB for $159 and 16GB for $179, both will be available today.
Jobs touted brilliant new iPod colors.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)11:04 a.m.: We're getting a preview of the new ad, which highlights the video feature and colors of the Nano--with a cutesy pop song as backing, of course.
... Read more
Apple wrapped the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with its trademark iPod look Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday's music-related event at the San Francisco venue.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)After a long summer of swirling rumors, Apple's now-annual September music event is finally just around the corner.
It's happening Wednesday at 10 a.m. here in San Francisco, and CNET will have full, live-blogging coverage for you. I will be joined by CNET Reviews' Donald Bell, who will be offering his own commentary on all the music-related product announcements. What exactly that will be isn't a complete mystery, but Apple could have a few interesting surprises for us.
It looks like we won't be seeing a touch-screen tablet at this event, but there's plenty left to speculate about. The event, as per the invitation above, is obviously about iPods. Our money is on an updated iPod Touch with a camera, and ready-made ringtones. Plus, we've also heard that the new interactive album format--referred to as "Cocktail"--will also get a lot of play.
But what else? Some are saying there could be cameras in the iPod Nano as well, and even an update to the seemingly forgotten Apple TV. Then there's CEO Steve Jobs. Will he or won't he make an appearance? If he doesn't, the buzz about why he wasn't on hand, when he's been officially back at work since July, could threaten to get louder than whatever his stand-in does end up announcing.
We'll be there to chronicle it all, of course, so be sure to come back to CNET News Wednesday at 10 a.m. PDT.
The new iPhone 3G S (the S stands for speed) has the same design as iPhone 3G, but what's inside is entirely new.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
Messaging apps, games, and attachments all are set to load faster in the iPhone 3G S, which will have a built-in camera with autofocus and video-editing capability.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)At 10 a.m. PDT, we'll be live-blogging Phil Schiller's keynote speech that will open Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. Bookmark this page, and come back then for up-to-the-minute updates on what Apple is announcing.
9:52 a.m.: Welcome to CNET's WWDC live blog. I'm here in Moscone West with Kent German, CNET Reviews' cell phone editor. We're seated and ready to go, just waiting for the event to get started.
10 a.m.: Kent: Things I'm hoping for today: release date for iPhone 3.0, more features for 3.0 than what were announced in March, announcement and release date of third-generation iPhone.
OK, lights are dimmed. Here we go. John Hodgman of the "I'm a Mac" ads is onscreen. He's wishing WWDC attendees a week with "some innovation, but not too much please." Justin Long then wishes us "a great conference," to wild applause.
Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, gets things started.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:02 a.m.: Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, takes the stage in an all-denim outfit. There is more applause. He says an incredible week is planned for the 5,200 developers here, from 52 countries around the world. He says Apple is seeing the most anticipation for its developer conference yet, and he shows a chart with Mac OS X active users from 2002 to now.
10:03 a.m.: Over last two years, OS X users have grown from 25 million to 75 million, Schiller says. "No wonder everyone is trying to race behind us," he says. He will talk about Mac, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
10:05 a.m.: Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of OS X software, and Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software, are going to speak today too. But first, Schiller is going to talk about the Mac: "I'm really happy to show you a brand-new version of the 15-inch MacBook Pro."
10:07 a.m.: The MacBook Pro has unibody architecture and a built-in lithium polymer battery like the 17-inch MacBook Pro. It has better battery life, he says, and should get 1,000 recharges. That should be about five years of life for the notebook now, according to Schiller. Customers shouldn't need to change the battery in a notebook at all in five years. It has "the nicest display we've ever put in a notebook."
New version of the 15-inch Macbook Pro.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:08 a.m.: Schiller shows the ports on the side. Instead of an ExpressCard slot, there is a new SD card slot. Why? Most MacBook Pro customers have digital cameras today. They prefer popping out SD cards and putting them right into a laptop.
10:10 a.m.: It's the fastest notebook Apple's ever made, he says, with up to a 3.06GHz processor from Intel. Expandable memory up to 8GB--that brings lots of applause. It can fit up to 500GB inside and starts at $1,699.
The 15-inch MacBook Pro now starts at $1,699.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:11 a.m.: That's a $300 price cut for the low-end configuration. It also comes in $1,999 and $2,299 configurations. Apple is also updating the 17-inch MacBook, which has 2.8GHz of processing power and a 500GB hard drive but keeps the ExpressCard slot. Its price is cut to $2,499. Both the new 15-incher and the updated 17-incher are shipping Monday. The 13-inch MacBook is also getting an update.
10:11 a.m.: The 13-incher will have seven-hour battery life now, and it will also get a new high-color display, as well as the SD card slot now. So how is this not a MacBook Pro, Schiller asks. It can now expand with up to 8GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive, and it has the LED-backlit keyboard.
New 15-inch MacBook configurations.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:14 a.m.: Plus, it gets a FireWire 800 port. The 13-incher is now considered a MacBook Pro as well, Schiller says, and it starts at $1,199. Cheaper than the 13-inch aluminum MacBook it replaces, he notes. That one will also be available today.
10:15 a.m.: Apple is also updating the MacBook Air. It starts at $1,499 with a 1,86GHz processor. With 128GB SSD, it will now start at $1,799, representing another price cut.
10:16 a.m.: Now Schiller's talking up the environmental aspects of the notebooks. He says they'll all meet the Energy Star 5.0 ratings that will arrive sometime this summer.
'World's greenest' notebooks.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:17 a.m.: "Great hardware deserves great software," Schiller says. He brings Serlet up on stage. Serlet runs through the features of Leopard, comparing it with Vista. "They're trying to get out of it with Windows 7," he says, referring to unfavorable reviews of Vista. He points out features of Windows that users should never have to deal with: user account control, disk defragmentation.
10:19 a.m.: "Windows 7 is just another version of Vista," Serlet says. We have a different approach. We're "proud of Leopard." Now he's going to discuss Snow Leopard, which will have Exchange support. Says Kent: "We've had the obligatory Microsoft comparisons. I wonder if Forstall will mention the Palm Pre?"
10:20 a.m.: Serlet says Expose is now built into the dock. Click and hold on a tile, and it selects the window you want. It's 45 percent faster to install Snow Leopard, Serlet says, and it will recover 5GB of disk space after you install the OS.
Bertrand Serlet
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:22 a.m.: You can now draw Chinese characters with your fingers on the trackpad. The mail program is now faster, he says. The new Safari 4 will ship today for Leopard, Tiger, and Windows. Safari 4 is faster for HTML and JavaScript than Chrome 2, Firefox 3, and Internet Explorer 8, he says.
10:24 a.m.: In Snow Leopard, you get a few extra features. He says it's "crash resistant." He says the No. 1 cause of crashes in OS X is the browser plug-in. These get closed, but your browser windows stay open.
Safari 4 ships on Monday.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:26 a.m.: QuickTime has a new logo. QuickTime 10 is now "super efficient" and has HTTP streaming. It will work with any Web server. With such a change, Apple decided to change the interface of the player as well. The onscreen controls disappear when you play content in QuickTime now.
10:27 a.m.: Now we're getting a demo of Snow Leopard, led by Craig Federighi, vice president of Mac OS engineering.
The new QuickTime media player includes HTTP streaming and a new interface.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:28 a.m.: You can magnify thumbnails and click through documents as thumbnails, and also play videos as thumbnails. Federighi shows a very cluttered desktop with lots of open windows. Click Expose, and it lines up all open windows. With Dock Expose, you click and hold, and can see all open windows in each application.
10:28 a.m.: You can also drag thumbnails into an e-mail message in Mail.
10:30 a.m.: Now onto Safari 4. Federighi shows Google Maps loading very quickly. It can also track your top sites. Get a grid of all the sites you visit the most. Safari 4's full-history search gives a Cover Flow view across all the sites you've visited.
Full-history search in Safari 4.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:32 a.m.: It also integrates spotlight search of browser history.
10:33 a.m.: Now, a QuickTime player demo. You can edit video inside QuickTime using a video timeline ribbon that appears along the bottom of the screen.
10:35 a.m.: Serlet returns to talk new technologies in Snow Leopard that take advantage of more memory and GPU power. All major Snow Leopard applications run in 64-bit. (CNET News' Ina Fried has a look at how Apple's comments on Snow Leopard stack up to what Microsoft is doing with Windows 7.
10:39 a.m.: Serlet is now running through developer tools like Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL. OpenCL is an open standard, he says to lots of applause from developers.
New power inside new MacBooks.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:41 a.m.: Now Serlet's going to talk Exchange. He says Macs can run Windows apps fine, but Exchange was missing. It will be into Mail, iCal, and Address Book in Snow Leopard. Federighi is back up to demonstrate hooking up a Mac to Exchange for your work mail.
10:43 a.m.: Exchange to-dos, folders, and e-mails appear within Mail. You can also preview docs or spreadsheets using MS Office inside Mail, even if you don't have MS Office installed.
10:44 a.m.: iCal and Address Book show integrated persona and Exchange calendars and contacts. The most requested feature was the ability to schedule using availability information, Federighi says. You can now do that by searching address lists and calendars.
New built-in Exchange support.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:45 a.m.: Serlet notes that Apple is not charging extra for Exchange support in Snow Leopard. However, he did note that it requires that a company be running Exchange Server 2007--the latest version of the software.
10:46 a.m.: Now we're talking price. Snow Leopard will be $29 to upgrade to, for Leopard users. There's wild applause from the crowd. The Family Pack upgrade will be $49. It will be available in September, but the near-final developer preview will be available today.
Snow Leopard will cost $29, an announcement that prompts the audience to applaud wildly.
10:47 a.m.: Scott Forstall comes up to talk iPhone. Less than a year ago, we released OS 2.0 and the SDK, he says. There are currently more than 50,000 apps in the App Store.
10:49 a.m.: Apple has sold 40 million iPhones and iPod Touches, Forstall says. He also brings up the familiar 1 billion app download mark, which was reached in April. Forstall thanks everyone, customers and developers. Now we're seeing a video of developers talking about building iPhone apps.
iPhone OS
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:51 a.m.: Various developers of games, medical apps, and sports-tracking apps talk about how they created their programs and how much their lives have changed since their apps got accepted to the App Store. It's standard product-marketing video fare.
10:53 a.m.: The video ends, and Forstall is back up front. He's going to talk about iPhone OS 3.0. There are more than 100 new features, he says. He starts with cut, copy, and paste.
10:56 a.m.: A bubble appears with cut, copy, or paste options wherever you select. There are also undo commands. Kent: "All right, the good stuff--100 new features, though we still don't know all 100." Now onto landscape mode. The keyboard will be in landscape for all key apps, like mail, notes, and messages.
Yay!!! Cut and paste.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:57 a.m.: Multimedia messaging requires carrier support--29 carriers will support it on launch. AT&T plans to support it "later this summer."
10:28 a.m.: (Kent: In beta form, MMS was not able to actually send a message. We still need carrier support from AT&T.) Spotlight will be its own app on the phone. In iTunes, you can rent and purchase movies right from the phone.
11 a.m.: You can watch TV shows, and purchase videos and audiobooks. There's also support for iTunes U, Apple's educational service that offers podcasts of university classes. Parental controls will be expanded to include movies, TV shows, and apps in the App Store. It can limit kids to rent G-rated movies, for instance, or only buy age-appropriate apps.
Tethering between computer and iPhone.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:01 a.m.: Apple also announced that iPhone 3.0 supports tethering--using the phone's Internet connection to add Web access for your Mac or PC. Tethering will work over USB cord or Bluetooth, and won't require any special software on the computer. The big news, though, is that although Apple has a number of carriers committed to supporting tethering, and AT&T isn't one of them.
You can search across music, e-mail, notes, etc.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:02 a.m.: Forstall now runs through JavaScript support in OS 3.0 and HTTP streaming. The OS also has autofill for remembering your usernames and passwords.
11:04 a.m.: There will be a button that will allow autoswitching to use a different language on the keyboard. It is now adding Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Korean, and Thai. Now more than 30 languages are supported. All have a portrait or landscape keyboard options.
In iTunes, you can rent and purchase movies and TV shows straight from your iPhone.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:06 a.m.: There's a new feature called Find My iPhone. We're seeing a quick example of a lost iPhone demonstrated by the episode in which Liz Lemon of "30 Rock" loses her iPhone. Find My iPhone is available only to MobileMe customers, but it will allow you to see on a map where your phone is. There are huge cheers from the crowd. You can send an alert tone to your phone that will play, announcing that it's lost. It will play even if you left your phone in silent mode.
Find My iPhone lets you erase data remotely.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:08 a.m.: If your phone is really lost, there's a remote kill switch to wipe your phone of all your data. Kent says, "Find My iPhone is pretty cool. I also like that the sound plays even in silent mode. It would be really cool if it played the sound when the phone is off."
Find My iPhone lets you track your lost device.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:09 a.m.: Now onto the in-app purchase feature. People can renew magazine subscriptions within the app or buy additional levels in games. The same terms apply for in-app purchase. Free apps must remain free--free app makers can't sell upgrades within that app. P2P support will find people playing the same game as you via Bluetooth and will autoconnect the two players. This works for any application.
11:10 a.m.: Accessory developers can now build companion software applications. The app can talk to the hardware over the dock connector, or wirelessly over Bluetooth.
11:11 a.m.: Google Maps can be embedded right into applications. You can pan and zoom, add custom annotations, and geocoding. Developers can build turn-by-turn directions into apps.
When you're racing in the car in Asphalt 5, you can get into your iTunes playlist and play that music directly in the game.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:13 a.m.: Now onto push notifications. Will have generic push notification service. Users can push text alerts, numerical badges, and custom alert sounds. Forstall demos the familiar ESPN Sports Center sound as an example.
11:14 a.m.: Developers have had access to this feature in beta for a bit. Gameloft is one of them. Gameloft's Mark Hickey comes up to talk about a game called Asphalt 5, a 3D-racing game. He shows how, when you're racing in the car in the game, you can get into your iTunes playlist and play that music directly in the game.
11:17 a.m.: Notes Kent: "In-app purchase will be convenient, but talk about impulse buying."
11:19 a.m.: Now up is Airstrip Technologies, which makes medical software that monitors patient data on mobile devices. Dr. Cameron Powell takes the stage and shows how he can monitor patients' vital signs directly on his phone in real time.
11:20 a.m.: Digital-book maker ScrollMotion's Josh Koppel is now up. His bookstore app takes advantage of in-app purchases.
11:22 a.m.: Textbooks will now be available on the App Store, via the Iceberg Reader. GPS maker TomTom gets its turn onstage.
TomTom's navigation app combines map data with turn-by-turn navigation.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:23 a.m.: Peter-Frans Pauwels, CTO of TomTom, shows how the company's navigation app works on the iPhone. It combines TomTom's map data with turn-by-turn navigation. "Nice move roping in TomTom to supply navigation. Big question is, how much?" Kent asks.
11:25 a.m.: The TomTom maps and car kit for the iPhone will be available this summer, but we're not getting price talk at all.
11:27 a.m.: Ngmoco's Neil Young, another game maker, is up. He's talking up StarDefense, a new 3D game. Ngmoco is also taking advantage of buying new expansion packs of levels within the game.
11:29 a.m.: The app maker parade continues. Educational science equipment maker Pasco is now up.
11:30 a.m.: Oops, first demo fail by Pasco. It was trying to blow up a balloon and show how the pressure increases, but the balloon refused to inflate. Oh well; the company moves on.
11:34 a.m.: Kent says what everyone here is thinking: "One and a half hours in, and time is beginning to get short. New iPhone, please?"
Zipcar's app lets you unlock the car through the iPhone.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:35 a.m.: Zipcar gets its turn onstage to demo its app. Using geocoding, Zipcar users get a map readout of the location of available cars to rent. They can see what type of car it is, plus price and spec. Reservations can also be made via the app. When searching for the car you've reserved, you can cause the car's horn to make an alert sound. When you find the car, you can unlock it via the app.
11:37 a.m.: Forstall promises just one more demo. It's two companies: Line 6 and Planet Waves. Their app lets users control a guitar and an amp right from an iPhone.
11:38 a.m.: Uh oh, second demo fail. The guitar is supposed to be switched to sound like an acoustic instrument via the app, but it still sounds electric. Oops.
11:41 a.m.: Forstall reappears. He says the Line 6 app is cool and assures us that it totally worked before, even though it didn't work that well just now.
iPhone OS 3.0 will be available June 17.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:43 a.m.: iPhone OS 3.0 is free for iPhone customers, but $9.95 for first- and second-gen iPod Touch owners. It will be available worldwide June 17. And developers in the developer program get the near-final version today.
11:44 a.m.: Forstall is done. Schiller reappears onstage. Let's see how they end this. He's talking about the iPhone 3G, saying it changed how people think about their phones. Phones used to be "crappy devices," he says.
11:45 a.m.: Schiller shows a graph indicating that 65 percent of mobile browsing is done on an iPhone or iPod Touch. That stat might be a bit dubious, given Opera Software's claims of having more mobile usage than Apple.
Speeds on the new iPhone 3G S.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:46 a.m.: Meet the new iPhone 3G S (the S stands for speed). It has the same design as iPhone 3G from last summer, but what's inside is entirely new. Messaging apps, games, and attachments all load faster, Schiller says.
11:48 a.m.: They've gauged the speeds measured on the iPhone 3G S using OS 3.0 software.
11:49 a.m.: The 3G S is ready for AT&T's faster 3G network, Apple says. As expected, there's a better built-in camera too--a 3-megapixel autofocus camera.
11:50 a.m.: There's a feature called "Tap to Focus," with which users can tap an item in a photo, and it focuses immediately. There's better light sensitivity, so you can take indoor photos better. There's also auto macro focus. And it captures video, he says. The crowd loves it.
11:51 a.m.: A new switch in the bottom of the camera app enables you to choose still or video mode. There's auto focus, auto white balance, and auto exposure for both still and video.
11:53 a.m.: You can edit the videos by tapping with your finger. Also, you can send videos via e-mail or text--if your carrier supports it, Schiller says. Developers can also build video cameras right into their applications.
11:54 a.m.: Now he's talking voice control. Wave form shows voice amplitude directly onscreen. "It took two years to get native voice dialing? Ridiculous," Kent says.
11:55 a.m.: Clever: You can ask your phone, "What song is playing?" and it will tell you. You can also tell the phone, "Use Genius playlist to play more songs like this." Digital compass, as widely rumored, is indeed in the new iPhone.
The iPhone 3G S has a built-in digital compass.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:56 a.m.: There's a compass app. With it, you can tap the screen, and it will orient the map you are looking at to face north. Kent says, "Compass looks pretty cool. Speaking of location, will we get geotagging of photos?"
11:57 a.m.: Schiller says NikePlus will have built-in support. You can track your runs and choose songs. In addition, to cater to businesses that want hardware encrypted, the iPhone 3G S will have it. This is back to the remote-wipe feature. Battery life is also extended. "Hallelujah," says Kent.
11:58 a.m.: The phone has between zero and 50 percent better battery life on video, Wi-Fi usage, and talk time than the previous version.
11:59 a.m.: Price: $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB, which is what we expected.
There will indeed be a $99 iPhone. It's 8GB.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)12 p.m.: There are more affordable phones now. There will indeed be a $99 iPhone. It's 8GB. This will allow more people to get an iPhone now, Schiller says. The $99 version is available today; the iPhone 3G S will be available June 19, in just a week and a half.
There will be rolling launches of the phone every couple of weeks, until the phone reaches 80 countries by August. The United States is obviously getting it on the first day, June 19. "A short wait this time. Nice indeed," Kent says.
12:02 p.m.: They're showing us the new TV ad for the new iPhone.
12:04 p.m.: Schiller wraps up and reviews what we've gone over so far today: the MacBook Pro lineup, Snow Leopard, iPhone OS 3.0, and iPhone 3G S.
12:05 p.m.: He thanks everyone at Apple and then developers. "Keep making great applications. Thank you."
12:06 p.m.: OK, that's it. No Steve Jobs appearance. Thanks for joining us today. The entire CNET team will have ongoing coverage for the rest of the day, so be sure to stay tuned. Thanks!
The iPhone 3G S will be available June 19. There will be rolling launches every couple of weeks, until the phone reaches 80 countries by August.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
This is the spot for live coverage of Apple's iPhone 3.0 event later today from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., which kicked off at 10 a.m. PDT.
This is a play-by-play account of the presentation. For a summary of what got announced, including the long-awaited cut-and-paste and MMS, click here.
9:53 a.m. PDT: Welcome to Cupertino and Apple's Town Hall auditorium for the iPhone 3.0 software preview. Everyone's settling into their seats, undeterred by a 9:10 a.m. fire alarm that briefly evacuated the building. A mixture of press, analysts, developers, and employees are expected to attend--somewhere around 250 to 300 people. Classic Apple build music at the moment: Jack Johnson.
10:01 a.m. PDT: Dave Mathews Band's "Everyday" at ear-splitting volume takes us into the start of the event, remarkably on time at 10 a.m. compared to the last several of these events. Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of iPhone and iPod marketing, takes the stage to kick things off. "We're going to give you a preview of iPhone OS."
10:02 a.m. PDT: Joswiak starts with an update on the iPhone: It's in 80 countries, 13.7 million iPhones were sold in 2008, and there was a clear uptick following the launch of the iPhone 3G. Apple has now sold 17 million iPhones.
10:03 a.m. PDT: He points out that the iPod Touch also runs iPhone OS, and that Apple has sold 30 million iPhones and iPod Touches combined through the end of 2008. I believe that's the first time they've broken out iPod Touch sales figures. The SDK, unveiled last year at a similar event, has been downloaded 800,000 times, and 50,000 developers are in the iPhone Developer Program.
10:05 a.m. PDT: 62 percent of those developers were brand new to Apple, Joswiak says. He says the App Store levels the playing field for developers, pointing out the success of both Gameloft and Steve Demeter, an independent developer. We're treated to one of those slick corporate-produced videos, a fixture at the last several Apple events but a rarity during any Steve Jobs-led events.
10:07 a.m. PDT: Demeter is basically talking about his experience over the last year, and he's done well. CNET editor Kent German and I didn't catch the name of his app, but it sounded like Drizzle. The video ends, and Joswiak notes "we've had a lot of curiosity about the App Store approval process," which is quite an understatement. 98 percent of apps are approved, he says, and 98 percent of those are approved within seven days. (Editor's note: In a Q&A after the presentation, Apple later said 96 percent of apps are approved. We probably mistyped it here.) The App Store has seen 800 million downloads to date, he says.
10:08 a.m. PDT: Scott Forstall, the head of iPhone software development who reports directly to Jobs, takes the stage for the business end of the presentation. "I'm here to tell you about iPhone OS 3.0, and this is a major update to the operating system."
10:10 a.m. PDT: He starts with the news for developers. He reviews the current iPhone SDK (software development kit), introduced a year ago and allowing developers to use the same APIs that Apple developers use. "We've spent the last year working hard to make this SDK even better." Apple has unlocked more than 1,000 APIs (APIs are communication standards that developers use to have their application interact with the iPhone).
10:12 a.m. PDT: Forstall reviews the App Store policies, such as the pricing on the App Store and the developer's cut. Some developers, however, were interested in other business models, such as subscriptions. Forstall gives the example of magazines or game developers who want to sell game levels from within a game, or content sold within an application, such as that much-discussed application of the last month: the e-book. With iPhone 3.0, Apple will support all those business models.
10:14 a.m. PDT: They're calling this In-App Purchase. The example is a magazine where you can renew a subscription within the app. Or, say, a game has 10 levels, but you want to keep going: the game will download the new levels automatically upon prompting from within the app. Everything works with your iTunes account, it's sort of the same thing as when you download an update to an iPhone application, prompting you for your iTunes password and sending the download after verification.
10:15 a.m. PDT: Developers still get to pick their prices, and they still get 70 percent of any revenue generated inside an app. This only applies to paid applications, not free applications. Some developers had expressed interest in distributing free applications to try, and then buy, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen.
10:16 a.m. PDT: The next thing? Support for peer-to-peer networking. This should be interesting. You can find other iPhones and iPod Touches in a given area that are playing the same game as you; Forstall gives the example of two kids in the back of a car. iPhone 3.0 will automatically discover other applications over Bluetooth, and there's no pairing. "Completely seamless," he promises. Bonjour is the back-end technology behind this, and it's not just for games.
10:18 a.m. PDT: Accessories is the next topic. Lots of companies have been working on iPhone and IPod Touch accessories, such as speakers. Accessory companies will now be able to build applications that talk directly to the accessory, such as an EQ built into an application that controls a speaker's sound from the iPhone.
10:19 a.m. PDT: Medical devices are a telling example, Forstall says. Take a blood pressure cuff that could be hooked up to an iPhone and send your blood pressure to your doctor from your iPhone. This works through the dock connector and wirelessly over Bluetooth. Standard protocols are supported, but custom protocols are also supported.
10:20 a.m. PDT: Kent German notes: "The peer-to-peer through Bluetooth profile is welcome, though it would be nice to send contacts and other data files through Bluetooth without needing an app."
10:21 a.m. PDT: The Maps application is the next topic. Apple and Google developed this application and developers want to be able to add a map into their application. Developers are going to get access to the Maps API with iPhone 3.0 and embed maps in their apps. That means you can take advantage of all the views and zooming capabilities in the Apple/Google Maps in your application. Location information is also part of this.
10:23 a.m. PDT: "But there is one more thing we're doing with apps." Core Location, the GPS technology, will let app developers finally build turn-by-turn directions, but there's a catch: they can't use the Maps application due to licensing problems, Forstall said. Developers who want to build that will need to use their own maps.
10:24 a.m. PDT: Push Notification is next. "We're late on this," Forstall admits. Apple was supposed to roll out a quasi-background notification system last September, but it never appeared. The company was caught off guard by the growth in iPhone apps, and the system they had built couldn't scale. They took six months to build a truly scalable system, he said.
10:25 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Applause for turn-by-turn apps. Previously, the SDK had prohibited this, so it makes sense that developers will need to use their own maps."
10:26 a.m. PDT: Those hoping for true background processing, however, will be disappointed. Forstall talks about how true background processing saps battery life, up to 80 percent in a test Apple ran. Performance is also an issue, he says. Other phones do offer true background processing, but Apple seems to be sticking to its original plan.
10:27 a.m. PDT: How does it work? Notifications pass through an Apple server and are then passed to a phone. You can pass badges (letting users know if things are waiting for them, like IMs), audio alerts, or text-message alerts. "The reason we're doing this is because it scales." Forstall also says this is optimized for mobile networks, which was probably a concern on the part of Apple's carrier partners when they discussed true background processing.
10:29 a.m. PDT: Forstall briefly goes through a few other new APIs, such as in-app e-mail or iPod library access. You can play music in an app directly from your library, for example. All told, more than 1,000 APIs will be available to developers with iPhone 3.0.
10:29 a.m. PDT: Apple showed off the new SDK to some developers a few weeks ago, and let them build new apps using the new SDK. Meebo is the first app to be demoed, and they plan to move it native to the iPhone.
10:32 a.m. PDT: Meebo's Seth Sternberg takes the stage to explain the app. He's the co-founder and CEO. Meebo lets you talk to friends across IM networks. The company was waiting for push notifications to build a native iPhone app, Sternberg says. He demos the application, showing how the application provides a background notification that a new IM is waiting.
10:35 a.m. PDT: EA is the next company to take the stage. They've developed 10 games for the iPhone thus far, and EA's Travis Boatman comes up to talk about their new app. The Sims 3 for iPhone was developed with the new SDK. "Scott" is the Sims character that they're using, and this appears to be a demo of the in-game purchase capabilities, using the "simoleans" that serve as money in the Sims. "Scott" buys a stereo, which lets you play your iPod library in the game through the virtual stereo.
10:38 a.m. PDT: Forstall promises everybody that he doesn't dance like Seinfeld's Elaine in real life, unlike EA's "Scott." Now Oracle's Hody Crouch is crashing the party, bringing an enterprise tinge to the iPhone 3.0 software. He's demoing an Oracle app that uses the background notification systems to let him know when Oracle Business Systems has a new alert. That information can be used by traveling businesspeople to fill inventory needs, adjust to outstanding orders, and access other business data.
10:42 a.m. PDT: ESPN is next. Forstall praises the ESPN Web app, but ESPN's Oke Okaro will show us the Worldwide Leader's new native iPhone app. The new SDK is letting ESPN deliver better notifications of scores or news to play that ubiquitous "dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah" ESPN tone, using the custom sound capability. Okaro is showing how game highlights can be delivered to the iPhone, rather than pulled by the user. The app uses the new video-streaming capability in the SDK.
ESPN delivers over 50 million alerts a month.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:46 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Push notification is a good add, though I'd prefer it to be a native feature rather than driven by individual apps. I'd like to see one umbrella push system for all linked e-mail accounts. The functionality seems to be a bit scattered as they're currently describing it."
10:47 a.m. PDT: ESPN's app was one of those that forced Apple to rebuild the push notification system to make sure it could handle the traffic, Forstall says. LifeScan, owned by Johnson and Johnson, will bring Anita Mathew up to discuss the company's diabetes iPhone application. The app works with glucose monitoring hardware, a blood sugar reader, to transmit a patient's data back to a database, and allow the patient to note how they feel or what they've eaten to better manage their blood sugar.
10:49 a.m. PDT: The data is sent from the blood sugar reader to the iPhone over Bluetooth. Within the app itself, patients can track blood sugar levels over the course of the day, allowing them to plan future meals by checking sugar levels in certain foods. The patient can also e-mail or text that blood sugar information to others, such as parents, helping them monitor their kids' health.
10:54 a.m. PDT: Ngmoco is the next company, a start-up that builds games for the iPhone and iPod Touch and that received money from Kleiner Perkins' iFund. Neil Young (not that one) from Ngmoco starts talking about their new game built with the new SDK. They built two apps, a virtual pet game and a first-person shooter. That's diversification. The virtual pets game allows you to set play dates with virtual dogs, believe it or not. You take the role of a dog, interacting with other dogs, taking on missions, and, of course, buying accessories.
10:56 a.m. PDT: LiveFire is the other game, which is slightly different. This lets you play a first-person shooter game over a WI-Fi network with other players, allowing you find friends over a network and play against each other. Kent German: "Buying apps and game levels without going through the iTunes Store will be easier, but like the gum in a supermarket check-out line, I suspect that it will lead to a lot of impulse buying."
11:02 a.m. PDT: Smule is coming next. Ocarina is a very popular iPhone app that lets you use the iPhone as a musical instrument. Ge Wang is talking about their new app, called Leaf Trombone World Stage. It's a social gaming experience geared around music, Wang says. The app lets you create music by blowing into the microphone, like Ocarina, but you can have a backing track and you can synchronize with another player over Wi-Fi. Wang and another Smule developer demonstrate the app by playing Phantom of the Opera on Leaf Trombone, harmonizing more or less in time.
11:04 a.m. PDT: Forstall retakes the stage, saying that Apple created the SDK to make developers successful. (They probably also wanted to sell more iPhones.) Now Forstall will talk about some of the new features in iPhone 3.0. And yes: copy and paste is coming to the iPhone.
11:05 a.m. PDT: "We've been working really hard to design an easy-to-use, straightforward user interface for cut, copy, and paste," Forstall said. He opens an e-mail message, and double-taps on a piece of text to select it, with grab points at the end of the text bubble and three buttons overhead the bubble with cut, copy, and paste options.
11:06 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Now the good stuff...Hallelujah for cut, copy and paste."
11:08 a.m. PDT: Copy and paste works across all applications, not just mail. The Notes application is also demonstrated, showing how you can "select-all" from Notes and paste into an e-mail. You can also copy Web content, such as text from a Web page. This looks sort of like the text selector used in a PDF document, with four buttons on the four sides of a text bubble that let you expand your text bubble by dragging the button. If you messed up, shake the phone to undo any of the actions: cut, copy, or paste.
11:10 a.m. PDT: SMS messages can also be copied, as well as text from third-party apps. Photos are also included, with the ability to select a certain photo, copy it, and paste into a mail message. Kent German: "Cut, copy and paste seems easy to use, particularly with the movable grab points...like the shake to undo. Wondering if you can access a clipboard and if you can copy images on Web sites."
11:12 a.m. PDT: Landscape is the next feature Forstall plans to show. He's showing how you can read a Web page, for instance, in landscape mode, rather than the iPhone's usual portrait mode. The landscape keyboard that could be used in Web pages can now be used in all applications, particularly mail. That will be a key addition for e-mail addicts, and perhaps a concession that some people were finding the portrait keyboard difficult to use.
11:13 a.m. PDT: The text message application has also gotten a few new features, such as forwarding and deleting individual and multiple messages. "But the big news, for the messaging application, is that we're adding support for MMS."
11:16 a.m. PDT: There's a new voice memo application from Apple. Several third parties have built voice recorder applications in the meantime. Calendar is also getting an update. Last year, Calendar got support for Exchange synced over-the-air, and this year, Apple is adding support for CalDAV, a standard supported by Yahoo and Google used for shared calendars. The other is support for subscriptions, such as adding a sports team's schedule to your iPhone's Calendar.
11:17 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Can't describe how needed the multimedia messaging functionality is. Though, I'm wondering if it's shameful that I'm getting excited about such a basic functionality."
11:18 a.m. PDT: Search is next, it's getting added to all main applications, including Mail. You can search text and headers in Mail as well as on the server. Calendar is now searchable, as well as your song library in the iPod.
11:20 a.m. PDT: Apple's Spotlight technology from Mac OS X is what's coming into the iPhone. A search bar will appear when you flick the home screen to the left, bringing up a search engine. Enter your search term into the Spotlight box, and it takes you right to that application, such as a contact, where you can dial or e-mail. Forstall notes that this is a much better way for iPhone owners with dozens of applications to launch specific application, rather than flicking through the various home screens to find the app you need.
Spotlight search added on home screen.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:22 a.m. PDT: Forstall reminds the crowd that 100 new features will arrive with iPhone 3.0, but that he doesn't have time to go through them all. You can sync notes with your Mac, use the "shake to shuffle" feature on the iPod Nano, and stereo Bluetooth, a much-requested missing feature from the current iPhone. Safari will have antiphishing technology and auto-fill. Parental controls can now be applied to the App Store, perhaps allowing you to block your kids from using those naughty fart applications. (Editor's note: After the presentation, Apple said it would not issue the complete list of the 100 new features today. So far, they're just making public the ones they announced during this presentation.)
News.com Poll
11:23 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Surprised we get stereo Bluetooth. Surely an Apple stereo Bluetooth headset can't be far behind."
11:24 a.m. PDT: Forstall recaps the day's major news: the new SDK features and the new user features. Hopefully he's getting to the "when" question: when will this be ready?
11:25 a.m. PDT: Joswiak is coming back to announce when this will arrive. A developer beta will come first, and that's available today, and available to everyone in the iPhone Developer Program.
11:26 a.m. PDT: Interesting to note that they keep calling this "iPhone OS 3.0," which they had done informally for a while but seems to be coming into parlance now as an official term, distinct from Mac OS. Joswiak says the App Store is coming soon to additional countries in which it is now available.
11:27 a.m. PDT: "But how about the rest of us?" Joswiak promises to ship it "this summer," free to IPhone customers, and it will work on the original iPhone. Not all features will be available on the original iPhone, such as MMS and stereo Bluetooth.
11:27 a.m. PDT: It will cost $9.95 for iPod Touch customers, in keeping with the different accounting treatment Apple uses for the iPod Touch.
11:28 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Too bad iPhone Classic users can't get MMS with the update. Interesting that the hardware changed that much."
11:28 a.m. PDT: Joswiak winds down by thanking everybody for coming. Developers are getting a little party upstairs, and the press is going to hang out for Q&A. Five-minute break, everybody.
11:33 a.m. PDT: Phil Schiller joins Forstall and Joswiak on stage to take questions. The first question, "Why did it take so long to get cut and paste on the iPhone?" Forstall says it's not obvious on how to do it, taking into account security issues and making it work nicely with the touch interface.
11:34 a.m. PDT: The next question concerns Flash, and Schiller says they have no announcements about Flash today. But Forstall says that HTML 5 video is supported, as well as h.264. There's now HTTP streaming for audio and video: "We actually think there are a lot of great video solutions for a single clip and live streaming solutions."
11:37 a.m. PDT: Another reporter wants to know about the peer-to-peer functionality. Forstall says the P2P connection is about a device-to-device Bluetooth connection, about using Bluetooth and Bonjour to make an IP connection. The accessory piece of this is handled differently, Forstall says.
11:38 a.m. PDT: The logical next question is whether you can trade files or music over this peer-to-peer capability. Joswiak says you can stream music to other apps, but he says it would be "confusing" to have applications that could download music from outside the iPod capability.
11:39 a.m. PDT: "Where do you guys stand on tethering?" That was a rumored capability for this release. Forstall says there are two pieces to support that, client side and carrier side. Client side support will be built into 3.0, but the carrier part is a work in progress, Forstall says. That sounds like it's coming as soon as the carriers decide to make it ready.
11:41 a.m. PDT: Apple is not going to make any kind of uptimes guarantees to developers regarding the push notification service, Forstall says in response to my question. Our own Larry Magid wants to know if external third-party microphones can be used with the voice memo application, and Joswiak says yes.
11:42 a.m. PDT: "Do you plan to deal with some of the performance issues in the current hardware?" Forstall says Apple takes performance very seriously, and that some of the units used in the demos suffer a bit because of the way they are tethered. No suggestions of better hardware on the horizon, as might be expected.
11:44 a.m. PDT: The original iPhone uses a different radio, which is why it can't support MMS. Forstall wonders how to respond to a question about access to another person's iPod library with the peer-to-peer connection, and Schiller isn't quite sure how to answer that either. That sounds like Apple hasn't exactly decided how the peer-to-peer application will interact with the iTunes/iPod franchise.
11:46 a.m. PDT: Harry McCracken wonders if Apple plans to get a bit more open about the App Store approval process, a well-documented source of frustration for developers. Schiller notes the growth of the App Store has been amazing and that customers want quality. He says they've improved the turnaround time, and let me correct something from earlier: Apple is quoting a 96 overall acceptance rate, not 98 percent we said above.
11:47 a.m. PDT: Schiller says Apple watches for profanity in the applications, as CNET's David Carnoy knows. The ability to use parental controls with applications should help get around some of the issues around objectionable content, Schiller says.
11:48 a.m. PDT: That's going to be the last question, and that's going to be all for this live blog. Stay tuned for all kinds of followup and reaction from across CNET, and, as always, thanks to everybody back on Second Street who make it possible to bring you these live blogs.
We're posting live updates from Macworld 2009 at San Francisco's Moscone Center, where Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, Phil Schiller, is delivering the keynote speech.
Phil Schiller takes the stage to deliver the keynote speech at Macworld in San Francisco.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)8:55 a.m. PST: We're live inside the Moscone Center for Macworld 2009, having braved the elbows of the friendly media hordes and the rather aggressive ushers. The room is fairly full, but the line outside this morning seemed a little smaller than usual, unless IDG did a better job of herding the masses in early. The pre-keynote music is skewing more current than usual before a Jobs keynote, with Death Cab for Cutie and the like, which maybe gives us an idea of what Phil Schiller uses to warm up.
9:03 a.m.: We just got the cell phone warning message, which probably gives us a five-minute window or so. They turned up the volume for Coldplay's "Life in Technicolor," and I'm assuming we're getting close.
Apple's Macworld updates
Here's a basic rundown of everything Apple announced Tuesday. For more details, read our summary here.
iTunes
DRM-free and cheaper songs
MacBook Pro
New 8-hour battery
iLife '09
Photo geotagging and music lessons
iWork '09
Online syncing, Keynote Remote
9:04 a.m.: The lights dim as the song ends, and Apple's Phil Schiller takes the stage to start Macworld 2009. He appears to be rocking an all-denim ensemble. It's a little hard to tell from here. "I'm so personally excited to be the one delivering Macworld 2009 to you. I'd like to thank everybody for showing up," which gets a chuckle.
9:06 a.m.: Phil's first topic is the general state of Apple, talking about some of the new Apple stores that the company has opened overseas, such as Beijing and Sydney. He's gushing about some of the new store designs. "I can't imagine any other company delivering something like that." Every week, 3.4 million customers visit an Apple store around the world. "That's 100 Macworlds each and every week," a clear pointer to Apple's decision to make this its last Macworld.
9:07 a.m.: Phil's going to start with the Mac, and he seems to be hinting that's all we're going to talk about today. Last year was the best year for the Mac in Apple's history, he said, growing faster than the industry based on what Phil calls Apple's best product line ever. Phil has three new things he's going to cover.
... Read more
If you're interested in live updates from tomorrow's Macworld keynote, we've got you covered.
We'll report live from San Francisco's Moscone Center as Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller gives the show's keynote address. That should kick off at 9 a.m. PST. You can get to the live blog here (link will be live as soon as the blog is live). Bowing to popular demand, we'll post those in order as they come in, rather than the reverse chronological order we've used on past live blogs.
Tuesday's Macworld should still be an interesting event even without CEO Steve Jobs making his usual address to the Macworld crowd. A new MacBook Pro, new Mac Minis, and a thorough discussion of the upcoming release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard are expected.
Later in the day we'll have tons of photos, lots of video, and the initial reactions of CNET Reviews staff--before they jet off to the desert for CES--to whatever new products Apple has on tap. So stick around all day; it's not like anybody's getting much work done the first week back from the holiday break anyway, right?
CNET will be live-blogging the event from Apple HQ in Cupertino, Calif.
(Credit: Apple)It's that time again: Apple has invited reporters down to its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters for a special notebooks event, which means CNET News will be there to live-blog the whole thing.
The fun starts at 10 a.m. PDT Tuesday at this link.
Apple says the focus of the event will be on notebooks. A redesigned MacBook and MacBook Pro are all but assured, but there are likely to be some other surprises too. Will Apple opt for Nvidia chipsets? Will there finally be a Mac sold for less than $1,000?
Come back here Tuesday morning to find out. Plus, later in the day, we'll have some analysis on what Apple does announce, and CNET's laptop experts, Dan Ackerman and Michelle Thatcher, will have a First Look and hands-on video.
The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco, site of today's Apple media event.
(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET Networks)This is a record of our live coverage of Steve Jobs' speech at Apple's music-related event, which kicked off at 10 a.m. PDT Tuesday at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts. Click here for the latest news, analysis, and photos of the event.
9:53 a.m. PDT: We're in place inside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, awaiting the start of Apple's media event. "Let's rock," indeed, as we're again being treated to a trip down classic rock lane. Trend spotting? Apple has been ditching the usual Coldplay and Green Day opening music of late, opting for the best of the '60s and '70s. The Rolling Stones started the morning off, followed by The Who, Credence Clearwater Revival, and back to Mick, Keith, and the boys.
My colleague Greg Sandoval just checked in with one of his music industry sources, wondering if perhaps the four lads from Liverpool would be joining the mix, but it sounds like the Beatles/iTunes deal will have to wait for another day.
10:00 a.m. PDT: The Doors are rounding out the preview music, as the 10 a.m. hour approaches. About 500 people are here, and we're just about to begin as the lights dim, and "Touch Me" comes to a close. Not like that's a hint. Steve enters, standard outfit.
10:01 a.m. PDT: "Before we do, I just wanted to mention this." He puts a line up on the presentation screen: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
Jobs showing of features in the new iTunes 8.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:02 a.m. PDT: Steve starts out with iTunes. More than 8.5 million songs are available on iTunes at present, 125,000 podcasts, 30,000 TV shows, 2,600 movies, and 3,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. "We're very pleased to announce that we have 65 million user accounts on iTunes," Steve says.
10:03 a.m. PDT: Steve reviews the rankings of music distributors. Apple passed Wal-Mart earlier this year to become the world's largest music distributor. iTunes is getting some new content, he says. The first thing is HD TV shows. HD shows will be $2.99, and they can be watched on a computer or Apple TV.
10:04 a.m. PDT: "The second thing is that NBC is coming back to iTunes." All NBC shows will be there, Steve says, and they will also be available in HD. Apparently Jeff Zucker (president and CEO of NBC Universal) somehow found a way to make up with Steve.
10:05 a.m. PDT: iTunes 8 is the big news, Steve says. The new release improves accessibility, a big request from customers, he says. There are some new browsing options and something called Genius, he says. That is all in line with reports from Kevin Rose a week ago.
10:07 a.m. PDT: With iTunes 8, you can look at your music by their album covers in tile form, sorting by artist or genre. That also applies to TV shows and podcasts. Genius is as reported, a feature that lets you put songs together in your library that somehow "go great together." Steve moves into a demo of Genius; when you hit the Genius button on a certain song, iTunes assembles a playlist for you. Steve uses Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" as an example, and it pulls several like-minded artists in there as well, such as Paul Simon and Joan Baez.
10:09 a.m. PDT: This works by having iTunes 8 send music information to a central server--anonymously, Steve promises--and combining that with all kinds of data from other users to apparently track patterns. The results update once a week.
Genius, a new feature in iTunes 8.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:12 a.m. PDT: Steve starts a more in-depth demo of iTunes 8. He sorts his library by artists, selecting Aretha Franklin as an example. The tile format lets you see all the album covers in a single screen, complete with art. Next, he demos an HD TV show, picking an episode of The Office. He then picks John Mayer as an example for some inexplicable reason, making us listen to "Gravity." He then selects songs that go with that song. This Genius thing isn't that smart though, since it said that Bob Dylan goes with John Mayer.
10:14 a.m. PDT: Elvis Presley is paired with Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, The Doors, and Talking Heads. One smart thing about Genius, at least from Apple's point of view, is that it suggests songs that go with your Elvis tracks that you don't already own, with a helpful link to the iTunes Store on the right-hand side. iTunes 8 is a free download, of course, and it's available today.
10:15 a.m. PDT: Now it's iPod time. Analysts at the NPD Group say that Apple has 73.4 percent market share in the U.S. as of right now; "other" has 15.4; SanDisk has 8.6, and Microsoft has 2.4 percent. Steve mentions the iPod ecosystem, "which sometimes announces products before we want them to, which is funny." Apple has sold 160 million iPods since their introduction, and through June.
10:16 a.m. PDT: The iPod Classic is up first. "The iPod that started it all," Steve says. Apple is getting rid of the thicker model, and will now offer a 120GB model for $249. That's 30,000 songs.
10:17 a.m. PDT: The iPod Nano is next. The first Nano shipped three years ago, with three generations each year. "But we have a new iPod Nano for this holiday season." It's exactly as rumored, bringing the long, sleek design of the older Nanos with the exact same display on the fat Nano unveiled last year. "It's the thinnest Nano we've ever made," Steve says.
The new Nano comes in a rainbow of new colors.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:19 a.m. PDT: Steve holds it up for the cameras. It has the tapered edges that accompanied the iPhone 3G, but seems relatively the same size--lengthwise--as the older-generation Nanos. Apple added curved glass over the screen, a new user interface, and it has the accelerometer in the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The new Nano has curved edges and is about the same length as previous models.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:21 a.m. PDT: The new user interface has the Cover Flow interface from the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the track listings used on those devices. You rotate the device on its side to watch video, and the picture moves with it. Genius playlists can be created on the Nano without having to connect to iTunes. Apple added a voice recording function, which gets a pleasant reaction from CNET's music player reviewer Donald Bell, who's sitting next to me.
10:22 a.m. PDT: It's demo time. Steve is creating a Genius playlist on the Nano, picking Beck as an example. He then moves into the Cover Flow mode, putting Bob Dylan on once again. With "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," playing, Steve creates the Genius list, which picks Donovan and Simon and Garfunkel as like-minded selections.
10:23 a.m. PDT: The new iPod has "shake to shuffle," a result of the accelerometer. (Editor's note: SanDisk had a player called the Sansa Shaker that had this as its primary feature.) Steve moves from Simon and Garfunkel to Dean Martin to John Mayer with two shakes of the iPod, a progression that you will never see in the history books.
The new Nano has the accelerometer that's also in the iPod Touch and the iPhone.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:25 a.m. PDT: Battery life is about the same, according to Donald. It has 24 hours for music and 4 hours for video. Steve delivers a nod to the environmentalists, explaining how Apple tried to make the new iPods more eco-friendly. Arsenic, BFR (brominated flame retardants), mercury, and PVC are gone, and Steve says the new models are the cleanest models Apple has ever built.
New earbuds
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:28 a.m. PDT: The new Nanos are "nano-chromatic," Steve says. He shows eight colors, all the colors of the rainbow. An 8GB model will sell for $149, a 16GB model will sell for $199. Both are shipping soon: the 8GB should arrive later this week, while the 16GB should show up over the weekend or early next week, Steve says. Apple is introducing new headphones with these iPods, with a pause/play feature, as well as track navigation and volume controls right on the cord. There's also a microphone on the new headphones, which will cost $29 and be available in October.
10:29 a.m. PDT: New in-ear headphones are also out. "We think we finally got these right." They are pretty sophisticated, Steve says, saying they will be out in October for $79. The new iPod ad comes up on-screen, which I'm sure we'll see during every single commercial break during the baseball playoffs and NFL season.
10:31 a.m. PDT: Now it's time for the iPod Touch. A new iPod Touch is coming out for the holidays. It's thinner than the previous model, Steve says. It has the same display, but with integrated volume controls, which was the No. 1 request Apple got for an iPod Touch, Steve says. It has a built-in speaker. "It's for casual listening," he says, and it has the Genius playlist creation and the App Store.
iPod Touch, the "funnest" iPod yet, Jobs says.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:33 a.m. PDT: Steve mentions that the iPod Touch is better for audiobooks, which might be the first time I've ever heard him play up that feature. It has built-in Nike + iPod, with the receiver built into the unit itself. The Genius playlist is created with a touch icon right in the play/pause controls on the iPod playback feature.
10:34 a.m. PDT: Steve announces that users have downloaded more than 100 million applications from the App Store to date, 60 days since the store opened. About 700 games are available on the App Store. 62 countries have access to the App Store. He's moving into a demo now of the new iPod Touch features.
10:38 a.m. PDT: Most of the features Steve is running through at the moment are the familiar ones, playing back music, watching movies, etc. Phil Schiller (Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing) comes up on stage to demo games that have yet to be released for the iPod Touch, and Steve exits. Phil is demoing Spore Origins on the iPod Touch.
10:40 a.m. PDT: Phil's creating his creature, complete with three eyes, five spikes, and some weird green-orange color scheme. He then shows how the iPod Touch can be used to change colors, or add additional features to your creature. Phil's rolling through the kelp forest, taking a hit from other creatures. He's totally going to die soon if he's not careful, but he decides to end the demo before his creature gets eaten.
Phil Schiller shows off his own Spore creature on the iPod Touch.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:43 a.m. PDT: Now Phil is demoing Real Soccer 2009, a new game shipping today. He sets up a match between the U.S. and Italy, which isn't exactly a fair fight. Gameplay is done with a d-pad controller overlaid on the touch screen, so you can move your player around and shoot. Phil scores a dubious goal as the Italian defense basically stands there.
10:45 a.m. PDT: The next game is called Need for Speed: Undercover, a driving game that requires you to transport a "package," Phil says, on behalf of your employers. Phil's a Porsche man, he says, and starts the driving portion of the game by entering street races. After hitting the "nitro" button, Phil loses control and flips his Porsche, but makes a nice recovery before getting nabbed by the cops. That game will be out this fall, he says, and Steve retakes the stage.
Need for Speed: Undercover on the iPod Touch
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:46 a.m. PDT: Steve reviews what we've seen so far on the iPod Touch, quoting battery life of 36 hours of music and 6 hours of video. CNET reviewer Donald Bell says that's roughly the same as the current model, maybe a little more on the music side. "This is the funnest iPod ever," Steve says.
10:47 a.m. PDT: Three models will be available: 8GB for $229, 16GB for $299, and 32GB for $399. Those prices are cheaper, but not as much as some people might have thought. All the new iPod Touches are available today, and they are getting their own ads, of course.
10:49 a.m. PDT: Steve moves into the software on these devices. OS X 2.1 is being released with the new iPod Touch, he says. iPod Touch owners who paid to update to OS X 2.0 are getting a free update to 2.1, but if you never upgraded to 2.0, you need to pay $9.99. The 2.1 software applies to the iPhone as well. "This is a big update, and it fixes lots of bugs." Fewer call drops, fewer app crashes, better battery life, and backing up to iTunes is dramatically faster. These have been the primary complaints around the iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0, and it appears Apple has addressed those here. It will be available this Friday.
10:51 a.m. PDT: Steve moves back to the iPod-iTunes combination. "We think we've got the best lineup we've ever had for this holiday season." Steve appears to be getting ready to introduce the musician attached to this event, which is a tradition with the September iPod events. "Today we've got a really special guest, who's agreed to come and perform for us."
Jack Johnson performs at Tuesdays event.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)10:53 a.m. PDT: Jack Johnson is Apple's featured guest today. He's apparently the No. 1 selling male artist of all time on iTunes, which surprised us a little bit.
10:57 a.m. PDT: Johnson is playing "Sleep Through the Static," from the album of the same title released this year.
11:02 a.m. PDT: Johnson thanks Jobs for having him on stage, expressing doubt that he'd be the best-selling male artist on iTunes. "I'm used to sort of 20-something girls right here," he jokes, pointing to the Apple executives gathered in the front row. Johnson says hi to all his friends watching this at home; nobody has the heart to tell him it's not live. He starts playing "Better Together," from In Between Dreams.
11:05 a.m. PDT: Johnson wraps up to a standing ovation from the crowd, and a hug from Steve. Steve thanks everybody for coming, and urges folks to go buy iPods. That's going to be it from Yerba Buena for this morning, but make sure to come back to CNET today for more photos, video of the event, Donald's first take on the new iPods, and further analysis on the day's announcements. Thanks, as always, for spending the morning with us and thanks to all the folks back on 2nd Street who work to bring you these live blogs.
It's Apple special event time, which means it's live-blogging time as well.
(Credit: Apple)Start those finger-stretching exercises now to stay on top of Apple's iPod event Tuesday with our live blog.
Apple is planning one of its trademark special events for Tuesday, starting at 10 a.m. PDT. I'll be inside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco--home to Apple's 2006 iPod event--live-blogging the action with a host of other CNET folks.
Make sure to follow the action here on our One More Thing live blog, and come back to CNET News later in the day for video and detailed photos of what we expect will be a new lineup of iPods. Donald Bell of CNET Reviews will also be on hand to post his initial thoughts on the new iPods soon after the event ends.
If you've ever wondered what a corporate earnings call is like, but can't get away with listening to one for an hour at work, come back here for live coverage of Apple's third-quarter earnings call starting at 2 p.m. PDT. Here's a post with the basic numbers--they were good--and here's a link to Apple's Webcast if you want to listen along.
1:57 p.m. - The pre-call music on an earnings call is not as much fun as at Macworld or WWDC. The financial analysts must need soothing classical music to calm their nerves.
2:08 p.m. - The prepared remarks are beginning, preceded by the usual disclaimers that effectively say, "Everything we're about to tell you could change." Peter Oppenheimer, chief financial officer, and Tim Cook, chief operating officer, are on the call.
After going through the basic numbers, Oppenheimer goes into a prepared speech on the company's performance. Revenue growth this year was much better than last year. Retail store sales grew 58 percent compared with last year, and traffic in the stores was up as well.
The Mac accounted for 61 percent of Apple's total revenue, and it was the best Mac quarter in Apple's history, Oppenheimer said. Desktops were up 49 percent, while notebooks were up 37 percent compared with last year. The education business, the main catalyst during the company's third quarter, was also strong.
iPod Shuffle growth led iPod shipments, which of course was prompted by the price cut in February. Oppenheimer said Apple is gaining share internationally with the iPod, and holding serve in the countries that have been selling iPods for a long time. On the iTunes front, more than 5 billion songs have been sold.
2:12 p.m. - The iPhone, of course, didn't have the greatest quarter, but that was expected. iPhone revenue wasn't recognized during the quarter for any iPhone sold after March 6 because the company announced the iPhone 2.0 software that day. The iPhone 3G is off to a good start, Oppenheimer said. More than 25 million applications have been downloaded from the App Store already.
Apple's retail stores sold 476,000 Macs and, as has been the case for the past several quarters, half of those were sold to people who had never owned a Mac before. The average revenue per store was $6.8 million during the quarter, with well over 200 stores open during the quarter. The Beijing store opened last weekend, and Switzerland and Germany are coming soon.
Gross margins were improved; that was a big topic last quarter. Some of that was from a one-time benefit related to a contractor manufacturer that I didn't quite catch, but component prices were also better during the quarter than Apple had expected, Oppenheimer said.
2:15 p.m. - Apple expects record iPhone shipments this coming quarter, as the iPhone 3G gets going. Margins will go down, however, because of the impact of the free iPod promotion for students, and a mysterious "new product introduction" that Oppenheimer said he couldn't get into today.
"We just reported the strongest quarterly Mac sales in Apple's history," Oppenheimer said in wrapping up his prepared remarks. The question-and-answer session is about to start, that's open only to the financial analyst community, and should run until about 3 p.m. PDT.
2:20 p.m. - The first question is, of course, about the mysterious new product introduction. An analyst wants to know if the margin hit related to that product also will affect revenue, since Apple's revenue guidance is below expectations as usual. Oppenheimer dodges the question, which is his job. Another question about emerging market sales gets a bit more of a response from Cook, who says Europe and Japan grew higher than the overall figure during the quarter.
Citigroup wonders about the Best Buy store relationship, as well as Mac inventories, which the analyst thinks are a little light. Cook says 170 Best Buy stores were added during the quarter, around 570 in total, with 600 Best Buys expected to carry the Mac by the end of the quarter.
The margins usually get a fair amount of scrutiny, and the next question tackles that issue. This quarter was a little better than Apple had guided driven by what Apple is calling a "one-time true-up" with a contract manufacturer. I have no idea what a true-up is. Most commodities were soft during the quarter as well, Cook says, and they expect that to get back to a more normal pattern in the current quarter.
Everyone so far wants to know if the new product introduction will involve price cuts, and Oppenheimer is being careful to dance around the issue to avoid giving away the nature of the new product. One likely candidate is the iPod Touch.
2:26 p.m. - The question comes up about CEO Steve Jobs' health. "Steve loves Apple. He serves at the pleasure of the Apple board, and he has no plans to leave Apple. His health is a private matter." That won't do anything do dampen the speculation about Jobs' health, for sure.
2:30 p.m. - A question comes up about Apple TV, which Cook once again refers to as a "hobby," downplaying expectations for huge volumes but saying the company is pleased with the shipments so far.
iPod sales grew 10 percent in the U.S., and 15 percent outside the U.S., according to Oppenheimer.
iPhone 3G supply comes up. Cook says that response has been "stunning," repeating much of the opening statement about the iPhone 3G. There are "stockouts," Cook acknowledges, but says he's pleased with the production ramp and says Apple is "shipping units as fast as we can." Cook says that on August 22 the iPhone 3G will launch in 20 additional countries, and another 30 or so will follow by the end of the year.
Gene Munster asks why the iPod Touch gets a different accounting treatment than the iPhone, which I've never understood. Oppenheimer says that iPhone users get free software upgrades, while iPods and Macs don't. Well, OK then.
2:38 p.m. - It sounds like pricing moves are going to happen in one way or another during the upcoming quarter, but Oppenheimer keeps fending off questions from analysts trying to get a better picture: "We are going to be delivering state-of-the-art new products that our competitors are not going to be able to match."
One analyst asks about the guidance. Apple almost always guides conservatively. "We give you guidance we have reasonable confidence in achieving," Oppenheimer said. "I have guided revenue up 5 percent this quarter from where we ended the June quarter. We are confident in our business." The issue is the gross margin going down from the current levels, which were better than expected, and now the analysts seem to be trying to figure out why it's going down again.
2:45 p.m. - More margin questions again. This analyst wants to know if Apple will have a more flexible pricing structure. Oppenheimer likes Apple's pricing, and discusses the range of pricing with the iPod, saying they are as competitive today with the Mac as Apple has ever been in Oppenheimer's 12 years with the company.
An iPhone-in-the-corporation question leads into a Mac-in-the-corporation question. Cook notes that one-third of the Fortune 500 participated in the iPhone beta program, and says that companies like Oracle, Genentech, and The Southern Co. are deploying iPhones inside their corporations. It sounds like AT&T is going to do the heavy sales lifting in the enterprise for the iPhone.
A marginal margin question comes up about the iPhone 3G, given that the iPhone revenue is recognized over a two-year period, but iPhone expenses are recorded as they happen, for things like marketing or research and development. Oppenheimer says the launch event expenses for the iPhone 3G are within the company's guidance for the upcoming quarter.
Another margin question concerns the App Store, and whether that's profitable. Oppenheimer says the App Store is like the iTunes Store, in that it's not a great profit generator even though it contributes revenue. The idea is like with the iTunes Store that having the store promotes the hardware.
2:50 p.m. - Can the U.S. consumer continue to keep Apple's stores humming if they run out of money? Oppenheimer declines to comment on the overall health of the economy as it unfolds over the rest of the year, but says Apple didn't really see a drop-off related to consumer health. "We're certainly aware of the economic environment, and we've considered it along with other factors in preparing our guidance," he says.
The next question is about the iPhone 3G stockouts, and whether or not they were caused by some sort of component problem, and if not, why Apple didn't wait until it had more units on hand to launch with more supply. Cook says the demand has been "staggering," and that the ramp is right on schedule. He points out that 20 additional countries are coming, but the question comes back that since demand far outstripped supply, why launch now? Cook says they are confident in the supply, without directly answering the question about components.
2:55 p.m. - A question comes up about iPhone competition, and how the rest of the mobile industry is starting to come out with similar phones. Cook says, "We think that software is really the key ingredient for a great mobile experience, and we think we are years ahead of the competition in this area." Oppenheimer also points to the App Store as a way that Apple will be able to fend off competitors.
Cook notes that they don't mind competition so long as companies aren't ripping off Apple's intellectual property, and says that Apple will be "very aggressive" in defending its iPhone patents. He reiterates the 10 million iPhones in 2008 prediction, and thinks that Apple is growing the entire market because the iPhone is making more people want a smartphone as opposed to a generic mobile phone.
The $400 price was a problem for iPhone sales, Cook said. Half the people Apple surveyed said they would have bought an iPhone prior to the iPhone 3G, but they thought the price was too much.
One analyst wants to know how the free iPod promotion for students buying Macs affects the accounting for iPods. That's a rebate, and Oppenheimer says that's accounted for as a reduction in revenue. iPod selling prices were lower during the quarter because of the increase in unit shipments of the $49 iPod Shuffle.
3:00 p.m. - Oppenheimer thinks there was some iPod cannibalization from the iPhone, but repeats what Apple has said in the past: they'd rather cannibalize themselves then have somebody else do it for them.
The Japan business has been a pain in Apple's side for a while now, and one analyst wants to know if that's in line with the company's expectations. Cook says he's happy with their performance so far, since the revenue growth rate has been better than the overall company and the Japanese market has been somewhat flat. Apple picked up Mac share in Japan, and significant iPod share, he said. "It's quite the turnaround from how we were doing in 2006," Cook said.
That will wrap things up for today. Apple's stock is getting hammered in after-hours trading on the low guidance, presumably, but the numbers for the past quarter are hard to argue with.
