In a short time Apple will be hosting a Special Event at Moscone West in San Francisco, the event begins at:

  • 7:00AM - Hawaii
  • 10:00AM - Pacific
  • 11:00AM - Mountain
  • 12:00PM - Central
  • 1:00PM - Eastern
  • 5:00PM - GMT
  • 6:00PM - BST
  • 6:00PM - London
  • 7:00PM - Paris
  • 2:00AM - Tokyo (September 6th)

World of Apple will post live updates on this page as the event begins (Keep refreshing).

  • Welcome all, the event is due to begin imminently
  • Steve takes the stage, there is also an iMac up there
  • Today we’re talking about music, lets start with iTunes
  • 600 million copies of iTunes distributed, over 3 billion songs purchased on iTunes Store
  • Steve has a big grin on his face today
  • “iTunes is clearly leading the way. We’re going to ship a new version of iTunes tonight to support some new products. The biggest new feature: ringtones.”
  • Ringtones can be “built” by the user, from songs bought, 500,000 songs available to use
  • Ringtones cost 99 cents on top of the price of the song
  • “Here’s how it works… when you plug in your iPhone a new column will pop up with bells — that shows how many songs you can make ringtones out of.” Any segment up to 30s long, fade ins/outs. “When you’re ready to buy, push the buy button and for 99c you have a ringtone.”
  • Demo.
  • “I like Aretha Frankin’s Respect — I can just tell this is going to make a great ringtone. I can put it on my iPhone, make it my default ringtone. I’m going to assign this one for when my wife calls…”
  • “Isn’t this great? Pick the exact section of the song you like, make a ringtone out of it!” Uh oh, he’s playing the Beatles… Give Peace a Chance… “That’s when NBC calls.”
  • Done with demo
  • To date Apple has sold 110 million iPods, today Apple will replace every single iPod
  • iPod shuffle, $79, new colours and a Product (RED) shuffle
  • Moving onto nano
  • “It’s the most popular music player in history. People just love it. We want to make it better, and customers have told us how we can make it better. Customers want to watch video on their nanos on an even larger, brighter display. We’d like to put Cover Flow in, we think it’s a great way to browse your music library.
  • New nano has Cover Flow, video, games, more storage
  • The new nano is thin but fat (as per the leaks), screen is 2 inches in size, comes in black, silver, blue, green and Product (RED)
  • Screen is 320 x 240, and the interface is as per the leaked videos
  • Three games bundled with the iPod nano
  • Steve demoing games, video and photos
  • Battery life; 24 hours of audio playback, 5 hours of video playback
  • Two versions, 4GB and 8GB.
  • 4GB only available in silver, priced at $149, 8GB in all colours priced at $199
  • In stores by the weekend
  • Moving onto the iPod, Steve thinks it needs a name. So the iPod is now called “iPod Classi”
  • Full metal design and thinner than previous model
  • Storage of iPod Classic starts at 80GB and a slightly thicker model at 160GB, that’s 40,000 songs
  • The 80GB model has 25 hours music, 5 hours video. The 160GB has 40 hours music, 7 hours video.
  • Price: 80GB for $249, 160GB for $349. Ships today, with the new enhanced UI
  • “Fantastic iPod lineup for the holiday season”
  • “But… we’re not done yet. Far from it.”
  • Introducing iPod Touch (rumour was spot on)
  • iPod Touch is 8mm thin and has the same screen as the iPhone
  • Music, video and photo are identical to how they are on the iPhone
  • iPod Touch has WiFi
  • The back of the iPod Touch has a black bit on the top right in order for the Wi-Fi antenna to connect
  • Steve says you’re fine connecting to your Wi-Fi at home, but when you’re on other Wi-Fi networks in the outdoors, a webpage will pop up asking you to enter your information. This prohibits normal devices from accessing the net, but the iPod Touch has Safari, so you can log in just fine.
  • Safari on iPod Touch, same as iPhone
  • YouTube also on iPod Touch
  • “This is a worldwide product, the first touch product Apple’s going to ship outside the US, it’s going to be shipping all around the world.”
  • “The battery life is fantastic: 22 hours audio, 5 hours video playback. All in something this thin. It’s… it’s… amazing to me. The new iPod touch.”
  • 8GB and 16GB, $299 and $399. Ships in a few weeks (this month).
  • One more thing…
  • iTunes WiFi Music Store
  • Four buttons: featured, top tens, search, downloads… “If you see something you like, tap it, free preview of the song.”
  • Songs purchased on iPod Touch sync back to your iTunes Library
  • “Demo time: This is live coming over WiFi. I love John Lennon… so I’m going to buy this. It’s now downloading… it takes a few seconds and once it’s downloaded I can go to the downloads playlist and I can play it with album art and everything else. This is all live.”
  • iTunes Store will be available on the iPhone later this month via a Software Update
  • Announcing a partnership with Starbucks…
  • “When you get near a Starbucks a fifth button will come up in the WiFi music store — you may have been in a Starbucks wondering what song is that playing? Now you can buy it with a tap of your finger. And if you just missed it, you can still find it…”
  • Demo time. “So they just built a Starbucks back stage.”
    “They’re playing a KT Tunstall song… I can go in here and preview it.”

  • “It will be right on my iPod touch, and sync right back to iTunes when I get home. We’re really, really excited about this partnership. It’s my great pleasure now to welcome Howard Schultz, founder and chairman of Starbucks.”
  • Free access to iTunes Mobile Store while in Starbucks
  • 5800 WiFi-enabled stores nationwide. Starting October 2nd: New York and Seattle. 600 stores, followed up in November with 350 stores in SF.
  • Steve’s back
  • “So let’s look at our lineup for this holiday season: the iPod shuffle in 5 great new colors. The iPod nano. The renewed iPod classic with up to 40k songs in your pocket. The revolutionary iPod touch that you’ve seen here today.”
  • “We think this is going to set a lot of peoples’ worlds on fire. And I’m going to include the iPhone, because as we’ve said, it’s the best iPod ever.”
  • Steve discussing iPhone, customer feedback off the charts, higher than any other Apple product
  • Today Steve wants to make iPhone’s even more affordable
  • “So we’re going to do something about that today. We’re on track to ship our 1mth iPhone this month — to get ready for the holidays here’s what we’re going to do. It’s clear clear customers want the 8GB model — it’s not going to sell for 599 anymore.
  • “Starting today effective immediately, we’re pricing it at just $399.”
  • 4GB iPhone has been scrapped
  • KT Tunstall now performing on stage
  • To recap, iPod Shuffle 2GB ($79), iPod Nano 4GB, 8GB ($149, $199), iPod Classic 80GB, 160GB ($249, $349), iPod Touch 8GB, 16GB ($299, $399), and iPhone 8GB ($399).
  • That’s it folks.