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Jan 9 2007

Macworld Keynote coverage play-by-play

We had a great time in the MacMerc IRC Chat today talking up the announcements made at today’s Macworld Expo keynote address. Some really revolutionary products were announced and demonstrated with hints at things to come. If you missed our play-by-play, here it is (times are that of our server shown with the most recent posts at the top).

02:03 PM – Folks in the MacMerc chat start chanting “ONE MORE THING! ONE MORE THING! ONE MORE THING!”

02:03 PM – John Mayer performs.

02:01 PM – Steve thanks staff and families. Everyone stands an applauds. Smiley faces everywhere.

02:01 PM – Steve quotes Wayne Gretzky “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it’s been.” So, what? No more computers?

01:59 PM – Apple Computer OUT. Apple Inc. IN

01:55 PM – And then, thankfully, Steve comes back.

01:55 PM – Cingular CEO speaks…

01:47 PM – iPhone: USD$499 for 4GB, USD$599 for 8GB with 2 year contracts. Ships in June. Sold in Cingular and Apple Stores in the US.

01:44 PM – iPhone accessories: microphone, bluetooth headset. Battery Life: 5 hours of talk, 16 hours of audio

01:39 PM – Steve listens to music, Schiller calls …music fades…Steve adds him to the address book…grabs a photo of Phil from his photos library…searches the internet for a movie to see that night…I guess Steve and Phil are going out on the town. Operability of the iPhone shames the competition.

01:32 PM – Google Search built in. Dr, Eric Schmidt CEO of Google walk on stage….jokes about Apple/Google merger. Google and Yahoo both major players in iPhone.

01:31 PM – Internet in your pocket with breakthru internet communicator built right in

01:29 PM – Demoing GoogleMaps: We see London, we see France.

01:29 PM – Widget helps you track down a Starbucks in your area.

01:28 PM – Steve prank calls Starbucks. Orders 4000 lattes.

01:28 PM – Steve demoing Safari with “pinch” zoom and 160ppi screen showing awesome detail of scaled down pages. Stock and Weather Widgets, etc.

Steve demoing Safari with “pinch” zoom and 160ppi screen showing awesome detail of scaled down pages. Stock and Weather Widgets, etc. 01:10 PM – There is no explaining this thing. Just run over to Apple’s website once it’s back up to gawk. It’s sick. Photos of the device up at MacRumors and Flickr

12:58 PM – You can hear Motorola and Nokia breaking out their drawing boards all the way from here. The software on this thing is crazy. The iPod interface has been updated to work with a touch sensitive display. Can’t wait to use this thing!

12:54 PM – Hardware of the iPhone.3.5″ screen with 160ppi (clear!); 2 megapixel camera; 11.6mm thick; GSM; standard iPod connector. Coming to Cingular wireless. No surprise there, that’s what the WSJ said yesterday.

12:52 PM – The power of a laptop in the package of a phone is what this thing is.

12:49 PM – Design wise: huge screen (wide!), silver and black and of course a revolutionary new software UI. It runs OS X. Dear god. Mobile apps? I don’t need no stinking mobile apps. This thing will run “desktop class” apps. Built in networking, syncing and all that good stuff.

12:47 PM – Steve says one of the problems with phones is that they have too many buttons. The iPhone uses fingers not a stylus.

12:46 PM – Steve is dissing current smart phones.

12:43 PM – They did it, Apple is announcing a mobile phone. And a widescreen iPod. We’re kids in a tech candy store today. The third revolutionary product is an internet communicator. That sounds dangerously close to a tablet. The rumor gods were kind to us. Postscript. It’s all one device. Makes more sense.

12:42 PM – The dramatic pauses are causing serious stress with the audience. We’re such fan boys.

12:41 PM – “Revolutionary product”

12:41 PM – Onto new stuff.

12:39 PM – The Apple TV demo is taking forever. Maybe it’s just because we’ve already seen Front Row before.

12:37 PM – Apple TV looks like the next generation of Front Row. Music, Videos, Photos are all covered (no DVD because hey there is no DVD drive in the box). It adds cool stuff like summary text and the typical visual magic that makes Apple Apple. Though I would still like the iTunes Visualizer effects… Maybe the new features will be integrated into Leopard?

12:26 PM – Apple TV is the name for what we’ve been calling iTV. You know what it is already, a bunch of AV connectors and a beautiful Front Row styled interface to zip through your networked media on a TV. New specs: 40GB hard drive, 802.11.b/g/n networking, Intel CPU. Content can be synced from 1 computer or steamed from up to 5.

12:24 PM – Steve is mocking the Zune. It’s not hard to do. We’re previewing a new iPod add that’s hopelessly hip. Postscript, the ad features today’s 5G iPod and not some new crazy full screen video iPod. Sigh.

12:22 PM – TV show sales on iTMS have been really successful, over 50m unit sales. Movies have hit 1.3 million with just Disney as a partner. Today Paramount joins in on the fun. 250 titles now available from the store.

12:19 PM – Onto the iPod. Despite the analysts reporting, the iTMS has sold 2 billion songs. 5 million more songs are being sold daily. That’s enough to make Apple the fourth largest music reseller in the US (they just surpassed Amazon.com). Target is next in line.

12:18 PM – Over half of new Macs are now sold to switchers. That’s counting all sales channels, not just retail. Ed: Maybe the iPod really is having a spill over effect?

12:17 PM – Talking about the Intel transition.

12:15 PM – We’re there folks. Steve Jobs just took the stage to kick off MacWorld 2007. Among notable VIPs in the audience is Jobs’ family. That’s a bit unusual.

12:00 PM – You probably already knew this, but the online Apple store has been taken down for updates.

11:59 AM – We’re still a few minutes away from show time. People are filtering into the room. Safe to say that it’s a sellout.

11:50 AM – In case you need to read a few more rumors before the real info starts flowing, check out the keynote predictions from ThinkSecret and Daring Fireball. It looks like an Apple cell phone will actually happen, the Wall Street Journal confirmed it last night.

08:00 AM – MacMerc keynote coverage is in full swing. This really basic page is meant to help our servers stay alive. Tons of speculation has preceded this speech, including rumors of an Apple mobile phone. Today’s coverage is by Jon Gales of MobileTracker, so expect some serious mobile phone analysis if the rumors do indeed pan out.
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By admin • macworldexpo, News, Site News • Comments Off • Tags: apple stores, Communicator, detail, eric schmidt, internet communicator, iPhone, macmerc, Macworld, macworld expo, music fades, phone, revolutionary products, shames, Starbucks, steve thanks, Stock, THING, Widgets