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"It's only Rock and Roll, but we like it" Live Blog Extravaganza

Roberto Baldwin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:13:45 -0500

Join us tomorrow morning at 10am Pacific for our live blog of Apple's "It's only rock and roll, but we like it" event. We'll be bringing you updates and pictures from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco is blazing color.

Can't get to a computer, or maybe your work blocks your favorite site. Follow Mac|Life on Twitter for latest info coming out of the event. It's just like being there 140 character at a time.

We're live right now!

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That's it folks! Stay on MacLife.com for the latest info abut the new gear.

11:10AM It's Norah Jones!

11:04AM. "Isn't that great?" Environmental cred: Arsenic-free glass, mercury free, BFR- and PVC-free, recyclable enclosures.

11:03AM. Built-in speaker. Same enclosure. Camera is on the back. Bright, pretty rainbow colors. Polished anodized aluminum. CORRECTION: 16GB iPod nano is $179. (I had said $199 earlier. Sorry about that.) The 8GB is $149.

11:03AM It'll do the Genius Mixes too. Built-in FM radio. Built-in Voice Recorder app and mic. Built-in pedometer, syncs with Nike+ website.

11:02AM. iPod nano, over 100 million sold. The most popular iPod, which makes it the most popular music player overall.

10:59AM. But still, it's Flip-sized and the demo video looks OK.

10:59AM. Yeah, "free" because it's built in to the new iPod nano. Which is not free, you FIBBER.

10:59AM. He shows the Flip, calls it "incredible." That's $149 for 4GB of memory. "We want to get in on this." Theirs is 8GB of memory for...FREE!

10:58AM. One more thing: A video camera.

10:56AM. What is new? Colors. Black, silver, pink, green, blue. And a price drop59 for 2GB, $79 for 4GB. Shipping today.

10:54AM. iPod shuffle. More third-party headphones being made to control it. He recaps the VoiceOver features, but none of that is new.

10:54AM. Now the iPod classic. Great for the "gotta have all the songs with me all the time" people. Keeping it at $249, but it's 160GB. Same size.

10:53AM. Straight to the ad. No mention of a camera.

10:53AM $299 for 32GB. $399 for 64GB. Up to 50% faster. OpenGL|ES 2.0 for good game performance.

10:51AM. iPod mini sales doubled after the drop from $249 to $199. So today the iPod touch drops from $229 to $199, for the 8GB model.

10:50AM. Can we see some new hardware now, please?

10:49AM. Madden NFL 10 is live in the App Store starting today.

10:48AM Hot Route feature lets you redraw the play right on the screen with your finger. OK, that's pretty cool looking.

10:46AM. Last is EA. Madden NFL 10 has all the teams, players, and stadiums from the big game. Plus the robust playbook. Tap players directly instead of using a D-pad to select.

10:43AM. Next is Gameloft, one of the biggest devs. Their FPS is Nova, a 12-level single-player that looks gorgeous.

10:41AM. Tapulous's game is called Riddim Ribbon. Tilt the phone to the beat to control your vehicle along a track. Bumpin'.

10:41AM Twitter is back.

10:40AM. Next is Tapulous, who does Tap Tap Revenge (10 million users). iPhone-only studio. Now they're working on a game combining music and racing.

10:38AM. New Assassin's Creed title demo, Assassin's Creed II: Discovery. Cool graphics, effects, sounds. Add your own photos to Wanted posters, etc. Prince of Persia-style acrobatics with touch controls.

10:38AM. Twitter is down, by the way. Sorry, Twitter pals! We'll keep checking.

10:37AM. Developer demos. Ubisoft up first, makers of the aforementioned Assassin's Creed.

10:36AM. Playing a game-trailer montage. Sports, racing, Assassin's Creed, flying, dragons, OH MY GAMENESS!

10:35AM Gaming category in the App Store is huge. 21,178 games available, compared to 607 for PSP and 3,680 for the Nintendo DS. Wow.

10:34AM. Oh yeah, and it's also a handheld gaming platform. The industry has taken notice of it for sure -- PAX, GDC, all have big iPhone game presences.

10:32AM. Oh, all those things were its iPod-ness. Thing two: It's a great wee computer. Safari, email, and so on.

10:31AM. And its Genius tech. That's more than three things, Phil!

10:30AM. iPod touch set apart by three things: Its iPod-osity, its great video experience, and its Wi-Fi ability to, um, sell you things from iTunes? Sure, why not.

10:29AM. iPod has 73.8 percent market share. 50 percent of sales are the user's first iPod.

10:28AM Phil Schiller reminds us "The iPod is a big hit." One of the most successful products in ALL OF HISTORY.

10:27AM. Demo's over. Steve is back. iTunes 9 is out today, free download. Go get it!

10:26AM The movie version is called iTunes Extras. Chapters, Features, More, like the bonus stuff on a DVD.

10:25AM. Dave Matthews Band liner notes include hand-drawn images, lyrics, videos, fun stuff for fans.

10:23AM iTunes LP tour, featuring the Doors, who don't look so hot in high-def photos... Sorry, Jim.

10:22AM Arrow on Buy button accesses Gift This Album, Add to Wishlist, Share with Facebook/Twitter.

10:21AM iTunes Store has new nav bar and drop-downs. Preview button in top charts. Quick-view albums and preview songs from there.

10:20AM You can auto-sync new purchases (he was careful to say purchases) too.

10:19AM App organization up first. List of apps to sync, drag-n-drop home screen arrangements. Select multiples to speed it up. You can search for your apps in the list, sort by category, reorder entire home screens, looks pretty robust but simple to grasp.

10:16AM Jeff Robbin onstage to do an iTunes 9 demo.

10:16AM. Digital "album covers" will include track lists, artwork, photos, videos, credits, links. Artists can contribute their own content.

10:14AM. "Some of us here are old enough that we actually bought LPs. And it was great." Photography, liner notes, essays, etc. iTunes LP is bringing it back.

10:14AM Home Sharing will stream or copy. iTunes Store has improved navigation, design.

10:13AM Home Sharing: Copy songs, TV shows, movies, etc. between 5 authorized computers in your home network. Nice...

10:13AM Manage iPhone home screens in iTunes! Finally! Yay!

10:11AM Smarter syncing. All my reggae, all my Paul Simon, certain playlists, etc. Photos by albums, events, faces.

10:09AM iTunes 9 debuts. New streamlined look. Genius mixes, more DJ like. 27 million libraries (average 2,000 songs) submitted to the Genius database.

10:08AM iTunes is the largest music store. 100,000,000 credit card accounts. Hackers start drooling...

10:07AM Free update for iPhone and iPod touch owners, available today.

10:07AM Mac users, we still recommend you just GarageBand your own ringtones. It's insanely easy, and um, free.

10:07AM Also adding ringtones to the iTunes Store, with 30,000 from 4 labels. $1.29? That's more than the track!

10:06AM iPhone OS 3.1 out today! Genius recommendations extended to apps. Neat!

10:05AM 30 million in two years. 75,000 apps in the store. 1.8 billion downloads served. Woop woop!

10:04AM "Today we get to talk about music." Phil Schiller, Jeff Robbin on the docket. But first, the iPhone.

10:03AM Steve is thanking "everyone in the Apple community" and encouraging us to become organ donors. Great idea.

10:00AM :It's Steve. Steve Jobs takes the stage to a standing ovation. Welcome back!!!

9:59AM: Stones "It's only rock and roll, but I like it"

9:57AM: Announcement to shut off mobile telecommunication devices.

9:49AM: And we're inside.

WWDC 09 Keynote -- Live Blog

Mac|Life Staff — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:43:39 -0500

Be prepared for our live coverage of the WWDC 09 keynote with Phil and the gang. Will a new iPhone be in our immediate future? Only The Phil knows for sure.

Coverage starts at 10am Pacific, Monday June 8 right here.

We will also be covering the event via Twitter. Follow us at Twitter.com/maclife.

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12:02AM: Recap of today's stuff. Thanks for reading. We'll see you in the iPhone 3GS line

11:59AM: $199 16GB 3GS - $299 32GB 3GS- Available June 19! / $99 8GB 3Gavailable now. Note the $99 iPhone is the same 8GB iPhone available now.

11:58AM: iPhone is still green. Arsenic free glass.

11:57AM: Battery life 3G talk time still the same.

11:56AM: Accessibility controls. Nike + support built in. Hardware encryption -instantaneous wipe, backups enrypted.

11:55AM: built-in digital compass. Go boy and girl scouts! integrated into Maps. Orient to heading. Developer API

11:53AM: Voice control! tap home button. can make calls with the sound of your voice. Play songs with voice control. Ask it what's playing. Genius play list "play more songs like this"

11:53AM: developers can add video capture right into apps.

11:51AM: Captures video! Huzzah! 30fps VGA with audio, autofocus, auto white balance, auto exposure.Vides are right along side your photos. EDIT with a tap of your finger. Trim. Share. Via MMS, mobile Me, YouTube, email video

11:50am: Auto macro , lowlight enhancement.

11:48AM: 3G 7.2 Mps HDSPA - 3 megapixel autofocus camera -Tap to focus, tap the object to focus on it. Really slick!

11:47AM: 2.1x faster to launch messages, Load SimCity 2.4X faster Launch NY Times 2.9x faster - 3X faster sunspider jaascript benchmark than iPhone 3G

11:46AM: New Version iPhone 3GSS stands for speed. Same design.

11:46AM: WW mobile browser share - iPhone 65%

11:45am: And Phils back.

11:45AM: iPhone OS 3.0 - Free for iPhone / $9.95 for iPod touch. Available June 17- Developers get the Gold Master today! Luckies!

11:41AM: Demos are nice, but Apple better hurry with the iPhone release. Everyone's computers are dying.

11:38AM: Line 6 demo. Robbie can attach his guitar to his guitar. Another Demo fail. Poor guys

11:36AM: Ohh swanky Zipcar key feature. horn and unlock support

11:34am: Zipcar Demo. We're all getting cars! (no, no we're not)

11:29 ngmoco's Star Defense looks cool, out today. $5.99.

11:25AM. Optional Tom-Tom Car Kit holds up your iPhone, charges it, has a speaker for directions, plays your iTunes on your stereo.

11:23AM. Tom-Tom doing turn-by-turn navigation. Real-time traffic, and it talks to you. Looks just like a Tom-Tom in-car navigator.

11:21AM. Iceberg Store will sell books, magazines, and newspapers. Uses copy/paste and in-app email to let students cite text for papers. It grabs bibliographical info automatically. Textbook publisher partners.

11:19AM. AirStrip technologies shows off an app that lets doctors monitor patients from anywhere. (Like the golf course! Or, um, medical conferences.)

11:15AM. iPhone 3.0 has Media Control access so you can listen to your own music inside non-Apple apps. Gameloft shows this off with Asphalt 5.

11:13AM. Demos starting showing what developers have built with iPhone 3.0 so far.

11:12AM. Developers will be able to put Google Maps into their applications, with pan/zoom, annotations, everything the Maps app can do. They can do turn-by-turn directions in their apps too.

11:10AM. Accessories: The iPhone will be able to control accessories through companion applications. Examples include LifeTouch's blood glucose meter, which has an app for controlling your diabetes.

11:10AM. Peer-to-peer connectivity. Uses Bluetooth to find iPhones within range so users can play games against each other.

11:08AM. In-app purchase, allowing devs to offer add-on paid content to their apps. (Magazine issues, extra levels for games, etc.)

11:07am: An alert sound plays WHETHER YOUR PHONE IS ON SILENT OR NOT and displays your home number. If it's at your house, the alert helps you find it. And there's a remote wipe command if it really is gone forever. YES!!!

11:06AM. Find My iPhone for MobileMe customers only. Log in on a browser and it PUTS YOUR LOST PHONE ON A MAP. Um, yes please.

11:05AM. Find My iPhone feature introduced with clip from 30 Rock when Liz lost her phone. LOL.

11:03AM. HTML 5 support in Mobile Safari. Support for more languages, including Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Korean, Thai, 30-plus in all.

11:02AM. JavaScript running 4 times faster. HTTP streaming picks the best quality for your connection. Auto-fill for websites.

11:01AM. Tethering! Share Internet connection, Mac or PC, wired or Bluetooth. You just turn on tethering on your phone, no software needed for your computer. 22 carrier partners. NO AT&T. MORE VERY VERY LOUD BOOS.

10:59AM. iTunes: You'll be able to rent and purchase movies from the phone. This is news! TV shows, music, and audiobooks too.

10:58AM. Spotlight lets you search for anything on your phone, even apps.

10:56AM. Landscape support coming to Mail, Notes, etc. And MMS support (29 carrier partners, including AT&T "later this summer." LOUD BOOS.

10:56AM. iPhone 3.0 review: Cut/Copy/Paste across all apps, with Undo. Devs can use it in their apps too.

10:49AM. It only took 9 months to reach 1 billion downloads from the Store. (We helped!)

10:48AM. 50,000 apps in the App Store. 40,000,000 iPod touches and iPhones have been sold. That's a-spicy user base!

10:47AM. Scott Forstall is here to talk about the iPhone. Yeah, baby.

10:47AM. Available this September. Today the developers get a near-final preview. LUCKIES!!!

10:46AM. Snow Leopard will be a $29 upgrade for Leopard users. $49 for Family Pack (up to 5). WOW.

10:45AM. Exchange support requires the latest version of Exchange Server 2007.

10:44AM. Demo just showed dragging a contact from Address Book to iCal to schedule a meeting over Exchange. It's a witch!!!

10:41AM. Type in Exchange password to auto-detect your company's Exchange server. Email, folders, notes, to-dos are right there, but you're still using Mail, so you get Spotlight. Preview with QuickLook, even Office docs. EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE OFFICE INSTALLED.

10:39AM. OpenCL is a technology in Snow Leopard to take advantage of GPUs. Open standard, all the top graphics card manufacturers are in.

10:38AM. Effect of Grand Central Dispatch is to let Mail use more threads while it's busy but fewer threads when idle, for better performance than in Leopard, where it uses the same all the time.

10:36AM. Takes advantage of Multi-core CPU with multi-threaded programming, controlled by Grand Central Dispatch.

10:35AM. Snow Leopard takes advantage of the Mac's graphics and CPU power. It's 64 bit to use lots of memory, and to let the processor do its math faster. All major system apps run in 64-bit mode in Snow Leopard.

10:32AM. QuickTime demo. The controls and window title fade away when you're watching the video. You can even trim and share your video -- awesome visual timeline, smooth scrubbing.

10:32AM: Safari 4: Top sites shows you your 12 most-visited sites at once, puts a blue star on any that have changed since you last looked. Full History puts your browsing history in a Cover Flow view.

10:29AM. Click and hold an app's icon in the Dock to see all the windows open, Expose-style.

10:28AM. Finder windows will let you zoom thumbnails, play a movie, even thumb through multipage PDFs.

10:27AM. Snow Leopard demo beginning. Stacks window gets a scroll bar, and you can drill down into subfolders.

10:27AM. QuickTime Player is revamped. The window title and all controls disappear when the content is playing.

10:26AM. QuickTime gets hardware acceleration, ColorSync, and HTTP streaming that works with any server.

10:25AM. The number 1 cause of crashes across OS X are browser plug-ins. Safari 4 will let the plug-in crash without crashing the rest of the browser. You just reload the page. Smart!

10:24AM. Safari 4 gets 100/100 Acid3 test score. "It's very, very standard." IE 8 gets 21 percent.

10:22AM. Improved Chinese character input method: Draw characters on the trackpad with your finger.

10:22AM. Same Dock, but with Expose built in. Installation will be 45 percent faster, and will recover disk space since the OS is half the footprint of Leopard.

10:20AM. Snow Leopard keeps the same Finder interface, but it was rewritten for "lots of little benefits."

10:19AM. "We come from such a different place. We love Leopard. We're proud of Leopard. So when it became time to think of the next big cat, we decided to name it Snow Leopard."

10:17AM. Here comes Bertrand Serlet to tell us about Mac OS X

10:16AM. All MacBooks conform to EnergyStar version 5, which comes out this summer.

10:15AM. Mentions the upgrade to 13-inch white MacBook. They're updating the MacBook Air today too. Faster processor, $300 price drop, 128GB SSD option for just $1,799 (that's a $700 drop from yesterday).

10:14AM. Two stock configurations of 13-inch MBP, $1199 and $1499. Available today!

10:12AM Revamped 13-inch MacBook gets the special, lithium polymer battery too. Added features to make it like a 13-inch Pro: Up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, up to 500GB HDD, up to 250GB SSD, backlit keyboard

10:11AM They're all shipping today!

10:11AM They're also revamping the 17-inch MBP and dropping it by $300 but it keeps the ExpressCard/34 slot.

10:10AM. Starts at $1,699

10:09AM. Up to 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, and up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM. (Ka-ching.)

10:08AM Replacing the ExpressCard/34 slot with an SD card. Ooh, neat.

10:08AM. Up to 1,000 recharge cycles: Current laptop batteries can recharge about 300 times before capacity diminishes.

10:06AM. But this is: Brand-new version of the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Also a unibody. Lithium-polymer battery like the one in the 17-inch MBP. Up to 7 hours battery life.

10:05AM. Phil getting started talking about the Mac. Gushes about the new unibody notebooks. This is not new information.

10:04AM. Today we'll hear about things Apple is doing with the Mac, iPhone, and iPod touch to keep growing that user base.

10:03AM Chart of OS X users since the debut of OS X. Its gone from 25M active users to nearly 75M in the last two years.

10:02AM. Phil Schiller takes the stage. Over 5200 developers from 54 countries are here!

10:00AM: Lights down.

9:58: Pirate

9:56AM "Welcome to the 2009 Worldwide Developers' Conference." Turn off all cell phones and paging devices. (Not you.)

9:55AM: 5 Minutes to go. Giddy with anticipation. and probably all the caffeine we consumed.

9:52AM: Hanging with the developers

9:43AM: We're inside and waiting for Phil to arrive. Radiohead playing.

Podcast #92: WWDC Rumors and Live Blogging the Keynote

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:48:35 -0500

With less than a week to go before Phil and gang take stage at Moscone for the WWDC keynote, we discuss the current rumors and the chance that they will come to fruition. We want to remind everyone that we will be blogging live from Moscone Center on June 8. Join us for live blog fun.

How much live blog Twitter coverage do you want from twitter.com/maclife? Drop us a note on Twitter or give us a call.

This weeks Battlestar Applactica picks:

Nambu - Beta

EventBox - Beta

Email n' Walk - $.99

ShiveringKittens - $2.99

Don't forget, the Mac|Life staff would love to hear your thoughts, comments and ideas for the new podcast. Just leave a message on the Mac|Live question/comment line: (877) 404-1337, extension 622. Please limit the length of your messages to 1 minute max. We'll review these calls each week and feature our favorites, along with responses, on that week's podcast.

To subscribe to the Mac|Live podcast series through an RSS feed, click here; if you want to subscribe through the iTunes Store, click here.

Live Blog: iPhone OS 3.0 Software Event

Mac|Life Staff — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:43:54 -0500

Join us as we live blog the iPhone OS 3.0 Software event direct from the Apple Campus starting at 10am PDT.

You can also join our live Twitter feed at twitter.com/maclife.

11:31 AM: Short press Q&A starting in a minute here. Thanks for reading/enjoying/putting up with our live blogging/tweeting. Post comments below, or DM @Maclife on Twitter.

11:30 AM: So that's it! Coming to a phone near you this summer! No official release date, but I gotta say I'm pretty stoked. (RDF strikes again?)

11:29 AM: iPod touch owners can get the update for $9.95. (Prepare the complain-a-tron, but we've been through this before...)

11:28 AM: PEOPLE LIKE US will get iPhone 3.0 THIS SUMMER.(Boo!) Free update for iPhone 3G. Almost all features work on iPhone OG, no MMS or A2DP BT.

11:27 AM: First available as a developer beta, starting TODAY, for all members of the iPhone Dev Program, even new members. Lots of info on developer.apple.com, the technical mumbo-jumbo. Forums too so the devs can help each other.App Store is in 62 countries today (80 for iPhone itself), they're expanding that to 77 countries.

11:26 AM: "We're really excited about this. It's a major update to the operating system, and I can't wait until you can get your hands on it."

11:25 AM: He's recapping what he's already said. It's either almost over or almost time for ONE LAST THING... Stay tuned...

11:24 AM: No specific mention of tethering. (But lemme tell you...I've been tethering this whole time! No Wi-Fi in here! Thanks Netshare!)

11:22 AM: Scott says iPhone 3.0 has more than 100 new features. Notes Sync (syncs to Mac or PC over iPhone), Shake-to-Shuffle, Wi-Fi auto login, stereo Bluetooth over A2DP (YAY!!!), Anti-phishing and Auto-fill in Safari, YouTube subscriptions, LDAP, meeting invites, tons more.

11:21 AM: When music comes up in the Spotlight results, just tap it to play. Brilliant.

11:19 AM: "Wouldn't it be nice if there were a single location you could go to search across all these applications?" There is, it's called Spotlight.Spotlight demo coming atcha... It's a new app that searches Mail, Calendar, iPod, Notes, Contacts... all of it.Searches your app names. "If you're like me and have 100+ apps on your phone, it makes it easy to find and launch them quickly."

11:18 AM: NEXT: Calendar. Already supports personal and Exchange calendars. Now adding CalDAV (shared) and ICS (subscriptions) support. Nice.

11:16 AM: NEXT: Brand-new Voice Memos application. (Sorry, third parties.) Supports an external mic, editing, email/MMS-ing the memo.

11:15 AM: Send/receive vCards, photos, audio files, locations. All added to the existing SMS app, which Forstall keeps calling "Messages."

11:14 AM: Next: In SMS, the ability to forward and delete individual or multiple messages. And...SUPPORT FOR MMS! (No more freaky links.) "Welcome to 2002!" says Ray.

11:13 AM: NEXT: Landscape support, which you know and love from Safari and its nice big landscape keyboard. In 3.0, it's coming to Mail.

11:11 AM: "One more thing I want to show you." Now you can send more than one photo at a time. (Something I could've used just this morning...) In Photos, you just copy multiple photos to the clipboard and then paste them into a new Mail message. That's copy-paste in iPhone 3.0!

11:10 AM: You can copy whole SMS texts and paste those into Mail too. Works in third-party apps too. It's what you've been WAITING FOR ALL THIS TIME.

11:08 AM: PLUS you can press and hold on an HTML page (Safari) to select a selection, with grab points for adjusting it easily. Then copy & paste!SHAKE TO UNDO PASTE! Yes!!!!!!111!!!1!1!!oneone1! Also upports multiple undo/redo.

11:06 AM: CUT COPY PASTE!!!!! You double-tap words, they're selected, and a Cut/Copy/Paste dialog pops up. Select whole blocks the same way.You can even copy stuff from one app (Notes, Mail, etc.) and paste into another. Tap once to bring up the bubble to paste in copied text.

11:04 AM: Scott Forstall is on the side of the stage cracking up.

11:02 AM:You can play a duet over Bluetooth with another iPhone in proximity, or audition for the World Stage, a global community.Now they're playing two-man "Phantom of the Opera" on leaf trombone, with harmonies and everything. It's as wonderful as it sounds.

11:01 AM:Ge Wang, computer music researcher at Stanford, cofounder of Smule. Ocarina's social features have 700,000 users."it's our belief that everyone is inherently creative, and expressive." New app = Leaf Trombone World Stage. "Perhaps the first massively multiplayer online social music experience." You learn the leaf trombone (3 octaves). Slide and blow, baby...

10:59 AM: DEMO #7: Smule, creators of the Ocarina of awesomeness. Forstall says it's been used in "40 million performances" around the world. [The best of which is here...]

10:56 AM: Also LiveFire, a multiplayer FPS you can play over 3G or Wi-Fi. It looks like GoldenEye! Shake to jump, touch to look/move/shoot. Neat!Call for help: Sends a push notification to your friends so they can help you kill fools. In-app commerce for bigger guns! DOWN! FIRE! KILL!

10:54 AM: Touch Pets, like a social Nintendogs but for the iPhone. Uses push notifications to set up virtual playdates with your dog's friends. In-app commerce so you can buy duds for your dog, or gifts for others. Too friggin' cute, these wee puppies you guys.

10:52 AM: DEMO #6: ngmoco, a game developer (exclusively iPhone/iTouch), makers of the aforementioned WordFu (which is awesome)...They're excited about the network connectivity's potential for social games. Showing two games-in-progress today.

10:51 AM:App even does a graphical representation from her data. Tap on graph points to find out more about those specific instances. Awesome.

10:49 AM: Insulin caluclator, based on carb ratio, glucose readings, etc. Recalls how much insulin you've taken. Also links users to other diabetics.Diabetic kids can send glucose numbers to their parents from within the app, and let them know how she's feeling. App keeps whole history.

10:48 AM: LifeScan helps diabetics manage their disease. Tracks glucose readings (iPhone connects to glucose meter, via dock or BT), meals eaten, etc.

10:47 AM: Come on, where's Copy/Paste?-Ray

10:46 AM: DEMO #5: LifeScan, a Johnson & Johnson company.

10:45 AM: Still not all! Native app integrates with mobile website when you want more analysis, statistics, more info about the alert.

10:44 AM: That's not all! New media player (behind the scenes) scales the video quality for your 'Net connection, 3G or WiFi.

10:41 AM: DEMO #4: ESPN, who has a great Web app for iPhone and is now about to launch a native app too. ESPN has an alert service already to alert fans to scores, news, etc. "The new SDK will enable us to step things up on the iPhone..."

New alert shows a badge and plays the ESPN "duh-nuh-nuh! duh-nuh-nuh!" sound. Shows highlights, great video quality. SUSIE WANTS.

10:41 AM: JD Power ranked iPhone #1 in customer satisfaction among business smartphone users, says Scott.

10:37 AM: DEMO #3: Oracle. Already serving their enterprise customers with 5 apps in the app store.Also uses in-app email for keeping in touch with partners from within the Oracle Sales app, or any Oracle app.

10:36 AM: So it's got in-app commerce, plus media access (your Sim can play your music on his stereo and boogie down adorably) "I don't dance like Elaine." —Scott Forstall, for whom the dancing Sim in the demo was named...

10:34 AM: DEMO #2: Electronic Arts, the Godzilla of games, especially mobile games. Tetris, Spore, SimCity, Monopoly, all in der App Store.The Sims 3, coming soon to iPhone. Create a character, explore 3D rooms, spend simoleans, check out new features added by EA remotely

10:31 AM: DEMO #1: Meebo, one of the fastest-growing social networking websites around. CEO Seth Sternberg.meebo's native iPhone app lets you chat with people in any IM network (YAY!). It uses push notifications, which the company was waiting for. meebo also does "social feeds," like who's adding films on Flixster or who's put you on their IM buddy list.

10:29 AM: A few more new APIs: iPod library access (your own songs in games?! YES PLEASE), proximity sensor, in-app email, audio recorder, shake API.But they're adding 1000-some new APIs to the SDK. Now we'll hear from some developers who've had it for two weeks. This is always fun...

10:28 AM: Forstall says it's scalable and optimized for ALL the mobile networks the iPhone operates on worldwide. Impressive. (Can't wait to test that out!)

10:27 AM: 3rd party server (dev's) can only talk to phone when the app is running. But it can talk to Apple's push cloud any time. The push cloud keeps a persistent connection to the phones, and devs can send text and sound alerts, badges, etc. Very, very cool.

10:26 AM:They did tests with a popular IM client running in the background on a Windows Mobile phone, Android phone, etc. It wasn't pretty. Background processes dropped processing time by 80 percent. Push notification only dropped it 23 percent. Here's how it works...

10:24 AM:NEXT: Push notification!!! "You know? We're late on this one." —Forstall. But it's really coming, for real this time.At the App Store launch, the store grew too quickly, and Apple had to "rearchitect" their servers to do push notification."Now we're good to go." —Scott Forstall. Push is better than background notification, especially for battery life reasons.

10:23 AM:NEXT: Maps. Developers want to embed the Google Maps into their own applications, with full Cocoa Touch control. So Apple did it. It's the full Map API, supporting all views, the pinch controls, location services, etc. You can even "reverse geocode" your location. "ONE MORE THING" we're doing with Maps: Developers can use Core Location for turn-by-turn direction apps. It's just BYO maps.

10:22 AM:Accessory apps can use the dock connector, Bluetooth, standard and custom protocols. (Play/pause music, use the contacts, etc.)

10:20 AM: Even cooler example: Connect iPhone to blood pressure cuff, write an app that takes your blood pressure, stores/emails the data. Whoa.

10:19 AM:Phone 3.0 enables accessory makers to develop apps that talk RIGHT TO the accessories. Example: Equalizer app for speakers. Cool!!! Another example: FM transmitter maker can do an app for finding optimal station for the transmitter to use, plus a nice UI for you.

10:18 AM:NEXT: Accessories. "There are thousands of developers building thousands of accessories that work great for iPods and iPhones."

10:16 AM: NEXT: Peer-to-peer connectivity. Great for multiplayer games on multiple iPhones. Like WordFu, but not over a WiFi network.Automatic discovery, done wirelessly over Bluetooth (no WiFi needed), no pairing. "This is all completely seamless." --Scott

10:14 AM:Examples given: ebooks, city guides, more levels for games. Whole thing is tied to iTunes Store: Standard username/password dialog. Same business model as App Store: Dev sets price, keeps 70% of revenue. Apple covers credit card fees and pays devs monthly. Paid apps only.

10:12 AM: App Store improvements on the way. Devs have asked for subscriptions (say, for mags or comics), level packs (for games), new content.Apple will support all of those additional purchase models, called In App Purchase.

10:11 AM: iPhone OS 3.0, a major update to the iPhone/iTouch operating system. Features for both devs and customers. Devs first...

New SDK has more than 1,000 APIs, meaning developers can add even more functionality to their awesome apps.

10:09 AM: Here comes Scott Forstall, senior VP of iPhone software

10:07 AM: "The App Store is a meritocracy. You can be a guy in a garage." --Steve Demeter.

More than 25,000 apps in the store today. Nice job, devs. In Feb, "the first month for which we have data" (huh?!), 96 percent of apps were approved. More than 800 million DLs so far!

10:06 AM:Steve Demeter from Trism, a one-man development "shop" bringing it to the App Store. Apple says it really levels the playing field for devs.Video of Steve says he went from demo to done in 10 days, thanks to the Apple SDK. Eighth place in the App Store at launch, yeeeah!!!

10:04 AM:SDK beta announced 1 year ago. Since then the SDK has been downloaded 800,000 times, 50,000 joined the iPhone Dev Program.

10:03 AM:17 million iPhones sold already, including the Original Gangsta and the iPhone 3G. 30 million if you toss in those handy iPod touches. don't forget them!

10:02 AM:iPhone is already in 80 countries! 10 million by end of 2008 goal... blown away. 13.7 million sold in calendar year 08. Dang!

10:02 AM:Getting started.

9:55 AM: We're in!

9:36 AM: Parting pic before we go inside...see you here soon...live!!!

9:31 AM: Lots of security around..it's hard to take pics, but man the sun feels good! Not as good as cut & paste or MMS, or video or built-in tethering, or email search or.....but, you know, it's good. Happy St. Patty's Day.

9:17 AM: Waiting with the other journo-hordes outside, enjoying the Cupertino sun. Only 43 minutes until showtime!

MacBook Event Live Blog

Roberto Baldwin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:54:31 -0500

Welcome to the Mac|Life live blog of the MacBook Event at Apple. We're live and ready to rock the party that rocks the party. Logged in users will get a qucker update to the live blog, so be sure to log in people.

11AM: that's it folks. We'll have more pics from the hands-on. So keep on checking MacLife.com

10:54AM: Nividia relations do they have first dibs? Steve - Apple will be first and only folks to tae to market. It's up to Nvidia.

Blu-ray and Mini display port. - Steve explains why HDMI is not on the Macbook, resolution issues. Phil - Display port is the future. Blu-ray. Steve - Blu-ray is a bag of hurt. not from consumer point of view, licensing is so complex, waiting until that settles down.

17" MacBook pro - being refreshed today.

Whats the size and wieght dif - Macbook dropped half a pound and is thinner.

Repair and warranty cost - expect prices to drop over time with volume.

Glare on the new screens? - Going straight glass no matte option. Vast majoirty of customers like glass instead of matte.it'll be putting a lot of light via the LED backlit display.

Netbooks coming from Apple? - new market, jsut getting started and they'll see how it goes.

Did Apple design the motherboard in house or third party? - designed all in-house.

Do touchscreens make sense on the laptop - they ave experimented and it doesn't make a lot of sense.

10:52AM: Q & A session with Steve, Phil and Tim. Steve's blood pressure is 110/70. just so we all know. Hilarious

10:48AM: Video of how the factory building MacBook. It's nerd porn! Oh man they're playing Iron Man on the MacBook in the video. Super nerd porn. The video will be on Apple's site later today.

10:47AM: Video time! Jonathan Ive talks about the MacBook. They decided to start over. Talks about hiw notebooksare traditionally built from multiple parts. replaced al the parts with the unibody. Made notebook thinner, lighter and 200% radder. Okay, I (Robbie) added the rad part.

10:45: MacBooks Shipping Today!

10:38AM: New version of MacBook with Aluminum Metal enclosure, Faster graphics, LED backlit display. Looks like MacBook Pro.Nvidia Graphics for 5x the graphics speed. Glass trackpad. Also an EPEAT Gold Medal winner.$1299

10:38: One More Thing - MacBook, the best selling Mac ever! New Price $999.

10:36AM: 24" LED backlite Cinema Display - Second set of cable is made for notebooks. Has magsafe cable, USB cable and mini display cable. Clean. Built in iSight and stereo speakers. 1920x1200 - $899 Available in November.

10:35AM: MaCBook Air - Getting GeForce9400m, 120GB HDD, Mini Display port. Available in early November.

10:33AM: Macbok Pro is green. EPEAT Gold rating.

10:30AM: using mini display port now. No Firewire 400, Battery display on the side now. HDD and SSD available. easy access to battery and drive on the bottom. Pop out hard drive quickly. .95 inches tall. Two models.Shipping today. Hit stores tomorrow.

10:29AM: Integrated and GeoForce NViidia 9400m GT inside your new MAcBook Pro.

10:25AM: Unibody is half the parts. Steve Passes around the Unibody frame. It's incredible sturdy.

10:22AM: MacBook Pro - thinner, black border like iMac, al connectors on one side. LED-backlite display. Mini-display port connector.

10:22AM: Three finger gestures for scrolling, four finger for exposé and app switching with four finger. RAD!

10:20AM: A new track pad for notebooks. Multi-touch glass trackpad. 39% larger tracking area. Multitouch, glass for sily smooth travel, entire trackpad is button now., Multi-button via software or right click. new four finger gestures.

10:19: Steve is back - Nvidia came to Apple to combine chipset and powerful processor for desktop, apple said hey lets put that in notebook. apple and Nvidia worked together to get in the MacBook. Nvidia GeForce 9400m

Chipset+ GPU

70% of die area

16 parallel graphic cores

54 Gigaflops

up to 5x faster then current card.

10:18AM: Working on new unibody enclsures for notebooks.

10:16AM: Shows us how the MacBook Air keyboard piece is made. It's like a metal shop lesson. Starts at 200lb ends up .25lb.

10:15AM: Breakthrough in design when building the MacBook Air.

10:13: shows the inaards of all our MacBook Pros. The inside is where the strength comes from.

10:11AM: Jon Ive: Breakthrough in how they can design and build notebooks. Shows how they buid current MacBook Pro.

10:10AM: Steve's back -Introduces Jon Ive to talk about new way to build notebook.

10:08AM surpassed Dell as education supplier of computers.

10:07AM: Mac has outgrown the Market in last 14 of 15 quarters. Mac represents 17.% of units sales in the market. Revenue share is over 31%. 1 in every $3 is spent on the Mac.

10:01: Tim Cook: 2-3x the market rate of growth for the Mac. Reasons - 1. Better computers, 2.Better Software - Leopard is better than Vista, OH Burn! 3. Compatibility - Bootcamp enables Windows to run natively on Mac. Tim Cook - Seeing Windows on a MAc sends shivers up his spine. 4. Vista - Another Burn on Windows. 5. Great Marketing - Mac/PC ads. 6. Retail Stores - 400,000 visitors each day. 50% new to theMac.

10:01AM: It's Steve! State of the Mac. Introduces Tim Cook to give us an update.

10:00AM: lights dimmed. Very romantic.

9:57: Announcement to turn off cell phones. SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

9:55AM: Chamber music is very soothing. It's ike we're getitng married on the beach. Married to the brand new MacBooks.

9:50AM: We're inside the town hall. They're playing some classical guitar.

9:12AM: Waiting outside the auditorium. We could wait in the lobby, but it's such a beautiful day. Equipment test is A-OK.

WWDC Keynote - Live Updates

Mac|Life Staff — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:17:50 -0500

Welcome to the live blog of the WWDC '08 Keynote. The latest updates will be posted at the top of the page. Reload for the latest updates.

11:52AM: It'over folks. Stick with Mac|Life as we sort through all of today's news.

11:50AM: Steve thinks this WWDC will be the best so far.

11:49AM: Steve gives the iPhone team props. Give it up for the iPhone wizards!

11:48AM: new Ad - being palyed.

11:16AM: July 11th roll out date in 22 countries. Start camping outside Apple Stores now!

11:45AM: Price - $199 8GB / $299 16GB. 16Gb comes in white.

11:43AM: 70 countries - 3G roll out over the next seven months.

11:42AM: Go Malta!

11:42AM: Oh god, that song will be in my head all day now - Thanks Apple! (Robbie)

11:41AM: It's a small world - soo many new countries!

11:40AM: Tracking your moves with GPS. Geocaching here we come.

11:39AM: GPS!

11:38AM: battery time 300 hours standby time - 2G Talk time 10 hours- 3G talk time 5 hours - 5-6 hours of high speed browsing, 24 hours audio, 7 hours video time.

11:37AM: iPhone 3g 36% faster than Nokia N series and Tre. 3G is approaching Wi-Fi speeds.

11:34AM: 3G speed tests: website download benchmark - 21 sec on 3G / 59 seconds on EDGE - 2.8x times faster. Amazingly Zippy!

11:33AM: black on black, flush headphone jack, improved audio, slimmer, solid metal buttons

11:32AM: iPhone 3G!!!! ZOMG!

11:31AM: iPhone challenges - iPhones 3G network, enterprise, more countries, thrid-party apps, more countries, more afforadable.

11:29AM: Steve's back, waxes poetic about the iPhone. "This is the phone that's changed phones forever"Users love their iPhones, 90% customer satisfaction. 80% using 10 or more features. 6 million iPhones sold.

11:28AM: $99 a year, 20GB of storage available in early july, replaces .Mac. Buh bye .Mac.

11:26AM: Shares his photos with his parents via MobileMe fast and easy, boom right into the gallery. Phile loves his parents.

11:23AM:The Apple folks really love seafood. Phil added a sushi place to his contacts.

11:22AM: Gallery interface, wow. iDisk integration.

11:20AM: Drag and drop your email from the web application. Nice.

11:18AM: Web 2.0 interface. Share your pics with your MobileMe account gallery. Me.com

11:16AM: Your MobileMe stores your info is "up in the clouds." Push email and calendar. Works with Outlook for PC users.

11:15AM: It's Exchange for the rest of us. Oh snap, called Active Sync Active Stink.

11:14AM: MobileMe with Phil Schiller.

11:13AM: SDK can register up to 100 iPhones. Thats way more than the five iPhones you can develop on now.

11:12AM: Enterprise can deliver custom Apps over their internal intranet.

11:10AM: App Store, seemless use updates automatically. Develoeprs get 70% of App revenue. App Store will be in 62 countries. 10MB or less download directly over the air, Wi-Fi and iTunes. 10MB or More, Wi-Fi and iTunes downloads.

11:09AM: iPhone 2.0 released in early July. Free for iPhone, $9.95 for iPod touch.

11:08AM: Steve's back - new features: contact search, MS Office support, word, excel, powerpoint.Save images from email to gallery. Scientific calculato, parental controls, tons of new languages - switch between them on the fly.

11:04AM: push badges, custom alerts. All works over the air. Avaiable in September, will be seeded to developers soon.

11:03AM: Push notification service available to all developers. Yippeee!

11:02AM: Apple - Background applications = Bad. Bad for your battery and other applications. Takes swipe at windows mobile.

11:00AM: 1 Hour mark - developers are thanked. They love the SDK. Feature request, background running application.

10:58AM: Developer from Spain - made demo of game in two weeks. Should be ready by September.

10:57AM: Launching with App Store.

10:56AM: Pretty sweet interface. If only we'd all gone to medical school.

10:54AM: MIMvista - more medical Apps. Expect your Dr. to ignore you while browing YouTube, we mean using their sweet Apps.

10:51AM: Medical learning App, Modality. Learn about your inards.

10:50AM: More Demos. They'll never end.

10:48AM: MLB.com for the baseball fans. Real time updates for every game. "At Bat" in hte App store at laucnh

10:47AM: Mark Terry, our new hero with his rad App, Band.

10:46AM: Oh boy insurance industry Apps with Mark Terry -- oh wait, he made a music program. Rock on dude!

10:45AM: Driving on the iPhone = Fun. Both games $9.99.

10:43AM: Two games ported from OS X. Cromag rally and Enigmo.

10:42AM: Pangea is taking the stage.

10:41AM: You can report the news form your iPhone. Here comes trouble!

10:40AM: Check out the news with photos and video. Woohoo for news. Share the news with your friends.

10:39AM: The AP is next. Wait, what?

10:38AM: Blogging from your iPhone and adding photos from your photo gallery. Free at launch of App Store.

10:37AM: Typepad takes the stage. Largest professional blogging service in the world.

10:36AM: Loopt is free - find your friends.

10:35AM: Sam Altman from Loopt is next - Location social network.

10:33AM: iPhone number one mobile device to access eBay. eBay App "Auctions" developed in 5 weeks.

10:32AM: eBay on stage. Sell your old iPhone with the new iPhone.

10:30AM: 110 stages of Super Monkey Ball. All four classic classic monkeys, 5 distinct worlds. will launch with App Store for $9.99!

10:27AM: Here comes Sega -- Come on sonic and Super Monkey Ball

10:26AM: SDK -- it's loved by mobile develoepers. iPhone blows Blackberry and Windows Mobile away. Oh Burn!

10:24AM: Interface built, wired up, build it and BAM! We're cooking with gas! Now he's compiling it to his iPhone, it's like he's done this before!

10:20AM:We're building user interfaces people on stage, live coding. Scott's a wizard!

10:19AM: X-Code, it pretty much rocks according to Scott.

10:18AM: Open Gl real time screen graphics, Cocoa Touch makes building screen touch apps a breeze.

10:17AM: Sharing same API and tools as Apple internal. API's and frameworks share extensive basis of OS X. Same source code.

10:16AM: SDK time! Go Scott Forestall!

10:15AM: Disney, Law Firms, Army dudes, they all love the iPhone.

10:14AM: Corporate America "hearts" the iPhone.

10:13AM: It's enterprise video time!

10:12AM: Enterprise - Push email, Cisco VPN, network security, All the stuff we've heard before. 35% of Fortune 500 have participated in iPhone SDK Beta program.

10:10AM: 3 iPhone parts - Enterprise, SDK, new user features

10:09AM: 250,000 SDK downloads. 25,000 paid developers. 4,000 people in SDK program.

10:08AM: Three parts to Apple, Mac, iTunes, iPhone

10:07AM: It's Steve! 5,200 attendees. 147 sessions, 85 on Mac 62 on iPhone.

10:03AM: Lots of Classic rock. Is the keynote being held in the '50s?

10:00AM: Turn off your iPhones people. Steve's getting ready to take the stage.

9:52AM: Giddy with excitement.

9:45AM: Doors open everyone is filing in.