SlashGear will bring you Live coverage of “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” Apple press event on Sept 9th 2009 at 10AM Pacific time. Live from SF.

Vincent is at the venue. I will continuously posting photos throughout the event while Vince is providing live stream to all of you.

Good morning and thanks for checking out the SlashGear Apple liveblog! It’s 9.30AM in San Francisco, with 30 minutes to go until Apple’s iPod event begins. Today we’re expecting new iPods, obviously, together with iTunes 9 – however in the past 24 hours we’ve heard talk of camera module shortages and even the possibility that the new iPod touch has been dropped from this morning’s event.

It’s also the first time we’ll be using our new push-update liveblog system, so let us know in the SlashGear forums how it’s working out for you: http://discuss.slashgear.com/

What we’re not expecting this morning is the Apple Tablet. Although we’ve heard plenty of rumors about the device, it’s not predicted to arrive until early in 2010.

We’re inside and we’re sat down! Apple have generously supplied WiFi this morning, so we won’t need the mifi too much. Music comes courtesy first of Aerosmith and now Green Day, and it’s LOUD.

There’s just ten minutes to go until the event begins.

Five minutes to go.

Apple has already revealed one feature – iTunes LP – and they’ve confirmed you’ll need iTunes 9 to use it.

Voiceover has asked us to take seats and turn off cellphones – we’re about to get started

Music now is The Rolling Stones – only minutes to go until they’re due to start

Lights are dimming and the music is “It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)” by The Rolling Stones

Steve Jobs is on stage!

There’s already been a standing ovation for him.

Jobs: “Thank you very much”.
He’s giving time for the applause to die down.

I’m very happy to be here today. As some of you know, I had a liver transplant five months ago. I now have the liver of a person in their mid-20s who died in a car-crash; who was generous enough to donate their organs”

Phil Schiller and Jeff Robbin (VP of iTunes engineering) are coming out to talk about iPhone – they’ve sold 30 million of them in just over 2 years.

“I wouldn’t be here without that generosity. I’d like to thank everybody in the Apple community for their support. So I’m vertical, back at Apple, loving every day. Today we get to talk about music:

One of the reasons for the success is the App Store, and they’ve seen 1.8bn downloads and over 750,000 apps listed.

Annoucning iPhone OS 3.1 today

Includes a “Genius” function which now recommends applications from the app store depending on what you’ve already tried – borrowed same tech from music recommendations

Jobs is demonstrating Genius on iPhone – it’s a new section in the App Store

iPhone OS 3.1 is available to download now, and will be free to both iPhone and iPod touch users

Second new addition in iPhone OS 3.1 is ringtones in the iTunes store, and they’ll be $1.29 each – “a breakthrough price”

Now turning to music. iTunes is the number 1 music retailer in the world, and active in 23 countries

They’ve sold over 8.5bn songs and have more than 100m accounts on iTunes, each with a registered credit card. Today comes iTunes 9.

It’s the next major release, and they’ve “cleaned it up and made it easier to navigate around”

It includes the latest version of Genius, which has gotten smarter thanks to all the people who have submitted their libraries. Over 27m submitted, each with approx 2,000 tracks, and Apple analyzed them all.

Now applying that to Genius Mixes – an automatic radio station integrated into iTunes 9. You click on a mix and it starts playing “and will go on and on and on”

Next up is new syncing; not only can you sync a playlist, but you can also sync according to artists or genre. e.g. you can sync just Rolling Stones tracks.

You can now also manage and organize your iPhone/iPod touch apps in iTunes 9

All done by check-boxes in the new Sync page – lists your artists, genres and playlists, or lets you choose “entire music library”

Also new is “Home Sharing” which will make it easy to copy songs, TV shows and other content between up to 5 computers in your house. All done by drag & drop, with a list of the computers you can access.

That gives you control over how homescreens are laid out, and you can move your apps around the screens. Then sync it all over to the iPhone itself.

You can choose to filter lists on other machines by what tracks aren’t in your own library, to make it easy to manage.

They’ve also redesigned the iTunes Store, and it has new artist pages and new TV pages. Plus iTunes LP – as we heard about just before the event – which includes photography and other details along with the album.

Steve is asking if people – like him – remember the days of LPs, and enjoying the album art and sleeve notes

They’ve included lyrics and text about the album and artist, together with photos and other information. They really want you to buy the whole thing, rather than just cherry-pick tracks individually.

Jeff Robbin is coming on stage to demonstrate iTunes 9

Jeff’s favorite feature is App Organization, he says, so he’s starting with that

You basically see a list on the left of your applications, ordered either alphabetically, by category or date, and then your iPhone homescreen panes on the right

If you want to rearrange an app you click it and drag it; plus you can select multiple apps and drag them at the same time. You can drag on the same screen, or to another homescreen

Meanwhile if you want to take apps off your iPhone there’s the usual X, or you can double click them in the list to send them back over.

Next up is Home Sharing, and Jeff is showing it working with his wife’s list

It’s not just music, TV shows and video that’s available, but applications as well

You can choose to automatically transfer new purchases from different categories – music, movies TV, audiobooks, apps – from one computer to another.

Or you can manually grab and drag content to your own playlist – Jeff is saying it’s much better than streaming in that respect

Now moving onto the new iTunes Store

“It’s got a clean look” and it certainly does look better than how iTunes is laid out today

In fact it looks quite a bit like Apple checked out what Microsoft were doing with the Zune: images are bigger, and there are more previews than before

You can preview albums and individual tracks in the main music section rather than having to switch into the individual pages, and there are new arrows next to “buy” which allow you to gift the track or send it to a wishlist that can be published automatically on Facebook or Twitter

Now moving onto iTunes LP, and demonstrating some of that functionality

He’s demonstrating with the Doors album

It’s a lot more interactive than a regular album sleeve, and has not only lyrics but big, high-quality images, links to band timelines and memorabilia

There are biographies and interviews with band members, plus the music video for Break On Through

Now switched over to looking at a Dave Matthews album, and there’s actual hand-drawn artwork from Matthews himself, with new pictures for each track.

Looks like there’s plenty of scope for bands and artists to put forward content for iTunes LP, so that they can try to sell more entire albums rather than just individual stand-out tracks

They’ve also done a similar thing for movies, called iTunes Extras, which has the sort of extra content you’d find on a DVD, plus interactive content

Steve Jobs is back on stage

He says iTunes 9 is available today. Now moving onto iPods, and Phil Schiller is coming up to discuss them

“If you haven’t heard” says Phil, “the iPod has been a big hit”. They’ve sold over 220m of them to-date, and that figure is growing. iPod is at 73.8% of market share

They’ve sold over 20m iPod touch units: “it’s remarkable that this amazing technology is taking off so quickly”

They have a pie-chart to show that – Sandisk have 7.2% and Microsoft 1.1%

In fact the iPod touch is the fastest growing product in the line; they’ve also sold 30m iPhones, so they’re counting it as a success for touchscreen-based devices

They credit the success to integrated WiFi, iTunes onboard – so it’s great for discovering new music

He’s talking about the ease of finding new tracks, such as Green Day’s album, directly on the iPod touch

Including access to Genius Mixes – now showing a Pop Mix on-screen, with Rihanna and Fergie coming up when triggered by Michael Jackson and Madonna

“It’s a great pocket computer – if you can get on WiFi you can get onto the internet and have a desktop-like experience”

“Not everybody’s computer can fit into your pocket” – there’s a picture of a Dell netbook ripping open someone’s back pocket on-screen

Now talking about it’s potential as a gaming machine – comparing to the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS

For instance, neither of those two have multitouch, they have expensive games, there’s no App Store and no iPod functionality.
“When the PSP and DS came out they seemed cool, but once you play on the iPod touch they don’t stack up any more”

Chart showing 607 games available for PSP, 3,680 for DS and 21,178 for iPhone OS – plus they’re cheaper, you’ll pay $30-40 for a PSP game, $25-$35 for a DS game

Now playing a demo video of gaming on the iPod touch, complete with loud music soundtrack

That video went down well – this is obviously a room of casual gamers

Asking Ubisoft to come on-stage and demo some of their stuff from Assassin’s Creed

Apparently Assassin’s Creed became the fastest gaming brand ever. Its producer, Ben Mattes, is talking about the sequel and how Apple have created “a world class gaming experience”

It’s a side-scroller type title, but there’s more interaction with the environment than you’d get on a PSP/DS. For instance you can put your own images into the game, which are used as wanted posters

The iPhone/iPod touch version of the game will launch at the same time as it does on traditional gaming platforms, apparently.

Bart Decrem from Tapulous is coming up on stage to talk next

They’re different, says Phil, as they started as a dedicated iPhone/iPod touch studio. Now they’re looking to integrate music and racing.

Tapulous got 1m users in three weeks when they launched, and are announcing a new game today. It’s called Riddim Ribbon; demo’ing it with Boom Boom Pow – you race down a track (a groove in the road) to keep up with the music

Graphics are a little like Tron or Wipeout

Control is by tilting the iPod touch, and you can flick it to jump or add in custom sounds. Then, at the end, you can save the “mix” and share it with other people. Not that we know who’d want to hear it, really.

Gameloft on-stage next, and they’ve apparently seen 20m downloads from their 35 titles in the App Store today

They’re demonstrating a first-person shooter called Nova which isn’t released yet

Similar in style to Halo. You control movement/targeting with an on-screen stick.

Also supports multiplayer gaming over both Bluetooth and WiFi, and you can play iPod music in the background.

Next up is EA, and Travis Boatman is coming up on stage.

They’re bringing Madden NFL 2010 to the iPod touch/iPhone: “one of the largest franchises”

Graphics aren’t as impressive as Nova, but gameplay is all there. Showing 49ers versus Steelers

Can either control it using sticks down at field-level, or with an overview birds-eye view

Madden NFL 2010 will be available in the App Store today. Now Phil is back on stage

“I hope you agree that the iPod touch is not only a great iPod, and portable computer, but an unbelievable gaming device. It’s also the most affordable gateway to the App Store, where there’s something for everyone, an app for anything you want”

Pointing out that it’s $229 with no subscription fees

“We asked engineering to get the costs down – and when we did that, sales doubled. We learned $199 is the magic price point, and that’s what we’ll do with the iPod touch”

So from today, iPhone touch 8GB is $199. 32GB model is $299, while new 64GB model is $399. And the latter two models are now up to 50% faster, too.

They now support Open GL, just like the iPhone 3GS. Now showing a new advert for them.

The advert shows high-performance gaming on the iPod touch, in a similar style to the previous adverts – flips between different uses

It’s still being called “The funnest iPod ever.”

Next up, the iPod classic. That gets a boost from 120GB to 160GB but stays the same size and keeps the same price: $249

Next is the iPod shuffle: “the smallest music player in the world, and it’s the easiest to use”

Not sure we agree with “easiest to use”, to be honest

They’re talking about new headphones with shuffle-compatible controls, such as the Beats by Dre with their new controller (that we heard about earlier this week)

Still supports VoiceOver to announce tracks, tell you battery status, etc. Now comes in new colors – as well as black and silver, there’s metallic pink, green and blue. Plus the price is down: $59 for the 2GB model

A VIDEO CAMERA

While the 4GB iPod shuffle is $79. There’s also a special edition, which is polished stainless steel; $99 for 4GB

ONE MORE THING…

“Video has exploded over the past few years”. Talking about Flip being $149 for 4GB capacity.

But Apple are “going to start with 8GB, and we’re lowering the price to free”

Every nano is going to have a camera, built into its back

Just as the leaked images suggested, the camera is tiny and in the lower left-hand corner of the nano’s back plate, complete with a microphone and speaker. Yet still “incredibly small”

“So how good is it? Turns out, it’s great – let me show you some video”

You can either watch the footage on the nano or you can sync it to your computer; then you can send it with a single click to YouTube. If you’re using a Mac you can sync it into the apps on there for archiving or editing. They’ve sold over 100m nanos and it’s the most popular music player in the world

They’ve also put in an FM radio – which is about time – and support for Genius Mixes like in iTunes 9 and the iPod touch OS 3.1

Plus there’s an integrated pedometer, which can be sync’d with a Nike+ system, and a voice-recording app.

Goes on sale today, priced at $149 for the 8GB model and $179 for the 16GB model.

The display is bigger, at 2.2-inches, and there are new colors in polished anodized aluminum. Also gets VoiceOver and of course that FM radio/pedometer/video camera

Colors look to be red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, graphite, silver and pink

Now showing the new advert, which is basically people dancing, being filmed on the nano, and generally loving their new iPod

Steve is back on stage, and he’s talking environmental issues. The iPods are all BRF-free, use arsenic-free glass, are mercury and PVC free, and are recyclable

Norah Jones is going to be playing the event out

She’s coming on-stage. So altogether today we’ve had iTunes 9, the new iPhone OS 3.1 for iPhone and iPod touch, OpenGL 2.0 support on the faster, larger-capacity iPod touch 32GB and 64GB, together with cheaper, more colorful iPod shuffles (and a limited edition, polished version). Oh, and the new iPod nano with FM radio, camera, video recording, and pedometer.

Nothing on the iPod touch with camera rumors, but it’s unclear whether that’s because Apple don’t want to cannibalize sales of the iPhone or if they’re having technical problems as reported earlier in the week.

Looks like that’s everything from today; thanks for joining us on the liveblog. We apologize for the shortage of live images; we’re having problems with our Eye-Fi card here at the event. Keep an eye out on the SlashGear frontpage for all the news from today.