Getty Images Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds the new, smaller Apple TV device as speaks during an Apple Special Event in San Francisco.

Editor's note:  This was a live blog from the Apple news conference where Steve Jobs unveiled a new TV device, new pricing and new upgrades for Apple products. You can read in chronological order from the bottom up.

2:19 PM/ET: Martin's still playing and Apple tells me it's over - I'm heading out to do a live shot for CNBC.

2:18 PM/ET: Martin is now playing the piano. "OK so far?" He asks. Cheers.

Funny that his daughter's name is, well, Apple.

2:16 PM/ET: He's playing Yellow.

Now it makes sense that Jobs showed Gwyneth Paltrow's artist page earlier... she is as you know, Martin's wife.

2:14 PM/ET: Jobs says that with music events, Apple

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[AAPL  Loading...      ()   ] always asks an artist to perform.

This is someone we love, Jobs says.

Coldplay.

Wow. That's the biggest band Apple's ever had at one of these. Previous artists have included Norah Jones, John Legend, Randy Newman. Chris Martin, the lead singer, is here alone.

2:12 PM/ET: Now Jobs is summing up the announcements.

Apple TV will be available within four weeks.

2:11 PM/ET: How can Apple afford to sell it for so little?

No screen, which is a major cost — also no hard drive.

Source: apple.com

Smart.

2:10 PM/ET: The new Apple TV will cost 99 bucks.

Wow!

That's a powerful price point.

Analysts typically say 150 bucks is the threshold for an impulse buy. At 99 bucks, it's even within reach of the youth market.

2:09 PM/ET: About AirPlay: with this new feature, you can stream video from, say, an iPad to an Apple TV.

The crowd erupts in applause.

This is a big selling point, actually. No computer required. You can download content to an iPhone or iPod, and stream to an Apple TV.

2:08 PM/ET: Apple similarly had trouble getting Hollywood on board when it first launched TV downloads. What will it take to get others to sign on? I think Apple will have to sell a lot of them, and probably show that programs available for rent result in increases in TV viewing, not decreases. Networks tend to worry most about cannibalization, which would lead to lower ad revenue.

2:05 PM/ET: Despite its many features, the major weakness of this device is that only two TV networks have signed on.

2:04 PM/ET: The interface looks really clean. He orders the movie, and after about 10 seconds it's ready to watch. He skips ahead to another chapter, and it starts playing immediately.

Source: apple.com

That's solid.

2:03 PM/ET: You can generally start watching within seconds of renting.

Now, a demo....

The slideshows are reminiscent of the iPad, which suggests this is indeed running a TV version of iOS.

2:00 PM/ET: Jobs is showing off the interface: very different from handheld iOS devices. This is a TV-specific interface. Rotten Tomatoes reviews and Tomatometer are built in.

1:59 PM/ET: This box also has NetFlix

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[NFLX  Loading...      ()   ] streaming. It also has YouTube, Flickr photos, MobileMe content, too.

1:59 PM/ET: The shows are commercial-free. ABC

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[DIS  Loading...      ()   ] and Fox  are the only two on board.

1:58 PM/ET: HD TVshows will be 99 cents to rent.

1:58 PM/ET: First-run HD movies will be 4.99.

1:57 PM/ET: It does movies, TV shows, it's all HD, it's all rentals, and there's no storage problem.

You can stream content from a computer, including music, photos and video.

1:55 PM/ET: The new generation of Apple TV is a quarter of the size, and you can fit it in the palm of your hand. On the back: power, HDMI. It connects via Wi-Fi.

1:54 PM/ET: Jobs goes on to say that consumers don't want to manage the storage of files. And they don't want to sync to a computer.

They want the hardware to be silent, cool and small.

1:54 PM/ET: Apple

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[AAPL  Loading...      ()   ] introduced it four years ago. It hasn't been a big hit. Apple has learned that people want Hollywood movies and TV shows. They don't want user-generated content like YouTube. They want lower prices. They don't want a computer on the TV.

Source: apple.com The price breakdown for the new iPod Touch.

1:53 PM/ET: Next: one more thing. One more hobby. He's talking TV.

1:52 PM/ET: Jobs is now showing the concert activity, and how it lets people see everything you post about an artist.

Interesting note: Ping is available on the iPhone and iPod touch now, available in the iTunes store. (Sounds like it's not on the iPad or the low-end iPods yet.)

1:49 PM/ET: Now Lady Gaga is talking about iTunes 10 and the new Ping features in a recorded video. (It's not clear how much detail she had about the feature ahead of time)

1:48 PM/ET: It's important for investors to note that iTunes itself is not a huge revenue or profit generator for Apple, historically. So what this Ping social feature will do, if it works as Apple hopes, is boost loyalty to iTunes, and hook people into Apple's ecosystem. That should make them less likely to defect to rival platforms like Android and Windows Phone 7.

1:46 PM/ET: There are more than 17,000 concert listings. It's open to 160 million users immediately.

1:45 PM/ET: You can get as private or as public as you want, Jobs says.

1:44 PM/ET: Jobs continues to elaborate on Ping: You can follow people, let everyone follow you, or screen who's allowed to follow you.

1:43 PM/ET: I wonder if there's Facebook integration here. This doesn't strike me as much of a threat to Facebook, so I suspect there is a Facebook tie-in or one is coming.

1:42 PM/ET: Now in iTunes 10, there's Ping, a social network for music, built into iTunes.

This is a big assault on MySpace, which built itself on being exactly that.

You can find people through search. You get a custom top 10 chart based on what people you follow are downloading from iTunes.

1:41 PM/ET: One of the things Apple has focused on is discovery: How to find new music and concerts.

1:41 PM/ET: In the list view, you can now see album artwork.

1:41 PM/ET: Today, the release of iTunes 10 and it gets a new logo. No more CD in the logo. It's a blue circle with notes in the middle.