Apple iPod Special Event: The Live Blog

The Apple event is over and so is our live blogging. To read the post from the event's beginning, start at the bottom of the page. Thanks everyone, it was a blast to do.

2:20 pm ET: Event is concluding now. A little technical glitch with her beat machine, but she got that fixed and now KT is performing. Keep watching CNBC and CNBC.com. We may have a special interview coming up.

2:17 pm ET: This is a music event so Jobs is about to introduce a surprise musical guest: this time around it's KT Tunstall.

2:15 pm ET: Jobs now re-capping: the new Shuffle in five "great new colors." The all-new Nano. The new iPod Classic with up to 40,000 songs in your pocket.

The new iPod Touch. The iPhone. Price ranges from $79 all the way up to the iPhone's $599. It's pretty amazing that this is what we're going into the holiday season. But wait: customer satisfaction numbers are off the charts with iPhone. More satisfied with iPhone than any other Apple product. Millionth iPhone by end of this month: 8 gig model will see a price slashing: now $399 for the 8igig model.

So now, for just $100 more than the 8-gig Touch, you get an 8-gig phone! The Street may not like that price cut.

Now thanking the iPod team who are all standing. There are hundreds of them.

2:08 pm ET: Schultz: "We know that music is so important and so relevant to our customers. We're just getting started. Exclusive to iTunes. We are really really enthused about this."

Shultz says: Aggressive roll-out: approximately 5,800 Wi-Fi enable stores in U.S. Starting Oct 2, lighting up NYC and Seattle. Nov 7 in San Fran and 350 stores. In February, Los Angeles and 600 stores. By then, about 25% of all U.S. Wi-Fi Starbucks. All stores by some time in 2009. This is a big moment for Starbucks, and really for Apple and iTunes.

2:05 pm ET Schultz:"Starbucks really has become this "third place" between home and work. We are in a unique position to leverage the innovation and global footprint...to literally transform the marketplace." "Free access to iTunes through free network at Starbucks."

2:00 pm ET: Teasing the audience again, now previewing a new Paul McCartney song through Starbucks. Introducing Howard Schultz, joining Jobs on stage. "I'm thrilled to be here today and honored to be invited. A snapshot of Starbucks' global reach: over 14,000 stores serving 50 million customers per week. Average customer visits 18 times a month. Opening 7 new stores EVERY day.

1:57 pm ET: Bringing the Wi-Fi music store to the iPhone. Oh wait, one more, one more thing. A new partnership with Starbucks. "What we want to be able to do is combine our great iPods and our great love of music, with their great coffee and their great love of music." Get near a Starbucks and a new button will actually appear on your iPod that will let you know what song was playing when you walked in, and then you just tap the device and you can buy it.

1:55 pm ET: He's now demo'ing how to use the new wireless feature. Teasing the audience again, he's wirelessly previewing Lennon's "Imagine." "Isn't this incredible?" Jobs asks.

He's previewing categories: Top Ten, etc. Showing the search function. "It's really nice and fast."

1:52 pm ET: Finally. Wireless music downloads. Free previews over Wi-fi, and if you like it, you tap on it, and the buy now feature. When you dock the device, the new material is synched with desktop iTunes.Same prices. Same selection.

1:49 pm ET: Jim is back from doing TV: First touch device that Apple will ship globally. 22 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of video playback. Multi-touch user interface. 3.5 inch display; Cover Flow: Wi-Fi, Safari. There's something cool to do with WI-fi now, so let's build it in.

8 gigs: $299
16 gigs: $399

Shipping this month. Now showing the first Touch TV ad, which Jobs says they were working on as late as last night. Very cool. Web, music, video all in one device.

One more thing! Empty spot on the iPod Touch. A new application called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store! Finally, some of you are saying.

1:40 pm ET: Has Safari web browser. Gets Google and YouTube. Safari built into Touch so you can use the browser on a music player. Also making YouTube available, wirelessly downloaded, streamed over WI-Fi right to the Touch!

1:37 pm ET: CNBC Producer Annie Pong writes for Jim now: iPod touch video is 3 and a half inch screen. 8 mm thick.. Like iPhone, You scroll to get song. Scroll to get different parts of song. Video can go to landsape format. Also with photos. Have wi fi capability.

1:32 pm ET: Jobs is about to show the brand new iPod touch screen.

1:31: pm ET: The new 160 gig iPod will hold a staggering 40,000 songs. 80 gig model used to sell for $349. Now it'll sell for $249. The bigger model: $349. Both available today. Heading down to our broadcast position so I can give you a first look at the new Nano. So stay tuned.

1:30 pm ET: Now the iPod. And a new name is coming: We're calling the iPod, the iPod Classic, what we all know as the iPod. 30 gigs and 80 gigs historically. The new iPod Classic will START with 80 gigs. We're gonna offer a slightly thicker one: 160 gigs!!

1:25 pm ET: Two versions: 4 gigs and only Silver at $149. 8 gigs and all the colors for $199. They ship today, they're on planes and they should be stores, many stores, by this weekend. "A little video for everyone" is Apple's line for the new device. Now he's showing the first TV commercial featuring the new Nano. Very fun.

1:23 pm ET: Just showed a clip from a downloaded episode of Jon Stewart, featuring PC Guy. Now he's showing a photo slideshow on the device. When we went about replacing the most popular music device in the world, we took it seriously. And we think we nailed it.

Oh, battery life: 24 hours of music playback.

1:19 pm ET: iPod Nano colors: Red, silver, blue-ish, green and black. Old screen: 2 inches. New screen 2.5 inches. 320x240, 204 pixels per inch. Crisp display. Also including 3 casual games bundled into the new Nano, including one called Vortex.

1:15 pm ET: iPod Nano is the most popular music player in history, but we want to make it even better. Video coming to iPod Nano with a larger, even brighter display; "Cover Flow" to make it easier to look at album covers; games; more storage and a full metal design.

He took the tiny, squattier Nano from his jeans pocket. Super thin with a far bigger display.

Sold over 110 million iPods to date. We're approaching holiday 2007, and today we're going to refresh or replace every single product on this line.

He also made a ringtone out of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance," and then said, "That's when NBC calls," drawing laughter and attention to the ongoing pricing dispute between the network and Apple.

Jobs is now showing how easy it is to customize ringtones through iTunes. He's using Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and joked this would be a good tone for his wife. Particularly the part of the song: "What you want/what you get..."

The crowd liked that. He ended by choosing "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" for his wife instead.

1:07 pm ET: " Apple unveils ring-tones for iPhone, built into iTunes, including a custom ring-tone maker. 500,000 participating songs. They'd normally sell for $2.49. On iTunes, they'll sell for 99 cents and you can build it out of any part of the song."

1:06 pm ET: "We've sold over 100 million TV shows. This last statistic blew my mind: 32% of US music releases in 2006 were released digital-only. No CD releases. Digital only. That gives you an idea of how far we've come in this digital revolution these past five years."

1:02 pm ET: We started with over 200,000 songs. Now we have over 6 million songs. We have become the #3 music retailer in the U.S.

1:01 pm ET: From Steve Jobs: "Today we get to talk about music, so let's start with iTunes."

We have distributed over 600 million copies of iTunes. Customers have bought and downloaded over 3 billion songs. We're pretty amazed by this."

12: 59 pm ET: Lights dimming now. As soon as we get tape we'll rush it to the truck and get it on the air. Steve Jobs now on stage to thunderous applause.

12: 57 pm ET: The event is getting underway in three minutes. The admonition to turn off all electronic devices. Here we go.

Moscone West Building

12: 55 pm ET: And then there's this, making the rounds from AppleInsider: "Paul McCartney, one of the founding members of The Beatles, is scheduled to to appear on BBC Radio 1 later this afternoon to make "very special announcement," AppleInsider has learned. "McCartney, whose appearance is likely to coincide with announcements from Apple Inc. around the same time, will join BBC Radio 1’s Edith Bowman at approximately 1:00 p.m. Eastern."

Stay tuned. Could this be Steve Jobs patented "one more thing?"

That would be magical. But still a long shot.

Moscone West Building

12:52 pm ET: So we're in the auditorium at Moscone West. Far more intimate than Apple events past. A few hundred invited guests and dozens of media. There's definitely excitement in the air. And pressure too. Apple has to deliver something extraordinary with stock action like this. Gnarls Barkley is blaring from the audio system.

CNBC.com

12:40 pm ET: So here we are, about to hit live for MSNBC. Already done CNBC twice and CNBC Europe once. So it's fair to say there's a lot interest in the Apple announcement scheduled just minutes from now. NPD Group threw kerosene on the fire, now expecting 10 million to 11 million iPods sold in the September quarter. That's ahead of the 10 million the Street anticipated.

Microsoft is also lowering prices on its Zune media player (remember that that device?)

Apple once again is trading at an all-time high. Keep checking here for the latest from Steve Jobs and Apple.

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