Real Kato Blog: Apple Watch: Macworld Keynote Live Blog

Well, technically, this is a live blog of other blogs covering the keynote, since I'm not at the Macworld Expo, and there's no live video feed. Recycled news, that's what we do best here at the Real Kato Online.

Reload this page periodically for live updates. And I know, this site can be slow sometimes... you can blame GoDaddy's overloaded servers for that.

1:42 PM EST
That's all, folks. For those keeping score, Apple just hit predictions #1 and #5 from my 2008 list. I'd say this keynote rates a "B+" for product advancement; good products, yes, but people have expecting (and clamoring for) these things for some time.

1:33 PM EST
Randy Newman performing; does that signal the end of the keynote? The song seems to be an anti-Bush political rant: funny!

1:29 PM EST
Green news: circuit boards are BFR- and PVC-free free; packaging is recyclable aluminum. Lead-free, arsenic-free, mercury-free display. 56% less packaging than MacBook by volume.

1:24 PM EST
New feature called "remote disk" for installing stuff from CD/DVD from another machine. (i.e. network-mount another machine's optical drive. Clever.) 5 hours of battery life, 2 GB of RAM. $1799; not terrible for a subnotebook. Ships in two weeks.

1:20 PM EST
Gizmodo has photos; WOW this thing is sleek. Photos seem to confirm, no optical drive. Intel's new processor is 60% smaller than their older one. Body is largely taken up by the battery! 45W MagSafe adapter; 1 USB port; "micro-DVI" output; 1 audio-out port; 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1/EDR.

1:17 PM EST
Uses 1.8" 80GB hard drive, like the iPod Classic. 64GB flash-memory drive optional. ("Pricey but fast.") 1.6 GHz Core 2 Duo standard, 1.8 GHz optional (new low-power processors from Intel). Apparently no optical drive? No reports on that yet.

1:14 PM EST
3 pounds. 13.3" widescreen display (1280x800), 0.76" at its thickest, down to 0.16" at its thinnest point. Fits inside a manila envelope! Magnetic latch. LED-backlit display. Backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor. iSight camera. Multi-touch trackpad with iPhone-like gestures.

1:10 PM EST
The fourth thing: MacBook Air. Whaddaya know, that turned out to be the name after all. "The world's thinnest notebook." Not a MacBook or MacBook Pro replacement; a third notebook category. Starts by talking about the compromised designs of existing subnotebooks: small keyboard, small display, slower processors.

1:08 PM EST
As previously reported, Fox is also including an iTunes-compatible file on their new DVDs.

1:07 PM EST
A thought on iTunes rentals... if they expand their library to include nearly everything that's available from Blockbuster/NetFlix, then not only will I cancel our Blockbuster subscription, I'll cancel all our cable movie channels as well.

1:06 PM EST
Stock update: Apple is at $171.12, down 4.28%. The stock might well end up around there today, but expect a bump in after-hours trading.

1:02 PM EST
Wow, free software update for existing AppleTV owners. For new buyers, entry-level price drops from $299 to $229. (I think we'll see $199 in the near future.) Chairman and CEO of Fox, Jim Gianopulos comes on stage; Fox was the first studio to sign up for rentals.

1:00 PM EST
Demo issue: apparently can't get through to Flickr. Also: You can buy music from the AppleTV.

12:56 PM EST
You can also watch podcasts, HD podcasts, YouTube, TV shows (600 currently in catalog, $1.99), music videos, anything on dot.mac, and anything that's in your iTunes library.

12:53 PM EST
Demo includes an HD movie that starts instantly, though of course Steve's on a really fast connection. I'd expect a substantial delay for most home users trying to stream an HD movie.

12:47 PM EST
Jobs says everyone has failed to get movies onto their living-room flat-panel TVs. So he's introducing a new AppleTV. No computer required. HD (probably 720p), Dolby 5.1 audio, sync with Flickr and dot.mac, sync with iTunes. HD rentals for $3.99 and $4.99; 100 titles available in HD, many more to come soon. Brand new UI... Engadget calls it "sexy".

12:44 PM EST
Tech notes: Dropping ZDNet, CNet, Macworld; they're lagging behind on updates.

12:42 PM EST
The skinny: You have 30 days to start watching, then 24 hours to finish. $2.99 for older titles, $3.99 for new releases. Over most broadband connections, movies stream and can start playing within 30 seconds. Works with Mac, PC, iPod, iPhone. 1000 titles available.

12:40 PM EST
Holy crap. Touchstone, MGM Miramax, New Line Cinema, Lion's Gate, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Disney, Paramount, Sony, and Universal are all on board. Every major studio. This is a real coup.

12:39 PM EST
Third thing: iTunes. Four billion songs sold. 20 million songs sold Christmas day, a new one-day record. But only 125 million TV shows and 7 million movies. How to improve that? iTunes movie rentals.

12:37 PM EST
iPod Touch owners can add mail, stocks, news, and weather for $20. Why not free? Might be a Sarbannes-Oxley thing.

12:35 PM EST
Tech notes: Engadget's servers having trouble keeping up; ditto for CNet. Bloggers report that Twitter has crashed.

12:33 PM EST
Webclips: you can bookmark specific sections of web pages, and add the bookmarks to your home screen. Nice. Maps locator is the cell-tower-triangulation thing from Google we heard about a while back, combined with a WiFi triangulation service called SkyHook. Very nice.

12:30 PM EST
Stock note: trading is heavy; currently $173.59 (down 2.9%).

12:27 PM EST
New software for the iPhone today, in advance of the SDK coming in February. Maps with location. Webclips. Customizable "home" screen. Song lyrics. SMS to multiple recipients. Most of this was leaked on Mac sites weeks ago.

12:23 PM EST
Second thing: iPhone. Four million have sold; that's 20,000 per day for 200 days. 19.5% market share, second only to RIM.

12:20 PM EST
New product: "Time Capsule". It's a wireless backup appliance that goes with Time Machine in Leopard; essentially, an Airport Extreme basestation with a hard drive attached. Hmm, I kinda thought this would come back in 2007. $299 for 500GB, $499 for 1TB. "Server-grade" internal hard drive. Gizmodo has a photo; kinda looks like an AppleTV.

12:16 PM EST
Steve Jobs is on stage; briefly recaps 2007. He says he has four things to talk about today. The first thing is Leopard. 20% of the Mac installed base has migrated to Leopard; 5 million copies have been sold; this is the most successful Mac OS release ever.

12:15 PM EST
It's starting... they're showing a Mac/PC ad.

12:13 PM EST
Ars Technica reports that Apple security is threatening to toss anyone who takes photos. Interesting.

12:06 PM EST
Three separate blogs have commented on the pre-show music. Coldplay and Green Day seem to be the official pre-keynote bands for Apple. New this year, though: Kanye West. Jason Chen of Gizmodo: "No one can say Steve Jobs doesn't care about black iPods."

12:02 PM EST
Various bloggers report that they're in, and seated, and waiting for the start. Things seem to be running a little late.

12:00 PM EST
Keynote scheduled to begin

Live blog sources:
Engadget
Gizmodo
Ars Technica
Macworld
ZDNet
CNet News.com
AppleMatters
MacRumors

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