by , 7:00 AM EST, January 9th, 2001

Welcome to our live coverage of the Keynote presentation by Steve Jobs that was held at MACWORLD Expo, San Francisco, 2001.

[10:50 AM PST] That's it. Stay tuned for further coverage and analysis throughout the day from The Mac Observer.

[10:48 AM PST] Jobs is summarizing the announcements, talking about new focus and strategy...the close of the keynote is aimed squarely at Wall Street...Jobs is trying to answer any questions that The Street has.

[10:46 AM PST] The PowerBook G4 does include the ATI Rage Mobility, and not the nVidia GeForce2 Go. The RAM is expandable to 1GB, 10/20/30GB drives, ship with 128MB and 256MB RAM standard...this is a great machine, and completely unlike anything Apple has made before. Visually, it breaks the mold of the Bondi/Graphite/plastic look, and is truly beautiful.

[10:40 AM PST] Steve compares the new G4 to the Sony Vaio. The Vaio is $50 cheaper, and is thinner than the Vaio sub-notebook. Apple has given us a PowerBook G4 AND the subnotebook everybody wanted. This machine is beautiful. Vaio has no CD or DVD, and Vaio has no wireless options...the beauty of the new G4, Steve says, is the sexiest notebook around.

[10:37 AM PST] 5.3lbs for sure...it is breathtaking. Did we mention that? Full-size keyboard, and the log is right-side up when open. VGA, IRDA, FireWire, 5 hour battery, AirPort built-in of course...2 models. 400MHz, and 500MHz, all of the other standard ports and hook ups, $2499, $2599. These will be available by the end of January. Jobs billing this as the ultimate portable video editing studio.

[10:36 AM PST] The laptop is thinner than Steve's finger, slot load DVD, silver/titanium display, 1" thick...it is stunning.

[10:34 AM PST] Steve says that Apple laptops are great, but we want to combine the Power and the Sex...here is the new G4 laptop. 1 Inch think, titanium, DVD, 15.2 inch screen, 500MHz G4, we think he said around 5lbs...

[10:31 AM PST] One more thing... (We love Steve. :) )

[10:30 AM PST] DVD Studio Pro is a new professional DVD authoring program, and will be available in Februrary for $999. This will serve as a wonderful companion to Final Cut Pro. These are the start of the pass into the Digital Lifestyle (iMovie, iTunes, iDVD)...

[10:28 AM PST] Jobs shows iDVD as a portable, digital photo album. Any source that can generate a QuickTime output can be used with iDVD. Can also take data from digital cameras, and literally store thousands of pictures on one DVD, and Apple will now sell DVD media for around $10/disk, or 5 packs for $49.95. This is another example of how the Digital Hub works.

[10:21 AM PST] iDVD allows users to add a host of backgrounds, button sizes and shapes, colors, style, the whole nine. Jobs is showing a DVD that he made yesterday, and is showing it in a $250 consumer DVD player (which again rolled out under its own power from the side of the stage). This really is neat. It takes the ability to have iMovies from the Internet and put them in a portable format. This, we think, is going to be a HUGE winner.

[10:18 AM PST] Jobs is showing how iDVD works, and the features are neat. It allows users to easily make the DVD's from iMovies and other sources. It adds complete navigation structure, and is all done by drag and drop. He teases the audience with the 1984 commercial, but doesn't play the whole thing. Crowd groans.

[10:16 AM PST] iDVD allows users to take movies, burn them onto a DVD, and can play on any DVD player. As an aside, Jobs has a computer "roll" out from the side of the stage automatically as the system to use to demo iDVD.

[10:11 AM PST] Jobs says he wants to be able to be able to take movies, burn them on to DVD's, and then play the DVD's in consumer DVD players. Apple has been able to reduce the encoding time of DVD from 25x's the source code to 2x's the source code using G4's Velocity Engine.

[10:08 AM PST] iTunes runs on Mac OS 9 and is FREE!!!! It is also available today from www.apple.com. The current release only supports the Apple made CD-RW's, but plug-ins for 3rd party CD-RW's are forthcoming. Neat.

[10:006 AM PST] iTunes has SoundJam like visual plug-ins (like White Cap)...not mention as to whether or not this is indeed SoundJam technology, but it sure likes like it.

[10:05 AM PST] JSimple drag and drop transfer of filles to portable MP3 players via USB connectivity. Also has total access to all of the Internet radio stations. Full internet radio player, and the whole thing can be miniaturized very easily to get it out of the way.

[10:00 AM PST] Simple drag and drop playlist creation. Once you have a playlist, to make a CD all you need to do is click the "Burn" button, and the CD is automatically made. That's it, all from one application. This is not done instantly, as no CD making is, but all one needs to do is click the "Burn" button and the computer goes to work.

[9:58 AM PST] iTunes allows users to browse by song, artist, or album...neat. Using some cool tunes, including Let It Be, as song demonstrations. Out of 1100 songs, users can search by typing in name, and as Jobs typed each letter the playlist kept shrinking in real time. This is a very easy way to search through large music libraries. This really is neat.

[9:57 AM PST] Jobs puts in B-52's and rocks out to Love Shack. When he puts the CD in, iTunes automatically connects to the internet CD database to get track names and information. Shows ripping the song at a full 8x speed...very impressive.

[9:55 AM PST] Jobs talks about RealJukeBox and Windows Media Player, and how they can do many of the things that users want to do. Like burn CD's, make MP3's, save music playlists, and transfer music to portable MP3 players. These programs don't do it very well, but Jobs has announced iTunes that is the uber-music client. Create playlists, burn CDs, listen to MP3's, and organize your music all from one Window.

[9:51 AM PST] Next focus is on audio...Jobs says we are in the midst of a Music Revolution and that is where Apple is going next.

[9:50 AM PST] Talks about iMovie as an example of enhancing the usefulness of a digital camcorder. A number of things had to happen at once for this to work, such as iTools, FireWire, QuickTime, and of course, marketing.

[9:45 AM PST] Mid '90's was the start of the Second Golden Age, that of the Internet. Jobs says that the Third Golden Age of the Internet is coming, that of the Digital Lifestyle (mentions camcorders, MP3 players, digital cameras, cell phones, and PDA's). Jobs wants the Mac to become the "Digital Hub" of the new Digital Lifestyle.

[9:43 AM PST] Moving on...where does Apple go from here? Talk of the industry as migrating away from the PC as a centerpiece, but Jobs thinks the PC is evolving...not dying. Says that 1980-1994 was the Golden Age Of Productivity.

[9:42 AM PST] Drag and drop CD burning...blank media mounts on the desktop, can drag files to the disk. The OS will then ask you if you want to burn the CD...that's it. Low end models are available today. Also, new speakers are available today for US$60. 15" Cinema Display now US$799. No new 18" flat panel...yet anyway.

[9:41 AM PST] Jobs talks about the MHz Myth and says that there is no validity to the difference in MHz, and you can't compare across platforms and processors.

[9:38 AM PST] Phil Shiller is on stage doing a comparison between the733MHz G4 and a 1.5GHz Pentium 4 using Photoshop. Of course, the G4 came out faster.

[9:35 AM PST] High end model will include a new super drive that can write DVDs that can be read in consumer DVD players while also being able to read and write CD's and DVD's, and is bundled with new 733MHz Model will include the Super Drive.

[9:34 AM PST] Four new modles, from 466MHz to 733MHz, all including only one processor. However, the 533MHz version will be offered in a dual chip model. Jobs says the single processors are because we can get the machines now.

[9:28 AM PST] Four new models will all include AGP 4x, CD-RW's, nVidia Graphics card, gigabit ethernet, 5 expansion slots, 133 MHz system bus. Outstanding!

[9:28 AM PST] Switching to G4's, and the theme of the new G4's is Power To Burn...AT 733MHz!!! Outstanding!!

[9:27 AM PST] Sat. March 24th is official ship date for OS X for US$129. The crowd was underwhelmed. :-) OS X will come pre-loaded on Mac's starting this July, somewhere around MWNY.

[9:25 AM PST] Gives demo of Maya and states that Maya was used to create the Star Wars Episode One Pod Racer scene.

[9:22 AM PST] 400 developers and 1200 apps have announced support for OS X. One of those apps is Alias Wavefront's Maya, and there is a demo of Maya going on right now.

[9:21 AM PST] Shows that now OS X can function like the "old Finder" by opening new windows for each folder or window that is double clicked. This should make old users happy. All of these new features address many of the concerns that users have stated over the Aqua interface.

[9:20 AM PST] The new toolbars are modified and a bit smaller, and FULLY cutomizable. Users are able to choose what they want to appear in each toolbar under X, such as the toolbar in the Finder, Mail...anything. This is neat.

[9:17 AM PST] The Apple Menu is back!! Modified, but providing much of the functionality of the old Apple menu. And, along with the new Dock features, provides nearly all of the functioality of the old Apple menu.

[9:13 AM PST] He shows that Dock can be active, and shows a new feature. If there is a folder in the Dock, or a disk, or anything, users can now click and hold (or likely "right click") and have a pop-up list of each and every item in that folder or that drive. Imagine this like GoMac or Drop Drawers...very cool. One click access to the entire drive.

[9:10 AM PST] Yes, Jobs showed the slow motion Dock "Genie Effect":-)

[9:07 AM PST] Jobs says that people requested a number of features, and he is going to demonstrate new OS X features. One is a new screensaver module that includes the ability to make your computer a "digital picture frame." Going over old features, such as live window moving and "sheets" for each window for open and save dialogs.

[9:06 AM PST] Reports that 100,000 people bought the beta, and over 75,000 feedback submissions. This has helped make Mac OS X better. Says there were three types of feedback. Positive feedback was that it was stable, people liked Aqua, Classic works, and UNIX is a great base.

[9:04 AM PST] Reviews Classic, Carbon, and Cocoa and encourages developers to not stick with the Classic environment.

[9:02 AM PST] Starts the show with OS X, and reviews the structure of OS X. States that "...our goal is for Darwin to never crash." Also mentions that it is optimized for multi-processors, and also states that it is open source and a "Linux-like" community has alredy developed around OS X.

[9:00 AM PST] Right on time, Jobs takes the stage and admits the last two months were challenging

[8:55 AM PST] Peope are filing in and we are waiting for the keynote to begin