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Businesses Communications Apple News Technology

Apple To Stream a Product Launch Live For the First Time 288

Posted by timothy from the partying-like-it's-2002 dept.
redletterdave writes "In the biggest surprise since the original iPhone, Apple has decided to live stream its product announcement for the very first time on Tuesday. This means that the company's media announcement from the California Theatre in San Jose, which will begin at exactly 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST), will be available to watch on computers, laptops and mobile devices for the very first time, all in real-time. Apple will be live streaming today's event directly on the company's website. Apple says all Mac and iOS devices will be able to live stream the event, including computers, laptops, iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs." Update: 10/23 18:45 GMT by S : The iPad Mini was announced, as expected. It has a 7.9" screen at 1024x768, it's 7.2mm thick, and it runs on an A5 chip. Pricing is as follows for the Wi-Fi only version: 16GB for $329, 32GB for $429, 64GB for $529. For LTE-capable versions, add $130. Apple also updated the larger iPad, as well as its Mac Mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro lines.
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Apple To Stream a Product Launch Live For the First Time More

Apple To Stream a Product Launch Live For the First Time

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  • Apple devices? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SoundGuyNoise ( 864550 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @11:42AM (#41741799) Homepage
    I was going to ask sarcastically if any device can stream it, or just Apple devices. Then I finished reading the article.

  • They used to stream Keynotes (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @11:43AM (#41741815)

    would not consider this a First Time.

  • What? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @11:44AM (#41741835)

    I dunno what semantics the authors are juggling to call this the first time Apple has live streamed it's product launches. But back in the day, Apple used to live stream all their WWDC keynotes... this is definitely not a first for Apple.

    • Not just WWDC, but both MacWorlds and other events too. And they used to do satellite broadcasts of the events as well.

      But, you know, slashdot has to keep up with the slogan of Yesterday's News Tomorrow, so...

    • Indeed. They even tried to use it as a selling point for Quicktime back in the day, since each of their events broke records at that time for largest number of simultaneous Internet streaming viewers. They stopped doing it for every keynote a few years back, but they've still done it on occasion here and there. I hope they bring it back as a part of the events, especially now that they're trying to increase their cloud presence, but I still wouldn't bet on it happening just yet.

    • Well, this is the very first time, except for the Power Mac G4, Power Mac Cube, iBook, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iMac 3rd Gen until the aluminum ones, etc.

      So basically this is the first live stream since like 2007. But keep on with checking those facts before stating them like 4 times in the summary!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nurb432 ( 527695 )

      With an attention span of 6 minutes, you honestly expect people to remember that far back?

      I dont, wait, what were we talking about? Oooo hang on, i see a shiny object...

  • I'm on the edge of my seat (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jeng ( 926980 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @11:45AM (#41741853)

    So reporting on a news release about the fact that an upcoming news release will happen live.

  • To be paid to the snarky foxcon wage slave(or his/her next of kin, if company security catch up to him) who upstages this announcement by live-streaming a product announcement straight from the factory floor!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeng ( 926980 )

      I would think that a live streaming suicide is more likely.

  • New Tag Line (Score:5, Funny)

    by MyLongNickName ( 822545 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @11:47AM (#41741869) Journal

    News for Nerds
    Stuff that Matters
    Apple Stories Regardless

  • Modern Times (Score:4, Funny)

    by carrier lost ( 222597 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @11:50AM (#41741923) Homepage

    What are the odds on how long it runs before being taken down by a DMCA Bot?

    • Considering Apple runs the whole infrastructure from top to bottom (rather than using, say, YouTube or ustream), I highly doubt this would happen.

  • "Apple says all Mac and iOS devices running new enough software will be able to live stream the event, including computers, laptops, iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs."

    FTFY.

  • Thats no moon (Score:2, Funny)

    by gmuslera ( 3436 )
    I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out "I want one now"

    • Re:Thats no moon (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @03:27PM (#41744743)

      I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out "I want one now"

      That's amazing, in spite of the fact the this new product has lower screen resolution than a product that costs $130 less, sports an obsolete dual core processor, and still has no built in USB port.

      Oh, and the battery is glued in.

  • The stream still isn't working on the Apple web site so I'm following in on Wired. Oh well. I hope the announcement is more impressive than their live stream!
    • Works fine from iOS or Mac OS... They should have stated that on the website. When I use windows it just says try again later....

  • From apple.com's event page:

    Live streaming video requires Safari 4 or later on Mac OS X v10.6 or later; Safari on iOS 4.2 or later. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 5.0.2 or later.

    • If your "live stream" is only viewable by a select group of devices I don't consider that "live".

      Lame way to get a more favorable audience for the initial views and reports.

  • For the very first time (Score:4, Funny)

    by future assassin ( 639396 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @12:40PM (#41742641)

    > laptops and mobile devices for the very first time, all in real-time

    Another small step for man kind and giant ego leap for hipsters.

  • I'd assumed that Apple had been streaming their product launches for years. They weren't?

    • I'd assumed that Apple had been streaming their product launches for years. They weren't?

      And now they only stream to the Apple faithful, reminding everybody about that walled garden thing. The message they seem to send is "we have no hope of converting new customers, we'll just keep preaching to the converted" and hope to stem defections. Now the consensus is coming in from around the web: the price is problematic and the specs are considerably weaker than Nexus 7.

  • iPad Mini -- $329 (Score:5, Informative)

    by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @01:17PM (#41743133)

    Well, they announced the iPad-mini starting at $329 for 16GB, wifi-only. At that price, I don't think it is going to be the "Android-killer" they hoped it would be.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kergan ( 780543 )

      Uh huh? As in "No Wifi. Less space than a nomad. Lame."?

      We know how that worked out for Apple...

  • Ipad mini priced at $329 so as to avoid gutting sales of Ipad 3. Another in a string of Apple blunders. Customers will defect to Nexus 7 at $100 less or Kindle Fire also at $100 less and offering the Amazon marketplace. It's now safe to say that Apple will be looking at a minority share of the tablet market from here on in.

    • Re:Another Apple blunder (Score:5, Interesting)

      by vakuona ( 788200 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @01:50PM (#41743557)

      Yup. Let's all ignore Apple's real advantages here. That you get 275,000 apps that work ono the iPad mini. Or that the Nexus 7 that costs $199 is actually the 8GB version.

      Oh, and lets just pretend that the bigger and more expensive iPad is not outselling the Nexus 7 right now, with a much larger price differential.

      • Re:Another Apple blunder (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @02:25PM (#41743995)

        Oh, and lets just pretend that the bigger and more expensive iPad is not outselling the Nexus 7 right now, with a much larger price differential.

        Indeed. I just ran the math on it, and the numbers ended up being about 16M iPad sales in the last 3 months, as compared to 3M Nexus 7 sales in the same time frame.

        For anyone who wants to check my numbers, Apple announced today that they had sold 100M iPads. Wikipedia has a breakdown of iPad sales by quarter [wikimedia.org], and if you subtract those from the 100M number, you're left with roughly 16M sales that apparently make up the current quarter up to this point. Wikipedia also has sales numbers for the Nexus 7 [wikipedia.org], and says that it's sold 3M as of mid-October, which would be pretty much exactly three months after it launched and only unaligned with Apple's numbers by about a week or two, making it a good comparison.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by kipsate ( 314423 )
        That you get 275,000 apps that work ono the iPad mini.

        Which ones, old, pre-retina iPad apps or newer retina iPad apps that will look like shit if they work at all?

        This device should have had a retina resolution if it was to exist at all. Now it is just an enlarged iPhone. Only few developers will target this device specifically. It will be a niche device. I can see it being used by waiters for taking orders on a busy terrace. But as a media consumer or internet front-end device it will fail. The screen

        • Which ones, old, pre-retina iPad apps or newer retina iPad apps that will look like shit if they work at all?

          You haven't a clue how this works. Those apps are in the vast majority of cases exactly the same. It's just that the developer supplies artwork at the two different resolutions. And for text, it renders much more nicely on the double resolution Retina display.

          But as a media consumer or internet front-end device it will fail.

          Every device Apple has released has had people like you declaring they would fail. And with few exceptions, such predictions couldn't be more wrong. Prepare to look stupid.

    • "Ipad mini priced at $329 so as to avoid gutting sales of Ipad 3. Another in a string of Apple blunders. Customers will defect to Nexus 7 at $100 less or Kindle Fire also at $100 less and offering the Amazon marketplace. It's now safe to say that Apple will be looking at a minority share of the tablet market from here on in."

      man what a great quote. Since when has any Apple customer cared about a price difference of $100? Just the fact that it's made of metal and not plastic is worth $100 to the average c

      • Re:Another Apple blunder (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @02:56PM (#41744347)

        Since when has any Apple customer cared about a price difference of $100?

        You're right, Apple customers obviously don't care about saving $100 since they are still customers, but Apple ex-customers do. That is precisely how Apple lost the lead in the smartphone market.

    • Re:Another Apple blunder (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @02:19PM (#41743919)

      As an advocate of getting facts right, I feel compelled to point out that Apple announced the fourth gen iPad as a replacement to the third gen iPad and will stop selling the third gen. Apparently you missed that. And you could at least get your prices right. Comparably-featured Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire models are $80 cheaper and $130 cheaper, respectively, than the iPad mini base model, though you can get models as cheap as $130 less and $170 less, respectively.

      Also, ignoring your issues of fact, I fail to see the logic in what you're suggesting. Up until today, Apple didn't even have a product that competed in that class of tablet. It's been relying on a product in an entirely different class and at a far higher price to draw customers away from the products you cited, and even then, it's been doing very well (based on the 100M total iPad sales they announced today, coupled with the history of sales numbers listed on Wikipedia, we can gather that they've sold roughly 16M iPads in the last three months, as compared to 3M Nexus 7 sales in about the last four months). Yet for some reason you seem to think that Apple entering that space with a competing product right before the holiday season will actually drive customers away from Apple? That makes no sense whatsoever, and not just because we're talking about Apple. It just makes no sense period.

      At worst, its price will keep it from doing as well as Apple would like, but for customers who wanted an iPad but felt like their only choice was an Android because they wanted something smaller or cheaper than a full-sized iPad, Apple now has an answer that is sure to capture some interest where none would have existed before. That's a net gain, not the loss you're suggesting.

      • Correction: I should have said three months for both iPad sales and Nexus 7 sales, rather than saying four months for Nexus 7 sales. Apparently I misread the Nexus 7's launch date as June instead of July, which caused the incorrect addition of the extra month in my statement.

      • you seem to think that Apple entering that space with a competing product right before the holiday season will actually drive customers away from Apple?

        Yup I do. Apple priced it too high, pure and simple, and that is just because of fear of cannibalizing their own full size tablet sales. Mistake. This way, Apple gets to cannibalize its higher margin tablets *and* lose ground to lower priced Android tablets. Not that I disapprove of Apple making mistakes. On the contrary, I think Apple should make as many mistakes as possible. I just love that fixed screen resolution thing.

      • Re:Another Apple blunder (Score:4, Interesting)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @03:51PM (#41745067) Homepage Journal

        Comparably-featured Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire models are $80 cheaper and $130 cheaper, respectively, than the iPad mini base model, though you can get models as cheap as $130 less and $170 less, respectively.

        How are they comparable? They both have better screens, and the Nexus 7 has NFC, for example.

        • Truth be told, I was actually trying to avoid an argument by referring to them as comparable, since I thought I was being pretty generous for the sake of any Android fans who might be offended. If you really want to argue that the Nexus is better enough that the two shouldn't be considered comparable, however, we can go down that path. Looking at the spec sheet quickly, here's my take on each of the major points...

          Screen: Tie, since the Nexus' has 35% less screen area [gizmodo.com] but at a resolution that's a fair amoun

  • AFAIK, they used to do it, in the late 90s/early 2000s. I remember watching the 12" G4 PowerBook be announced, and seeing the video before coverage was available, so I'm as certain as I can be that it was live -- not even delayed 30 or 60 minutes. Then they got pretty popular and I guess bandwidth was a problem, and now they're starting again. Feel free to chime in and let me know if I'm wrong or right.

    • No, you're right. The submitter must be pretty young. Prior to the iPhone launch, Apple used to always livestream their talks via QuickTime. I'm not sure anyone knows why they stopped; I doubt bandwidth was an issue. Probably a Steve Jobs thing, though for someone who had to control everything, I always found it odd that he let products get announced via low-res audience pictures on gadget sites.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )

        "..via low-res audience pictures on gadget sites."
        That's not odd, that's some of his genius. If you let the people talk about and share your information, they are more emotionally invested.
        Steve Jobs wasn't a technical Genius, he was a people genius.

        • If you let the people talk about and share your information, they are more emotionally invested.

          People were going to talk about these shows regardless, so I don't buy that rationale. There was nothing to lose and everything to gain by streaming Jobs' reality distortion field live, versus reading gadget liveblogs or news articles. But the hype still got through.

  • I watched it on my second gen apple TV and it was fine except for occasionally there would be a lag more likely due to my Time Warner cable modem. All in all the great experience in some decent looking products coming out

  • iMac -- most impressive product here (Score:3)

    by Scowler ( 667000 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @02:35PM (#41744123)
    The specs / price on the iMacs are better than I would have guessed, and the form factor is impressive as well. Return of the all-in-one PC?

  • I don't care about the ipad mini. I don't have a use for that kind of gadget. But I say thumb down for this new imac. Yeah it's more powerful, wich is good, but my ssd-upgraded five years old imac is already powerful enough. Yeah it's slimmer but why? When i'm at my desk, I see the imac in 2d anyway. When i'm not at my desk, I don't see it at all. I don't understand why I should care about the width of the thing. I dislike the external DVD drive. It's one more clutter on my workspace that's already swamped

    • I definitely agree on the iMac. The new one is something I would tolerate in an office setting if my employer was footing the bill (and dealing with upgrade cycles and repairs/replacements), at home I'd rather want something like the previous generation of iMac but with a replaceable hard drive, no optical unit and a relatively easy way to clean the fans.

      And of course, bigger screen with higher (or the same) pixel density would also be nice but for now 27" 2560x1440 is good enough.

  • From the looks of the store, they've completely dropped the iPad 3. Their comparison now shows an iPad 2 vs. an iPad 4. Does anyone know if there will be some sort of clearance event anywhere to clean out stock of 3s? Looking to get one for my girlfriend for her birthday.

  • Wait, what just happened? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @02:49PM (#41744277)
    I've come to expect Apple to release hardware that is marginally better than their competitors at a pretty hefty markup. So let's compare...

    iPad mini: 7.9" screen + 1024x768 resolution = 163 PPI. Price = $330 - $530 depending on storage size.

    Nexus 7: 7" screen + 1280x800 resolution = 216 PPI. Price = $200-$250.

    So for $80 more than the Nexus 7 version with the same amount of storage (16GB: $330 iPad mini, $250 Nexus 7) you get a 0.9" larger screen but significantly worse pixel density. And this is of course before the 32GB Nexus 7 announcement next week. The rumor is that the 32GB version will be $250 and the other models will drop in price. If so that means at the 32GB level you'll have to pay $180 more to get an iPad mini with worse resolution.

  • Lousy low-res screen (Score:3)

    by kriston ( 7886 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @02:54PM (#41744325) Homepage Journal

    Wow, my Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 have higher resolution screens than that lousy disappointment Apple announced today.

    This screen is marginally better than even the Nook Color.

  • They have stolen your Design, which Steve Jobs mentioned as that Apple would never build something of this size. The fact he mentioned it clearly proves that Apple designed it perfectly before any competitors examined thise size factor.

  • The most interesting aspect to me is the 4:3 for the mini version. Personally I prefer 4:3.

    In any case I think Android is mature enough with JB to be used widely. Apple better come up with something REAL different as the hardware differentiation is narrower and narrower. I've even seen some Chinese Android tablet has retina display.

  • The iPad mini is a device with a flawed screen. Everything will just seem bigger because of the lower ppi. Very very bad design decision. Sure, it can pre-Retina iPad apps. But what about retina iPad apps? They will look like shit if they run at all.

    Apple should have kept the retina resolution. Sure, the display would be new in terms of number of pixels, but at least the number of ppi would be more consistent. Everything would appear comparable in size. Now, on the iPad mini, everything will seem larger w

  • Now I can pay 600 bucks for a computer with an slow i5 chip. Yawn.
    Yeah,I can buy a large Touch. Yawn.

    I"m not a hater, and while Apple does some thing that drive me up a wall, This is one of the most boring sets of announcements in over a decade.
    You have a smaller iPad, and slight hardware improvements!

  • And what market is this for? If i'm going to have to pay that sort of price, id just get a 'real' iPad. I wouldn't pay a premium just to lose an inch and get a worse display.

    I didn't expect it to be cheaper than the competition but i wasn't expecting it to be as much as the full sized iPads either.

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