October 5th, 1999

[Lat Updated 1:48 PM] Live Coverage Of Apple's Special Event

[1:48 PM] It looks as if the presentation is actually completed this time. Look for more detailed coverage of Apple's announcements during the next few hours. Thanks to Observer Davian Kaplan for his help in connecting to the Webcast.

[1:46 PM] M. Jobs is recapping the product line and pointing out that the entire product line has been turned over in just 5 months. In another touch of class, he is saluting the employees of Apple and their families. This is a rare moment for M. Jobs and we commend him!

[1:44 PM] M. Jobs saluted Chiat/Day and their creative team. A very nice touch.

[1:43 PM] M. Jobs is showing three new iMac commercials. They play upon existing themes. Voice overs are by Jeff Goldblum. One commercial features Desktop Video concept. All three commercials are excellent.

[1:42 PM] The iMac DV Special Edition is available today! At least for ordering. M. Jobs says that they will be shipping tens of thousands of units this week.

[1:40 PM] The iMac DV Special Edition is Graphite colored, as we had predicted, and ships with 128 MB of RAM standard. It will ship for US$1499. More RAM and a special color will allow Apple to ship this model for the higher price. More brilliance from Apple.

[1:39 PM] M. Jobs has just announced the price of the iMac DV. The unit will ship at US$1299. A brilliant move when coupled with the US$999 model. With each model, he has pretended that he was finished. He has just announced the iMac DV Special Edition. Gotta love it. :-)

[1:37 PM] M. Jobs just recorded a live message to his parents with a digital video camera. He is making a movie with the new iVideo software. He added a sound track, and Boom!, he has a great video to send to his parents. This has tremendous consumer appeal.

[1:35 PM] M. Jobs has built his own video for us, including many video effect, on screen as a demonstration of how simple the new software is to use. Upon playing the video, he got a brief standing ovation.

[1:30 PM] Steve Jobs has introduced the new iMac, including a new low end 350 MHz model at only US$999. CompuServe is now offering their US$400 discount to all new Macs meaning that one can get a new iMac for US$599. Very cool. All new models are very transparent and 1: shorter. They also are fanless and extremely quiet. All new iMacs include built-in AirPort support as well as a new 8MB ATI Rage 128 video card. Include a new speaker system.

M. Jobs has also introduced a new model called the iMac DV. This model ships at 400 MHz, has a DVD drive, FireWire, Video Out (Cool!), video editing software, new refined colors, and more. M. Jobs humorously referred to his "favorite movies" which were, of course, Pixar flicks.

Phil Schiller demonstrated playing Quake II Test across an AirPort network.

The Mac Observer Spin:It was very interesting to see how proud M. Jobs is about the new models. The fanless aspect, the quietness, the apperance, the size, the features, and everything else obviously were much closer to the original vision of an Insanely Great product that he had when he first envisoined the iMac in the first place. Of course, he could have been simply playing the part of the Showman, but we think this reaction was legitimate.

Blue Line Studios