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Apple (AAPL) events are typically heavy on metrics, and yesterday’s affair was no exception. In fact, it was more abundant with the stats than most I’ve seen, with CEO Steve Jobs trotting out quite an array of big milestone numbers with which to mark the company’s achievements. Here’s a list of most of them.

• 300 Apple Stores in 10 countries (soon to be 11)
• More than 1 million visitors to those stores on some days
• 120 million iOS devices sold since the first iPhone debuted
• 230,000 iOS devices activated each day
• 6.5 billion apps downloaded from the App Store to date
• 200 apps downloaded from the App Store each second
• 1.5 billion games and entertainment downloads to the iPod touch alone
• 250,000 apps currently available in the App Store
• 25,000 of those are iPad apps
• 275 million iPods sold to date
• 160 million active iTunes accounts
• 12 million songs in the iTunes store
• 11.7 billion songs downloaded from iTunes
• 450 million TV episodes downloaded via iTunes
• 100 million movies downloaded via iTunes
• 35 million books downloaded via iTunes
• The iPod touch is the No. 1 mobile gaming device worldwide, outselling the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP combined
• Apple’s share of the portable gaming market: 50 percent

Yesterday, at the Apple music event in San Francisco, I had a short chat with Apple CEO Steve Jobs as he strolled through the demo room for the media, just after he had announced various updates for the iPod, Apple TV and iTunes onstage.

One of the those was the introduction of a new social network for music called Ping that Apple (AAPL) has integrated within iTunes 10 and which looks an awful lot like the experience you get on Facebook.

Essentially, it is a vertical version–in this case for music–of the powerful social networking site.

Facebook has noodled for years about creating its own social music offering, including doing a partnership with Lala, which was bought by Apple last year and shuttered in June.

But its efforts have largely gone nowhere.

And Facebook is nowhere on Ping, either. Currently, there is no linking, sharing or participation of any kind with Facebook–or Twitter or MySpace–on Ping, which will work only on the iTunes software on computers, iPhones and iPods.

When I asked Jobs about that, he said Apple had indeed held talks with Facebook about a variety of unspecified partnerships related to Ping, but the discussions went nowhere.

The reason, according to Jobs: Facebook wanted “onerous terms that we could not agree to,” related to connecting with Facebook friends on Ping.

For those who are struck by the word, the definition of onerous, according to an online dictionary: “Involving an amount of effort and difficulty that is oppressively burdensome; Involving heavy obligations.”

Jobs did not elaborate on those troublesome terms and also would not say if Ping would incorporate connecting with Facebook or even using Facebook Connect–which would make it much easier to find friends to share music with.

“We could, I guess,” he shrugged.

And when I asked how to find friends, Jobs offered, noting iTunes had 160 million users across the globe: “You can type their names into search or send them emails inviting them to join.”

Okay, although being more open would work too!

As MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka noted:

“Maybe Apple plans on joining the rest of the Web, via an open API that will let Facebook, Twitter et al–maybe even the to-be-launched Google (GOOG) music service–play nicely with Ping. We’ll see.”

Facebook–including some execs who are definitely irked about how closely Ping resembles Facebook, right down to the blue color scheme–hopes so.

Consider the statement issued by Facebook to me–after attempts to get it verbally failed, due ironically to several dropped connections on the iPhone of the exec I spoke to:

“Facebook believes in connecting people with their interests and we’ve partnered with innovative developers around the world who share this vision. Facebook and Apple have cooperated successfully in the past to offer people great social experiences and we look forward to doing so in the future.”

In other words: Zing, Ping.

UPDATE: Oddly enough, a Facebook connection feature appeared to be in Ping when some signed up–not for me–as noted by Cult of Mac. And Silicon Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer even spotted the wording in Jobs’s stage presentation. I have an email into Apple PR asking for a comment on the change.

In any case, at the Apple event, Jobs told me he had great hopes for the social music service, adding that Ping could be the most significant thing to come out of yesterday’s announcements.

But soon enough he moved right on to the new iPods, declaring enthusiastically: “Isn’t the nano amazing?”

Here is a lovely movie from the Apple iPod, iPad, iTunes, TV and, now, Ping event yesterday in San Francisco.

(Yes, this is a photo of me channeling Walt Mossberg in a chat with CEO Steve Jobs in the demo area.)

It includes the you-are-there shots of Jobs onstage, as well as scenes from the media throng and more, as the tech giant unveiled updates, additions and renovations of older stuff and also launched new stuff.

Such as Ping, the social music service in iTunes 10, which starred Apple (AAPL) PR impresario Katie Cotton’s profile in the demo itself. She was unflappable, even after I told her I was a Fanilow.

It is all in the video below:

[ See post to watch video ]

By Geoffrey A. Fowler and Sam Schechner, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) cut the price on some downloaded TV shows to 99 cents from $2.99 in the wake of Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) announcement Wednesday it will begin streaming some shows for 99 cents.

Amazon’s new prices affect more than 260 shows from the Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS) ABC, News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, and the BBC, matching a similar selection promised by Apple when it unveiled a new Apple TV device. Unlike Apple, which plans to rent videos, Amazon allows users to purchase the videos to own.

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By William Gibson, Author, Neuromancer

“I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions,” said the search giant’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, in a recent and controversial interview. “They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.”

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By Dave Rodenbaugh, Blogger, Lessons in Failure

There’s a wide sense of lament since Oracle has taken over Sun and their intellectual property, including MySQL, Java, Solaris and their hardware sales business. I’d say the average observer of this process might use the terms “slow moving train wreck”. I doubt they are far off on this one.

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By Judy Shapiro, Chief Brand Strategist, CloudLinux

The notion of net neutrality evokes a sense of righteous entitlement whenever anyone vaguely threatens this sacred principle. The mere discussion gets a knee jerk “the net should stay neutral” reaction that rivals what the “live free or die” call probably evoked in its day.

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By Todd Bishop, Managing Editor, TechFlash

It’s not uncommon for me to hear about some new technology product or feature, from some company other than Microsoft, and realize that it sounds very similar to something I’ve covered before. More often than not, that something similar from the past ends up being a Microsoft Research project.

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By Jason Hirschhorn, Entrepreneur

At 39 years old, I’m still a pop culture kid. I love media, entertainment and technology. I can’t sit still when I discuss them. It’s not only a hobby; it’s been my job for 15 years.

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BoomTown does not plan to get into the endless so-and-so launches an Apple iPad app news cycle, because it is not really news, except to the more breathless fanboy tech bloggers (and you know who you are).

But Twitter’s intro of one for the popular tablet device tonight in the Apple (AAPL) App Store is probably more important than most.

“Twitter for iPad,” said the company, “makes it even easier for people to explore Tweets and discover new content and accounts on Twitter.”

We’ll reserve judgment on that. Also, we still like the innovative Flipboard better.

In any case, here is the blog post on the rollout:

Twitter for iPad: Sharing content in Tweets

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

People are increasingly sharing different types of information on Twitter. For example, Tweets point to web pages, photos, videos, hashtags, people, check-ins, and more. Exploring Tweets is a great way to discover new and interesting information. And with devices of all shapes and sizes connecting to the Internet, we’re constantly looking for new ways to make this easier. To date, we’ve created applications for a variety of mobile phones, giving you instant access to Tweets and great content when you’re on the go.

Today we are bringing Tweets to a device that really lets content shine–the iPad.Twitter for iPad takes advantage of the iPad’s fluid touch interface, letting you move lots of information around smoothly and quickly–without needing to open and close windows or click buttons. There are a few things we want to point out that make this app a really fast and fun way to read real-time content.

Panes: Tapping on a Tweet opens a pane to the right. Depending on the content in that Tweet, you’ll see a video or photo, or maybe a news story, or perhaps another Tweet. You can continue tapping on Tweets, opening new panes, and getting new content as long as you’d like to. And, it’s really easy to move between panes by swiping to the right or left.

Media: When you tap a video link or open a web page with an embedded video, you can play that video inline. And, let’s be honest, video is great but sometimes it can take some time to load. The panes in Twitter for iPad let you look through your timeline while a video is loading, and then you can just swipe back to the video when it’s ready to play. You can also pinch on a video to watch it fullscreen.

Gestures: You can pinch on a Tweet to quickly view details about the author and to take actions on a Tweet, such as reply or retweet. Put two fingers together and pull down on a Tweet to peek at the replies, showing the entire conversation leading to that Tweet.

No need to login: You don’t even need to sign up to get started with Twitter for iPad. We’ve selected great Twitter accounts that you can see in various categories, such as Art & Design, Sports, and News. You can also search, view trends, and find breaking news. Sign up at any time to create your own timeline and start tweeting.

Twitter for iPad is available worldwide from the App Store. Try it out and let me, @lorenb, and @bhaggs know what you think.

And here are two screenshots:

Within the next several weeks, the New Yorker magazine will be publishing big pieces about a pair of digital icons located on the East and West coasts–an assessment of the turnaround at AOL by staff writer Ken Auletta and a profile of Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg by Huffington Post senior contributing editor Jose Antonio Vargas.

For the Zuckerberg piece, Vargas was given a lot of access by the Silicon Valley social networking kingpin, including rare interviews with Zuckerberg’s inner circle and also longtime girlfriend and full-time med student Priscilla Chan.

And Auletta–whose big New Yorker takeout on Google (GOOG) turned into a book that is now being turned into a movie–will be assessing the turnaround efforts at AOL (AOL), which is now being led by former Google exec Tim Armstrong.

The Internet icon has seen troubled times in recent years, including a spinoff from Time Warner (TWX), which should make for interesting fodder for Auletta.

Also in the tech-topic kitty at the New Yorker, sources said: A profile of troublemaking Gawker Media impresario Nick Denton by Ben McGrath, which I am hoping will include his terrific tour of Chinese markets near where he lives in Manhattan’s SoHo.

Before the iPhone came out, I ran with a watch that uses GPS satellite technology to keep tabs on my pace, distance and other measurements when I run.

Like a lot of runners, I’ve gotten hooked on the ability to tally up how many miles I put in on the road and to use my watch to motivate myself to run a bit farther or faster.

The Adidas miCoach

These days ordinary smartphones have GPS built into them and developers are creating apps that use the technology for tracking runs. Plus some of the apps do a lot more than a GPS watch: They can help you devise a training schedule prior to races and more actively coach you during your runs.

I spent a couple of weeks using three running apps for the iPhone—Running Method’s Run Coach Pro, FitnessKeeper’s RunKeeper Pro and Adidas’ miCoach—with the goal of seeing whether any of them could be an adequate substitute for my GPS watch, a Garmin (GRMN) Forerunner 305, which cost me $190 two years ago with a companion heart-rate monitor (the same package now sells for $153 on Amazon). (There’s a BlackBerry version of miCoach app and an Android app is in the works.)

The answer, in one case, is an emphatic yes. There are, however, some tradeoffs to running with an iPhone that might make using any running app a deal-killer for some people. First, the iPhone is a handsome device that faces a risk of disfigurement from your sweaty hands as well as from falling onto concrete so runners will want to consider buying an accessory that keeps the phone safe.

My Garmin is a giant of a watch, but at least it doesn’t require its own carrying case on a run, unlike the iPhone. Armbands for the iPhone let you easily glance at the screen while you’re working out. I ran with the iPhone tucked into a carrying pouch that came with a water-bottle belt I used on long runs. The iPhone is also a music player, which meant I could leave the iPod Shuffle at home. The iPhone’s maps feature also would have been very helpful on runs in unfamiliar places where I’ve gotten completely lost.

Revolver’s Run Coach Pro ($2.99) was the most bare-bones apps I ran with. It starts by guiding you through a few selections to develop a training plan for everything from achieving basic fitness to finishing a 50K “ultra” run. You tell the app your experience level as a runner, when any race you plan to run will occur and which day of the week you like to do your long runs—the endurance workouts that are a cornerstone of half-marathon and marathon training.

The RunKeeper Pro app helps runners record information about their runs.

The app then crafts a weekly running schedule telling you which days to run and rest on; how long to run (in time terms); and how hard to run (for example, easy or race pace). During runs, it tracks your distance, your overall pace and time elapsed.

One of the biggest drawbacks of Run Coach Pro is that you have to look at the iPhone screen while you’re running to check on your progress. That’s a big distraction if, like me, you run with your iPhone in a case on a belt.

The app could have gotten around this by using voice commands to tell me through my headphones when to go faster or slower, which would have been helpful on days when the app recommended I do interval runs, where I was supposed to vary my pace.

RunKeeper’s RunKeeper Pro ($9.99), in contrast, uses a pleasant female voice to tell you when you’re falling short of or exceeding a target pace that you establish with the app before your run. You can control how often the voice chimes in through your headphones at various time and distance intervals.

It also helps them work out smarter, right.

If you’re listening to music, RunKeeper Pro temporarily dims your tunes so you can hear the voice commands. A free version of RunKeeper lacks these voice commands.

I was most disappointed by the lack of a feature that allows you to build a training calendar for a specific race. The publisher says such a feature is coming. The app syncs all the data it collects during a workout to the RunKeeper Web site, which makes it easy to look at some basic weekly and monthly statistics your runs, but charges extra for weekly reports with other data, like average pace and calories burned.

The free miCoach app from apparel maker Adidas does all the same run tracking of the other apps, but it was the only one to really use the intelligence of the iPhone to provide decent coaching during runs.

I first set up a training calendar for a half-marathon in November through the miCoach Web site on my computer, which then synced the plan with my iPhone. It then told me to do a 12-minute “assessment workout” during which a coach instructed me to proceed from a walk to a fast pace, providing detailed instructions on how much I should be exerting myself at each interval (“conversation should be difficult”). It assessed my fitness level by judging how fast I moved into different intervals.

This step was key for helping miCoach calibrate how fast I should be going during different stages of a run. All of the instructions it gave me during runs were personalized to my fitness level based on that initial assessment run.

Adidas has also done a good job keeping all of its coaching from getting too complicated. The app and its companion Web site use a color-coded system of speed zones, from the slowest, blue, to the fastest, red, to visually illustrate how difficult an upcoming series of runs will be.

It’s worth noting that all iPhones now ship with a running app made by Nike, which I omitted from this review because it currently requires an additional $19 sensor that attaches to your running shoes to track runs. A new version of the app that uses the iPhone’s GPS is due out soon. For now, miCoach is the only iPhone app for which I would forsake my Garmin watch.

Walter S. Mossberg is on vacation. Mossberg’s Mailbox will return Sept. 16. Email Nick Wingfield at nick.wingfield@wsj.com.

By John Murrell

In a vivid illustration of what Sony is up against, the Japanese giant today proudly previewed a new service called Music Unlimited, which will provide customers with cloud-based access to their music across a variety of Sony devices–news that mere hours later was pushed straight out of the collective consciousness by a string of music-related announcements from Sony nemesis Apple.

By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

The number of Internet users in the top emerging markets is set to nearly double by 2015 — a pace of growth that sounds enticing but that actually presents plenty of challenges for businesses, according to a Boston Consulting Group report released Wednesday.

The report estimates that China, India, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia will have 1.2 billion Internet users within five years, up from about 610 million in 2009.

Developing countries didn’t go through the same technological development that the U.S. did, but their late arrival to the Web means that they get to skip things like bulky grey PCs and go straight to mobile devices. But technology use is evolving so rapidly there that it can be tough for businesses to keep up.

“China provides an instructive example because, for many companies, opportunities have already been missed,” the report says. “Most of the relationships between the digital players and Chinese consumers have already been cemented.”

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Here’s one lawsuit averted! In case you were wondering, Apple had gone ahead and cleared the name of its new music service before launching the thing. That’s unlike its 2007 iPhone imbroglio, which led to a trademark dispute with Cisco. In this case, Apple reached a deal in advance with the PING golf brand and its owners, Karsten Manufacturing Corporation.

Here’s the release:

PING Golf Announces Trademark Agreement With Apple

PHOENIX, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ — PING and its parent company, Karsten Manufacturing Corporation, announced today that they have entered into an agreement with Apple under which Apple will use the PING trademark in connection with Apple’s innovative new social music discovery feature in iTunes. Apple introduced the iTunes PING feature today.

Founded in 1959, PING is a famous premium brand that holds more than 1000 trademark registrations around the world, many related to golf equipment. The company also owns trademark rights in PING for social networking and other online services.

This announcement involves two companies that were founded by visionaries who created products that greatly impacted their industries. Karsten Solheim invented the PING® putter in his Redwood City, California garage and went on to revolutionize the golf equipment industry. The groundbreaking first Apple® computer was developed in nearby Palo Alto in 1976.

“We are pleased to enter into this agreement with Apple,” said John Solheim, Chairman and CEO of Karsten Manufacturing Corporation and PING. “Like PING, Apple carries a reputation for innovation and quality. I have always had great respect for companies that have changed and improved the ways things are done and I continue to model PING along those lines. Apple is a truly great example of this kind of enterprise.”

Steve Jobs may call Apple TV a hobby, and it certainly hasn’t met with the runaway success of some of the company’s products. But Jobs is an avid collector of both users and cooperative media companies, and with that in mind, Apple, as widely rumored, announced a new version of the gadget today–smaller, simpler and equipped to deliver streamed movies and TV shows rented through iTunes.

The new version of the device, 80 percent smaller than its predecessor, allows users to stream all sorts of media through Airplay–HD video, music and photos. First-run Hollywood titles in HD will rent for $4.99, and some will be available on the same day as the DVD release. Individual TV show episodes will go for 99 cents. Netflix (NFLX) members will gain access to the streaming videos in their queue, and Web entertainment fans can pull in videos from YouTube and photos from Flickr.

The TV show rentals may sound pretty disruptive, but as Peter Kafka noted when the rumors started flying, the venerable tube has withstood challenges before, and so far, at least, Apple (AAPL) has only Disney (DIS) and Fox (FOX) lined up to participate. Still, he noted, with a $99 price and the Apple name, things could get interesting.

My sources in the music industry were correct: Apple has been working on an iTunes update that’s all about social, not streaming.

But rather than do the obvious thing–create a system that links up with existing social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace–Steve Jobs has gone ahead and created yet another social network, one designed expressly for iTunes users.

He’s calling this one “Ping,” and while it appears to look an awful lot like Facebook’s design, it will work only on the iTunes client–on laptops, iPhones and iPods. (It won’t be Web-based–my sources guessed wrong on that one.) That’s a user base of 160 million people in 23 countries, Jobs said pointedly during his presentation today.

That user base will give Apple an instant boost when it launches–but it’s still going to be an awfully big struggle to get Facebook, Twitter and MySpace users to actually use yet another social network. (Signing on will be easy, Jobs promises, but I can’t verify that yet, because Apple’s site won’t let me download the new software. And based on the Twitterstream, others are having the same problem.)

On the other hand, that’s what people said about Foursquare a year ago, when it boasted some 50,000 users. And now Dennis Crowley and crew are up to three million. So it is possible.

And who knows? Maybe Apple plans on joining the rest of the Web, via an open API that will let Facebook, Twitter et al — maybe even the to-be-launched Google (GOOG) music service — play nicely with Ping. We’ll see.

Apple’s (AAPL) refreshed lineup of iPods, introduced by Steve Jobs today, looks pretty much as anticipated.

The iPod touch–the No. 1 portable gaming machine in the world, Jobs said–is getting the Retina Display and A4 chip of the iPhone 4, along with HD video recording and a front-facing camera with support for FaceTime video chatting. And there’s a new ad tagline for the touch: “All kinds of fun.” The 8GB is available for $229, the 32GB for $299 and the 64GB for $399. Preorders begin today.

The new iPod nano is 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter than its predecessors, thanks to the elimination of all those bulky controls and the addition of a little multitouch screen. A colorful selection will go for $149 for 8GB, $179 for 16GB.

As to the iPod shuffle, Jobs said customers missed the controls on the current buttonless model, so the new version is getting a click wheel. Price is $49 for the 2GB gadget.

By Yoree Koh, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Twitter’s Japanese arm may well be on its way to turning a profit next year the old-fashioned way: through ad sales.

Digital Garage Inc., the Tokyo-based technology company that provides Twitter to millions of Japanese chirpers, said the revenue of its newly restructured social-media unit is expected to more than double to 1.7 billion yen through June 2011, according to its revised midterm business plan. Twitter makes up more than half of that segment’s business, a Digital Garage spokeswoman said.

The company revamped the segment, called the “media incubation unit,” this year to focus on Twitter. It has generated some 200 million yen in ad sales in the first six months since it launched its advertising service in December, according to its annual financial report.

As of April, the logos of 82 Japanese companies, including Nissan, Panasonic and Sharp, appear in the ad slot of the Japanese-language Twitter site. The growing number of eyeballs skimming ads from Sony (SNE), mobile service Au and others will likely throw more dollars Digital Garage’s way.

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Steve Jobs held court this morning at Apple’s traditional September music event, unveiling goodies like a refreshed lineup of iPods; Ping, a new social network built into iTunes 10; and an updated Apple TV, with support for TV and movie rentals. Also announced was iOS 4.1, with a multiplayer Game Center, High Dynamic Range photos and HD video uploads over Wi-Fi.

The complete liveblog coverage:

9:34 am: John, Kara and Adam are here waiting for the doors to open at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for the start of the event.

9:54 am: Packed house today as these events often are. Seated in the theater, we’re treated to another variation on the Jobsian playlist: The Beatles, Clapton, etc.

9:58 am: A first “take your seats” warning. There’s a piano stage right, presumably for today’s musical guest. Long shot speculation in the audience that it may be Lady Gaga who was reportedly spotted on the Apple campus about 2 weeks ago.

10:00 am: Jobs takes the stage at 10 AM sharp to enthusiastic applause.

10:00 am: Job recognizes his “partner in crime” who’s in the audience today: Steve Wozniak.

10:01 am: And with that, we’re off. First a quick retail update. Jobs discusses Apple’s new stores in Paris and China, notes that the latter with its massive glass cylinder is a monument to glass engineering.

10:03 am: On to London. Another slick store in Covent Garden, Apple’s 300th. Jobs notes that Apple now has stores in 10 countries and will soon add an 11th — Spain. “We’re seeing 1 million visitors to our stores on some days, several days a month.”

10:04 am: “Our stores are bringing a lot of new users into the Mac family,” says Jobs, noting that about half of Mac purchases are made by first-time Mac buyers.

10:05 am: Moving on now to iOS devices. Apple’s shipped 120 million iOS devices since the first iPhone launched, says Jobs, adding that Apple is activating 230,000 iOS devices a day. “People throw out a lot of numbers about how many devices they’re activating per day,” he says. “We are doing 230,000 activations a day. …We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers … and we think we are ahead of everyone — if we were counting upgrades, our number would be WAY higher.”

10:06 am: “200 apps are downloaded from the App Store every second … we’ve got over 250,000 apps in the store and over 25,000 of them are iPad apps,” says Jobs. “Today we’re introducing iOS 4.1.”

Among 4.1’s features and updates: bug fixes to proximity, Bluetooth, etc. TV show rentals, High Dynamic Range Photos …

10:08 am: What’s an HDR photo? Job explains that it’s a camera that takes 3 photos in quick succession — one that’s normal, one that’s underexposed and one that overexposed and then melds them together into a better photo.

Some examples appear behind Jobs on screen and they do indeed seem much improved over the typical iPhone photo.

10:09 am: On to Game Center. “Game Center is all about multiplayer games,” says Jobs. It’s about playing games with your friends and if you don’t have any friends, it will find some for you to play with.”

10:11 am: Job’s invites Mike Capps, president of Epic Games to demonstrate a new Game Center game. The game’s called “Project Sword.” Like Street Fighter but with armor and swords. Very impressive in its detail. Game play includes demonstration of “boot-to-the-face” which goes over well with the audience.

10:14 am: Demoer is getting is ass kicked by his assistant. “This is what I get for bringing a designer with me to demo a game” Project Sword will be available for purchase in time for the holidays.

10:15 am: iOS 4.1 will be available for iPhone and iPod touch next week.

10:15 am: Now a sneak peak at iOS 4.2 for iPad. “This is all about bringing everything in iOS 4.1 to iPad,” says Jobs. “We’re also adding support for wireless printing.”

Printing is managed via a Print Center app.

10:16 am: Also coming in 4.2 Airplay — a new version of Airtunes that allows streaming of not just music to mobile devices, but pictures and videos as well.

10:17 am: Jobs demonstrates multi-tasking on the iPad. Plays some Jack Johnson tunes, checks e-mail, browses the Web. All pretty seamless.

10:18 am: Demonstrating Folders now. Works exactly as it does on iPhone. “We love these features and when can’t wait to get them on the iPad,” says Jobs. “So when is 4.2 coming out? November. And it will be free for all iOS devices.”

10:19 am: “And now I’d like to get on to today’s entree: the iPod,” says Jobs. “How many iPods have we sold? 275 million. … One of the secrets to the iPods success is that even though the iPod has a very high market share, we never rest on our laurels, we try to improve them for our users. And this time, we’ve gone all out. … It’s the biggest change in the iPod line ever.

10:21 am: Onscreen the evolution of the iPod shuffle from candybar to its latest buttonless iteration. People missed the buttons, says Jobs. So we’ve added them back. New shuffle looks alot like the second generation shuffle, but with a clickwheel. 15 hours of battery life. Comes in 5 different colors. 2GB for $49.

10:23 am: “Now let’s look at the iPod nano,” says Jobs. Again an overview of evolution of the device’s design.

“We wanted to make it smaller, and there’s only one way to make it smaller and that’s to remove the controls. And there’s only one way to control a device like that — touch. The iPod nano is now multitocuh based.

10:25 am: The new nano is 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter than its predecessors. 29 hour battery life. Supports Voice memos, Genius mixes, built-in FM radio. Clock.

10:26 am: A quick demo of music discovery. Jobs scrolls through the device’s library, pulls up an Ella Fitzgerald song. Navigation seems relatively easy despite the small screen size. Scrolling, swiping all work well. Screen also supports rotation via touch.

The new Nano comes in the same colors as the shuffle, plus two more — graphite and red. $149 for 8 GB, $179 for 16 GB.

10:30 am: Moving on to the iPod touch now, which Jobs refers to as the “iPhone without the phone.”

“The touch has become the most popular iPod,” says Jobs. “… Even more importantly, it’s become the #1 portable game player in the world. The touch outsells Sony and Nintendo’s portable offerings combined.”

1.5 billion games and entertainment downloads to the iPod touch alone.

10:32 am: Here’s the new iPod touch. Same form factor, but significantly thinner. It’s also been updated with Apple’s Retina Display and Apple’s A4 chip — the same one that powers the iPhone.Also on board a front-facing camera and FaceTime support for video chat. HD video recording. 40 hours of music playback.

10:33 am: The 8GB is available for $229, the 32 GB for 299 and the 64GB for $399. Pre-orders begin today.

10:36 am: And here’s the new ad campaign — iPod touch “All kinds of fun.”

“This is the strongest line-up of new iPods we’ve ever had, “says Jobs. “But as you know iPods are part of a great duet with iTunes … People have downloaded 11.7 billion songs from iTunes, 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, 35 million books. 160 million accounts world-wide.”

10:38 am: Jobs continues: Today we’re excited to introduce iTunes 10 … And we’re giving it a new logo. Since digital sales are outpacing those of analog music, we figured it’s about time we ditch the CD graphic.”

10:39 am: Focus of iTunes 10 is about discovery — “what are my friends listening to? what concerts are they going to?”

There’s really not a good way to do that, says Jobs. So we’re introducing Ping — a social network for music that’s built right into iTunes.

Bad news for MySpace …

10:41 am: You can sign-up to follow people on Ping just as you would on Twitter and it generates a custom top 10 chart of the music they’re listening to.

Interesting. Jobs has now mentioned Lady Gaga 5 or six times as he lists of examples of music and concert discovery. Maybe she’s not such a long-shot musical guest after all.

10:43 am: “Ping is for social music discovery and you can follow people and be followed,” says Jobs. There are privacy restrictions though — a “Circle of Friends” feature that limits sharing to a specific group of users.

“You can get as private or as public as you want and it’s simple to do it.”

10:44 am: Jobs begins his Ping demo. he scrolls through some tour photos that Jack Johnson’s been uploading. He posts a comment, scrolls lower and notices that a friend has posted something about a new song he likes. “I can purchase the song simply by clicking on it … and I can click through to see the entire album.”

Another mention of Lady Gaga, who — you guessed it — has a page on Ping and has evidently been uploading concert videos to it

10:48 am: A few more Ping pages — Yo-Yo Ma, Apple PR queen Katie Cotton, and Jobs himself.

“Now, Ping is not just available on your computer,” says Jobs. “It’s available on your iPhone and your iPod touch. … Ping: it’s a social network for music that’s built into iTunes and it’s available today.”

10:50 am: And here it is. One more thing …

10:50 am: “Actually, it’s one more “hobby”,” quips Jobs. The product: Apple TV, of course.

Jobs notes that since it’s introduction, the Apple TV hasn’t done as well as Apple had hoped. “We’ve sold a lot, but it’s never been a huge hit.” Neither has any competitive product, he adds.

“It turns out people don’t want a computer on their TV,” says Jobs. “They already have computers. They go to their TVs for entertainment — not for another computer. This is a hard one for people in the computer industry to understand, but it’s really easy for consumers to understand. They get it.”

“What do people really want,” asks Jobs. ” They want Hollywood moves and TV shows — not amateur hour. They want everyhting in HD. They want lower prices, they don’t want another computer and they don’t want to think about managing storage. They don’t don’t want to sync to their computers, they just want to watch TV … and they want this device to be silent, cool and small. … So we made something new for them.”

10:53 am: “We’ve created a new version of Apple TV. … It’s about a fourth of the size of the original.”

New Apple TV has HDMI, ethernet and a power cable — only.

10:54 am: Interesting. “We’ve gone to the rental model on this … there are no purchases on Apple TV. We’ve gone to a rental-only model and because of this, there’s no need for storage. You simply stream everything from your computer, there’s no syncing.”

10:55 am: Content?

First run HD movies for $4.99, day-and-date of DVD release.

HD TV show rentals: 99 cents and still commercial free.

10:56 am: “Now this is a big step that not all the studios wanted to take, so we’ve got Fox and ABC taking it with us now and we expect the other studios to follow,” says Jobs. “… And if you’re a Netflix subscriber, you can stream Netflix movies to Apple TV.”

10:57 am: Quick overview of the UI. Elegant. Interface now includes tomato ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. Easy previews. Viewing generally begins in a matter of seconds, says Jobs.

10:59 am: Also supported by Apple TV: Flickr, YouTube, Mobile Me.

“All these things and it all comes out of this little box,” says Jobs. “It’s amazing.”

11:00 am: The demo continues. Jobs browses Iron Man, looks over some customer reviews, Robert Downey Junior’s CV and then rents the movie. After a second or two the movie begins. Jobs scrubs ahead to a battle scene. Video quality is impressive.

11:02 am: Jobs edits his Favorite list. He notes that there’s a new episode of Glee, clicks to purchase and plays it. Moving on now to Internet content. First up Netflix. Jobs checks out his Instant Queue. Among the movies listed there: The Matrix and Lethal Weapon 4 (Lethal Weapon 4?!?)

11:04 am: Now a demonstration of the device’s slideshow feature. Standard stuff and about what you’d expect.

11:05 am: Jobs circles back to Airplay and explains that you can use it to stream movies from other devices to Apple TV.

11:06 am: He begins playing Pixar’s Up on and iPad, pushes a button and streams it to the Apple TV.

“Your going to be watching a movie on your iPad, come home, press a button and continue watching it on Apple TV.”

11:07 am: Looks like Apple TV is getting a new price as well. Wow. Apple’s dropped the price from $299 to $99. Pre-orders begin today. The device should ship in about 4 weeks.

11:08 am: Now a recap of today’s announcements: the new shuffle, a new nano, a new iPod touch with FaceTime — “The strongest line-up of iPods we’ve ever had, a new iTunes, with Ping a social network for music and finally a new Apple TV.”

11:10 am: “We started doing this music stuff for a really simple reason: we love music. And even though we;re a little more successful now than when we started that love hasn’t changed one bit….

Looks like today’s musical guest is not Lady Gaga, but ColdPlay’s Chris Martin.

11:12 am: Chris Martin takes the stage … “This probably the toughest closing gig I’ve ever had. I don’t have any new products to announce … anyway, I’ll just play one song and then another and another until you feel like lunch.”

11:21 am: After a few songs, Martin pauses: “I’m not sure what to do … is Steve around to tell me what to do next …We’re moving on now to Coldplay 2.6 … this one has a lot a features, multiple chords that our competitors aren’t yet aware of …. it’s in the chord of ‘i minor’”

11:23 am: My colleague Peter Kafka weighs in on Ping: “Well, there’s Facebook’s music service. It’s run by Steve Jobs.”

11:24 am: A few more media tidbits from Peter via Twitter

– Fox statement sets limit on $0.99 iTunes rental trial “working with them over the next several months to explore this innovative offering.””

– Disney statement on 99 rentals much less reserved than Fox. No timeline or “experiment” mentioned

11:25 am: Looks like that’s it from Martin. He leaves the stage to a standing ovation and Jobs returns.

“Thank you for coming. I hope you’re as excited about this stuff as we are … and we’ll see you soon.”

And that’s it. The event ends.