For the first time in a while, I’m not at an Apple product-launch event–I’m at DEMO in San Francisco today, so I’ll miss “Let’s Rock” in San Francisco. (Which probably means it’ll be an especially good one…the last one I missed was the original iPhone launch at Macworld Expo 2007.)
The good news is that the Web will be full of live coverage, including liveblogs at Cnet, Macworld, Engadget, Gizmodo, and elsewhere. I’ll be reading ’em and chiming in here. Call it remoteblogging, if you will–and refresh this page for updates. It’ll be an interesting experiment, if nothing else.
11:05: Apple event is over! I had fun even though I wasn’t there. I’m going back to attending DEMO–more thoughts later.
11:02: Unrelated news which I may or may not write about at greater length later: PC World has announced that my friend and former boss Steve Fox, who has an ever longer history with PCW and IDG than me, is the new head of editorial. That’s amazing news, and he’ll do a great job.
11:02: More music from Jack Johnson.
11:01: Twitter is down. Possibly killed by Apple-related tweets.
11:00am: Jack Johnson speaking to crowd.
10:57: Johnson is apparently playing something with political overtones, or understones. I can’t tell from here.
10:53: Musical conclusion with Jack Johnson, #1 selling male artist on iTunes. Does Jobs ever announce anything after the music? Not that I can recall.
10:52: iPhone 2.1 software available today Friday, fixes lots of bugs.
10:50: My EVDO choked, so I’m playing catchup. Schiller showed soccer game and Need for Speed. Touch prices: 8GB, $229, 16GB for $299, and 32GB for $399. Available now. People at event see new ad.
10:41: Guy in front of me here at DEMO is reading Engadget’s liveblog of Apple event; Bet he’s not alone…
10:38: Steve invites Phil Schiller onstage, apparently to talk games. He’s demoing Spore, which just shipped.
10:37: Demo of Genius feature on the Touch. And watching Iron Man.
10:34: 100 million apps have been downloaded from the App Store. It’s available in 62 countries. 700 games available.
10:32: New Touch has built-in speakers, volume controls on side, built in Nike support, App Store, other software enhancements. Jobs is showing Genius feature again.
10:32: Is the fact that he announced the Nano first a hint that something REALLY interesting will be the “Just one more thing?” Maybe, maybe not.
10:31: Jobs is introducing new iPod Touch. It’s contoured, in a stainless steel case.
10:30: If I were at the event, I’d be watching a new Nano ad right now.
10:28: New Nanos in stores in next few days. Also introducing new $79 headphones with built-in microphone, woofer, and tweeter.
10:26: Announcing colors (blue, purple, orange, green, pink, yellow, red, violet, silver) and pricing: $149 for 8GB, $199 for 16GB.
10:25: New Nanos are highly recyclable.
10:24: New Nano has 24 hour battery life for audio, four hours for video.
10:23: As rumored, shake the Nano and it’ll shuffle your songs!
10:22: Rotate the Nano into landscape mode, and it automatically notices, adjusts the screen, and goes into Cover Flow mode.
10:20: New Nano is, as rumors had it, curved. And as last-moment rumors said, it has accelerometer from iPhone and iPod Touch.
10:19: New Nano is extremely thin–Jobs says we’ll be blown away. Thinnest iPod ever. Aluminum case, curved glass screen.
10:18: He’s announcing the new Nano. It’s the skinny model I was skeptical about, from all the spy shots. Wrong again!
0:16: Microsoft-bashing: Zune has 2.6 percent market share. Sandisk has 8.6 percent–actually kind of amazing for a memory company. iPod has 73.4 percent. Still dominant after all these years.
10:15: Remoteblogging is fun, but it just ain’t the same when you can’t hear Steve Jobs. Yes, it’s what creates the reality distortion field. But without Jobs, it’s all a lot more clinical.
10:14: He’s moving onto iPods and quoting impressive stats.
10:13: Jobs is demoing Genius by listening to Elvis and getting a playlist with Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison automatically.
10:11: Jobs is browsing songs by artist, genre, etc. You can browse albums by cover and look at albums by artist. Works for TVs and movies, too.
10:09: Genius sends info about your musical tastes to the cloud, but it’s anonymous. Also uses combined data of all iTunes users.
10:07: iTunes 8 has Genius feature that makes playlists of songs that go great together. Will also recommend songs you should buy from iTunes Store.
10:06am: NBC is returning to iTunes Store; HD TV Shows available on iTunes for $299; iTunes 8 is launching today.
10:03: Okay, he’s quoting stats about iTunes sales.
10:02: Actually, Steve is onstage. He says there’s some exciting stuff to come, and makes reference to Bloomberg’s premature obituary for him.
10:00: It’s 10. But these events usually start a few minutes late, and begin with some fairly standard stats on sales of iPods and iPhones, iTunes successes, etc. So I’m not overly anxious. Yet.
9:58: Engadget says that the Doors’ “Touch Me” is playing; sign of new touch-screen products? Who knows?
9:56am: If I were actually at the event, I’d be blogging about the crowds and music right about now; if I spotted Al Gore or Woz in the crowd, I’d mention that, too…
Steve Jobs goes onstage to unveil new iPods at 10am today; we’ll all be drowning in coverage of them shortly thereafter. So I understand why Microsoft made its Zune announcements yesterday morning.
I’m telling you, I’ve given up trying to predict what Apple will announce at its press events, such as 
Dan Lyons, who used to be best known as 
Strange but true: These are either the best of times or the worst of times for Apple’s reputation–and it all depends on which developments you choose to pay attention to.