By Wil Gomez - Mac360 Staff

I'm reporting from inside the auditorium at Macworld, about halfway back from the stage on the far right.

Here's my report, in reverse chronological order (most recent post at the top, oldest posts at the bottom), direct to Mac360 from an iPhone (one of many in the auditorium today).

10:30 AM - Recap

Jobs talks about MacPro update (announced last week), Time Capsule, new applications on iPod touch (with $20 fee), iPhone software update (no demo of SDK), iTunes Store movie rentals, and "reinvented" Apple TV (with lower price), and introduced world's thinnest notebook, MacBook Air. Jobs introduces singer songwriter Academy Award Winner Randy Newman (Short People, Monsters, Inc., etc.) performs. Wherefore art thou 'One More Thing?' Nada. That's a wrap. MacBook Air is already up on the Apple web site. I'm off to the exhibit floor to touch and feel.

10:20 AM - MacBook Air Pricing and Features

Starts at $1,799. LED screen, 3-pounds, 1.6 Ghz Intel CoreDuo base model, 1.8 Ghz optional. 80 gig hard drive standard, optional 64 gig SSD (solid state disk, not a hard drive), 2 gigs RAM standard. Intel CEO Paul Otellini takes stage, talks about how small CPU is. CPU is thick as a nickel, wide as a dime. Contains wireless 802.11n, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 port, Micro-DVI video out. No internal CD/DVD, but new Remote Disk software will scan via wireless and borrow optical drive from other Mac or PC. 5 hour battery life. USB SuperDrive available for $99. Order today, ships in two weeks. Jobs plays television commercial for MacBook Air, touts "green" in hardware, mercury and lead-free display, even a recyclable aluminum case. The retail package is half the size of a MacBook.

10:10 AM - 4th Thing - "The World's Thinnest Notebook"

Steve Jobs intros MacBook Air. Steve talks about Sony TZ series as the standard for thin notebooks-- 3 pounds, 8 1/2 inches, 12-inch display. Says, "Apple makes the best notebooks on the planet." MacBook Air is so thin it fits inside a manila envelope. Thickets part of MacBook Air is thinner than thinnest part of Sony. 13.3-inch display, LED backlit screen, built-in iSight camera, magnetic latch... and... multitouch trackpad, uses multitouch gestures. Trackpad is "generous" (huge).

10:00 AM - Fox Talks Movies

Jim Gianopulos, CEO of Fox goes onstage to talk about movies, blah, blah. Reminds me of the CEO from AT&T last year. Gianopulos says DVDs not going away (take that, Blu-ray). Steve is back on the stage.

9:55 AM - 3rd Thing - Apple TV "Take 2"

Apple TV price drop. Entry level model is $229 instead of $299. New software and interface for Apple TV, but not available for two weeks. New features include ability to rent movies directly from your television. DVD quality and HD quality from new Apple TV. Syncs with iTunes on Mac or PC. Runs photos from Flickr and .Mac account. Includes ability to preview movies before renting. Apple TV becomes a free standing computer that you control with remote on your television. To demo Apple TV and iTunes movie rentals, Steve rented a movie and it began downloading; about 1-percent per second. He's not on RoadRunner. Steve demos the search capability of Apple TV. Search for music, movies, podcasts, everything in iTunes catalog, right on the television screen. Buy music using Apple TV, have it sync with iTunes on Mac or PC. This was a very long demo.

9:40 AM - 2nd Thing - iTunes Store Movie Rentals

Every major movie studio is on board. Touchstone, MGM, LionsGate, Newline, Miramax, Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal. All have movie rentals for iTunes Store. 30 days to start watching, 24 hours to complete watching. Rental movies run on Macs, PCs, iPods, iPhone. $2.99 to rent old movies, $3.99 for new releases. DVD and HD quality and can rent from Apple TV. HD rentals are $4.99. Apple adds ability to transfer movie watching between devices while watching. (within 24 hours after start). Launching movie rentals in US now, International later this year. Software updates coming for iPods and iTunes.

9:35 AM - iPod Touch - 5 New Apps

Jobs says Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather available for iPod touch users. 4-billion songs sold on iTunes Store. 20-million songs sold on Christmas Day. Apple sold 125-million television shows and over 7-million movies. Not enough. Didn't meet expectations. Apple to charge $20 for software upgrade for iPod touch. That won't meet expectations, either.

9:30 AM - Another Thing - iPhone

Jobs says iPhone sells 20,000 per day, over 4-million sold in first 400 days. iPhone has almost 20-percent of SmartPhone market, only behind RIM at 39-percent, trailing badly is Palm, Motorola, Nokia. Steve talks briefly about Software Development Kit to ship in February to allow 3rd party applications for iPhone. Announces new software today for iPhone, (version 1.1.3?), includes new features; location for maps, ability to customize home screen, and send SMS messages to many people. Can set up multiple home screens. Works with Skyhook and Google to do locations without GPS inside iPhone. iPhone update available to iPhone owners (duh).

9:25 AM - 1st Thing - Time Machine & Time Capsule

Jobs says Time Machine isn't so good for notebook users who have to continually unhook an external hard drive. New Airport Extreme Base Station with "server grade" hard drive. It's called Time Capsule. 2 versions: a 1 gigabyte HD for $299, and a 1 terabyte HD for $499. Mac and PC commercial for Time Machine.

9:20 AM - Jobs Says 'Thanks' & 4 Things To Talk About

Steve Jobs says thanks for making Leopard the most successful version of OS X to date. Over 5-million copies sold. One in five Mac users on Leopard already. Office 2008 for Mac already shipping.

9:15 AM - No Cameras(flash)

Security says no cameras (maybe they mean 'flash'). Mac and PC are on stage. Steve Jobs taking the stage. He welcomes crowd to "Something in the Air." That's a hint.

9:10 AM - Black Apple Logo

The presentation stage is black with purple lighting making an "X" on the curtains. The keynote screen has a black Apple logo silhouette against a bright light with black background.

9:05 AM - Bomb Sniffing Dogs?

Auditorium can hold 4,000 people. Many still coming in. I haven't seen the dogs. Obviously the presentation is not starting on time.

8:58 AM - Music Playing

Music playing. People are still coming in. Ron set the Mac360 page to refresh automatigically every 3 minutes. Like he can type that fast...

8:55 AM - Crowd Lined Up

Crowd still lined up to enter conference auditorium. Someone said they had bomb sniffing dogs earlier but I didn't see them when I came in.

8:51 AM - Entering Conference Room

Got a good seat off to the right, not a bad angle, no tall people right in front of me. Data connections on iPhone are VERY slow.