Apple To Live Stream Their Music Event

A long, long time ago, Apple allowed everyone around the world to watch its product launch events whether it’s on Apple’s campus or at conferences such as Macworld Expo via live video streaming using QuickTime technologies. Apple ceased the practice earlier this decade and it created an explosion in live blogging by those in attendance as well as massive spikes in worldwide internet usage during the events.

People could still watch the events in their entirety but only after the event has concluded. Lately Apple has provided full recordings as downloadable podcasts in their Apple Keynotes iTunes channel.

Today Apple announced that they’re going to live stream tonight’s event. While it may strike fear in those who manage live blogging sites as it may and most certainly will cut into the number of their viewerships, that’s nowhere near interesting as the possible reasons as to why Apple has decided to broadcast the event.

The broadcast event is rather peculiar as Apple stated that to watch the event you’ll need to use Mac OS X 10.6 or any of the iDevices running iOS 3. Apple’s previous broadcasts had been viewable on any computer running Apple’s QuickTime software, but this time, even Mac users have to be on 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Users of previous versions of Mac OS X are in the same boat as those using Windows and other operating systems.

As it turns out, the technology that Apple will use to deliver the broadcast is only available to those selected groups. It looks as if video streaming will be a key aspect in what Apple is going to announce.

There are rumors about Netflix being part of the announcement of a new Apple product which may be a replacement for AppleTV. Netflix is a video rental service that relies on video streaming and works only in the United States. If so, it may be of absolutely no consequence for those outside the US of A, at least in the near future, unless Apple announces an international deal of some sort.

There are also the possibilities of Apple announcing a cloud-based iTunes service which streams music and videos over the internet as opposed to having them downloaded to your devices or testing out their brand new data center in North Carolina, as noted by Tech Crunch.

Aside from the above, Apple is expected to release a brand new line up of iPods along with a new version of iTunes. Some are also hoping for an announcement regarding iOS 4 for iPads which Apple has promised it will deliver before the end of the year.

In any case, if you’re eager to watch the live broadcast of the Apple event, make sure you tune in to Apple’s website for the 12:00 am (WIB) feed on your Mac OS X computer with Snow Leopard of your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with at least iOS 3.