“Volume,” says McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw, which is the usual answer for this kind of digital question. But there’s an important asterisk here, too. Normally, McGraw-Hill would sell its books directly to public schools, which would keep the texts for an average of five years.

Under Apple’s new textbooks plan, though, McGraw-Hill will try something different: It will sell its books directly to each student (the student could either pay out of pocket, or the school could fund the purchase via a voucher/code), who will use the book for a year, then move on. They’ll be able to keep the digital text, but won’t be able to resell it or pass it along to another student, and McGraw-Hill anticipates that another set of students will buy new books the following year.

So Terry McGraw figures that over five years he’ll generate the same total sales selling $15 e-books as he would selling $75 books. It’s not a total push, because in this model, Apple will take an undisclosed cut of sales — McGraw-Hill execs wouldn’t go into details, so let’s assume for now that it’s Apple’s standard 30 percent — but presumably McGraw-Hill can make some of that up by forgoing the costs of print and distribution.

(It’s important to note that all of this is about the high school textbook market, for now. While McGraw-Hill and other publishers sell college texts through other digital platforms, they still haven’t announced plans to do so with Apple.)

All of that assumes that the book pricing stays at $15. After Apple’s event, McGraw-Hill executives repeatedly used the phrase “pilot pricing” to describe their near-term plans. And they told me that they have the ability to change the price when and if they want.

But when I posed the same question to Apple media boss Eddy Cue just now, I got a much different response. “This isn’t pilot pricing,” he said. “All of our books will be $14.99.”

9:34 am: We’ve arrived. Here’s the scene outside the Guggenheim Museum.

9:43 am: As we wait for the event to get started, here are some “CliffsNotes” on what we might see from Apple today.

9:45 am: Hi there, from Peter! Lauren Goode and I, along with a couple hundred other people, are still stuck in the stairwell of the museum, waiting to be seated.

9:50 am: Line is moving slowly now.

9:52 am: Hello there. Apple has let us into the Guggenheim’s basement auditorium.

Just spotted McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw in the audience. Not sure if he’s sitting with us, or will be popping up onstage.

9:54 am: Ah. I see that the American corporate mandate to play Adele at every event has continued into 2012. So we are still rolling in the deep.

We could have had it all, you know.

9:57 am: Lights down. Adele still belting.

9:58 am: First up: Apple marketing head Phil Schiller.

“Education is deep in our DNA, and it has been from the very beginning.”

Apple has a unique understanding of learning, student achievement. “We’re so proud to take part in anything we can do to help students learn.”

New change in schools via iPad is “profound and remarkable.”

Shot of toddler watching Dora on iPad, which looks very familiar.

But education has challenges, “which are pretty profound.”

Life is tough for high school kids in the U.S. Freshmen have a 70 percent chance of graduating. In “hard-hit urban areas,” that’s 60 percent.

Even if you do graduate, you probably won’t be prepared to compete internationally. List of poor showing by U.S. in world education rankings.

Now a video reel of teachers bemoaning the state of affairs, backed up by swelling music track.

Basic message: Schools are in lousy shape. “We need a reset. We need a way to find out what’s wrong, and fix it,” says last teacher, in a nice sweater.

Schiller is back. “No one person or company can try to fix it all.” But Apple can help. Specifically with “student engagement.”

Of course, kids like iPads, Schiller says. Extolls virtues of iPad, which we don’t need to tell you about here. “Affordable, not only for families but for schools.”

20,000+ education apps built specifically for iPad.

And lots of iBooks would work very nicely in schools, too.

1.5 million iPads in use in “education institutions.” We want to accelerate that. So we’re announcing two initiatives:

10:06 am: 1) “Reinventing textbooks.”

Books are awesome. They’ve transformed society and will always be with us. But they’re not an ideal learning tool for kids. Cumbersome, get dog-eared, “written-in, worn, just not the ideal teaching tool.” Image of badly-beaten book.

Books aren’t portable enough. Not durable enough. Not interactive. Not searchable. Can’t be updated. “The content is great,” though.

10:07 am: But the iPad? That’s awesome. It’s all of those things that a lowly book is not.

But “can you get amazing content turned into a new generation of digital books?”

10:08 am: So here is iBooks 2 — a “new textbook experience for the iPad.”

“These are beautiful books.” Here’s a demo, with Roger Rosner, who has helped build the new product.

Biologist E.O. Wilson introduces a new digital textbook, which features multitouch, video, navigation via thumbnails, etc. “These are gorgeous, gorgeous books. They’re really in a class by themselves.”

“Clearly, no printed textbook could compete with this.”

Lots of pinchy-zoomy. “Again, nothing like that on the printed page.”

So here I will point out that the most obvious issue is the same one that magazine publishers faced during the initial iPad launch — someone needs to figure out how to pay for a system where you can build all this new cool digital stuff, while you continue to publish your old paper-and-ink products. After some initial experiments, most magazine guys have retreated to more or less republishing the existing product, with a few bells and whistles.

Okay, back to Rosner, still demoing cool stuff like interactive text that lets you access a glossary by highlighting a word. “That is so much better than a paper glossary could ever hope to be.”

10:14 am: Hopefully, the pictures that Lauren Goode is taking give you a good idea of what Rosner is showing off. This stuff does look gorgeous, of course.

Half the crowd applauds.

10:15 am: Still demoing. Quizzes and review questions built into book. “The bottom line is immediate feedback.”

Can highlight text with finger, change color, etc. Add notes.

10:17 am: Turn notes into study cards. Can turn glossary terms into study cards. “No more ever having to make paper flash cards, right?”

More applause for card demo. “I don’t think there’s a textbook that’s ever made it this easy to be a good student.”

New textbook category in iBookstore.

10:20 am: Demo over, Schiller back up. Summarizes selling points.

10:20 am: Now on to creation. “That’s just as important.”

iBooks Author (i.e., what people have been calling “GarageBand for books”).

“Easy to use, feature-rich,” will work for any kind of book, not just textbooks. But “focused most of all” on textbooks.

10:21 am: Rosner back up. “Traditionally, creating electronic interactive books has been really hard.” We can fix that.

Uses some familiar iWork workflow. Drag and drop. Can type into editor or bring in Word files, etc.

More applause after program reformats and flows Word doc.

This looks very slick and easy. No surprise there.

Ah. I can now see that McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw is in the audience, soaking it in with the rest of us.

Can integrate Keynote into text. More applause for that.

Rosner still demoing. If you’ve ever been involved in making e-books before, “you know that this is a total miracle in terms of time savings.”

More applause for fast turnaround between creation and working book showing up on iPad. “I just think that’s totally awesome, right? In just five minutes flat, we created a totally interactive book.”

More applause, and some excited hoots.

10:29 am: Schiller back. “Anyone can create stunning, interactive books.”

Authoring tools “often cost hundreds to thousands of dollars.” But we want to make sure that anyone can use this — even teachers. New iBooks Author will be free.

Available today on Mac App Store. More applause.

Reminder that iBookstore will have new textbooks category.

Partners (this is key part).

High school textbooks. Will launch at $14.99 or less.

Names of publishers? Have yet to hear from Schiller.

Here we go: “We have had some phenomenal companies really work with us”: Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “They have been great partners with us.”

McGraw-Hill, for instance, wil be providing algebra, biology, chemistry books, etc. “They are incredible.”

“Can’t overemphasize” how important it is for publishers to work with us.

Also working with DK Publishing. Four new kids’ books.

Another partner: E.O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. “If you don’t know E.O. Wilson, you should.” More applause.

First chapters of “Life on Earth” are available now, for free. Future chapters will be available at low price.

And now, a video. “We couldn’t help ourselves … I hope you enjoy it.”

More hopeful teachers and music this time out.

So while video is rolling, let’s review: By far the most important announcement today is that Apple has partnered with three of the big textbook publishers. Don’t have details on that, but the fact that this isn’t a flat-out end run around the textbook industry is crucial. Obvious parallel here is iTunes music launch in 2003, when Apple worked with the big labels instead.

Eddy Cue, who many of us thought would be at event, shows up in video, instead.

And Terry McGraw is in the video, as well.

So is Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino.

John Deasy, superintendent for Los Angeles Unified School District.

10:44 am: Video over, more applause. Ah. Schiller has more. Here comes Eddy Cue.

10:45 am: As John Paczkowski noted early this month, Apple is overhauling iTunes U.

700 million downloads of iTunes U content in the last four years. So far, mostly used to download college lectures. (I’m responsible for one of them! A Robert Shiller talk I keep meaning to listen to.)

“We want to let teachers do a whole lot more.” Create entire classes online. Via all-new iTunes U app.

Jeff Robbin, VP of iTunes, for demo.

Not just books, but “new complete, online courses.” Here’s a chemistry course from Duke University.

Some of this is gunning at Blackboard, the college standard for online education software, which lots of people (users and would-be competitors) would like to disrupt.

Ability for teachers to post notes for students, download videos to iPad or stream, etc.

Demo over, more applause. Hard to explain/see how this will work unless you’re actively using it within the context of school, I think.

Cue rattles off list of colleges using iTunes U already. Six of them have used the new software — Duke, Stanford, Yale — and have created more than 100 courses already. “All of it for free.”

So far, mostly used for higher education. But now available for K-12. More applause.

10:54 am: Cue off, Schiller back.

Love of education “has been instilled in Apple since the very beginning. And it’s as true today as it ever was before.”

“We hope that educators will look back on today’s announcements just as fondly” as past Apple education initiatives.

“I hope you’re as excited about these announcements as we are.” Schiller finishes up, event over.

Thanks for tuning in. We’ll now get a chance to play with some of this stuff hands-on, and I’m going to talk to at least one of the publisher partners Apple talked about today. More in a bit.

My colleague John Paczkowski’s sources have already told him that Apple was planning to use the event to talk about a textbook initiative, and today’s brief invitation certainly doesn’t discourage that line of thinking. Per John’s Jan. 3 story:

Sources close to the company tell AllThingsD that the event will involve an initiative related to iBooks in education, presumably with some sort of tie-in to iTunes U.
Details beyond that are slim, though we’re told that this is an effort Jobs had been involved with in the months prior to his death. That could mean that it’s the textbooks-on-iPads plan that Jobs famously discussed with biographer Walter Isaacson. Fox’s Clayton Morris is hearing something similar.
The textbook market is certainly ripe for digital disruption, but the players that have emerged so far are pumping in a lot of cash with little to show for it.

If you want to start speculating — of course you do — it’s worth noting that none of the big textbook publishers are working with iBooks and Apple’s iOS ecosystem in any significant way, though Apple and the publishers have had on-and-off conversations for years. Perhaps some of that changes this month, or perhaps Apple pushes into education without working with the traditional players.

This will be Apple’s second visit to the iconic Guggenheim in a year. Last February, media boss Eddy Cue showed up there for the launch of the Daily, News Corp.’s tablet newspaper. (News Corp. also owns this Web site.)

Teresi will report to media boss Eddy Cue, according to sources familiar with the hire. He fills a slot last occupied by Andy Miller, who sold his Quattro mobile ad company to Apple two years ago and left last summer. Bloomberg first reported Teresi’s move this afternoon.

Quattro formed the core of iAd, which Apple has used to tackle the mobile ads market dominated by Google. But advertisers have been slow to warm to the program, and Apple has been trying to retool its approach, by lowering advertiser spending requirements and offering more flexibility in implementation.

At Adobe, Teresi had helped steer the publishing company through a series of advertising acquisitions, including Efficient Frontier, Demdex and Auditude. Prior to that he had been at Quantcast and Yahoo.

According to sources close to the situation, Apple is planning an important — but not large-scale — event to be held in New York at the end of this month that will focus on a media-related announcement.

Per the usual caveat, the tech giant is well known for moving around their public show-and-tells, so this could certainly change at any moment.

But, for sure, several sources underscored that the event is not related to an upcoming version of the iPad 3, the next iteration of the popular tablet device that many expect to be available in 2012.

Also unlikely, the rollout of Apple’s large-scale rethinking of the interactive television initiative that it has been working on. While the company is expected to launch a new Apple TV product later in 2012, such an event would almost certainly be held in the heart of the industry in Hollywood or at least in Silicon Valley.

That leaves some kind of advertising or even publishing announcement, which might be the case, since Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue is reportedly involved.

Cue is in charge of a large swath of Apple’s media units, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore, as well as iAd and its iCloud services.

It’s well known in the ad industry that Apple has been searching for a new head of its mobile advertising unit, since Andy Miller left last summer.

But such an appointment has not been made as yet, said sources.

The last time Cue was in New York for an event, by the way, was nearly a year ago, when Apple helped launch News Corp.’s online magazine, The Daily.

And Apple also recently opened a splashy new retail store in Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal, and has been refurbishing its flagship glass cube on Fifth Avenue, too.

The holiday-having Apple PR team declined comment, but wished me a “happy, happy new year.”

In recent weeks, Apple executives have discussed their vision for the future of TV with media executives at several large companies, according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple is also working on its own television that relies on wireless streaming technology to access shows, movies and other content, according to people briefed on the project.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Set to launch with iCloud on Oct. 12, the app is different from check-in style services like Foursquare, and most similar to Glympse, the start-up that recently raised $7.5 million. It’s also akin to the original Google Latitude, which offered continuous location sharing intended for close friends and family to track each other (but then later added check-ins).

Apple’s Eddy Cue said the app would include simple privacy controls and parental restrictions.

It wasn’t clear to us whether “Find My Friends” is only for iPhones or will be available on all iOS devices, but it’s one of those two.

“Find My Friends” had first been revealed through code in an iOS developer build in January.

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Later this morning, the company will debut its latest iPhone, the fifth in the handset’s history. Though it’s not precisely clear what form it will take, most observers expect the fifth-generation iPhone to boast a dual-core A5 processor, one gigabyte of RAM, an improved camera, a dual-band GSM/CDMA chip that will transform it into a so-called “world phone” that can support multiple wireless network standards, and a rumored virtual personal assistant that arose out of Apple’s 2010 acquisition of Siri.

Beyond that, we’re likely to hear more about iCloud (which may steal the show) and its promise of a simple, seamless sync, iOS 5 and its nearly 200 new features, and perhaps an update or two to the company’s long-running iPod line. We’ll also get to watch newly installed CEO Tim Cook make his first big product introduction, an event that may well set the tone for his new role.

So join us here for what promises to be an exciting morning. Our live coverage begins at 10 am PT.

Live Blog

8:50 am: We have arrived on the scene at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, Calif.

9:22 am: The real reason why they held the event in Cupertino: omelettes!

9:44 am: The doors have opened and attendees are filing into the auditorium to the sound of Eric Clapton’s “Let It Rain.”

9:48 am: Lots of tech luminaries in the audience here today. A quick scan of the room reveals Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, AT&T Mobility President Ralph de la Vega, Verizon chief marketing officer Marni Walden, longtime Apple analyst Charlie Wolf and newly minted Qualcomm COO Steve Mollenkopf.

9:54 am: Most of Apple’s executive team — Phil Schiller, Eddie Cue, Bob Mansfield, etc., are now seated down front. The auditorium’s pretty much filled to capacity. We should be starting any moment now.

9:58 am: Five minute warning.

10:00 am: The lights dim and here’s Tim Cook, ready to deliver his first big product announcement. Lots of applause.

10:02 am: This is my first product launch as CEO — I’m sure you didn’t know that. I love Apple, and I consider it a privilege to work here. I am very excited by this new role.

10:03 am: I want to welcome you to Apple and to this room, which has a particular significance for us. In this room we launched the MacBook Air and other products … this room reminds us of the innovations we’ve announced at Apple.

10:04 am: This is an extraordinary time for Apple, says Cook, before running through some metrics. He talks briefly about Apple’s new store in Hong Kong, which recently launched.

10:05 am: Tim Cook is using Steve Jobs’s playbook, beginning with a series of updates, starting with Apple retail. Apple just opened two stores in China — one in Hong Kong and one in Shanghai.

“There is amazing momentum here,” Cook said, showing the all-glass staircase. “Only Apple could do this.”

Also doing good business — it had the best Day One store performance of any store.

10:06 am: We sold more Macs on opening day in Hong Kong than we sold at any other store opening in the world, says Cook. Now a video documenting the launch of the Hong Kong store.

10:07 am: Cook steps back into the spotlight. “We now have six stores in China. We now have 357 stores in 11 countries.

10:08 am: Moving on now to product updates. First up, some thoughts on Lion. Cook cites Walt’s review of Lion and his remark that it’s one of the best operating systems ever. “I don’t think I could have said it any better,” says Cook. He adds that, to date, six million copies of Lion have been downloaded.

10:10 am: At the same time we announced Lion, we announced the MacBook Air. It’s wicked fast. Our customers love it and our competitors are desperate to copy it, Cook says. The Mac and MacBook are the number one best-selling desktop and notebook in the United States.

10:11 am: More metrics, the Mac’s installed base is approaching 60 million around the world.

In U.S. retail, says Cook, Macs are selling one out of four PCs.

10:14 am: Next up: Music. “It was only 10 years ago that iPod launched and it not only revolutionized the way we listen to music, but it revolutionized the entire music industry. It reminded us why we love music so much. It made music part of our lives again. … The iPod quickly became the number one music player in the world.” To date, Apple has sold more than 300 million iPods.

10:15 am: Cook notes that the iPod is still an important business for Apple and the halo effect still remains strong. “The iPod is still a lot of people’s first introduction to Apple.”

Sixteen billion songs downloaded on iTunes.

10:15 am: Moving on to iPhone now. “This is probably why most of you are in the room today.” Cook notes the device’s extraordinary growth. Ninety-three percent of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying the iPhone.

Customer satisfaction for the iPhone is very, very high, says Cook. “The iPhone is pummeling the competition.” He cites the recent ChangeWave and J.D. Power customer satisfaction surveys.

10:18 am: Talking now about the iPad. “IPads are showing up everywhere. IPads in schools are helping kids learn in amazing new ways. … Every state in the U.S. now has an iPad pilot program or deployment. And almost 1,000 schools have a one-to-one program … About 1,000 universities across the U.S. have iPad programs.”

10:20 am: “IPads are also showing up in airplane cockpits and in hospitals. Over 80 percent of the top hospitals in the U.S. are either testing or deploying iPads. … 92 percent of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying the iPad.”

A stunning metric considering the device has only been available for 18 months.

Three out of four tablets sold in the U.S. are iPads.

10:22 am: Nice. Cook name-checks ATD. “Consumers don’t want tablets, they want iPads.”

10:23 am: Cook welcomes Scott Forstall to the stage to talk about iOS.

“IOS is the number one mobile operating system with 43 percent of the market,” says Forstall. He also notes that the iTunes App Store is the number one store for mobile apps. Customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps to date. There are one billion downloads per month. Apple has now paid out more than $3 billion to developers.

10:25 am: Forstall talking about a new app called Cards. Allows you to create greeting cards on your iPhone or iPad. Apple will produce them and distribute them. “You make the card. We do the rest. … We’ll even send you a push notification the day your card is delivered.”

10:26 am: Price: $2.99 in the States, $4.99 internationally.

10:28 am: Now, a broad overview of iOS 5. Developers love it, says Forstall. He notes the OS has more than 200 new features, though he’s only going to talk about 10. Notifications: iMessage, a new messaging service between iOS users. “IMessages are pushed to all your devices so you can start on one and pick up on another.”

Next up, a brand-new app called Reminders. Offers location-based reminders via geo-fence. “Remind me to pick up my laundry when I leave work.”

10:31 am: More: Twitter integration. “We’ve deeply integrated Twitter into iOS. You can tweet photos, Web sites from Safari, videos from YouTube.”

Next up: Newsstand. “There are a lot of publications that are now building subscriptions for the iPad — the New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair. Newsstand organizes your subscriptions and downloads new issues in the background.”

10:31 am: Moving on now to the camera, which Apple has also significantly updated. Better-quality photos and new ways to edit and improve them on your iPhone.

Next, Game Center: 67 million people are using Game Center. Apple has added friend discovery and game recommendations to the service, among other things.

10:34 am: Next up, Safari: Forstall talks briefly about Reader, which makes Web pages easier to read. He moves on quickly to tabbed browsing before jumping ahead to Mail, which has been enhanced with better search functionality, etc.

Now, PC-free. “There’s no need for a computer. You take your iPhone out of the box and you can set it up.” Also: wireless updates.

10:35 am: IOS 5 will be available as a free update on October 12.

10:36 am: Eddie Cue takes the stage to talk about iCloud. Quick overview of how iCloud manages photo storage and distribution. “It just works.”

“Over a third of the music we sell in the iTunes store is purchased on iOS devices,” says Cue. He notes that once iCloud launches, “songs purchased via iPhone or iPad on iTunes will automatically be downloaded to a user’s Mac for no additional charge.”

Moving on now to PhotoStream. “With PhotoStream, photos taken on your iPhone are automatically sent to iCloud and then pushed to your other devices. They even download right to iPhoto on your Mac.”

10:38 am: Now, Documents In The Cloud. Same scenario. Documents synced to iCloud are updated across devices. Start editing on your Mac, continue on your iPad and finish on your iPhone.

10:39 am: More from Cue: “Buy a book on your iPad, start reading it, move to your iPhone and continue right where you left off.”

Contacts and Calendars work the same way. Update once, update everywhere.

10:40 am: Find My iPhone has been updated to find Macs as well.

New app: Find My Friends. Locates family and friends via same sort of Find My iPhone mechanism. Timed location sharing. Easily locate friends and family, temporary sharing option, simple privacy controls and great parental restrictions.

10:42 am: Moving on now to iTunes Match. “With over 20 million songs, Apple has the largest music store in the world. We’ll scan your music library and match it, and if we find something we don’t have, we’ll upload it.” Again, the goal here is data ubiquity across devices.

ITunes Match is $24.99 per year.

10:45 am: Cue wraps up with a broad overview of all the iCloud services he just mentioned. ICloud ships on October 12. ITunes Match goes live closer to the end of the month.

Now, a video break. Promo for iCloud that touts the same features Cue just described.

10:46 am: Phil Schiller takes the stage to talk about iPod.

10:47 am: “We’re still making great iPods. In fact, it’s the best lineup we’ve ever made.”

Apple’s rolling out a few updates to the line today. First, the iPod nano, which has been made easier to navigate and enhanced with some fitness-related improvements, plus UI additions (new clocks, etc.). Mickey Mouse watch!

New prices, $149 for 16GB, $129 for 8GB.

10:50 am: Next up: the iPod touch. Schiller notes that the device is now the most popular portable game player in the world.

10:51 am: Schiller says iOS 5 and iCloud will bring tremendous upgrades to the iPod touch.

Apple’s now offering a white version of the touch.

$399 for 64GB, $299 for 32GB, $199 for 8GB. They’ll be available on the 12th.

10:53 am: Here we go. Moving on now to the iPhone.

10:54 am: “Despite competitors trying really hard to copy the iPhone,” says Schiller, “they just haven’t been able to do it. … How do you follow up a hit product like the iPhone 4? … With the iPhone 4S.”

Retina display. Same design with metal band around exterior.

10:55 am: IPhone 4S will run on the same A5 chip that’s in the iPad. Also up to seven times faster graphics, which will do some amazing things for games.

Mike Capps from Epic Games takes the stage. Talks about Infinity Blade and its forthcoming successor Infinity Blade 2. Amazing graphics. Dynamic Light Rays, something the company used in Gears of War, has been brought to the iPhone.

This is really impressive. Very cinematic, but running in real time.

10:58 am: Infinity Blade 2 will be available December 1.

10:59 am: Schiller returns to talk about battery life. Eight hours of 3G talk time, 10 hours of video, etc.

11:00 am: Moving on to the antenna, which now intelligently switches between two antennas to transmit and receive. Better call quality and faster data. Downlink speeds are double the iPhone 4: 5.8 up, 14.4 down.

Heard these numbers before? Schiller says these are the same numbers that rivals often claim are 4G.

11:02 am: As expected, Apple has unified its CDMA and GSM devices into a single world phone.

11:03 am: There’s a new camera system as well.

“For the iPhone 4S, we set our sights on competing not with other phones, but with point-and-shoot cameras. … So we’ve added an eight megapixel sensor that shoots 3264×2448. … we’ve also added backside illumination with a sensor that gathers 72 percent more light. … On top of that we’ve placed a hybrid IR filter for better color accuracy … and we have a five-element lens that offers 30 percent more sharpness, f/2.4 aperture.”

11:06 am: Built in to the camera: Face detection and better auto-white balance. The new camera is also significantly faster. Takes just 1.1 seconds to take a first picture and .5 seconds more to take a second.

“I don’t know what Droid Bionic users do between pictures,” says Schiller. “Get coffee, I guess.”

11:08 am: Showing some photo examples now. Great sharp colors and detail.

11:09 am: Moving on now to video. The 4S shoots 1080p HD video. Some applause for that. Also features video image stabilization, temporal noise reduction.

Quick video demo. Hot air balloon ride.

11:11 am: Moving on now to AirPlay. Quick overview of the technology and then the news: Apple is bringing AirPlay mirroring to the iPhone.

11:12 am: Schiller wraps up by rehashing the announcements he’s just made. He’s really stressing iOS 5 and iCloud.

11:13 am: “But we really haven’t discussed the best feature yet … it’s all about voice.”

New feature: Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.

“What we really want to do is just talk to our device and we want to talk to it any way we’d like.”

11:14 am: Schiller invites Forstall back on stage to do a Siri demo, but cautions that it’s still in beta so things could go awry.

Forstall asks Siri, “What is the weather like today?” The phone replies with, “Here is the weather for today,” and a screen detailing the weather.

11:16 am: “Do I need a raincoat?”

Siri: “It sure looks like rain today.”

Siri actually understands the concept of “raincoat” and how it relates to weather. Pretty sweet.

11:16 am: “What’s the time in Paris?”

Siri gives an accurate time and shows a clock.

“Wake me up tomorrow at 6 am.”

Siri sets an alarm and tells the user that it has done so.

11:17 am: “How’s the Nasdaq doing today?”

Again, an accurate vocal reply and a screen showing a market chart.

Apple has partnered with Yelp to integrate restaurant reviews. It has also integrated maps. “Give me directions to Hoover Tower.” Siri provides them.

11:19 am: You can also ask Siri to read your text messages.

Forstall demonstrates an exchange in which he receives a lunch invitation, checks his calendar, and sends a reply to the original sender with a suggested date for lunch. This is all done hands-free, simply by talking to the phone.

11:21 am: “Remind me to call my wife when I leave work.”

Siri creates a reminder with a geo-fence so that when he leaves work, it will remind him to call his wife.

11:22 am: “Search Wikipedia for Neil Armstrong.”

Siri heads right for Safari and pops the Armstrong page on Wikipedia.

Apple has also partnered with Wolfram Alpha to do dictionary searches, calculations. “Define mitosis.” “What’s the exchange rate on the Euro right now?”

11:24 am: “How many days until Christmas?”

Eighty-two, in case you were wondering.

11:24 am: Forstall notes that you can’t use Siri to do everything, but you can use it to do a pretty broad spectrum of things — call people, create reminders, compose and dictate email, traffic and directions, weather, stocks, set timers, contacts, search Web, create notes, search “wolfram alpha.”

“Who are you, Siri?”

“I am a humble personal assistant.”

11:27 am: Schiller returns to the stage. He adds that Siri takes dictation, before noting that the service is both contextual and conversational.

When iPhone 4S launches, Siri will be available in English, French and German, with more languages to follow.

11:28 am: Now, another video.

Typical Apple reel with the company’s executive bench talking about the design and development of the iPhone 4S.

11:32 am: For more on Siri, check out this story.

11:30 am:

iPhone 4S
64GB for $399
32GB for $299
16GB for $199

iPhone 4 will now be available for $99, 8GB only.
iPhone 3GS, 8GB for free.

Very aggressive pricing.

IPhone 4S preorders begin Friday. The phone will ship on October 14.

11:35 am: IPhone 4S will be available on AT&T, Verizon and, yes, Sprint.

When the rollout is done the iPhone will be in 70 countries, on 100 carriers.

11:36 am: Cook returns to wrap things up with another overview of the morning’s news.

“When you look at each of these things, they’re industry-leading in and of themselves, but what puts them out front is how they’re engineered to work together so well. Only Apple can make such powerful hardware and services like this and bring them together. I am so proud of Apple and all the people that worked so hard to make these things a reality.”

And with that, he leaves the stage.

And so ends a workmanlike job by Cook in his first big product introduction. But you can’t help but miss the showmanship that Jobs always brought to these events; he would have made the Siri technology explanation really sing.

The event’s over. Thanks for reading.

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Tuesday, Oct. 4.

That’s the day Apple is currently expected to hold its next big media event, according to sources close to the situation, where the tech giant will unveil the next iteration of its popular iPhone.

While there have been a lot of conflicting reports about the exact timing of the event, including some that pegged it as taking place this month, AllThingsD had previously posted that the rollout of the iPhone 5 would be in October.

While Apple could certainly change its plans anytime, sources said that the Oct. 4 date has been selected by the company to showcase the iPhone 5. Sources added that the plan is now to make the new device available for purchase within a few weeks after the announcement.

And while the iPhone 5 is a much-anticipated handset, the event itself has a lot more importance for Apple than many previous ones.

That’s because it will be newly installed CEO Tim Cook’s first big product introduction, and the place where the public will get a first lengthy impression of him that may well set the tone for Cook’s new role.

And that’s why, said sources, although he’s never quarterbacked an Apple product announcement before, Cook is certain to preside over the iPhone 5 rollout.

He has to, of course. To pass the presentation on to anyone else — even one of Apple’s key executives, such as Phil Schiller, who has handled the Macworld and Worldwide Developers Conference keynotes in 2009 — would undercut Cook’s new role and reinforce public perception that its legendary outgoing CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs is Apple, and that it will be a different company without him.

So, like his predecessor, and as Jobs’s right-hand man and chosen successor, Cook is expected to be the main presenter at all big Apple media events going forward.

That said, according to sources, he’s sure to have help from Apple lieutenants, such as marketing head Schiller, iOS chief Scott Forstall and Eddy Cue, recently named SVP of Internet Software and Services.

Still, the pressure will be on Cook to turn in a good performance at the event, especially after what has so far been a very smooth leadership transition at Apple.

What will be interesting to see, of course, is if Jobs himself will also make an appearance, which is something that is likely to be determined by his health, in a decision that will be made very close to the event.

And while putting Jobs onstage with Cook could diminish the new leader’s first public effort, what better “one more thing” than Jobs himself making a cameo appearance?

As 9to5Mac notes — it published an internal memo from Cook announcing the move — the new title means Cue is now in charge of iAds, Apple’s newish ad-selling-and-serving system. (Andy Miller, who had been running iAds, left last month.)

Beyond that, it’s not quite clear what the move means for Cue in practical terms. Regardless of what his previous title was, he had been Steve Jobs’ proxy for all of the company’s big media deals. Note that Cue appeared in place of Jobs when News Corp., which also owns this site, rolled out its Daily iPad newspaper earlier this year.

But whenever Jobs really needed to get something done with a media partner or would-be partner, he would weigh in as well. So the real question is whether Cook will take on the same role, or expect Cue to handle more of those responsibilities.

This debut was supposed to happen a few weeks ago in San Francisco, with Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs sharing stage time. Instead, Murdoch will show off his new publication at the Guggenheim in New York, with Apple content boss Eddy Cue stepping in for Jobs.

We’ve got a very good idea of what to expect: A newspaper that’s both old-fashioned and cutting-edge, which will sell for 99 cents a week or $40 a year. And the best way to experience the new publication will be on an iPad, not at a museum.

Still, it will be interesting to hear News Corp. pitch this one in real time, and to see how it leverages all of its resources and a very rare Apple endorsement. (This Web site, we should note, is owned by News Corp. as well.)

10:40 am: Greetings! So excited to be in the Guggenheim that I’m starting this one a few minutes early.

10:44 am: And here’s Jon Miller, who has been shepherding this thing at News Corp. Here’s some fresh scoop! The Daily will be be live onstage for the demo, he says, but won’t appear at the app store until noon.

[Note: The Daily can be found here at the Apple App Store]

10:47 am: Miller is working the room very well; now chatting up Reuters’ Ken Li.

10:48 And Steve Rubenstein, who has been handling PR for the Daily launch. He semi-taunts me by noting that there were tasty canapés at Rupert Murdoch’s private party Tuesday night.

10:49 am: If you’d simply like to watch a livestream of the event, minus my commentary, head to thedaily.com at 11 ET.

10:50 am: That sound you hear is the rustle of departing page views.

10:51 am: Cunning of the News Corp./Rubenstein/event-planning crew to split up the press by species. Gives us something to talk about.

10:52 am: BREAKING NEWS! Jon Miller says Wi-Fi here at the Guggenheim has been working “intermittently.”

10:52 am: WAAAAAAY More interesting is that Engadget’s Joanna Stern being hassled for daring to take out a camera during a press conference. She is being moved three seats back. Where that’s OK, apparently.

10:56 am: Pre-launch music, btw: Some kinda samba thing going on. Festive and, dare I say, a smidge bit sexy. Rowr!

10:58 am: Slightly curious is that registration staff told media that they’ll have “review units” available after presser. But everyone in media has an iPad, right? It’s required, no?

Perhaps the notion is that the presser will end before noon, and the Daily won’t be available until then, so if you want to get hands-on in the meantime, that’s the way to go. Which would be smart!

On the other hand, if they’re simply handing out free “review” units to the press, well, that’s kinda smart too. Because the press likes free stuff.

11:03 am: Our crack tech guy Adam Tow tells me TheDaily.com site is now saying that the app will be available at noon ET. I can’t see that on my screen, but I’ll take his word for it.

Especially because that’s what Jon Miller said a few minutes ago.

11:05 am: Given News Corp. pub WSJ’s focus on privacy, and Apple’s, interesting to review the Daily’s:

When you use the Services, we may collect certain non-personally identifiable information about that use. For example, in order to permit your connection to the Services via the Internet, our servers receive and record information about your computer and browser, including potentially your IP address, browser type, and other software or hardware information. If you access the Services from a mobile or other device, we may also collect transactional information such as a unique device identifier assigned to that device (“UDID”), your geolocation, or other transactional information for the device in order to serve content to it. We also may use cookies and other tracking technologies (including browser cookies, pixels, beacons, and Adobe Flash technology including cookies), which are comprised of small bits of data that often include an anonymous unique identifier. Websites send this data to your browser when you first request a web page and then store the data on your computer so the web site can access information when you make subsequent requests for pages from that site. We may use these technologies to collect and store information about your use of the Services, such as pages you have visited, search queries you have run, and advertisements you have seen.

11:06 am: And we’re live. Here’s Rupert Murdoch, iPad in hand.

“Good morning. I’m Rupert Murdoch.”

Thanks for the “amazing Steve Jobs,” a man who has “single-handedly changed the world” of technology and media.

“Steve has been a champion of the Daily from day 1.”

“New times demand new journalism.” [hrm]

Trying to take best of traditional journalism, including “shoe-leather reporting” editing, “a skeptical eye” [hrm!] and combine them with awesome tech.

“”Simply put, the iPad demands that we completely re-imagine our craft”

Shooting for audience that is sophisticated and reads a lot, but not print.

We have that, but it’s niche. No “true news discovery.” The magic of newspapers “and great blog” lies in “serendipity.”
True!

Similarly, we must make the business of news-gathering viable again.

Goal is to be indispensable source for news and entertainment. “A robust new voice.”

Shout-outs to Jesse Angelo and Greg Clayman, who run editorial and business, respectively, for the new pub.

Daily will be 14 cents a day–99 cents a week–because no printing, delivery costs, etc.

More superlatives for the Daily, including a “sense of fun.”

Target audience is “tablet” audience–[note emphasis on tablet, not iPad].

And a shout-out to Jon Miller, too.

[Unless I misheard and it was News Corp. CTO John McKinley.]

“We believe the Daily will be the model for how stories are told and how they’re consumed.”

And another shout-out to “all our friends at Apple”

Okay. Here are Miller, Angelo, Clayman.

11:13 am: Miller starting off. Not a demo–this is live production.

Trying to figure out how to produce new news for tablet era. “We think we’ve developed that.”

Angelo shows off home screen of the Daily, with Egypt as main headline. Applause.

Have been doing live production for about six weeks.

11:14 am: They have a reporter on the ground in Cairo right now. Josh Hirsch [sp?].

Lots of big pictures, video embedded in text.

And here’s one of the 360-degree photos. Which look cool!

Can put audio behind them, etc.

HD video–here’s a clip about prisoners making toys in Angola prison. Note the bluesy background music. ’Cause it’s about a prison, duh.

11:16 am: Back to Miller. Have rethought navigation.

11:17 am: Back to Angelo, showing off swipey carousel. Sorta silly to describe this to you in a liveblog, but there’s a “play” function and a “shuffle function,” and a video anchor who will discuss the main stories of the day.

11:18 am: Back to MIller. “The Daily is not an island” can share to Facebook, Twitter, email.

11:18 am: Angelo: We can also pull HTML5 pages into device. Can also link out. [Subtext--we are TOTALLY NOT ignoring the Web, you dummies. We're not idiots.]

Bringing Twitter feeds directly into app. So you can see what Lily Allen (used to be semi-famous a couple of years ago) has to say about something.

11:19 am: Miller: We have apps and games section, with a link directly to Apple Store.

And we have an awesome sports section [sounds familiar!].

11:20 am: Angelo: Yes, check out our awesome sports section. Troy Polamalu talking about Clay Matthews’s hair.

“For sports fans, we really think this is the showstopper”–customizable sports filter by team/sport, brings in scores, tweets, etc.

11:21 am: Miller: Publishing once a day, with updates throughout the day “as the news warrants.”

Verizon sponsoring first two weeks of free subscriptions.

11:22 am: The art in this liveblog, by the way, is coming directly from livestream. Nice job, Adam Tow.

11:22 am: Here’s Eddy Cue. Never seen him before. A very, very, very big deal in media circles.

Running through iPad, iOs success. iPad customers are huge news eaters. 200 million news apps downloaded so far.

I’ve been using the Daily for the last two weeks. “It’s amazing.” Amazing that it’s done every single day. More superlatives, etc.

Basically, a repeat of what Miller et al just said.

Okay. Here are the new details on push subscriptions. First time Apple has used this tech. 99 cents a day, $40 a year. [ahem].

11:26 am: And now, oddly, press conference comes to a halt for a photo opp.

11:26 am: Waiting for them to set up chairs for Q&A.

Questions and Answers

How will back issues be handled? Where will old copies be stored?

Angelo: Best thing to do is to save articles you care about. And it will also be archived on the Web. Internal archiving not there for 1.0.

Q: When will other pubs start using subscription option?

Announcement “very soon for other news publications.”

Q: How will you measure impressions, etc. for advertising?

Miller: Will have tech built into app for that. I should have mentioned during presentation that we love advertisers.

Q: For Rupe: How will you measure success?

A: We want to sell millions. But keep costs low. We have spent $30 million so far, “all of which has been written off in figures we’ll announce today.” But overall costs $500,000 a week going forward.

Q: Another question about subscriptions.

A: A non-answer from Cue.

Q: Who/what does Daily compete with? And how will other News Corp. properties be integrated?

A: Miller: Gotta compete with everything. “you’re competing with Angry Birds at some level.” [Hey that's my line!]

Murdoch: In NY, for example, we already have multiple outlets competing with each other. This is another.

Q: What about breaking news? How will that work?

A: Angelo talking up twitter feeds, sports scores, but “we can drop in a new page if we want to, and we will.” BUT! As a conusmer, I don’t like Web sites that change constantly. It’s not a great experience. [THAT IS: This is a newspaper, not a Web site.]

Q: What’s the political tone of this thing. Centrist, right?

A: Murdoch: “The editorial position will be in the hands of the editor.” Cue Angelo, who sorta hedges. On op-ed page, “We’re patriotic.”

Q: Someone wants to know if Rupert is really into this. Also, will there be an Australian version?

Murdoch. Duh.

(An Australian version “always a possibility.”)

Q: Why do this with the Daily instead of existing brands. Also, what’s up with your phone hacking newspapers in the U.K.?

A: Murdoch: Existing tablet apps are what got me excited about launching a new one. No comment on “the other matter.”

Q: You’ll be working with other tablets besides iPad, right?

A: Murdoch. Yes. And “we’ve been quite honest with Apple about that.” We’ll defnintely be on all platforms. But Apple will be the dominant one this year, in my opinion.

[Sorry, missed a Q. Seems to be about what apps Murdoch likes.]

Q: More about the editorial voice, please.

A: Angelo: Thinking it through. We know that people spend a lot of time with these apps–35 minutes, 40 minutes. “It’s unbelievable.” So how do you create content rich enough to keep people there?

Q: What did Steve Jobs say about this in the last couple of days?

A: Murdoch: “He did call me last week” and told me app was “really terrific. He was extremely flattering.”

Q: How will people find this stuff, since it’s not on the Web?

A: Cue: We’ve downloaded 10 billion apps. People can find this stuff.

Miller: We feel really good about this. We didn’t want to make compromises.

Q: I ask about what’s available on the Web.

A: Some of it will be mirrored on the Web, when it can be done technically. [Sorry, hard to type and write.]

[Sorry, now even more confused about what's available on the Web and what isn't. Going to have to follow up with the gang later.]

[Where's Greg Clayman, by the way?]

11:47 am: Q: How do you balance a subscription model with a large audience that advertisers want?

Murdoch: “They’d pay a much lower rate per thousand if it was free. They realize it’s something that people want.” And we can tell them more about who sees it. “It’s not just scattered out there….We’ll draw a better class of advertiser, and a better rate.”

11:48 am: Q: What’s the split between ad and subscription revenue?

Miller: Subscription will be larger at start, and then eventually 50-50, “which is the magic number.”

And we’re done. Will try to follow up, may have more answers/comments here, or in a separate post. Thanks for checking in!

Here is the press release announcing the Daily:

Introducing The Daily

First National Daily News Publication Created for iPad Launches today in the Apple App Store

New York, NY, February 2, 2011 – Today Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, unveiled The Daily — the industry’s first national daily news publication created from the ground up for iPad.

“New times demand new journalism,” said Mr. Murdoch. “So we built The Daily completely from scratch — on the most innovative device to come about in my time — the iPad.”

“The magic of great newspapers — and great blogs — lies in their serendipity and surprise, and the touch of a good editor,” continued Mr. Murdoch. “We’re going to bring that magic to The Daily — to inform people, to make them think, to help themengage in the great issues of the day. And as we continue to improve and evolve, we are going to use the best in new technology to push the boundaries of reporting.”

The Daily’s unique mix of text, photography, audio, video, information graphics, touch interactivity and real-time data and social feeds provides its editors with the ability to decide not only which stories are most important — but also the best format to deliver these stories to their readers.

“News Corp. is redefining the news experience with The Daily,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think it is terrific and iPad users are really going to embrace it.”

Led by Editor-in-Chief Jesse Angelo and Publisher Greg Clayman, The Daily is the first application made available on the App Store as a subscription — which will be billed directly to an iTunes account. And because this paperless paper requires no multi-million dollar presses or delivery trucks, it will be priced at just 99 cents a week (or $39.99 for an annual subscription).

“The Daily launches at a moment when advances in technology are changing the job of the modern editor,” says Mr. Angelo. “These advances are giving us new ways to tell stories. We intend to take advantage of all of them, and make The Daily the new voice for a new era.”

Each day The Daily will publish up to 100 pages focused on six key areas: news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games. It will offer views from across the political spectrum. They will come from across cultures and generations, across America and the world.

The Daily will feature Sudoku and crossword puzzles, localized weather reports, and a customizablesports package that captures news on the user’s favorite teams. Subscribers will also be able to leave comments on Daily stories in either written or audio form — as well as bookmark them in-app to read later.

As readers move through The Daily’s content, they will be helped by several highly intuitive navigation tools. And while The Daily lives on the iPad, most of its articles can be easily shared via Facebook, Twitter and email. The Daily will link out to the web, as well as bring the web into the app.

“In short, says Mr. Murdoch, “we believe The Daily will be the model for how stories are told and consumed in this digital age.”

The Daily has bureaus in New York and Los Angeles, as well as stringers across the country. Full companybios are available at TheDaily.com/about. Executive staff includes:

John Kilpatrick – Executive Creative Director
Steve Alperin – Managing Editor
Mike Nizza – Managing Editor, News
Richard Johnson – LA Bureau Chief
Sasha Frere-Jones – Editor, Arts & Life
Chris D’Amico – Editor, Sports
Elisabeth Eaves – Editor, Opinion
Peter Ha – Editor, Apps, Games and Technology

The Daily is also changing the way advertising is offered and consumed within a news publication. Full-page ad units are completely interactive, customizable, and offer a rich mix of branding and direct response opportunities. Launch advertisers include HBO,Macy’s, Paramount, Pepsi Max, Range Rover, Verizon, and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

“With The Daily, Rupert Murdoch has given us the chance to rethink the entire experience of news delivery and consumption,” said Mr. Clayman. “The ability to actively listen to and engage with our audience means we can continually provide an experiencethat consumers value in this fast-evolving tablet space. Together with our customers, our advertising partners, and the team at The Daily, we are excited to create a new form of media.”

About The Daily
The Daily is a first-of-its-kind daily national news publication built exclusively as an application for tablet computing. It provides readers the engaging experience of a magazine combined with the immediacy of the web and the need-to-know content of a newspaper, all while elevating user experience beyond the printed word. The Daily is a subscription-based news product, published 365 days a year, at the cost of $0.99 cents a week or $39.99 a year. For more information on The Daily go to: www.thedaily.com.

Finally, here are screenshots from The Daily’s listing in the App Store:

[CLICK HERE FOR LIVE COVERAGE OF THE PRESS EVENT]
But a select crowd will get to see the iPad newspaper tonight, at an equally notable Manhattan location: Rupert Murdoch’s apartment, where the News Corp. CEO is hosting a “low key” cocktail party.

Although News Corp. owns this Web site, my email invite to tonight’s pre-launch launch event hasn’t arrived, and I’m told it never will. The company hasn’t offered me a peek at the Daily, either.

But at this point I’ve still got a pretty decent sense of what Murdoch’s guests will see this evening, and the rest of us will see tomorrow: A newspaper that’s both old-fashioned and cutting-edge.

People who have gotten up  close to the the Daily describe a digital paper where many of the news stories look just like news stories you’d see anywhere else.

Others will look more like iPhone apps, featuring interactive graphics or videos, or photos you can swipe, pinch and zoom–with perhaps almost no text at all.

And there’s more! There’s no 3-D video yet, though it’s on the agenda. But there will be an audio feature so you can have stories read aloud to you. And there’s a crossword puzzle! And Sudoku!

A Daily-watcher who thinks the thing is amazing compares it to the Daily Prophet, the magical newspaper read by Harry Potter and his wizard pals.

More jaded observers tell me it’s more or less what they’ve seen in existing iPad magazine apps, particularly Hearst’s Popular Mechanics and Condé Nast’s Wired. The big difference is that those magazines come out monthly, and the Daily will get beamed to your iPad… daily.

Still, the most striking thing about the Daily has nothing to do with any technical bells and whistles. It’s Murdoch’s insistence that he can sell a digital newspaper app to consumers trained to expect that digital news is what you get on the Web, for free.

The Daily is almost defiantly anti-Web: It will have a free site, with a grudging sample of perhaps 10 percent of the newspaper’s stories, but that’s it. While Web news sites increasingly focus on aggregation and filtering of other people’s content, the Daily will focus on making its own stuff, even though plenty of other people are already doing it.

And while News Corp. officials have tried to argue that the Daily isn’t a newspaper but something else, it is most definitely produced using a newspaper model: Six sections, written once a day–the Daily team is particularly excited about its sports coverage–and delivered in the wee hours of the morning.

The Daily will allow for some midday updates, but it’s really designed to land with a digital thud on your virtual doorstep, just like the newspapers Murdoch has loved all his life.

Murdoch will charge 99 cents a week for a subscription, and he’s certainly going to get some takers at the start, especially since the Daily will be free for the first two weeks after tomorrow’s launch.

Which will be a noisy one. The press will give it plenty of free promotion, and News Corp. will augment that with a digital ad campaign, in addition to offline marketing donated and/or bartered from other Murdoch properties. Perhaps there’s a way to mention it once or twice during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast on Fox.

Much more important will be the endorsement from Apple, which is using the Daily to roll out a new “push” subscription feature.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was supposed to appear onstage in San Francisco with Murdoch to bless the launch, will send content boss Eddy Cue to New York tomorrow instead.

That’s still Apple’s seal of approval, though, and I can’t think of another time the company has so conspicuously blessed a single third-party product. That alone will be enough to prompt an enormous number of people to try it out.

Remember that Apple already has a customer base of  some 125 million iTunes users–if you do want to buy this thing, you won’t need to pull out a credit card. A few button clicks will do.

The real question, of course, is how many people are going to pay for the Daily a month down the road, when the buzz is gone. And there’s no way to guess at that when you get your first look at the thing. No matter when that happens.

That’s the pitch Apple has been making to TV networks in recent weeks. The company is trying to round up support for a monthly subscription service that would deliver TV programs via its multimedia software, multiple sources tell me.

Apple (AAPL) isn’t tying the proposed service to a specific piece of hardware, like its underwhelming Apple TV box or its long-rumored tablet/slate device. Instead, the company is presenting the offer as an extension of its iTunes software and store, which already has 100 million customers.

A so-called “over the top” service could theoretically rival the ones most consumers already  buy from cable TV operators–if Apple is able to get enough buy-in from broadcast and cable TV programmers.

That’s a big if: Apple has told industry executives it wants to launch the service early next year, but I have yet to hear of a single programmer that has made a firm commitment to the company, which has tasked iTunes boss Eddy Cue with promoting the idea.

Industry executives believe that if anyone jumps first, it will be Disney (DIS), since CEO Bob Iger has shown a willingness to experiment with Apple and iTunes in the past: In 2005, Disney was the first player to sell its programming on iTunes, via a-la-carte downloads. And Apple CEO Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest single shareholder, a result of Disney’s 2006 acquisition of Jobs’s Pixar animation studio. Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Network executives I’ve talked to are intrigued by the idea–they are eager to find new revenue streams–but are also wary, for several reasons.

Cable networks, for instance, don’t want to threaten existing relationships and subscription fees from cable providers like Comcast (CMCSA). And programmers are also worried about the effect a subscription service would have on advertising revenue: Even if the service didn’t distribute TV programs until after their initial air date, that could cut into ratings, which now measure viewership over the course of several days.

But the move to deliver TV and movies over the Web is already well under way. Netflix (NFLX), for instance, already bundles free streaming movie and television along with its disc-by-mail subscription service. iTunes and Amazon (AMZN) rent movies on a one-off basis, and Google’s (GOOG) YouTube is trying out the same thing. Meanwhile, Hulu, the joint venture between GE’s (GE) NBC, News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, and ABC, is figuring out how to launch a paid service that may include rentals, paid downloads or subscriptions.

So Apple’s proposed subscription service, which the company has floated in the past, is no longer a huge stretch. Says one executive briefed on the company’s plans: “I think they might get it right this time.”

Again, Apple would rather close iTunes, the fulcrum of its iPod/iPhone franchise–and a service that Billboard estimates generated $1.9 billion in revenue last year–than absorb a 6-cents-a-track royalty increase or pass it on to consumers.

Somehow I doubt it. Even if iTunes vice president Eddy Cue did tell the CRB that Apple might do just that if the board agrees to the increased royalty rates proposed by the NMPA. “If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the … royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss–which is no alternative at all,” Cue wrote in a statement submitted to the CRB last year. “Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.”

But of course it is possible to do so profitably. Especially if you pass the increase in royalty rate along to the consumer and the blame for that increase on to the NMPA with the astonishingly well-timed release of a sensationalist 18-month-old quote.