Watch Apple’s LIVE Keynote Video Stream for Special iPod Music Event

Apple would be live streaming video of their September special media event to be held in San Francisco today but unfortunately the LIVE stream will only be available to users having OS X 10.6 Mac or an iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad). This is because Apple is using a new streaming technology called HTTP Live Streaming which was introduced alongside Snow Leopard’s QuickTime X and iOS 3.0 firmware.

The HTTP Live Stream protocol will provide the video stream in a MPEG2 playlist (m3u file) that is added to as the stream continues. These playlists will load in VLC player for both Mac and Windows. VLC, for example, will play the above sample stream using this url (as shown below):

VLC will load all parts of the stream into its own playlist. It works fine for this pre-recorded stream as the entire playlist is already constructed. For today’s live transmission you’ll have to reload the playlist again and again (manually) to get the next playlist.

All Windows and Linux users will now be able to watch the live video stream without having to own any of the Macs or iOS devices. Huzzah!

Notably, LIVE broadcast of the special event will commence at 10:00 a.m. PDT today at Apple portal (click here to see what time is it in your region). This is the first time in recent keynote history that a live stream will be offered.

Following new products and services might be launched today by Apple:

• New iPod touch 4: With a back-facing camera for still images and videos and a front-facing camera for FaceTime video calls.
• iPod Nano Sixth Generation: Compact size touch screen Nano 6 will soon make its name in history.
• Lower-cost iOS-based Apple TV: Bringing the App Store to the Apple TV would add many new and meaningful features (like Netflix streaming, or video games, for example).
• 99-cent TV show rentals: We would view [that] as a step forward for Apple TV. We do not have any knowledge of a new Apple TV, but we believe it would fall into company strategy and product cycles nicely.
• Cloud-based iTunes service: We believe an announcement at the Sept. event is likely, but the service may not begin until late CY10.

Via – Macrumors