Here you'll find the highlights of the recent Macworld keynote address by Steve Jobs. Follow the "read more" link to see the coverage as it happened.

We'd like to thank Leo Laporte, Bill Douthett, Nitrozac and Snaggy for their excellent coverage and commentary during the keynote in our Mercworld IRC chat. And, of course, we'd like to thank all the great Mac fans that showed up for the chat (all 1200 of you). It was an awesome event that has given us even more ideas of what we'll spring on you next time.

10:59 AM - The speech is wrapping up. Please stay tuned to MacMerc for coverage. I'll be moblogging photos from the Apple booth in a few minutes. And if you haven't already, please PayPal us a buck or two (button left column). Thanks!

10:54 AM - Shipping starting today. Accessories rolling out in the next four weeks.

10:54 AM - 2 models: 512MB for $99 and 1GB for $149.99.

10:53 AM - Autofill: button in iTunes to make a playlist sized for the iPod shuffle. You can also manually fill it. You can also use the iPod Shuffle as a USB flash drive (choose how much for songs how much for data).

10:50 AM - iPod Shuffle: really tiny (smaller than most packs of gum), no screen, weighs under 1 ounce. Cap on the bottom, USB 2. 12 hour rechargeable battery. PC/Mac. Looks about the size of a flash key drive.

10:46 AM - There is one more thing: iPod marketshare is 65% over double last year. But Apple is going after the remaining flash player market.

10:45 AM - Motorola: iTunes client on Motorola phones. Showing Motorola e398. Phones shipping this spring.

10:43 AM - iPods on cars: BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Volvo, Scion.

10:40 AM - We have the iPod and the iPod mini (something else coming???). Holiday 2004 quarter iPod sales: 4.5 million vs. 730K a year ago. Cross 10 million iPods sold, 8 million in 2004.

10:39 AM - Moving onto iPod...

10:37 AM - iTMS sold 230 million songs so far. On pace for 1.25 billion.

10:36 AM - Mac mini is in stores January 22nd.

10:34 AM - The Mac mini fits in the palm of your hand. Hook it into your own keyboard and mouse, or Apple's. Comes with Panther and iLife 05. Price point:$499 $599.

10:34 AM - The Mac mini looks like a 3" tall CD drive. A short cube. All the connections, DVI and VGA.

10:33 AM - Introducing the Mac mini -- ThinkSecret was right!

10:32 AM - "Why doesn't Apple provide a stripped down lower cost Mac?"

10:32 AM - iWork available January 22 for $79

10:27 AM - Phil is out to do a demo of Pages. Start with a blank page or a template. Import photos in pages through iPhoto library (iLife is integrated). Designed by the Keynote team. Word processing with a sense of style.

10:21 AM - iWork announced, to replace AppleWorks. Built from the ground up for OS X. Includes major update to Keynote: 10 new themes, animated text, powerful animated builds, presenter display, interactive slideshows, self playing kiosk slideshows.

- Pages: Other part of iWork, advanced word processor. 40 Apple designed templates.

10:21 AM - iLife 2005 will be priced at $79. Goes on sale a week from this Friday. Free on all new Macs.

10:18 AM - Traffic update: about 100,000 pages an hour. Please donate if you have found this useful--the webhost enjoys being paid. (PayPal button sidebar left). Update: Thanks guys, keep em coming. We sprung for a dedicated server for our coverage.

10:15 AM - John Mayer is on stage showing the new GarageBand (he helped introduce the first version). Notes, "I didn't win any grammy's for playing the piano."

10:14 AM - GarageBand '05: Up to 8 track recording. Real time music notation (taken from Logic), pitch and timing fixing, recorded tracks now can act as loops, create loops, vocal transformer. Also a new Jampack (#4)

10:09 AM - iDVD '05: 15 new animated themes, OneStep DVD creation (video to DVD in one step), All DVD formats(+R/W).

10:05 AM - Spotted on stage, small metallic box with Apple logo...

10:04 AM - The president of Sony is on stage talking about HD. Steve is a fan of Sony's prosumer HD video camera (just $3499).

9:58 AM - iMovie 05: Faster, non destructive trimming, more transitions and effects, mpeg 4 video, Magic iMovie (auto movie). Biggest feature: HD.

9:45 AM - iPhoto '05: Better searching, More formats, far more powerful editing, more book designs, better organization (folders, calendar view), advanced slide show (Ken Burns!). Supports MPEG 4 movies. Supports RAW. Prices for prints cut to 19 cents a picture. Really plugging the books feature, auto layout etc. New sizes: softcover 11x8.5, softcover 8x6, pocketbook 3.5x2.5. All 20 pages minumum, double sided printing.

9:44 AM - iLife '05: Major upgrades of everything but iTunes.

9:43 AM - Next topic: HD. 2005 will be the year of HD video. Final Cut Pro HD is the leading HD editing product in the world. But that's not enough: Final Cut Express HD. LiveType, SoundTrack, seamless iMovie import. Motion importing. Price point is $299 and available next month. $99 upgrade price.

9:42 AM - Tiger: Long Before Longhorn.

9:41 AM - The usual iChat demo, showed off 4 way video conferencing. Paris included as one of the video feeds.

9:40 AM - AAPL is trading down nearly 6%. Better hope for the $499 iMacs.

9:38 AM - The Apple Store is down... New toys are on their way!

9:36 AM - Funny: currency exchange rate--ooh might not want to do that (Dollar vs. Euro).

9:35 AM - I'd like to thank Om Malik for the internet access--everyone's trying to get on and I have a speedy connection from Verizon.

9:34 AM - Speaking of AAPL, it's trading down. Steve sez: "Still more Keynote to go!"

9:33 AM - Now demoing Dashboard. "Dashboard is a place for widgets to live." New converter module and a ditcionary. Stock ticker (with AAPL). Flight tracker. Translation. Yellow pages. Weather.

9:31 AM - Steve is showing off QuickTime 7's H264 features in QuickTime 7. Lossless scaling video.

9:29 AM - QuickTime 7 will be in Tiger, biggest update in the last decade. Live resizing. Full screen overly controls, HD playback. MPEG-4. New codec, h.264.

9:27 AM - Still showing Tiger, Mail.app being shown off. Ties in with iPhoto to add pictures you get in an email.

9:23 AM - Demo not working, Bill Gates style "I have a little bug here."

9:18 AM - Showing off Spotlight in Tiger.

9:16 AM - Tiger should ship in the first half of this year, over 200 new features. He's going over what was shown at WWDC

9:15 AM - Now for an update on OS X.

9:15 AM - The new iMac (LCD) is the most popular Mac.

9:15 AM - Please do not refresh the page, auto refreshes every 2 minutes. The server load is obviously high.

9:13 AM - Steve giving update on the iMac

9:12 AM - First MacWorld with HD projection

9:11 AM - Steve is on stage

9:11 AM - Make sure to join the chat.

9:04 AM - U2's Vertigo playing loud warming up the crowd.

06:50 AM PT - This page is the placeholder for MacMerc's live keynote coverage for MacWorld SF 2005. To the right you should see a box that will (once the show starts) contain the biggest news items. Underneath will be images from the show so it's quite likely that this space will house some of the first images of new Apple products to hit the web. This show is the first Steve Jobs MacWorld keynote in quite some time (1 year) which has added to the buzz factor. Moreover, there are tons of rumors about new products that will keep us all on the edge of our seats. So sit tight and get ready--the good times start rolling at 9AM PT.

-Jon Gales, live at MWSF '05 Keynote