arghyle

I don’t use Apple computers, but I can’t help but get swept up in all the keynote excitement. These are generally the best covered tech speeches of the year so it’s really fun to keep track of them.

The two big sites to stay up to date on Engadget and Gizmodo, both of which will probably be having some of their biggest days of the year as they live-blog the event and people sit at home/work rapidly refreshing the page.

Engadget is doing really well- the site is being updated about once a minute and it is loading extremely quickly. These guys generally do the best keynote coverage and this time appears to be no different.

Gizmodo has set up a special subdomain live.gizmodo.com for events like this which is really cool because it adds the comments to the right side and allows for easy reading of the extra long single page. They are updating in reverse chronological order which is WAY better, but the site is loading somewhat slowly. They also have an autorefresh set up, but it does not seem to be working properly. Load times are about 15 seconds…

Both sites are being hit by Digg’s frontpage plus a lot of people refreshing, so you know they are generating some serious pageviews.

TUAW- the coverage is terse but it’s up and running. Not nearly as good as the two previous sites.

Ars Technica- good coverage, not as solid as I would expect from them.

MacRumors- short and fast, but worth reading if you don’t want to go with one of the bigger blogs.

Apple Matters- they took the main site down to handle the load. It’s one page with extremely basic html and no formatting. Limited advertisements so it’s easy to read, but no pictures and not the best explanations.
Apple Gazette- very nice job with the text, no pictures though.

Iphone Alley- supposed to be a live video stream through Ustream, but all I am getting is extremely garbled audio which I can’t barely understand. The site keeping going down when I try to refresh.

Macscoop- Simple and basic layout, refreshed often. No pictures, but it’s up and loading extremely fast. Autorefresh every 30 seconds.

Slashgear- It’s effectively down, well, it’s up, but all I am getting are a load of advertisements. No live webcast.

Sitening on Twitter- I can’t believe more people are not doing this on Twitter. The coverage here is sparse, but it’s a great use for the site. These guys also are using Amazon’s S3 to host a live blog… smart.

Macuser- It’s there and it’s up, but very hard to follow.

Macworld- They are pumping out a lot of text, but no pictures or times mentioned.

–

1:27pm (EST)- live.gizmodo.com just crapped out- the images are coming up but I am not getting any text aside from this message: ” Gizmodo’s liveblog updates automatically, if your page is not refreshing hit reload.” Engadget is still going strong with once-a-minute updates.

1:48pm- Engadget is owning. By far the best text and the most pictures. They must be sharing the work with a few people pretty efficiently.

1:55pm- Everyone is loading quickly except for Gizmodo (30+ seconds and then no formatting) and Slashgear (still no feed).

2:00pm- Macrumors is doing a great job with their coverage- nice images, the text is choppy but readable.

2:05pm- I have pretty much given up on Gizmodo. Macrumors has not updated in 7 minutes! It’s killing me. (refresh problem)

2:08pm- I am hearing a lot of clapping and laughing from Ustream, but I can’t really make out what Steve is saying, something about Safari and market share. Why is there no live video stream? Or even a real live audio stream? Here’s what I heard (from Macrumors):

11:08 am Safari
11:08 am ONE MORE THING
11:08 am “it’s all the same… most people are gonna buy the ultimate version
11:07 am crowd goes wild
11:07 am Leopard shipping in October. Basic version, $129. Premium version, $129. Business version, $129,
Enterprise version $129. Ultimate version, $129.
11:07 am Premium Version = $129
11:07 am Basic Version = $129

2:14pm- I wish Engadget was doing it in reverse chronological order, I am doing a lot of scrolling to get the the bottom every time. They should have put the comments on the side or on another page so I could just go to the bottom of the page.

2:14pm- Safari on Windows?!

2:23pm- I am loving the Macrumors image section. I have no idea how they are updating so quickly…

2:25pm- I am running out of steam. I’m still not sure why people are reading live blogs rather than just catching the recaps in an hour or two. They will be much easier to understand and not nearly as disjointed.

2:29pm- That’s it, shows over. Steve has left the stage. The blogs are winding down. The big winners? Well Engadget, by far, did the best job. Macrumors did fine as well, and when I could get to it I like’d Engadget’s coverage, but they had some serious server problems.

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