Apple to offer live video stream of Wednesday's keynote

Apple has announced that it will provide a public, live stream of Wednesday's keynote, which will be made available via the company's HTTP Live Streaming open standard to Mac and iOS device users.

The Cupertino, Calif., company made the announcement as a media alert Tuesday evening. The live video stream will be available when the keynote begins Wednesday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, 1 p.m. Eastern, at apple.com.

"Apple will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple's industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards," the company said. "Viewing requires either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad."

Apple used to provide a webcast of its keynote events, but stopped doing so in 2005. This week's apparent change of heart could have been inspired by the Wi-Fi meltdown that occurred at the iPhone 4 unveiling, when Chief Executive Steve Jobs had difficulty showing off the company's latest handset because there were too many Wi-Fi hotspots in the Moscone Center.

Jobs asked members in the audience if they could turn off their Wi-Fi devices, but many did not comply, and Jobs was unable to demonstrate some of the features of the iPhone 4. Jobs revealed there were 570 Wi-Fi base stations within the auditorium.

Wednesday's keynote will be at a different location, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In addition to Apple's official live stream, AppleInsider will also have its own live coverage.