So ladies and gents, here I am in London, England, in a functional, if unspectacular, business centre that Apple has hired out for the day to bring us their conference and vision for the near future. As we’ve all expected, the focus of the event looks to be the music side of their business and I’m sure I’d be very excited by the “Let’s Rock” slide I can see on the screen at the front if Kevin Rose hadn’t broken the news about iTunes 8 last week.

It’s a rainy day outside and the hall is half full of journalist from all over Europe and half full of Apple’s guests who will doubtless whoop and applaud at every announcement. To my right is Shiny Shiny’s Susi Weaser complete with nasty cold and husky tones . Say hello, Susi. She says hi.

There’s a general hubbub, the lights have gone down and typing is going to get tricky without an illuminated keyboard. Here we go…