Apple 'Back to the Mac' Event Coverage - October 20

In a few hours, Apple will be kicking off its latest special event held in the Town Hall of its Cupertino campus, with live streaming being available to Mac and iPhone viewers worldwide.

During the past few days, rumors of Apple’s forthcoming announcements have slowly, but steadily solidified into almost fully-confirmed facts.

A good example is iLife 11, which seems to have been confirmed via the Apple Discussions forums. A new MacBook Air also seems to be referenced via the same web site.

While some believe there’s also a mystery product in the pipeline, one thing is for sure - a new version of Mac OS X is set to make its debut today, and it’s likely called Lion.

Well, almost for sure, since there’s no solid confirmation regarding Apple’s plans to introduce an actual new Mac OS either.

In fact, we could say Apple bringing a cuddly lion up on stage is actually a safer bet than a revamped desktop operating system, since the artwork accompanying Apple’s invitations to the press event bears no references to Mac OS X (10.7 being the logical next-generation Mac OS), but does show the cat itself.

Whatever Steve Jobs & Co. have in store for us, it’s always exciting to wait for the makers themselves to pull the cloth off their new offerings.

Since the live video feed of Apple’s event is only available to Mac and iOS device owners, Softpedia will provide live coverage of the show on this page, via timely updates of the key announcements, complete with imagery.

With just a couple of hours to go before the event is live, reader are encouraged to start their speculation in the comments. Also, tell us which of the rumored products you’d wish to see materialize. How about that mystery product - what do you think it is?

Check back in soon and refresh this page every once in a while to see what’s new.

Update #1

The Apple October 20 event starts with the usual Apple updates (figures, retail stores).

Steve Jobs announces iLife '11.

The demo starts with iPhoto 11.

The logical enhancements are introduced: new slideshows, more sharing capabilities etc.

iMovie 11

- enhanced audio editing - one step effects - people finder - news and sports themes - movie trailers

GarageBand 11

- Flex time - Groove Matching - More guitar amps & effects - New piano & guitar lessons - "How did I play?"

Available today!

Update #2

FaceTime for the Mac!

Beta release today!

Calls between iPhone 4, iPod touch 4 and Macs.

Update #3

Mac OS X "Lion"

The new Mac OS X Lion has a Mac App Store, a Launchpad (for Mac apps), and the Mission control (combines Expose, Spaces).

Lion is coming out Summer 2011.

Mac App Store is coming out in 90 days from today.

Developers get sneak peek today.

Apple is accepting apps in November.

Update #4

One more thing!

New MacBook Air computers!