Apple is currently holding a special Back to Mac Event and GMRblog is there to cover the news with a live blog.  So sit back, relax and enjoy as we bring you the latest happening for Mac and hopefully a few special announcements.  Leading up to this morning’s event we had rumors that iLife would be updated and possibly a new MacBook Air (MBA).  The rumors will be separated from fact very shortly so bookmark the page and remember to refresh your web browser.  Let’s get started, enjoy.

11:33 AM PST: It looks the live stream is officially dead, either the update to the Apple Store or the massive traffic from these two MacBook Air models is most likely the culprit.  That concludes the GMRblog coverage of the Back to Mac Event, we hope you enjoyed the live blog and if you would like us to cover more events please let us know in the comments section below. Thanks.

11:31 AM PST: The new MBA is the “future of the notebook” according to the new product video.  We’ll need to grab one of these ASAP and confirm their findings.  Steve Jobs is back on stage and he’s preparing to do the wrap up.

11:29 AM PST: You can power the 27-inch cinema display with the new MacBook Air (both models since they use the same 320m Nvidia graphics).

11:25 AM PST: Steve is now showing off the new commercial for the MacBook Air 13.3 and 11.6 inch models.  Looks like the rumors were spot on for pretty much everything besides the memory of 2GB vs 4GB and instead is all about the flash-based storage options 64GB up to 256GB.

11:21 AM PST: Now it’s time for the pricing.  They believe all notebooks will be like this one day.  New pricing begins at $999 for the 11.6-inch model with 64GB of flash memory or $1199 for 128GB.  The 13-inch is $1299 starting and up to $1599.  Both models are available starting today.  Get ready for the Apple Store madness to begin, better leave now friends.

11:21 AM PST: The largest internal part of the new MacBook Air (MBA) will be the battery.  They’ve taken everything they’ve learned about miniturization from the iPods, iPads and iPhones.  The 13.3-inch MacBook Air has a younger brother, whoa.  There’s an 11.6-inch younger brother, even smaller and even lighters.  Better resolution than the 13-inch MacBook Pro.  Battery life is 5 hours Wireless Web, 30 days of Standby Time.

11:15 AM PST: MacBook Air is confirmed.  The rumors were true all along.  It is only 0.68 inches thick (at its thickest point) and .11 inches at its thinnest point – 2.9 lbs.  Complete aluminum unibody construction.  Full-sized keyboard and full-sized glass trackpad – these are areas which you do not want to sacrifice.  13.3-inch LED backlit display. 1440 x 900 pixels, Core2Duo processor, Nvideo Geforce 320M.  No Optical Drive, No Hard Drive — all flash-based storage for the Instant On.  Up to 2X faster than a hard drive. Up to 90% smaller and lighter, but most important nearly silent operation.

11:13 AM PST: One more thing… wait for it this looks like a HUGE announcement.  It’s a hardware announcement for sure.  ”What would happen if a Macbook met an iPad?”

11:12 AM PST: The Mac is 1/3 of Apple’s Revenue and Apple is investing heavily in the Mac — $22 Billion business.  Retail Market share has topped 20% for the first time, in a long time.  Steve is now recapping some of the key points from today’s presentation.  It is not looking likely that we’ll see any hardware updates at this point, but cross your fingers we still have 18 more minutes to go.

11:11 AM PST: Release Date for OS X Lion Summer 2011.  They are “feeling real good about the release date”.  Steve is now talking about the Mac App Store and they have decided that the Mac App Store will open on Snow Leopard within 90 days from today.  Developers can go to Apple.com and learn more about the App Store today and submissions will begin in November.

11:09 AM PST: Dashboard, Spaces and Full Screen have all been worked together into Mission Control.  It’s an Expose view of everything you need access to on your Mac.  That concludes the key features in OS X Lion.  Steve is back on stage, thanked Craig and now the crowd is growing impatient for news on Mac product updates.

11:06 AM PST: Managing apps looks super easy with launch pad.  They are now showing off the new full screen applications and how gestures can really control your PDF files.  There’s a new simple multitouch gesture to jump between the full screen app and your desktop.  Flick to the left on your desktop now pulls up Dashboard.  As a Mac user “I love working with Windows, no windows, not Windows” – crowd laughs.

11:03 AM PST: Now Steve is talking about the key features that make OS X “great” – Expose, Full Screen Apps, Dashboard, Spaces and now “Mission Control”.  It is now time for the demo of Mission Control.  They are going to go over a few of the features and do a sneak peak.  The App Store is now going to be on your dock.

10:56 AM PST: The key features to OS X Lion are “multi-touch gestures”, “app store”,  ”app home screen”, “full screen apps”, “auto save”, “auto resume”.  Steve is now talking about how they are going to use multitouch on their Mac Products.  The Magic Trackpad is going to be a key feature of the future of OS X.  Looks like Steve is making the decision for us even though none of the presenters today have used it despite sitting in the middle of the table.  There will be a Mac App Store – “the best place to discover apps”, “free and paid apps”, “70% for the developers in earnings”, “automatic app updates just like the iPhone and iPad”, the apps will be licensed to use on “All of your Personal Apps”.

10:54 AM PST: FaceTime for Mac looks pretty clean.  The video switches between portrait and landscape mode as the person on the other end flips their iPod Touch or iPhone 4.  A beta release for Mac is available today.  Just head to apple.com and download the beta right now.  That wraps up FaceTime for Mac and now it’s time for the “entree for today, OS X”.  The new version of OS X will officially be called “Lion”.  The philosophy behind Lion is that they started with Mac OS X and then created iOS which is used in the iPad.  Now they are inspired by some of the innovations from iOS “Back to the Mac”.  Mac OS X meets the iPad.

10:51 AM PST: Next up it’s time to talk about FaceTime.  June on the iPhone 4 and on September to the iPod Touch.  Since then in the last 4 months they’ve shipped 19 million devices with FaceTime.  What could be better than that?  The number 1 request could we please be able to do FaceTime calling between these devices and the Mac?  FaceTime for the Mac is real!

10:49 AM PST: You can now look back at your previous practice and see how you have progressed on your Guitar or Piano with the new “How Did I Play” feature.  Steve Jobs says that there are over 5 million people using Garage Band now to learn to play music and create music. iLife 11 is looking like a winner and it will be included with every new Mac for free.  If you want to upgrade your existing Mac it will be $49.  It is available “Today”.

10:47 AM PST: It looks like the new HD footage of learning to play the piano is going to really help in Garage Band 11.  The “How Did I Play” feature is being showcased via a standard USB keyboard.  Once you hit record and start to play along with the piece Garage Band will provide feedback in real time.  Not only will there be real-time feedback, but you get a chance to play along with a real Orchestra.

10:45 AM PST: “Groove Matching is kind of like an automatic spell checker for bad rhythm”.  Now it’s time for Flex Time which allows you to fix the timing of your songs.  Between Groove Matching and Flex Time you can pretty much fix almost any recording from Garage Band.  Learning to play the guitar and the piano is going to be much easier with the new lessons.

10:42 AM PST: Flex Time, Groove Matching, More guitar amps & effects, new piano effects and “How Do I Play” modes are coming to Garage Band 11.  They are going to showcase the Groove Matching first.

10:40 AM PST: We are now watching a complete Movie Trailer production with iMovie 11.  Note: The presenters are all using the Magic Mouse in case anyone is interested in whether the Magic Trackpad was going to take over the industry. There is a Magic Trackpad between the mouse and the keyboard, but nobody has used it just yet.

10:37 AM PST: The movie trailer feature is definitely going to lead to some semi-pro productions on YouTube.  Prepare for your kids productivity levels in school to fall off the chart.  The crowd is loving this, intense applause.  Vimeo has now been adding to the default sharing options.

10:34 AM PST: You can now find shots of specific people and filter for keywords such as “close-up shot”, “group shot”, “action shot”.

10:34 AM PST: Whoa, iMovie 11 now has people finder from iPhoto to locate people in your video clips – nice touch.

10:33 AM PST: New original scores from the London Symphony Orchestra that you can use in your movies in iMovie 11.

10:31 AM PST: 24 frames per second (24p) is now included in iMovie11 — this is huge for those of your looking to bring in your HD video footage.  They are now showing off the new Trailers feature in iMovie 11.

10:31 AM PST: Single click audio changes for audio speed are much easier.  There’s now “one step effects” such as instant replay.  You can now do a one-click instant replay with speed selection.  Flash and Hold still frame looks to be a new killer feature.

10:26 AM PST: Now it’s time for iMovie 11.  The number one feature request for iMovie was better audio editing – this will be the key feature “sophisticated editing really simply”.  One Step Effect, People Finder, News and Sports Themes and Movie Trailers (the ability to construct movie trailers with “almost no effort”).

10:24 AM PST: They are now showing off Letterpress cards (embossed paper) and the production process. Steve Jobs on iPhoto 11 “I think that’s awesome”. Key improvements: Full Screen, Letterpress Cards, Facebook enhancements,

10:19 AM PST: The event is underway and we are currently being shown the new features to iPhoto.  Key changes include new slideshow templates, templates for email (collages, themes)