The Beatles' catalogue is not available through iTunes. Now let's get down to business.
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin took the stage at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Wednesday for the annual Apple Event apologizing to the packed auditorium joking, "I don't have any new products to reveal."
Martin, a seven-time Grammy award winning artist and obvious fan of the company, naming his firstborn, Apple, addressed the tech crowd saying "I am very pleased to be here. I wish the rest of the band were here, but they were too lazy. This is probably the toughest closing gig we've ever had."
Martin performed a piano version of the hit single, "Yellow" and "Viva La Vida," before giving everyone a sneak peak at new song "Wedding Bells."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced a new design for the iPod line. Since its inception in 2001, the iPod has sold 275 million and according to Jobs 2010 will "launch the strongest lineup of new iPods we've ever had."
The iPod Shuffle brings back the beloved navigation button. Combine that with a voiceover playlist, wearable clip, and 15 hours of running time, the tiny Shuffle is available in five colors and sells for $49.
The iPod Nano has undergone the greatest transformation. The sixth-generation iPod eliminates the click wheel in favor of a multi-touch screen reducing the size by 46 percent. The device includes built in clock, FM radio, Nike+, voiceover, wearable clip, and 24 hour battery life. The Nano is available in seven colors in 8 GB retailing for $149 and 16 GB for $179.
Jobs went on to describe the success of the iPod Touch, surpassing the Nano this past year as the most popular in the iPod series.
"An iPhone without the phone" as it has been described, Jobs called the iPod Touch "the #1 portable game player in the world outselling Nintendo and Sony portable game players combined. Over a billion games and entertainment titles have been downloaded from iTunes just to the iPod Touch alone."
Changes to the iTouch include the thin sleek design now boasting Retina display found on the iPhone with 326 ppi and 24-bit color LED. FaceTime over wifi with front-facing camera and rear-facing camera to allow HD video recording and editing has been added. Playback is 40 hours. The three models available are 8 GB for $229, 32 GB for $299 and 64 GB for $399.
The new iPod lineup will be available next week and are all available for pre-order on the Apple website.
iTunes is primed to cross the12 billion mark in song downloads. The stats read 160 million accounts with access to credit cards all one click away. Perhaps we should be friends? Steve Jobs thinks it's a great idea and unveiled Ping - a social network all about music built into iTunes or as Jobs succinctly said "where Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes." Users set up customized profiles and may "follow" an artist or be followed allowing a "circle of friends" to view playlists, download history, favorites, and other available content.
iTunes 10 is free and currently available for download and will be made available for iPhone and iTouch.
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