Apple held their "It's Only Rock n' Roll" press conference today, and those who were waiting with baited breath for an announcement that the Beatles catalogue would finally make it to iTunes were sadly disappointed. Sure, Apple had plenty of exciting news, but made no mention of the Fab Four.
(Beatles fans had high hopes, as this press conference was held on the release date of the band's new remasters discs and Rock Band videogame; guess it was just a coincidence after all.)
So, no digitalized Beatles, but here's what Apple head honcho Steve Jobs did have to say, according to Rolling Stone.
First off, we previously reported that Apple was planning to bring back the LP experience with more interactive packaging, artwork and other features bundled with the digital music. They unveiled just that with what is being called the iTunes LP. These so-called "LPs" will feature videos, liner notes, artwork, photos, lyrics and more in a cool interactive fashion (check the video below). The iTunes LP features were demonstrated at the press conference with the Grateful Dead's American Beauty, Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King and the Doors' self-titled album.
The latest version of iTunes, 9.0, was also unveiled, with an announcement that more than 8.5 billion songs have now been downloaded through iTunes. The latest version of iTunes has a "cleaner look," says Rolling Stone, and houses over 30,000 ringtones from the four major labels (the ringtones cost $1.29 each). The new version of the popular program also has the ability to manage iPhone apps and has an updated Genius feature, which gives people smartly put-together mixes of songs from their own music libraries, drawn from user-submitted playlists.
And, last but not least, the iPod. The wildly geeky and informative MacRumours alerted everyone to the fact that the Apple Store accidentally let new iPod details out when they recently changed their iPod Touch models' storage capacities to double what they previously were while keeping the price the same.
Apple also announced at today's conference that they were introducing a new iPod Classic that holds 160 GB and carries the same price as the old 120 GB model. New iPod Shuffle models with new colours (and new prices) were also revealed, and the new iPod Nanos will have video cameras built into them, as well as an FM radio.
FM radio? LPs? Man, bring on the AM radio and 8-track apps!
(Beatles fans had high hopes, as this press conference was held on the release date of the band's new remasters discs and Rock Band videogame; guess it was just a coincidence after all.)
So, no digitalized Beatles, but here's what Apple head honcho Steve Jobs did have to say, according to Rolling Stone.
First off, we previously reported that Apple was planning to bring back the LP experience with more interactive packaging, artwork and other features bundled with the digital music. They unveiled just that with what is being called the iTunes LP. These so-called "LPs" will feature videos, liner notes, artwork, photos, lyrics and more in a cool interactive fashion (check the video below). The iTunes LP features were demonstrated at the press conference with the Grateful Dead's American Beauty, Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King and the Doors' self-titled album.
The latest version of iTunes, 9.0, was also unveiled, with an announcement that more than 8.5 billion songs have now been downloaded through iTunes. The latest version of iTunes has a "cleaner look," says Rolling Stone, and houses over 30,000 ringtones from the four major labels (the ringtones cost $1.29 each). The new version of the popular program also has the ability to manage iPhone apps and has an updated Genius feature, which gives people smartly put-together mixes of songs from their own music libraries, drawn from user-submitted playlists.
And, last but not least, the iPod. The wildly geeky and informative MacRumours alerted everyone to the fact that the Apple Store accidentally let new iPod details out when they recently changed their iPod Touch models' storage capacities to double what they previously were while keeping the price the same.
Apple also announced at today's conference that they were introducing a new iPod Classic that holds 160 GB and carries the same price as the old 120 GB model. New iPod Shuffle models with new colours (and new prices) were also revealed, and the new iPod Nanos will have video cameras built into them, as well as an FM radio.
FM radio? LPs? Man, bring on the AM radio and 8-track apps!
