Here’s more via Engadget: *Turns out the iPod Touch is a reality after all. While we initially assumed that Mr. Jobs wouldn’t be so kind as to bless us all with 2 new full-fledged iPods in a single day, we’re elated that he had other ideas. The new flagship iPod has “the same size screen as the iPhone, but it’s even thinner” (eight-millimeters, for those taking notes), and it also touts the “same multi-touch interface” found on the firm’s handset. Additionally, it boasts a 3.5-inch widescreen display, the ability to “flick through your photos,” and you even get the “slide to unlock” feature, too. And yes, this thing actually has WiFi. Of note, the built-in wireless antenna isn’t exactly attractive, but if it means that we can surf the web (YouTube included) and buy tunes on our iPod, we suppose it may be an acceptable flaw. As for battery life, the Touch is said to last 22-hours when playing back audio and 5-hours when watching video, but only time will tell how draining web surfing will be. The iPod Touch will be arriving in 8GB & 16GB flavors and will be priced at $299 & $399, respectively, when they ship “worldwide in a few weeks.”

El-Jobso just dropped news that the whole iPod lineup is getting a refresh or replace — including the nano. Apparently those “spy photos” weren’t too far off, as the new nanos look almost identical to the stout player we’ve come to know and love. The new units will include 2-inch screens with QVGA resolution, and apparently boast the same quality as the iPod video. The displays have the highest pixel density the company has ever shipped, and it seems the extra-wide players will sport an “enhanced” UI (which looks a lot like the video we saw recently) and its own version of Cover Flow. The nano will come bundled with three games, including a circular-Arkanoid rip-off called Vortex, and apparently you’ll be able to purchase more from the iTunes store. The battery life is fairly impressive as well, with Apple touting 24 hours of playback for audio, and 5 hours for video. The 4GB model will be selling for $149, though it’s only available in silver, while the rainbow-colored 8GB will leave you $199 lighter in the wallet. Both models will be in stores “by this weekend.”

Apple today announced the latest in its kind-of-sort-of successful iPod line, the sixth generation iPod “Classic.” Like the brand new iPod nano, the flagship iPod is also sporting an all-new interface, headlined by Cover Flow. The iPod comes in 80GB and 160GB capacities, with 30 hours of battery for audio playback, 6 hours of video on the 80GB version, and 40 hours / 7 hours for the 160GB unit. In addition to the new interface, the iPod Classic is getting a new all-metal shell, and is selling at $249 for the 80 gigger, $349 for 160. You can order one today, and they should be hitting stores by the weekend.*

MP3: Ladytron – Destroy Everything You Touch

Via Tech Digest *Could there ever be an Apple gadget more desirable than the iPhone? Yep. How about a limited-edition Yellow Submarine iPod, with every single Beatles album preloaded onto it? Oh yes. There were plenty of rumours about just such a device earlier this year, but nothing came of them. However, according to music industry consultancy Music Ally, the Yellow Submarine iPod may be back on Apple’s roadmap, now that the iPhone launch is out of the way.

What’s more, it’d be launched to tie-in with Beatles tracks finally going on sale on Apple’s iTunes Store, possibly as a one-month exclusive before becoming available through rival digital music services. Kat’s mocked up an image of how the Yellow Sub iPod might look – would you buy one?*

MP3: The Beatles – Penny Lane

Matt is at Animal Collective, I am sitting in my den watching travel shows in my pjs and Mark Ronson is at the Apple Store on 59th and 5th in NYC. DAMN, why did I not know about this sooner? He’ll be there at midnight and will no doubt be spinning songs from his new album, Versions.

Not only is Mark Ronson one of the most talented people currently in the music industry, he is also smoking hot.

Question though. If Ronson moved to NYC when he was 8, why does he have a thick London accent?

Kaiser Chief’s bassist Simon Rix and keyboarder Nick Peanut recently had this to say of Ronson’s cover of their hit single: “We heard it quite a long time ago and we liked it, we thought it was good,” said Simon. “I think it’s nice because he does it but does it well.”

Peanut added: “He compliments the song, it’s not just like he’s destroyed the song or anything like that, or that it’s a really bad version, it’s just an interesting DJ-producer version of the song.

“When you first start hearing it, it was kind of one of the first covers we’d heard of one of our songs, a properly done one.”

I agree, it’s good. Not GREAT, but interesting.

Matt is at Animal Collective, I am sitting in my den watching travel shows in my pjs and Mark Ronson is at the Apple Store on 59th and 5th in NYC. DAMN, why did I not know about this sooner? He’ll be there at midnight and will no doubt be spinning songs from his new album, Versions.

Not only is Mark Ronson one of the most talented people currently in the music industry, he is also smoking hot.

Question though. If Ronson moved to NYC when he was 8, why does he have a thick London accent?

Kaiser Chief’s bassist Simon Rix and keyboarder Nick Peanut recently had this to say of Ronson’s cover of their hit single: “We heard it quite a long time ago and we liked it, we thought it was good,” said Simon. “I think it’s nice because he does it but does it well.”

Peanut added: “He compliments the song, it’s not just like he’s destroyed the song or anything like that, or that it’s a really bad version, it’s just an interesting DJ-producer version of the song.

“When you first start hearing it, it was kind of one of the first covers we’d heard of one of our songs, a properly done one.”

I agree, it’s good. Not GREAT, but interesting.

Matt is at Animal Collective, I am sitting in my den watching travel shows in my pjs and Mark Ronson is at the Apple Store on 59th and 5th in NYC. DAMN, why did I not know about this sooner? He’ll be there at midnight and will no doubt be spinning songs from his new album, Versions.

Not only is Mark Ronson one of the most talented people currently in the music industry, he is also smoking hot.

Question though. If Ronson moved to NYC when he was 8, why does he have a thick London accent?

Kaiser Chief’s bassist Simon Rix and keyboarder Nick Peanut recently had this to say of Ronson’s cover of their hit single: “We heard it quite a long time ago and we liked it, we thought it was good,” said Simon. “I think it’s nice because he does it but does it well.”

Peanut added: “He compliments the song, it’s not just like he’s destroyed the song or anything like that, or that it’s a really bad version, it’s just an interesting DJ-producer version of the song.

“When you first start hearing it, it was kind of one of the first covers we’d heard of one of our songs, a properly done one.”

I agree, it’s good. Not GREAT, but interesting.

In case you haven’t already read about it at every single news source this morning, it’s been announced that Apple and EMI will be teaming up to release EMI’s entire catalog DRM-free (aka, at a higher quality) for an increased price per song ($1.29 v. 99 cents), starting this May.

Well, it seems like the UK digital media delivery company 7digital has gone ahead and jumped Apple’s gun, according to Hits Daily Double. Staring TODAY, The Good The Bad & The Queen’s catalog will be available for purchase in DRM-free format for THE SAME price as the lower quality previously offered. Purchase the album at 320k via 7digital HERE! Right now, Steve Jobs is grimacing.

MP3: The Good The Bad & The Queen – Herculean

From Sony’s almighty rootkit fuckup to iTunes bitchy ipod only rules, we all hate DRM – not because we’re sneaky pirate types (yar!) but because it interferes with the way that we listen to music that we’ve paid good money for and want to use in a way that suits us.

Is a change on the horizon, following Sony’s capitulation and the lawsuits that have started to hit Apple from other mp3 player manufacturers? Steve Jobs has jumped onboard the anti DRM bandwagon, which has to be a good thing:

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.

(read the rest of the statement on Apple’s website)

Took long enough!

Many predictions were floating around following Steve Jobs’ decision last month to play a Beatles track (from Sgt. Pepper’s) while introducing his iPhone to the world. For those out of the loop, there has been long-standing trademark issues between the two. In fact, to this day, The Beatles are one of very few bands that do not have their music available via the iTunes store.

But that can very well change with this news, from Billboard: Mac computer and iPod maker Apple said today (Feb. 5) it settled long-simmering trademark issues with the Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd. company about the use of the name “Apple” and apple logos. The new settlement replaces the companies’ 1991 agreement, and gives Apple Inc. ownership of all the trademarks related to “Apple.” In addition, Apple Inc. will license certain of those trademarks back to Apple Corps for their continued use.

This settlement ends the ongoing trademark lawsuit between the companies, with each paying its own legal costs, and Apple Inc. will continue using its name and logos on iTunes. Further terms weren’t disclosed. “We love the Beatles, and it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “It feels great to resolve this in a positive manner, and in a way that should remove the potential of further disagreements in the future.” The agreement may pave the way for the Beatles to finally begin selling their music in digital form via Apple’s iTunes Music Store. A deal is rumored to be imminent but details have yet to be announced.