OK, that sounds vaguely pornographic. Updates today to the iPod and iTunes Music have greatly exceeded my expectations. But what do you expect when Bono can make this statement regarding iCEO Steve Jobs:
From David Pogue in the New York Times online: Finishing Touches for the 'Pod
Apple Computer's technical support for the makers of accessories for its popular iPod music player has led to the creation of dozens of compatible products.
From Spymac.com:
iPod Accessories By Amy Percival
Apple has released two much anticipated new accessories for its successful line of iPods. A new microphone and speaker accessory, for US$49, allows users to record up to 670 hours of audio. Apple also released a US$99 photo storage accessory, which connects to the iPod via the bottom connector and syncs with iPhoto. The accessories work only with Apple's third generation iPods.
Apple, Audible.com, and AOL By Amy Percival
As part of a massive music-related announcement today, Steve Jobs stated that Apple has reached a multi-year exclusive deal with Audible.com to distribute more than 5000 audible books online through the iTunes Music Store. Another deal, with AOL, allows AOL's American users to use their AOL ID at the iTMS instead of a credit card number. The iTunes Music Store will also feature prominently on AOL's music site, with an iTMS purchase button beside almost every song.
Yahoo! Finance has more details on yesterday's news of free music downloads in a partnership between Apple and Pepsi:
Apple and Pepsi to Give Away 100 Million Free Songs
Apple and Pepsi-Cola North America today announced a historic promotion to legally give away 100 million free songs to Mac and Windows PC users from Apple's iTunes Music Store. Beginning February 1, 100 million winning codes will be randomly seeded in 20 ounce and 1 liter bottles of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist, and the winning codes will be redeemable for a free song from the iTunes Music Store. Winners will simply go to Apple's iTunes Music Store (www.iTunes.com), enter the code found under the bottle cap and choose any 99 cent song from the online store's vast catalog of over 400,000 songs. The Pepsi iTunes promotion will kick-off with a Super Bowl ad on February 1, 2004, and will run until March 31, 2004.
Wondering about iTunes Music store numbers? Have no fear, Mac Network News has the details:
Apple today said that over 13 million songs have been download from the iTunes Music Store in the first six months, surprassing its initial expectations. The iTunes Music Store has over 70% marketshare in online music song market. Apple's new goal is to sell 100 million songs in its first year (by end of April 2004, when the iTMS was launched) and will have over 400,000 songs and over 200 independent labels available by the end of October. Apple also noted that the iPod is the No. 1 in both unit and market share. It also debuted a new "Rock n' Roll" iPod commercial, which will begin airing tonight in the US and is now available via the Web.
Oh yeah, QuickTime and iPod software has been updated as well.
Posted by ronn at October 16, 2003 08:30 PM