As Steve Jobs took the stage to a rousing ovation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California and the Apple Store went down, we all knew something was coming. And we were right. Kicking off Apple's annual September Event, CEO Steve Jobs gave a retail update, praising the Paris Apple store, a second outlet in China, and, finally, the newest store in London. Apple now boasts some 300 retail stores in ten different countries, with Spain on tap for becoming the 11th nation to get an Apple Store.

Self-congratulations and iOS glorification aside, Steve Jobs soon got down to business. What's new to Apple? iOS 4.1, the next release of iOS. First, bugs have been fixed, proximity, bluetooth, iPhone 3G bugs. Second, Apple is adding the new HDR (high dynamic range) standard to photos, an embellishment that takes iPhone photo quality to a while new level. Also built into iOS 4.1 is Game Center, which is all about multiplayer games. "If you don't have friends," Jobs says, "it will match you with people."

Jobs foreshadowed from Epic Games a new game that will soon debut using Game Center. Exclusively for Apple mobile devices, get ready for "Project Sword," an action packed role playing game that really looks sweet. With intricate 3D imagery and amazing gameplay and social integration, this could very well become one of the hottest games available across any mobile phone or gaming device. It'll be out on the iPhone, iPod, and iPad this holiday season.

iOS 4.1 will be a free download available next week. Jobs, however, also gave a sneak peak at 4.2, which will be out in November, also available for free. "It's all about iPad," says Jobs. "It brings everything to iPad from 4.1 to the iPad." Look for everything from wireless printing to the brand new Airplay.

As rumored, Apple today unveiled the latest Apple TV at a breakthrough new price of just $99. The new device is designed to radically simplify the digital media experience by removing the internal hard-drive and moving entirely to streaming content from Apple or your computer. The change in format has also allowed Apple to make the device 80% smaller; with a new form factor of 3.9” x 3.9” by .9” thick. As with all of Apple’s latest mobile offerings, the Apple TV has moved to the A4 processor found in the iPad and iPhone 4 (and just released iPod Touch). As rumored the new device also includes live streaming from Netflix, Youtube, MobileMe and Flickr, through native apps.

One expected new feature is the ability to use an iPhone or iPod touch as a remote control, using Apple’s free Remote app. Apple has pre-announced one new feature for the iOS 4.2 update that will allow the iPad to stream video content directly to a network connected Apple TV. This feature, however, will not be available until the launch of iOS 4.2 for iPad sometime in November 2010.

As originally rumored, the new Apple TV also retains the maximum output resolution of 720p, and appears to be running the iOS software. While the device boasts of several new features it also poses some new limitations. The newest offering loses some key features like component output and a built-in hard drive. This will be a disadvantage to end-users who have slow or outdated networks, as all content needs to stream in real-time over the wired/wireless network. This will also require networked computers to be turned on and awake for streaming to function over the network.

Apple has drastically reduced the price-points on some content, and is shifting to a rental-only model for television shows and Hollywood movies. Not all TV networks are participating in the new pricing model, initially only Fox and ABC are offering TV rentals at $.99. First run HD movies are priced at $4.99 the same day as DVD rentals, and older titles reducing to $3.99.

The Apple TV ships in late September, and is available for pre-order today at the Apple Online Store.
Apple TV (at Apple.com)

Amidst a whirlwind of announcements, new products, and services, Steve Jobs also rolled out the latest iTunes - new logo and all.

The latest iTunes - iTunes 10 - is expected to become available today and includes Ping, which is a "social music discovery tool" that takes the iTunes user experience to a new, and needless to say, more "social" level than ever before. In a nutshell, users can follow and keep close tabs on the friends and artists of their choice. The goal, of course, is to enable music lovers and artists to share and discover music together.

"It's sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes," said Jobs about the social network integrated into iTunes. According to Apple, Ping will be open to better than 160 million customers right way. Allaying fears that more reserved users will be turned off my the new social network, Jobs admitted that iTunes users can "get as private and public as you want," adding that "privacy is super simple - anyone can do it."

Of course, the new social aspect of iTunes isn't the only thing that's new about iTunes. Jobs acknowledged that since more people now get their music electronically than via a purchased CD, the time has finally come to dump the old CD in the iTunes logo in favor of a fresher-looking blue bubble surrounding a musical note.

New look and social elements aside, the refurbished iTunes 10 is pretty nifty overall, particularly the new "hybrid view" which modifies - or reorganizes - how album art is showcased in music columns. For albums with five or more songs, iTunes can now showcase an album icon and "take up no extra space or require the window to be expanded."

To check out iTunes 10 - but remember Nick's word of caution - visit Apple's new iTunes 10 page.

Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPod touch on stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts today. The fourth-generation touch - which Jobs called an iPhone without the phone (and the contract) - boasts many of the same features of the fourth-generation iPhone: a Retina Display, front facing camera, rear camera with HD capability, 3-axis gyroscope, and A4 processor. The new device, however is even slimmer than the current model.

The front facing camera on the touch will allow users to do FaceTime with other iPod touch and iPhone 4 users. With the rear-facing HD camera users can take video and edit it on the device, using iMovie which has until now only available for the iPhone 4. The fourth-generation iPod touch will also ship with iOS 4.1, including Game Center, Apple's social gaming platform.

The specs of the Retina Display match those of the iPhone 4, which is an IPS LCD. Steve Jobs's slide called it an "LED" display, however, which was either a typo or a sign that Apple has moved to AMOLED technology. Given that the latter would be big news in itself, the likelihood is that it was a typo.

The new iPod touch, which Jobs noted is now the most popular iPod in the lineup, are available for pre-order right now and will be shipping next week. Prices are $229 for 8GB, $299 for the 32GB version, and $399 for the 64GB model.

Calling it the entree of the event, Steve Jobs had quite an announcement for iPod lovers.

Apple has sold 275 million iPods to date, Jobs noted, adding that Apple has never rested on its laurels. This year Apple is rolling out new designs for every iPod model. It's the "Biggest change in the iPod lineup ever."

First up in rolling out the strongest line up of iPods ever released is the Shuffle. The new one has buttons (Jobs indicated that people missed the buttons), voice over, playlists, and serves up 15 hours of battery life. It's even smaller than the second generation iPod Shuffle.

Essentially, the new VoiceOver button located on top of iPod shuffle will enable users to hear the name of the song that is currently playing, allowing for convenient, easy switching between, songs, playlists or Genius Mixes.

"We're making the iPod shuffle even better by combining clickable buttons and VoiceOver technology, so users can find and enjoy their music without ever looking at their iPod shuffle," said Jobs. "With its all-aluminum enclosure and built-in clip the new iPod shuffle is a great workout companion, and at just $49 it's a great entry-level iPod that almost everyone can afford."

It will be available for pre-order today and shipping begins next week.

Calling it the entree of the event, Steve Jobs had quite an announcement for iPod lovers.

Apple has sold 275 million iPods to date, Jobs noted, adding that Apple has never rested on its laurels. This year Apple is rolling out new designs for every iPod model. It's the "Biggest change in the iPod lineup ever."

First up in rolling out the strongest line up of iPods ever released is the Shuffle. The new one has buttons (Jobs indicated that people missed the buttons), voice over, playlists, and serves up 15 hours of battery life. It's even smaller than the second generation iPod Shuffle.

Essentially, the new VoiceOver button located on top of iPod shuffle will enable users to hear the name of the song that is currently playing, allowing for convenient, easy switching between, songs, playlists or Genius Mixes.

"We're making the iPod shuffle even better by combining clickable buttons and VoiceOver technology, so users can find and enjoy their music without ever looking at their iPod shuffle," said Jobs. "With its all-aluminum enclosure and built-in clip the new iPod shuffle is a great workout companion, and at just $49 it's a great entry-level iPod that almost everyone can afford."

It will be available for pre-order today and shipping begins next week.

Apple will announce 99-cent rentals of TV shows from US broadcasters Fox and ABC at today's event, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal's report last night said that some Fox execs are worried about the pricing, but are going along with it as an "experiment" and to strengthen the relationship with Apple. Also, Bloomberg is reporting that the new $99 Apple TV expected to be announced today will be able to stream content from Netflix. Users would have to pay a monthly subscription fee of $8.99 for the service.

The Wall Street Journal's report, quoting the usual "people familiar with the matter," claimed that there was significant debate inside Fox about getting involved in Apple’s proposed Apple TV plans. The doubters are said to believe that the scheme might cause them to lose money by moving the TV business away from the traditional ad-based model. In the end, though, News Corp. which owns Fox – like Disney which owns ABC and has Steve Jobs as a major shareholder – decided to get on board as "a way to experiment with new pricing and distribution for TV shows," as the Journal report put it. Other major US TV networks like NBC and CBS are likely going to wait and see how the "experiment" goes before getting involved.

The TV content would be viewable on any computer or mobile device that can run iTunes, doubtless including the Apple TV, which is expected to be drastically revamped. Bloomberg is quoting "three people with knowledge of the plans" as saying that the new Apple TV will see a price drop of $130 US to $99, and will include programming from Netflix. The video-rental-by-mail company has an online service that makes movies and TV shows available by direct streaming for a price of $8.99 a month. Free Netflix "Watch Instantly" content would also presumably be available.

The movies would be streamed from Netflix's servers, but the new TV show content would reportedly all be hosted at Apple's server farm in North Carolina. Cult of Mac is claiming that today's live streaming event will be set up as that facility's first major test, as millions tune in to see whether any of these rumors