RTFA: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM…

Apple Inc. is now selling the vast majority of its digital songs without copy-protection software.

The maker of the iPod also announced Tuesday a deal to roll out variable pricing on songs from the iTunes Music Store, with prices between $0.76 and $1.29 U.S. .

Apple announced the changes at the Macworld Expo trade show in San Francisco Tuesday.

Copy-protection software, also known as digital-rights management or DRM, has proved a controversial topic with music fans and record labels alike. Eight million of iTunes s 10 million songs will be available without DRM.

The software was designed to prevent fans from illegally sharing digital downloads on file-sharing services. But it also prevented many fans from moving their own songs between devices and became increasingly unpopular.

Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, publicly called on major record labels to drop DRM in February, 2007.

In exchange, labels have been asking that iTunes agree to sell songs at variable prices. Currently, iTunes sells all individual songs at 99 cents regardless of their popularity or date of release, unlike most other retail outlets.

RTFA: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/ipod-touch.ht…

The thing that sets the iPod touch apart from other iPod models is its touch-screen interface. When you touch the screen, the iPod’s circuitry detects the presence of your finger. It keeps track of how many fingers you have on the screen and where you move them.
The iPod touch does this using a layer of capacitive material under a protective covering. You can read How Capacitors Work to learn more about them, but the basic idea involves taking advantage of the electrical properties of the human body. When you touch a capacitive surface, the amount of charge it holds changes. This is why devices like the iPod touch require you to touch them with your bare skin — insulating materials like gloves, pens and styluses don’t cause the same changes in the capacitive circuitry.

Neat – once they get done with the advertisement…

RTFA: http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/05/technology/apple_a…

pple announced Wednesday the first major overhaul of its popular iPod music digital players in nearly two years and slashed the price of its new iPhone.CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a series of iPod upgrades – including more storage and bigger screens – but the showstopper was a new model dubbed the iPod Touch and fashioned after the iPhone.

Apple (down $7.40 to $136.76, Charts, Fortune 500) also announced a new version of its iTunes music store that will allow users to buy songs wirelessly.In iPhone news, Jobs said Apple will discontinue one of the two models sold since late June. The remaining version, with 8 gigabytes of storage, will now sell for $399, or $200 less than before.Investors, however, weren’t happy about the price cut (and neither were iPhone owners). Apple shares closed down 5.1 percent on Wednesday.

Next round of updates from yesterday’s Apple announcements.

RTFA: http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/05/steve-jobs-live-apples-the-beat-goes-on-special-event/

Steve Jobs live — Apple’s “The beat goes on” special event

Fresh info from the Apple demos today, via engadget.