Apple Announces New iPods, Photo and U2, and iTunes 4.7 at Its Special Music Event Today

The music news event involving Apple's Steve Jobs and U2's Bono and The Edge started at about 10 am PDT and shortly thereafter, as a sure sign of new hardware coming out, the Apple Store closed with the note "We are updating the store for you and will be back within the hour." It reopened at about 11:10 am PDT.

The U2 iPod holds 20GB and is black with a red click wheel and engraved with the Irish rock band's signatures. It will be available in mid November and cost $349. Apple has also created the first digital box set entitled "The Complete U2" with over 400 tracks that wil be available from the iTunes Music Store for $149 in late November. U2 iPod purchasers will get a $50 discount on the digital box set.

The iPod Photo features a color LCD that displays 65,536 colors with either 40GB or 60GB of storage. The screen is 220x170 pixels, allowing one to scroll through up to 25,000 pictures, 25 thumbnails at a time. They hold 10,000 to 15,000 songs, play songs for up to 15 hours or show photos for up to 5. The two models are priced as 40GB at $499 and 60GB at $599 and are available today.

iTunes 4.7 which implements the photo aspect of the new iPods is available for download.