Apple Event - Wednesday 5th September

Well, the Apple Event is just about to kick off (6pm GMT) today and we will try and scour the various news sites covering the event and bring you all the best bits. Keep updating your browser…

UPDATE 1
17:50GMT all Apple Stores are down, so in true Apple form (as if we didn't already know) we will be getting some new products today, and most likely available to order today too. Let's hope they ship today as well.

Well, why we are waiting for things to kick off, just a quick chance to keep my fingers crossed for a new touch widescreen iPod. I use my iPod everyday and would like to have the chance of a much bigger screen.

UPDATE 2
Steve takes to the stage and updates everyone with some iTunes facts and figures. 600 million copies of iTunes out there and 3 billion songs sold in the iTunes Store.

UPDATE 3
New version of iTunes will be available tonight, to support some new features including 'Ringtones'. There will be 500,000 participating tracks, and for an additional 99 cents you can also have this as an iPhone Ringtone. So in iTunes a little bell icon appears next to the available tracks, you select it, use the Ringtone Builder to select up to a 30 second portion of the track, do a fade in and fade out, get it how you want it before you click-to-buy. Then when you sync your iPhone it takes the ringtone over to your device. This new feature will be switched on in iTunes next week.

UPDATE 4
The complete range of iPods will get a refresh today, starting with new colour Shuffles (yawn).

UPDATE 5
Next up is the Nano. It is a new size, sort of squat, all metal design, widescreen, plays video. Comes in black, silver, blue, green and (product) red. 2-inch screen with 320x240 resolution (same as the current 5th gen iPod). Click wheel is still there, but this baby is really thin. Three games bundled with the new Nano, including Vortex. ou have also got Coverflow for videos and music. This thing looks great, sorta like all the features of the 5th gen full size iPod into the new sexy Nano, oh and by the way, the black version looks very cool indeed. It also seems like the new UI has a split screen, where you scroll through video titles on the left and get a snippet view on the right, very nice.
The battery will give you 24 hours of music and 5 hours of video playback.
Available in stores this weekend, shipping now, 4GB just $149, 8GB $199, fantastic.

UPDATE 6
Now the full size iPod, with a new name, iPod Classic. Full metal design, thinner, starting at 80GB, but with a massive 160GB version, that is still thinner than the 5th gen 80GB.
Battery life for the 80GB is 25 hours music, 5 hours video. The 160GB gives you 40 hours music and 7 hours video. Prices are very apealing with the 80GB costing $249, and the 160GB for $349. All new iPods available now, shipping today.

UPDATE 7
Wow, this is a good 'un. We get another brand new iPod. As we already guessed, based on the iPhone but even thinner. Yes, the touch screen iPod is finally a reality. Same 3.5-inch screen, same design, UI allows you to view photos and pinch them to zoom in and out. Coverflow and nice large album art. Wow, how many times can I say wow in this update.
Same user interface including a home screen (as on the iPhone).
It also has wifi, so this is great news, we may get internet features... yes, we get Safari on the iPod Touch, wow! this is fantastic news. Google, Yahoo and YouTube all built into this baby.
Steve also did a demo of FaceBook on the iPod Touch, this website looks fantastic on the device, I cannot wait.
Downer, seems like we only get 8GB ($299) or 16GB ($399) models that both ship this month, kinda cripples an iPod only device, this is OK for a mobile phone, but not an iPod, I hope Steve gives us more.

UPDATE 8
One more thing... iTunes WiFi Music Store. Hmmmmm. Same price structure, if you see a track you like, you can preview it, then buy it, download over WiFi and then when you next sync back at home the tune is copied over into your iTunes library. You get New Releases, Whats Hot, and Genres buttons across the top of the iPod Touch screen, or you can search for any artist/album. The new iTunes Wi-Fi features will also be rolled out to the iPhone as a software update.

UPDATE 9
Starbucks partnership.. when you are in a Starbucks a fifth button appears on the screen. If you like the song playing at the time, you can buy it with one click... cool. You can also browse the last ten tracks played and buy them too. You also get free iTunes Wi-Fi Store access when you are in a Starbucks without the need to log in with any sort of password (which seems pretty obvious if they want to sell tunes).

iPhone UPDATE
8GB model being reduced by $200 to $399. 4GB iPhone is gone.

So that's it and wow what an event. New iPods all round, new WiFi downloadable tunes, and some coffee... now where is my credit card?