On Wednesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the Moscone west expo center to begin the long-anticipated special event.

"Today, we're here to talk about music," stated Jobs.

Announcing that more than 600 million copies of iTunes have been downloaded so far with over three billion songs having been sold, he pointed out that the catalog has grown to over six million songs in 22 international online stores.

According to Macworld News, Jobs stated that the iTunes Store is currently the number one online music retailer as well as the number three music retailer in the United States behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy. The channel has also proven to be a success as a channel, carrying over 550 television shows with 95 million shows sold to date. From a podcasting perspective, the iTunes Store now links to over 125,000 podcasts, 25,000 of them incorporating video.

Prior to launching into iPod news, Jobs also stated that new products would be announced, including ringtone the new feature of ringtone support for the iPhone.

"We're going to do ringtones in our own special way," commented Jobs, who announced that Apple would be creating a custom ringtone maker that would be built into iTunes. Ths software will allow users to create custom ringtones from many of the iTunes songs they've already purchased. Users would pay an additional 99 cents on top of the song's purchase fee to make the song and be able to use the program to select a segment of the song to use as a ringtone. A new tab in iTunes can then be clicked to allow users to decide which ringtones to sync to the iPhone.

Jobs then announced that Apple has already sold 110 million iPods to date and that every iPod in the current lineup would be refreshed or replaced.

The new version of the iPod nano has been redesigned to include a larger, brighter display (2.0" with a 320 x 240 pixel resolution and 204 ppi pixel density) as well as Cover flow, game support and additional storage features as well as a full metal design. Customers can chose between red, black, silver, blue and green colors.

Jobs also demonstrated an enhanced user interface on the iPod nano, which included a new preview feature. The unit also ships with three games including Vortex and Sudoku and allow for a reported 24 hours of audio and five hours of video on a single charge.

The new iPod nano will be available in a four gigabyte silver-colored version priced at US$149 and an eight gigabyte version with a choice of colors for US$199.

"These new nanos have left our factories already. They shipped today, they're on planes, they should be in stores by this weekend," said Jobs.

The full version of the iPod, now termed the "iPod Classic," still features a click wheel and now arrives in a full metal design incorporating silver and black colors. The low-end version of the unit is available in an 80 gigabyte capacity that's thinner than its 30 gigabyte predecessor and boasts 30 hours of audio playback as well as five hours of video playback on a single charge.

Apple's newest high-end model features 160 gigabytes of storage and also incorporates the metal design with silver and black colors.

The 80 gigabyte model retails for US$249 while the 160 gigabyte model retails for US$349 with units being available as of today.

Swinging out of nowhere and confirming rumors about the touch screen technologies finding their way into new devices, Apple also released a unit called the iPod Touch. The new iPod, which looks exactly like an iPhone, but without the speaker opening and 8 millimeters thinner, sports a 3.5" screen and functions as a portable video sharing and playback device.

Via Jobs' demonstration, the iPod Touch features icons for a calculator, contacts, clock, calendar and device settings. The unit features full Wi-Fi functionality with support for 802.11b and g networks.

"Others have done this and have failed," said Jobs, referring to wireless networking on Microsoft's Zune media player.

Jobs then pointed out Apple's Safari functionality on the iPod Touch, which allows users to visit web site, zoom in and play YouTube content if desired.

The iPod Touch's battery is cited for 22 hours of audio playback and five hours of video playback per charge, according to Jobs. The unit will be available within "just a few weeks" and retail for US$299 for the eight gigabyte unit and US$399 for the 16 gigabyte unit.

Apple has announced that the company has written a new application called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. The store is divided into four categories (Features, Top Tens, Search and Downloads) and features previews as well as a "Buy Now" button feature. Once the purchase has been made, the song will be downloaded to the iPod Touch and synchronized back to iTunes the next time the unit is connected to the Mac or Windows PC.

The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store opened today and is available in every country where the iTunes Store is currently supported. Jobs announced that the store would be brought to the iPhone and be available via an iPhone update later this month.

Jobs then detailed an Apple/Starbucks partnership in which the iTunes Wi-Fi Store would be altered wherein users within a Starbucks wireless network would receive a fifth button, labeled "Starbucks" would appear on the device's menu. Users can then access a list of music currently being played in various Starbucks locations and listen to the tracks for free.

The Starbucks arrangement will begin October 2nd in New York and Seattle at approximately 600 locations and then move on to San Francisco on November 7th. The plan will extend to Los Angeles in February and Chicago in March. By the end of 2008, the plan will cover most metropolitan Starbucks locations and the company hopes to include all Starbucks locations by the end of 2009.

Jobs then thanked his employees for their efforts and brought up singer KT Tunstall to play and demonstrate how to import new samples into GarageBand.

Finally, Jobs announced that while Apple is on track to ship its millionth iPhone at the end of September, the company will, starting today, drop its eight gigabyte iPhone price to US$399 as a means of making it more affordable for the holiday season.

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