Apple Reveals New iPod Nano, iTunes Update

Today at Apple's "Let's Rock" conference in San Francisco, the company announced a whole slate of new additions for iTunes and iPods. On the iPod front, the non-touch versions will find the 80GB models upgraded to 120GB, but the 160GB model is being discontinued. There's also a new style iPod nano, an aluminum, monolithic-looking device that was called "the thinnest iPod ever." You can still load photos and videos, but now you can view them horizontally on the nano in the new "landscape" mode, which also allows it to do the Cover Flow. It'll be available in a whole rainbow of colors (except white) starting today. On the iTunes front, iTunes 8.0 will be available today, which introduces an in-window sidebar called "Genius," which is like a smarter Party Shuffle with a hint of On-The-Go and and Pandora thrown in. Also, for fans of NBC, Apple and the network are once again friends, meaning you will once again be able to view your 30 Rock on a seven-centimeter screen soon. And last but not least, Apple have finally altered their in-ear headphones, with two drivers in each bud. Says Steve Jobs: "They finally got it right."

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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