I watched the Apple Keynote today with Brian and Jess. As my prior post references, it's something of a religious experience, and "Saint Steve" was in rare form at the pulpit today. Rare form indeed.The introductions included a new Mac TV ad, announcing a shipping date of February for AppleTV, new movie downloads from Paramount, but the show stopper was definitely the iPhone. I've not been on the edge of my seat like that for some time. The demo of the features was spectacular, and it's definitely going to be something I jump after as soon as they're available. It's beautiful, and it is a revolution in phones.
And speaking of "Revolution"...., when I first sat down, prior to the keynote, I mentioned to Brian that it was odd that rumors of the Beatles catalog being available on iTunes had built up over the last few weeks, and then suddenly stopped. I joked that a few staff members at Apple Corp. had gone missing and everybody was suddenly tight lipped. And then I watched the keynote and shortly into it, I was absolutely convinced that it would be the "One More Thing" announcement. But it was not. Yet I remain convinced that it is on the horizon, and that is with absolutely no inside information.Why?
Never, never, never has there been a keynote or other presentation, after the iTunes store was launched, that showed iTunes or the iPod with any content, ANY content, other then that available on the iTunes store. Never. Why would they? Once the iTunes store launched, everything I've ever seen in an iTunes or on an iPod demo has been something available on iTunes. And there has never, ever, EVER been any Beatles content in any of these presentations.
Today, I counted 5, at least 5, direct or subtle Beatles references.
The AppleTV's display of Cover Art for streaming iTunes started with "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
The first song played, and artwork shown up close, was "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
The view of the playlists included a "Beatlemania" (or something like that) playlist title.
The Beatles showed up again in the Artists view of the music content.
Subtly, the slide conveying the combination of Phone/iPod/Internet was titled "All Together Now"
There was at least one other reference that I can't recall. But overall, just the presence and overt usage and display of Beatles content is enough for me. It's gotta be a done deal, and just a matter of when it's announced. As a friend said, following the keynote and the iPhone excitement... this is not the place or time for "One More Thing". Perhaps a dedicated announcement, ala the U2 events, is on the horizon, and after so many years, Apple Corp. and Apple Inc. will finally come together, and the Beatles catalog will be available on iTunes at last.