We’ve seen a few different grainy photos of what might be a new video iPod Nano from Apple floating around the web, but here is the best quality one yet. We’re still chalking this one up to the “rumors” list but this photo fits the bill from what we’ve heard so far; appearing shorter with a small video screen that frankly may be just too small to watch videos on, anyway.

There’s a very good chance that this is the result of some skilled Photoshop work based on a hand holding the current Nano but either way I don’t think we’re going to have to wait long to find out as Jobs and the rest of Apple are still gearing up for some “The Beat Goes On” announcement on Wednesday. Keep watching…

In a sign that shows how powerful the branding of Apple’s iPod is and how much hurt the car manufacturing sector has come to, Apple and automobile manufacturer Volkswagon AG are now in discussions about making a so-called “iCar” that would be the ideal mode of transportation for any iEnthusiast. Apple CEOe Steve Jobs and Volkswagen’s prexy Martin Winterkorn have already met to talk about ideas for their collaboration and will be having more sessions to spitball ideas for their lifestyle ride.

So what kind of features could an iCar have beside the port for your iPod and iPhone? What about smart technology that lets you download iTunes to the car’s stereo? What about a dashboard that has a user interface like the one in the iPhone? The mind boggles at the possibilities but one more idea that we would like to mention are car commercials along the lines of Apple’s “I’m a PC and I’m a Mac” series. How about “I’m an SUV and I’m a iCar?”

NBC was an early-adopter of Apple iTunes, being the second major company back in 2005 to sign on with Apple to provide video content for the download service. Now, a short two years later NBC has announced its intentions to end their relationship with Apple and discontinue providing content for iTunes citing that they are unhappy with iTunes pricing policy and piracy control, or lack thereof.

NBC has over 1500 hours of TV and movies currently on iTunes, and according to a NYT report the two companies are in negotiations which may mean that NBC could be doing a little bit of muscle-flexing might not really upset enough yet to want to pull all of its content.

Apple iTunes has finally begun offering something that the folks in the UK have been anticipating for some time – iTunes video. The Cupertino-based company recently signed a deal with a number of studios including ABC, the Disney Channel, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy to bring video content to the mammoth online media downloading site.

Prior to this move, UK users of iTunes where only able to download trailers and some music videos. Now they’re being treated to video content from 28 different shows such as TV episodes of Lost, 24, South Park, Ugly Betty and That 70′s show. Apple says that they plan to expand this selection and continue to add more programming content. The episodes are currently going for £1.89 each.

Apple also confirmed that there’s an upcoming special event on …

If you happen to be one of the lucky bunch bringing home a fancy new aluminum framed iMac today you will also have the opportunity to apply your first software update, all in the same week. Only one day after Steve Jobs announced the release of the new iMacs Apple put out its first Software Update 1.0 with a very short and to-the-point message:

“This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for 20-inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors.”

It’s not clear exactly what the 5.1MB download addresses other than it has today’s release date and that it requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 and a mid-2007 iMac. Along with this, as usual, is an update to the dual-boot software Boot Camp 1.4. Since we’re on the topic of Apple software updates, …

Along with the new iMac announced today Apple has also released that rumored super-thin keyboard we heard about not too long ago. As it turns out those preview photos appear to have been pretty accurate and now we’re looking at not only one but two new, thin aluminum keyboards available from Apple.

Both keyboards are made from anodized aluminum like the new iMac and have dedicated keys to adjust the monitor brightness, volume, drive eject, Expose and play/pause. One of the two new keyboards is a wired version that is very thin and connects through USB . It’s wider than the wireless version with a number pad on the right like a standard keyboard. It also has two USB 2.0 ports built into the little legs to connect any peripherals conveniently.

The new wireless version of the …

Today Steve Jobs announced Apple’s new iMacs at the companies summer press conference. The announcement came as no surprise to most as rumors of the new iMacs and their features have been plentiful over the past weeks.

Jobs made heavy reference to the construction materials of aluminum and glass with the new iMacs, talking of its “elegant” look, the fact that the glass is scratch resistance and how both materials are recycle-friendly. The new iMacs will come three models of 20-inch and 24-inch glossy frames.

All three models feature USB 2.0, Firewire, 8x SuperDrive, and an iSight camera as you might expect. They also house aCore 2 Duo processor, ATI Radeon HD Pro graphics card, 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.0 and 1GB of RAM.

Pricing runs from $1,199 for the 20-inch model with a 2.0GHz processor, 250GB …

Apple’s iPhone update, which by the release notes indicated that there was only some security fixes, also came some new unexpected features. The 1.0.1 update for the iPhone also added on a BCC option when sending email which was previously not an option. It also now gives you up to an hour to request the password when the phone is idle which was before limited to a minute. According to MacNN there have also been users reporting some enhanced stability in general along with a resolved issue where the battery would not fully charge.

Rumors are running about regarding a new iPod from Apple that may be released next week, and presumably will be called the iPod Touch. The word is the Touch design will be a 2×2 inch square that plays music and videos, coming with flash-based storage capacities of 4GB and 8GB.

It would essentially be a “nano” sized iPhone without any phone capabilities and will run $299 for the 4GB and $399 for the 8GB. Some type of announcement for the potential iPod Touch is expected to happen on August 7th but just this afternoon it sounds like invitations went out from Apple for an event on that day regarding the new Mac. So maybe we’ll have to wait a little longer to see a new iPod, but we’ll be watching Tuesday to see exactly what pans out….

According to a report just last month Apple became the third largest retailer of music in the U.S. beating out Amazon.com and trailing only the likes of Wal-mart and Best Buy. Now Apple has announced that its overall sales have reached an incredible 3 billion songs with the last holiday season undoubtedly being a large contributor to this number.

This number consists of songs only, mind you, and doesn’t include any videos. And with Apple’s 100 million plus iPods in the market the recent launch of the iPhone and improving technology for media downloading this trend doesn’t appear to be slowing down for any music vendor, much less Apple.

Reuters

Another patent from Apple was recently published through the USPTO showing a type of text-to-voice system entitled “Multimedia data transfer for a personal communication device”.

The patent describes a system for transferring data between mobile, personal communication devices such as phones, walkie talkies or maybe even iPhone nano’s. According to Macnn the system would lend itself nicely to those with visual impairments since it transfers text between devices and the receiving device could then read the text aloud through a speaker.

A notable difference between this system and and traditional texting data transfers is that this does not use a traditional protocol or intermediary server to handle the messaging. Instead it transfers the data directly between the devices through standard audio communication channels.

Source

Not surprisingly, Apple and AT&T are seeing their first class action lawsuit over the iPhone regarding its internal battery. According to the filed suit the allegations state, “The battery enclosed in the iPhone can only be charged approximately 300 times before it will be in need of replacement, necessitating a new battery annually for owners of the iPhone.”

The Plaintiff claims that he did not know, nor was disclosed to the public prior to purchase, that the iPhone battery was in a sealed unit with the battery soldered in place. I don’t know how far this will really go since Apple’s website states that the battery will retain 80% of its original capacity after 400 charging cycles. Either way we all knew it would happen eventually and the non-removable battery in iPods and iPhones have been a …

The nosy sleuths (and we like nosy) at Unwired View discovered a very interest patent application filed yesterday by Apple Computer for a “Dynamic lyrics display for portable media devices.” Apple’s filing explains that “The text being displayed is associated with and synchronized to the media content being presented.” Hmm, doesn’t that sound a lot like what a karaoke player does? Essentially Apple is claiming the patent on karaoke functions on a PMP but there is at least one device out there that does exactly that, Asus’ Z801 flip phone.

Even if Apple doesn’t wind up getting the copyright the paper shows that they are at least thinking about giving us a iPod style karaoke machine, for those of us that like to sing to ourselves and without any amplification to our voicebox.

Could the first gen iPhone already be in danger of extinction? That’s the latest rumor to spread and it comes courtesy of a Chinese outlet called the Commercial Times. According to the publisher they’ve heard reports from Apple partner manufacturers Quanta and Wintek that the next gen iPhone is already in the prototype phase and that the finished model could be ready for sale by as early as September. It may even retail for less than June’s iPhone, clocking in somewhere between $250 and $300.

September is just a short two months away and for Apple to make a move like this so soon after the launch of the first iPhone doesn’t seem to add up. We have no doubts that Steve Jobs has secret plans in motion in Cupertino but the past history of Apple has demonstrated that they like to wait and pounce …

Now that the the dust is settling a little bit from the iPhone launch it looks like it’s time to ramp up the rumor mills again around the the Beatles and the potential of a special, limited edition version of the Apple iPod. Pictured here is a mocked up version of what a Beatles Yellow Submarine iPod just might look like from TechDigest. It sports simply a bright yellow-submarine color and comes pre-loaded with every Beatles album ever made.

This special edition iPod has been rumored for quite a while now and we really like the idea (and TechDigest’s rendition). The talk is that this yellow iPod would be launched at the same time that the Beatles songs go on sale through iTunes. It also potentially could be available for only a month while iTunes has the Beatles albums and it’s competition does …