Apple’s announcements almost ALWAYS occur on a Tuesday; There NEEDS to be a reason that they pushed this announcement to Wednesday, Sept. 9th. The reason is that 9-9-09 is being sold as a major milestone in the history of The Beatles and you can bet Apple will be right there in the middle of the celebration!

The Beatles will be made available on iTunes on Sept. 9th or I’ll eat my hat! (if I had one). (I’ll also go so far as to say that it will premiere Apple’s new digital jewel case concept, and will also include mini-documentaries on each album.)

As loyal readers know, this blog is all about seeing through the hype… well, the way the entertainment industry works, is that the marketers look for one major ‘event’, and then pile on as many ‘sub-events’ as possible so that the ‘buzz’ for one promotes the others. Well my friends, Apple ‘conveniently’ chose September 9th for their major press event about “Rock and Roll”, and the writing is clear… let me spell out what that date means in the world of The Beatles.

1) The Beatles: Rock Band– The remarkably addictive game that is inspiring future musicians everywhere, is coming out with a ‘Beatles’ specific version. To be available on the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Click for more info on The Beatles: Rock Band

2) The Beatles Remastered- The albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.

3) The Beatles Stereo Box- Set Includes: -Hard black glossy lift top with magnet clasp -All 13 Studio remasters plus Past Masters -CD’s are packaged in three panel digi-pak with digital mini documentaries. A special box set of all of the newly remastered albums and includes a DVD of all of the mini documentaries.

4) The Beatles Mono Box- Set Includes:-Hard white glossy slip box-CD’s packaged as mini LP replicas (replica artwork, sleeves and gatefolds)-Original Mono versions of 11 albums (12 discs)

Another major sign of this fact, is that Apple and The Beatles would hold back a digital announcement until there truly was something special to announce. It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple was a major player in this Remaster happening to begin with, and now Apple can present The Beatles co-PREMIEREING on iTunes in their new masters. This is no coincidence, it’s calculated genius.

The Beatles have ALWAYS been at the heart of Apple. The company was even named Apple by Steve Jobs after The Beatles own label, Apple Records. For those who remember, Apple has been in court over Apple Computers competing in the music industry, and only recently did Apple finally win (buy?) the trademark “Apple”. (A short while ago Apple announced that they had settled with Apple Records, and was finally changing the name of the company from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc.; that was a mighty victory for Apple.)

The 9th of September is going to be huge for The Beatles, and Apple’s announcement will also have a huge ‘positive’ effect as well.

Now, as for the other predictions:

1. I’ve already explained the remarkable influence The Beatles has had on Apple, and Steve Jobs. There is NO WAY that there can be just a U2 iPod without a special edition The Beatles iPod. You can count on it with the complete remastered discs included. Expect custom wallpapers, etc. This will be the ULTIMATE way to get the new Beatles sets, and Apple will sell them hand over fist. Don’t underestimate the power of this announcement.

2. Steve Jobs WILL do the event. Steve loves The Beatles, Apple, and a great show. He wouldn’t miss it for the world!

3. Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney will appear, and will perform together on stage. Hey, if Microsoft can get them to appear for the Rock Band announcement, Apple/Steve will get them to appear and perform at Apple’s Event! Click this link for coverage of the Microsoft event.

4. Apple’s new “Project Cocktail” digital album format will be premiere with The Beatles and will include everything you would get with a physical release. Click for more about “Project Cocktail”.

5. iTunes 9 will be introduced with support for “Project Cocktail” and Legal DVD/BluRay ripping. It’s only illegal to rip a DVD or BluRay if you don’t have the permission from the rights owner. I believe that Apple has obtained the rights from every studio, and will RIP and compress for the iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, etc. versions of movies and television, BUT WITH DRM in place on all. (For the record, Sony has already discussed this possibility to get video content on their PSP.) Also to be announced is that the iPhones and iPod touches will be able to output HD to HD Televisions. (Like the ZuneHD can.)

6. iPhone/iPod Touch 3.1 will be released to support new models.

7. All iPods Nanos and Touches will be refreshed to include cameras, and the iPod Touch will also gain a microphone, and micro-shuffle will have buttons added to the surface of its body. Expect the Touch to have the same video abilities as the iPhone 3GS. The iPod Classic will continue but will gain the largest hard drive available (I do not expect a camera or microphone to be built into that form factor.) The iPod Touch will also drop in price to $199 for a 16GB model, $299 for a 32GB model, and $399 for a 64GB model. (The lower price of a 16GB ZuneHD ($219.99 vs. the current iPod Touch 16GB for $299) guarantees this change to remain competitive.)

8. The last iPhone 3G will disappear for a $99 iPhone 3GS to take it’s place.

9. Wireless sync to your computer, and computer independence through MobileMe computerless Syncing of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Let’s face it, the one thing that keeps ALL adopters from going iPhone is that so many people use phones but don’t have computers. With pressure from the new ZuneHD, Apple will finally offer computerless wireless sync.

10. Wireless Bluetooth stereo headphones. iPhone/iPod Touch 3.0 offered the ability to use Bluetooth headsets, and left it to 3rd parties to create them. Apple wants to have the best of everything, and I’m sure that Bluetooth stereo headphones are just around the corner.

Everything on the list it likely and I’d expect to happen.

One last point… consider Apple’s (Rolling Stones Lyric) statement in the announcement… “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.” It wouldn’t surprise me if JUST The Beatles availability was announced. I’m positive about The Beatles, but the rest we’ll just have to wait and see… soon.

Cheers!

David

Barack Teleprompter Bobble Head

Let me first start by saying that I really dig our president so far. In fact, of all the candidates, he’s the guy I would have cast as the lead in my huge blockbuster which I haven’t really thought of yet but will probably be something like: Barack Obama + Die Hard = saving all of mankind. I have fond memories pitching (at the urging of my agent) ‘Die Hard on a train,’ ‘Die Hard in a blimp,’ ‘Die Hard in a mall,’ et. al. God those were the days. I digress. What I want to rant about today is the dizzying back and forth bobbling Barack Obama’s head does between the two teleprompter screens. It’s like a ping pong ball between two paddles. Let’s break it down…

I’m not sure whether or not his speeches are kind of running together at this point since I’ve seen all of them thanks to my info/news addiction. As a junky, I do recognize my problem, so when I get sick of listening to speech after speech, same old rhetoric after same old rhetoric, I have have to take my annoyances with grains of salt (preferably on popcorn). But this criticism comes after realizing that not only might I be bugged, the general working American may eventually feel the same way since the media can’t go without televising every damn speech. So for God’s sake, before Obama’s superstardom is questioned, let me try to avert catastrophe…

I recommend to the President’s AV peeps to move his stereoscopic teleprompter mirror screens closer together. This would accomplish two things: 1) it’s less distracting when he’s going from side to side on every sentence, 2) we, as viewers at home, may actually feel like he’s speaking to us too, with an occasional glance straight ahead into the camera.

As a technical guy who understands camera placement, I realize that by moving the teleprompter screens closer together, the camera has to stay on the medium shot and can’t really pull back while he’s delivering the speech. But that’s what the networks’ cameras do any way, so really what would we lose? Answer: friggin’ nothing.

“‘Malaria is spread by mosquitoes!”

Unbelievable! In a non-funny attempt to prove that we Americans (the more fortunate?) can get malaria from mosquitos too, Bill Gates chose to release his little friends on an unsuspecting group of technologists at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference in Monterey, California.

Read the original story here…