Apple Adds Muscle to iPods and Brains to iTunes

In a music-focused announcement, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) announced the highly anticipated next generation of its iPod nano for internet marketing, a beefier iPod touch, iTunes 8, a new Genius feature that will create complementary playlists, the return of NBC to iTunes, HD television shows, the delivery of iPhone 2.1 software, and -- as if that weren't enough -- Apple bragged about being the largest music distributor and delivering 100 million application downloads via the App Store.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivered most of the news in a special event for the media Tuesday in San Francisco, rolling out the latest iTunes stats -- 8.5 million songs, 125,000 podcasts, 30,000 TV episodes, 2,500 movies, and 3,000 apps for the iPhone and iPod touch. With its 65 million customers, Jobs said, Apple is the largest music distributor in any format.

Read more about it here.