You know what? They were right.

At an October 12th press conference, Steve Jobs introduced the latest addition to the Apple money machine family – a new iPod that comes equipped with a 2.5-inch color video screen, but is 30 percent thinner than current models. Prices? $299 for the 30GB model while a $100 bump in price gives you twice the storage.

Of course, it’s not just for video. The new iPod also plays music, audio books, podcasts and everything else people are already using their iPods for. However, while the introduction of a video iPod was already a foregone conclusion days before the unveiling, the content Apple is offering through iTunes www.itunes.com surprised even the most cynical technogeeks.

Sure, Apple has plenty of content to kick start the new video iPod, including music videos as well as video podcasts. But what might be the biggest part of the announcement is that Apple will also sell downloadable episodes of two television series, ABC’s “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives,” the day after the episodes first air on the network, for $1.99 per episode.

The reason the iTunes / network TV connection is such a big deal is that up until now, other than incurring eye strain from watching selected programs on your cell phone, the only ways you can watch a recent TV show airing are if you record it, borrow a recording from a friend, download an illicit copy via a file sharing network or purchase the inevitable DVD. By agreeing to sell individual episodes through iTunes, at least one TV network believes that TV programs need not necessarily be chained to, well, TVs.

But TV programs may not be for TV anymore, with published reports saying major television networks are considering alternatives to real-time airing of their programs. Supposedly, the networks have been talking to Comcast about the cable company’s On Demand service floating a two-tier system where viewers would pay 50 cents to watch a program with commercials, and a dollar to watch sans advertising.

In addition to episodes of “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives,” iTunes will offer more than 2,000 music videos and six short films from Pixar Animation as well as additional TV shows from ABC and Disney. Of course, Disney, which owns ABC, has had a long-time relationship with Steve Jobs’ Pixar, thus greasing the skids to bring network TV shows to iTunes and the new video iPod.

“The new iPod is the best music player ever – it’s 30 percent thinner and has 50 percent more storage than its predecessors – yet it sells for the same price and plays stunning video on its 2.5-inch color screen,” Jobs proclaimed. “Because millions of people around the world will buy this new iPod to play music, it will quickly become the most popular portable video player in history.”

That is, until the next time Apple introduces one more thing.

One License For All

One of the problems hampering the online music biz in Europe is that there are so many Europeans. European countries, that is: each country has its own copyright rules and regs, forcing companies like Apple to negotiate royalty and licensing fees with each individual country.

Now the European Union is calling on the continent’s music industry to create EU-wide copyright licenses. The EU blamed the lack of such licenses as one of the factors hindering Internet music growth, which last year reached 27 million euros ($32 million) in sales compared to 207 million euros ($248 million) in sales in the U.S.

According to EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, the EU is simply asking the recording industry to come up with some kind of blanket licensing plan, but indicated that the organization is ready to give the Euro labels a push if they don’t move fast enough.

“I will be monitoring the situation closely and, if I am not satisfied that sufficient progress is being made, I will take tougher action,” McCreevy said.

So far, the EU says it wants to give rights holders and commercial users of copyright material two choices. Commercial users and rights managers seem to favor the first option, which calls for national agencies that collect copyright payments to grant an EU-wide license. The second option, favored by music publishers, independent record labels and some collective rights managers, gives copyright holders the chance to appoint a rights manager for online use.

When Geeks Come To Town

If there’s an award for best press release, we’d like to nominate the spin wizards from the media company known as Ketchum, responsible for a press release announcing the alliance between Best Buy’s Geek Squad and U2. After all, you can’t help but love a bit of commercial propaganda that starts off with: “In another step toward its endless pursuit of world domination, Geek Squad, the 24-hour computer support task force…”

Essentially, the press release is trumpeting its alliance with Clear Channel to provide tech support for the U2 tour. However, reading the announcement is entertaining in itself – something PR flacks might want to consider before they send their next blast of empty rhetoric out to the world.

Actually, computer support for a tour as large as U2 is no laughing matter. Everyone needs to be connected, and when you consider that the tour represents something akin to a small village picking up and moving to a new location every day, keeping people wired, yet wireless, is definitely a challenge.

But Geek Squad is assuring the world that it is up to the task. The announcement spotlights Agent Joshua Kapellen (Special Agent 41) as the head Geek accompanying U2 throughout the world, saying that Kapellen has been “taming unruly computers, establishing and securing wireless networks necessary for the on-stage show and backstage production, and enabling online gaming capabilities for the crew.”

And then, when you think the announcement is about to get serious, it offers a quote from one of Kapellen’s old high school classmates.

“I always knew Josh would be a computer whiz,” the classmate said. “I should have spent more time studying and working with computers and maybe I could be in his shoes now.”

Of course, the whole idea of the press release is to stir up some publicity for Geek Squad’s stand-alone outlets as well as the Geek Squad Precincts found in Best Buy stores. But we had to smile when we noticed that the press release included the remaining dates of the U2 tour itinerary only so that Geek Squad fans could meet up with Agent Kapellen. Bono, who?

“At some point during the early ‘90s – right around the time Bill Gates became the richest man in the world – it was clear that the geeks were taking over,” Robert Stephens, founder and chief inspector for Geek Squad stated in the release. “It was only a matter of time before Geek Squad Agents became rock stars unto themselves.”