So as you all know, or at least those who are interested know, today held an Apple music event. Rumours were rife, with everything from an iTablet (not yet), Beatles on iTunes, cameras in touches/nanos and the death of the iPod classic amongst other things. As noted before, certain market analysts were speculating about Steve Jobs return to the stage. Well they were spot on as a clearly emotional Steve Jobs addressed an equally emotional audience to talk about his health and the donor register (of which I’ve been a member for years thanks to a special someone in a past life). After the two-way loving was done, Jobs proceeded to confirm and dash rumours and bust out a couple of surprises.

So before you bust a gut, no iTablet, which was a long shot at best for this soon. Look to 2010 for that one. No iPod touch camera either, perhaps due to the rumoured supply problems. The touch does get a storage bump and the now 32Gb and 64Gb models get a spec bump which are ‘50%’ faster. Specifics are lacking right now but it probably puts it in line with the 3GS. Talking of the iPod touch, gaming was at the forefront of the announcement and why shouldn’t it be with games companies falling over each other to get a slice of the market. The supposed death of the iPod classic was also bunk, gaining some more storage to 160Gb and staying at the same price.

The iPod nano, got a lot of love this time round too. Boasting a new camera, microphone, speaker and a larger screen whilst being cheaper and jumping in capacity, the new iPod nano is squarely aimed at the Flip video camera market. Look out for this little beast to be a storm at Christmas. The gym machine that is the iPod shuffle also got a boast with more colours, including stainless steel and settling down with a 2Gb and 4Gb model.

The iPhone and iPod touch also got some software love with 3.1/3.1.1. The update brings video saving from both MMS and email as well as non-destructive video editing on the 3GS. The Genius has been expanded to apps as well as on device purchasing of ringtones and redemption of vouchers and codes within the mobile App Store. Security was also beefed up a bit with anti-fishing precautions in mobile Safari, MobileMe remote locking and bug fixes. Voice control over BT headsets as well as number pasting in the phone app also made the cut. iTunes 9 also made an appearance at the event and brought with it a whole host of small additions and improvements. Syncing with iPhone/touch has been improved including the ability to manage home screens from your computer, which will be a big boon for anyone with a load of apps. Talking of apps, Apple has improved app handling and management within iTunes itself (something I’ve been waiting for ever since the App Store was launched) and the Genius got a DJing feature, ideal for house parties. Home sharing, authorised sharing between computers on your home network, has been implemented meaning you can now download music between computers easily right from iTunes. The rumoured iTunes interactive album media came true with iTunesLP, which brings photos, videos, lyrics and discography with your digital downloads.

Overall there weren’t any major announcements from the line up, but most people will have something new to look forward to with a lot of little and possibly quite influential changes. Least we forget, Steve Jobs is back in the spot light and I for one am pleased that he’s back, it would have been sad for such an aggressive, iconic leader of the company to have just faded into the back drop over health problems.