OK, so it's really just the Snow Leopard Server Multi-City Seminar and not a huge rock band on a world tour, but if you're more interested in servers than following your favorite group, this announcement should get you excited.

Apple's setting up a series of 7 seminars across the country (blissfully ignoring most of the center of the USA except for Chicago) designed to sell IT managers, administrators, server architects, technology coordinators, and anyone else who will listen on the advantages of Snow Leopard Server. The agenda for each seminar includes a hardware and software overview, a discussion of setup, administration, and integration, and information about collaboration and communication with Snow Leopard Server.

For those in the content production world, there will be info about Podcast Producer 2. System Administrators will learn about how scripting can be used to ease their workload, and detailed information about integrating iPhones into the workplace will be presented.

The scheduled stops are:

• Boston, MA / October 27
• New York, NY / October 29
• Seattle, WA / November 17
• Chicago, IL / December 1
• Washington, DC / December 3
• Cupertino, CA / December 8
• Los Angeles, CA / December 10

To reserve a seat for one of the seminar sessions, visit this page on the Apple website.

It was freezing this morning as the Manhasset Long Island, NY Apple store opened for business. Employees wearing T-Shirts (they weren't allowed to wear coats), ran up and down the waiting line of hundreds of people both pumping up the crowd and trying to stay warm. The enthusiasm was contagious as orange shirted people shouted out that the store would be open in 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and then the doors opened to seemingly dozens of Apple workers handing out T-shirts and applauding loudly as each new group of 20 people or so were let in the huge glass doors. The first 1,000 people were handed black T-shirts that said 'Manhasset' on the front and 'Designed by Apple in California' on the back.

The store is free standing and much larger than the one at the Walt Whitman Mall, my usual Apple store. The front and back of the store are glass walls and there is plenty of open space. Hopefully this store will take some of the burden off of the other Long Island stores which are usually crowded and have multi-day waits to get an appointment at the Genius Bar.

If you're in the area, check it out at 1900 Northern Blvd, Manhasset, NY.

TUAW is participating in this year's Blog Action Day on 10/15, an annual event in which bloggers around the world aim to spark discussion and awareness of serious and important issues. This year's topic is climate change, and fortunately, just like last year, we in the Apple community are in a pretty good place -- the company makes it a point to stay as green as possible, they have Al Gore on their board, and they make it safe and easy to dispose of their products in an environmentally friendly way. But there's always more we can do, from person to person -- making the earth a better place to live is going to take all of us working together.

And so, here's five iPhone and iPod touch apps you can use to find out what you can do to take action on climate change. Some are paid, some are free, but all of them will give you fun and useful ways to help find approaches to dealing with climate change in your own behavior and life.

One sign that the iPhone development world is starting to mature is that companies are beginning to build the infrastructure necessary for devs to enable push notification and in-app purchasing. Usually these functions require a developer to make a significant investment in server hardware and labor to set up and operate the push and/or purchase servers, as well as to write code to integrate those services into their apps.

I met with Tim Courtney and Chris Grove of KeyLimeTie yesterday at 360iDev in downtown Denver. Their company's new service, iLime, is a scalable solution consisting of highly reliable server infrastructure and a set of iPhone Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that make it possible for iPhone developers to integrate Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) and in-app purchase easily.

iLime is making it very easy for small, independent developers to test the waters of push notification by making their APIs and server prowess available for free for up to the first 25,000 push messages each month. After that point, the service is charged on a per-push basis on a tiered pricing structure that makes higher volume more attractive. For in-app purchasing, iLime simply charges a flat US$0.05 fee for every content purchase made through their service.

iLime was first announced at iPhone Dev Camp in August. At 360iDev, iLime announced additional features and detailed documentation of the APIs. Courtney also noted that while there are only a handful of apps in the App Store at this time using iLime's services, several hundred iPhone developers have tested and used the services and they expect a significant number of iLime-enabled apps in the near future.

It's great to see KeyLimeTie making the investment in the virtual bricks and mortar that enable push notification and in-app purchasing, so more iPhone devs can take advantage of these iPhone OS features.

About a month ago we reported that the 360iDev conference was going to be held in Denver, Colorado. The event is now underway, and since I happen to live in the area, I'm attending the event that's billed as the premiere iPhone developer conference in the world.

There are certainly a good number of iPhone developers on hand -- Tom Ortega of 360|Conferences, the group that's running the event, mentioned that the registration was at 225 developers, more than attended the last event in San Jose, CA.

The sessions last for the next day and a half, and there are plenty of opportunities for developers to learn, meet, and party. Stay tuned to TUAW for short interviews and more info from 360iDev.

Think Apple's products are "really great," "incredible," "amazing," "really easy" to use, "awesome," "terrific," "incredible," "great," and "amazing"? If so, it's probably because Apple told you that's what they were in last week's presentation. The above video's been making the rounds -- it's all of the adjectives cut out of the recent Apple event, and compiled together into a machine-gun lineup of just how Apple sets up their products.

Now, just because these words kept showing up and being used doesn't mean there's some malicious brainwashing going on here -- it's probably true that Apple really does think that their products are "incredible," and "amazing," and "really great." And let's face it, they've never really been real up-to-date on the language anyway. They probably could use a thesaurus: maybe at the next event, the new MacBooks could be "marvelous," "extraordinary," or "glorious."

But it does show you just how much we're shaped by what we see at these events -- Steve's and Apple's enthusiasm for these things is infectious. Apple's products really are amazing, but it doesn't hurt that most of us sit down to watch, read, or listen to an hour or two of them telling us just how "amazing," "incredible," and "really great" they are.

Update: The video of the keynote announcement is now linked off the front page of Apple.com.

Though the video of today's event is not yet on Apple.com (as of this writing -- though you can find it here), it has been added to Apple's official podcast. Even if you were underwhelmed by today's announcements, you don't want to miss Steve's return or the ovation he received. The video of today's press event is just over one hour and fourteen minutes long.

We'll be diving deep into the new features of iTunes 9 over the next 24 hours, so check back often. Until then, launch the stream and succumb to the Reality Distortion Field.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

One of the first surprises out of today's Apple event, other than Steve Jobs appearing on stage again (!!!), was the announcement that iPhone OS 3.1 and iPod touch OS 3.1.1 were available. We're still waiting for the download to complete, so this won't be a hands-on review, but we do want you to know what the new features of 3.1 are:

• Improved syncing for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and photos
• iTunes U content organization
• Redeem iTunes Gift Cards, codes, and certificates in the App Store
• Display available iTunes account credits in the App Store and iTunes Store
• Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll
• Option to Save as new clip when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
• Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on
• Remotely lock iPhone with passcode via MobileMe
• Use Voice COntrol on iPhone 3GS with Bluetooth headsets
• Paste phone numbers into the keypad
• Option to use Home button to turn on accessibility features on iPhone 3GS
• Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari (anti-phishing)
• Improved Exchange calendar syncing and invitation handling
• Fixes issue that cause some app icons to display incorrectly

There's now also a App Store Genius function, which will recommend Apps based on your purchase history. The Genius of Apple also extends to iTunes, which will now create up to 12 playlists for you based on what's in your library. You can now purchase and download ringtones from your iPhone, and organize apps in iTunes.

Apple's security info page will be listing the security content of the OS updates shortly. The new versions include 10 security fixes, including patches for SMS vulnerabilities, Exchange passcode lock workarounds, and Unicode character spoofing flaws.

We'll have a hands-on review later!

Update: That's all folks! We've got iTunes 9 and iPhone OS 3.1, with scads of new features (app arrangement! Home sharing! iTunes LP!); also new capacities on the iPod touch, new iPod shuffle models, and the camera-equipped iPod nano.

Join us at 1pm ET/10am PT for our liveblog of the Apple 9/9 event. We're joined by our onsite special correspondents, Daniel Brusilovsky and Sam Levin.

TechStyle has begun round two of their giveaway on Stylit.tv, and this one ends September 15. There are even more prizes in this bag, and TUAW readers need only enter a special promo code to get extra chances to win. Thanks to our friends at Stylit.tv, host Shira Lazar and the vendors who donated the loot.

On the next page you'll find the special code, a video of Shira at Macworld Expo (plus see us give away the two other bags of goodies at the event) and a list of what's in this giveaway.

It's 09/09/09 -- finally!

Apple events are always a lot of fun, and the speculation leading up to today's press event has been incredible. Will Steve Jobs appear at the event? Are we going to see a new version of iTunes and some new iPods? We're always wondering if there will be "one more thing."

Join us today at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT for the TUAW liveblog of this event. As usual, you can add your questions to the mix, and a full complement of TUAW bloggers will be on hand. We will have our buddies Daniel Brusilovsky (of Teens In Tech) and Sam Levin onsite to give us the minute-by-minute update of what's transpiring. We'll also keep one eye on the other liveblog coverage from Engadget, Ars Technica, gdgt, Gizmodo, Macworld & elsewhere.

You can keep an eye on our main Twitter feed for the headline announcements, and our Ask TUAW account is always there for your questions and inquiries. You can also join the fun over on our Facebook page during and after the event.

Here's a link to the liveblog page, for you early birds.

Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Gene Munster, who is not pictured at right, is continuing his love affair with all things AAPL. In the last few weeks he's told us that the iPhone will be picked up by another U.S. carrier in 2010, that Steve Jobs will be on hand at the September 9th Apple music event, and that there would be an AppleTV announcement at the event (this was quashed by Jim Dalrymple at The Loop).

Now the Munster-man is back with even more good news. He believes now that manufacturing capacity for the iPhone 3GS has ramped up and supply is adequate, Apple is on track to sell 7 million iPhones during the quarter ending September 30th.

According to Munster, tight supplies of the 3GS at launch led AT&T store managers to recommend the less pricey 3G to customers. Now that supplies are adequate, store managers are recommending the 3GS, which remains the best selling device at AT&T outlets. Piper Jaffray's figures indicate that during August, the iPhone took share from BlackBerry, the Nokia E71x, and other competitors.

Munster's last prediction isn't so rosy, but is based on historical precedent -- he expects Apple's stock price to dip after tomorrow's event by about 1 percent.

[via AppleInsider]

The rumors are flying around the upcoming Apple press event like bees in a clover field; bees goaded on by Piper Jaffray's Senior Research Analyst, Gene Munster.

On Monday, he suggested that the iPhone will be on multiple carriers in the US by next year. Yesterday, he predicted that Steve Jobs himself could make an appearance at next week's press event. Today, it's the Apple TV he's after. Citing short delivery times on the current 40GB model, he suspects that the 40GB model will be phased out and the 160GB model made less expensive.

Even if this does happen, we expect that Steve (or whomever) won't mention it. It wouldn't be the first time Apple made a change to the Apple TV immediately following a press event without having said a word.

For now, keep buzzing, little bees.

Update: Jim Dalrymple at The Loop has poured cold water on Munster's Apple TV prognostications. Dalrymple reports "very reliable sources" denying any introductions for non-music products at the 9/9 event.

At last Apple has begun distributing invitations to a press event scheduled for September 9th. The image on the invitation, which features a classic silhouette dancer, pretty much confirms our suspicion that this particular dog-and-pony show feature the iPod (now with cameras! ...maybe). Apple typically introduces new iPods in September.

This year's event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on September 9th at 10:00 a.m Pacific time. Perhaps then we'll see that secret television ad. In any case, we think it's safe for the pro-tablet theorists sit this one out. Maybe next time, folks.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

As intrepid TUAW reporter Mike Schramm told you a few days ago, Apple has an event planned for September 9, 2009. Pundits are expecting the event to be the usual Apple fall event where the new line of iPods will be announced, but there's something else happening on September 9th that could herald the long-awaited arrival of The Beatles in the iTunes Store.

The Official Beatles Shop website is showing 9/9/09 as the release date for new, digitally remastered versions of the entire Beatles library. That's also the day that The Beatles: Rock Band is released. What better way for Apple to finally bring Apple Corps into the digital age than to give the Fab Four a home in iTunes?

Of course, the Beatles and Apple, Inc. have had a tumultuous legal history, and recently George Harrison's son Dhani Harrison was quoted in Blender as saying he didn't feel that the iTunes Store's per-song charge was a fair price for Beatles songs. He also mentioned that the remaining members of The Beatles were looking into creating their own website for digital downloads. Given the shaky history of most Beatles business ventures, I wouldn't give that comment a second thought.

Just last month, Sir Paul McCartney told the Guardian that in terms of the Beatles library appearing in iTunes, "The last word I got back was it's stalled at the whole moment, the whole process... I really hope it will happen because I think it should."

Frankly, I think the music world and Apple both need a little magic right now, so I'm hoping to see Steve Jobs, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Dhani Harrison, and Julian Lennon on stage together on September 9th. That would be even better than an announcement of a Mac tablet.