In response to complaints over short battery life the 80-gigabyte player will require charging after

In response to complaints over short battery life, the 80-gigabyte player will require charging after 20 hours of continuous play.But the headline-grabbing initiative was the movies. Apple has signed a deal with Disney, of which Jobs is a major shareholder and director, and its Hollywood studios Pixar, Touchstone and Miramax. Available in the US now, and from next year in the UK, will be 75 Disney stable films including Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and Cars, as well as a slew of classics.Is the technology revolutionary?The answer is no. The largest, the 80-gigabyte video iPod, will hold 20,000 songs (about 2,000 albums’-worth) or 100 hours of video, the equivalent of some 60 feature films.

The first was that Apple was to offer its customers movies for the first time available for download over the internet via its iTunes site and which can be watched on an iPod. The second, potentially more far-reaching announcement was the creation of a device, provisionally titled iTV, with a likely price tag of £160. This small, sleek box, still under development, was described by Jobs as the “missing piece” that will bring digital content – films, music, photographs, television programmes from the computer to the TV screen.Has there been a breakthrough?The new iPods will offer improved capacity to store music and video. Why is this in the news?

Steve Jobs, the man who brought the world the iPod, revolutionising the music industry and changing the consumer habits of tens of millions of people worldwide, took to a stage in San Francisco this week to announce the latest line of products from his company Apple. As well as unveiling a new generation of lower-priced, portable digital music players, he also disclosed that Apple was joining the scramble to deliver video over the internet.
There were two key announcements. * Allegations of anti-Semitism have dogged Ken Livingstone since he compared Jewish journalist Oliver Finegold to a “German war criminal” and a concentration camp guard earlier this year. Ken repeatedly refused to apologise for the remarks and was found to have brought his office into disrepute.

It took intervention by the High Court to save him from being suspended as London mayor.
He also upset Jewish groups by hosting an event attended by the Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, accused of anti-Semitism and encouraging suicide bombers.The row burns on: celebrations this weekend to mark the 350th anniversary of the readmission of Jews to England have been snubbed by a senior Jewish organisation because of the mayor’s involvement.The Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (Ajex) are boycotting the Leicester Square festivities, Simcha on the Square, because the mayor’s office helps fund it.”We will not support it,” says chairman Harold Newman. “I’ve told all of our members that any of them who wish to attend are welcome to do so, but because of Ken Livingstone’s track record and his comments about Jews, and his failure to subsequently apologise, we don’t want anything to do with him.”He is not someone we wish to be associated with.”Livingstone has this time opted for diplomacy and will send his deputy, Nicky Gavron. A spokesman said yesterday that Ken could not be reached to comment.* William Jefferson Clinton and Kevin Spacey have long been buddies. On Saturday night they joined forces to sell the most expensive tickets ever to London’s Old Vic theatre – £57,500 apiece.Spacey flew to Toronto to chair Bill’s 60th birthday and charity auction. Guests including Jon Bon Jovi and comedian Billy Crystal (who joked about older men’s sporadic urination) raised $20m for Clinton’s Aids initiative.An unnamed bidder paid $230,000 for four tickets to see Spacey perform the lead in Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, which opens tomorrow. The prize includes flights to London and dinner with Spacey after the show.”Kevin hadn’t planned it,” says his spokeswoman. “He was onstage and saw the astronomical sums paid for other lots.”There were two $650,000 bids to accompany Clinton to Africa.