Beatles fans can now enjoy their favorite Beatles songs in ringtone and alert form on their iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. iTunes now has an exclusive selection of Beatles ringtones from the Beatles "1" album -- a collection of their greatest hits. All 27 songs are available as ringtones.

For the first time, get the music of The Beatles as individual ringtones - exclusively on iTunes. Each of the timeless tunes from 1 is now available to purchase and enjoy as a ringtone or alert on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

You can choose to use the tones as ringtones on your iPhone or alert tones on your iPad or iPod touch. Apple just recently made content from the Beatles available on iTunes last November.

If you're a Beatles fan, you can jump over to the iTunes store on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and purchase them now.

• How to set an iPhone ringtone
• How to change your iPhone alert tone

$1.29 each - View selection

Apple has released a new iTunes TV commercial, this one focused on the Beatles and called Covers.

Let iTunes take you on a journey through The Beatles, from Please, Please Me, all the way to Abbey Road.

It's a well executed, visually interesting commercial, and just in time for the holidays.

• The Beatles on iTunes

What says winter like an Apple Retail Store iPad snow globe, right? Complete with falling snow, curved glass, and recommended apps for just that holiday season. At my local Apple Store this new display just replaced the previous iPad on top of giant books and other desk accessories, while the poor old iPhone 4 display has been ousted in favor of giant cutout Beatles. Come on, we know where Steve Jobs' heart is this holiday, right?

There are also some changes inside, namely a new Express Store within the store, roped off and stocked up with iPad, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and gift cards. I wonder how long those will last after the Black Friday sales start tomorrow?

Pictures after the break.

What do you think about the Beatles finally being on iTunes? Is the announcement historic or did the Apple.com hype leave you expecting more? You know the drill, vote in the poll above and vent in the comments below!

As rumored, the Beatles are now up and available on the iTunes music store.

It only took 7 years, a trademark lawsuit, and more false-starts than you can shape a mop top at, but now you can finally get individual albums with iTunes LP for $12.99 or download the digital box set -- which contains the entire catalogue -- for $149.

“We’re really excited to bring the Beatles’ music to iTunes,” said Sir Paul McCartney. “It’s fantastic to see the songs we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as they did the first time around.”

“I am particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes,” said Ringo Starr. “At last, if you want it—you can get it now—The Beatles from Liverpool to now! Peace and Love, Ringo.”

“We love the Beatles and are honored and thrilled to welcome them to iTunes,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It has been a long and winding road to get here. Thanks to the Beatles and EMI, we are now realizing a dream we’ve had since we launched iTunes ten years ago.”

“In the joyful spirit of Give Peace A Chance, I think it is so appropriate that we are doing this on John’s 70th birthday year,” said Yoko Ono Lennon.

“The Beatles on iTunes—Bravo!” said Olivia Harrison.

“The Beatles and iTunes have both been true innovators in their fields,” said EMI Group CEO Roger Faxon. “It’s a privilege for everybody at EMI to work with Steve Jobs and with Apple Corps’ Jeff Jones and their teams in marking a great milestone in the development of digital music.”

Anyone hitting the buy button?

[iTunes link, Apple PR, Apple Beatles page]

Earlier today Apple.com put up a huge teaser for iTunes news, scheduled for 10am ET tomorrow. No media event. No keynote. No time to launch major new product initiatives before the keynote. So while rumors swirled it might be the launch of iTunes.com cloud media streaming or a similarly cloud-based subscription service, the intransigent recording labels and absurd international licensing deals being what they are, those never seemed likely. Sure, iTunes 10.1 and iOS 4.2 could have something hidden in the code, but Apple can't even get the jerks over at NBC and CBS to let them rent TV shows, so all that potential seems destined to stay hidden, at least for now.

What did seem more likely is what I tweeted about earlier today:

Are they really crazy enough to take over the Apple.com front page just to tease a Beatles announcements?

And the answer it seems, courtesy of some confirmation by way the Wall Street Journal, is yes.

Or more precisely Steve Jobs is.

My guess is the Beatles are a big part of the reason he took Apple into music and built iTunes and the iTunes Store to begin with, and his inability to get them sooner has no doubt been a source of considerable frustration.

So now, if it really is a done deal, Jobs and Apple could very well want to make some noise about it. Not keynote level, but Apple.com level.

Will the surviving Beatles will be a part of the announcement, and will they be getting an iTunes LP? Heck, will iPad finally get iTunes LP so we, and Steve Jobs, can kick back and relive our youth flipping through gorgeous album art and liner notes? Who knows.

Sure, maybe the Beatles is just part of what's coming tomorrow. Maybe we'll get iTunes Live Streaming. Maybe we'll get subscriptions. Maybe we'll get something more. (Not a special Beatles-edition White iPhone with iOS 4.2 release on Verizon, however. Not. Going. To. Happen.) But right now all signs point to the Beatles, and that's why.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is set to announce that they've worked out an agreement to offer the entire Beatles catalog on its iTunes Store -- something Apple has been negotiating for what seems like the better half of a decade. WSJ reports:

Apple Inc. is preparing to announce that its iTunes Store will soon start carrying music by the Beatles, according to people familiar with the situation, a move that would fill in a glaring gap in the collection of the world's largest music retailer.

iTunes launched almost 8 years ago, and The Beatles have been regrettably absent since day one. Spokesmen for Apple, EMI and The Beatles of course declined to comment on the matter. We have a feeling that, if there's any truth to these new rumors, there should be a lot of happy iTunes users out there who are also fans of The Beatles (and who isn't, right?).

So will you be purchasing any Beatles music once they're finally available through iTunes? Let us know in the comments!

[WSJ]

Music Skins make premium vinyl adhesive skins for iPhone and iPod that protect from scuffs and scrapes without being all bulky about it, and while they features tons of artists, their big release right now is the Beatles. That's right, your iPhone can get the Fab Four on the outside before the iTunes Store offers them inside!

We'll take a look -- and start our give-away -- after the break!

If you haven't used a vinyl skin before, the process is simple and stress free. You peel them off, just like a sticker, align them on your iPhone or iPod touch, and then firmly press them down working your way from the center towards the edges. I typically use the camera on the iPhone as a guide but on the iPod touch I just eyeballed it and it worked out fine as well. I don't know (and no one will tell me) what roll NASA or Massive Dynamics played in coming up with the material, but it looks like a grid of tiny air pockets that make readjusting it in case of misalignment, and removing it if your tastes change, a relatively easy and hassle free process.

Now, it's important to remember that while a vinyl skin will sacrifice itself to protect your device from nicks, it won't protect it from a fall. On the other hand, there's almost zero added bulk and you won't notice any difference in the pocket. Also, because of the extremely low profile, most of the hard cases I tried out fit over it no problem (the softer, leather cases were a bit tight, especially with the added friction from the vinyl).

As to the quality of the skins themselves, the printing was colorfully retro, the edges clean and precise, and the fit was well finished. They also provide matching wall paper for your lock screen.

TiPb met up with Music Skins at CES 2010 where they showed us their latest, greatest Beatles Limited Edition Collector's Set for iPod and iPhone (only 250 available world wide!) and sent one on for us to show you. And like we mentioned in the title, now that we're done showing it they're letting us give it away, and that's not all. Here's the complete rundown:

• One (1) grand give-away, Beatles Limited Edition Collector's Set for iPod and iPhone!
• Five (5) runner-up giveaways: Music Skin, style and device of your choosing!

Want? Here's all you have to do:

• Head on over to the TiPb Forums and tell us your favorite Beatles song (and if you don't have one, tell us your favorite non-Beatles song!)
• Contest starts now and ends Saturday, Feb. 6 at 12pm PST
• We'll randomly pick the winners and let you know via PM.

Every year Apple has a special music event, and every year Beatles rumors follow along with it. This time, the event date of 9/9/9, the release of Beatles Remastered on CD and Beatles Rock Band has the rumors running faster than ever. Will iTunes join the fray, or will Big Music try to make their money on physical media and games before allowing digital downloads?

Current is adding fuel to the fire, however, with a purported screenshot of the Beatles being featured on iTunes -- a slip of the old server, so to speak.

But is it real, or just really fake? iTunes ads are easier to whip up on photoshop than lolcats, after all.

Still, we're just over a day and half from "It's only rock and roll, but we like it", so crazy time, it has arrived!

[Thanks Glenn for the tip!]

As the typical timeframe for Apple's annual Music Event -- focused on iTunes and the iPod -- draws close, rumors have once again turned to... the Beatles. Perhaps because no other band seems both as close to Apple founder Steve Jobs' persona, and yet is still utterly missing from the digital download space.

This year, however, the Beatles do show up on Rock Band, and are releasing newly, digitally, remastered CDs, so will we finally get a Beatles on iTunes announcement this year to cap things off?

Ugh. Who knows? Why even bother to speculate any more, to track possible yellow iPod colors, to monitor McCartney's California travel plans, to play last year's Let's Rock keynote backwards for clues. It'll happen when it happens.

On the rare occasions when I hit iTunes looking for music, I go immediately to iTunes Plus. When it comes to DRM music, I'm just not gonna do it, so if I can't find it on iTunes Plus, I can't find it. Trouble now is, I can't find iTunes Plus! Used to be in the Quicklinks, but now it's gone missing from the iTunes Canadian Store. Maybe MacRumors knows:

Forum user Doodledoo has been following it closely and found evidence of tracks from both Warner and Sony studios participating in iTunes Plus. Apple originally launched their DRM-Free iTunes Plus format with the support of only EMI but recent rumors have suggested Apple is working on winning over the other three majors studios (Warner, Sony, Universal).

Whazzat? Really? Could it be that Big Media is finally learning that treating customers to fair use for fair price is the way to go? In a word... "no". According to Apple Insider, progress and all, the Beatles are still going to need some help:

"EMI want something we're not prepared to give 'em. It's between EMI and The Beatles I think - what else is new?," McCartney said. "Last word I got back was it's stalled at the moment. But I really hope it will happen because I think it should."

So are we finally on the cusp of a revolution? Is (music, at least) DRM dying? And will all of us be long gone before the Beatles show up for download as well?