Okay, I thought I'd write down my thoughts on the event as I read Engadget's live blog. As you might expect from me, I'm underwhelmed. I'm sure I'll start getting blasted for any number of the following (some of it is admittedly nit-picky):

Thoughts as I read the live blog:

- I'm just not into the whole "suggest other songs like what you're listening to." I think it's pretty obvious that this is first and foremost a means to push more music sales.

- Is that the only new thing in iTunes 8? 7 saw far more than that between point releases, like iPhone support and the apps store.

- $2.99 for a single HD TV show? Seriously? I still maintain that everything in the iTunes store is twice as expensive as it should be.

- Poor Steve, looking seriously frail. That procedure really caused havoc on him. Hope his malnurishment issues get straightened out.

- Neat, new nano looks just like the spy shots. Has an accelerometer. The only thing that worries me is the curved screen. The addition of the curve and glass covering mean that I suspect it'll have some pretty bad glare issues, but I hope I'm wrong. I just think the curvature will make it hard to tilt it out of glare...

- And of course the oval shape instantly creates a whole new market of accessories. Hopefully dock inserts are being made for all those docks that have them.

- Are they STILL using Napolean Dynamite for these things? I like that movie less and less with every mention of it. I'm sure there have been other cult movies in the last four years. Juno comes to mind as a good recent one. I'm pretty sure it's in the iTunes store...

- The same applies for Beck's "Guess I'm Doing Fine," except that I LOVE that album. Still, it's going on six years...

- Nice battery life on the new nano

- Wow, that's a lot of colors. Pretty wild.

- I agree with Engadget, those included $79 earbuds are really driving the price up. Would be nice if they'd release a version without them, since I'm sure there's a lot of folks out there with their own headphones.

- Some very nice minor updates to the Touch. I like that they put the speaker in. 802.11n would be nice, but probably tough to include.

- I'm still nowhere near sold on games for the Touch and iPhone. I need physical controls. I really want to hear real-world reactions to that virtual D-pad in the Fifa game. Still, impressive graphics - NFS looks really good.

- "It's the best portable device for playing games..." Um, again, I think this is extremely difficult to claim. It doesn't even have games that use the touchscreen to the best effect.

- Jack Johnson. Might be the biggest iTunes seller ever, but I could care less.

- That's all? Okay...

If you take out all the filler, you see how Apple can create a spectacle around one new product, an (IMO) minor addition to iTunes, and a slight revamp of the Touch. I'm not complaining about the event because I was expecting more, I'm complaining because I feel that if you're going to have an event like this where supposed "journalists" clap and cheer for everything you announce, there should at least be something big to share.

And that's another thing that bothers me. Journalists shouldn't be cheering for product releases. I thought they were supposed to be objective.

Anyway, let the flames commence...

*edit*
One more note on the Touch and iPhone as gaming devices: it's true that they have better graphics than any other portable gaming device out there, and the power inside to match, but I think the press is forgetting something: the DS and the PSP are nearly four years old. That's ancient. All I'm saying is: watch out, Apple, you don't want to be another Dreamcast.