At an event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts today, Apple announced revisions to both its iPod Nano and Touch lines. Both updates were in line with what many analysts and journalists had predicted, including Digg founder Kevin Rose’s predictions for the new widescreen Nano. Additionally, prices across both lines were dropped substantially.

The all new iPod Nano 4G

The new Nano has returned to the taller and narrower shape of its 1st and 2nd gen predecessors. Taking design cues from both the iPhone and the current gen Aluminum iMacs, the Nano is aluminum and glass, and features a new widescreen display that pushes the click wheel to the bottom of the device. In addition to the new display and design, Apple has dramatically improved the UI, which mimics the look and feel of the iPod Touch and iPhone interface. In line with these changes, an accelerometer has been added that switches the display from landscape to portrait, from song list view to coverflow, and allows the iPod to be “shaken” to shuffle. Finally, the new Nano’s come in the widest array of colors ever offered, a total of nine, including newcomers to the Apple line yellow and orange.

The new iPod Touch G2

Updates to the iPod touch were not as drastic, but did include a few new features. The look of the device has been changed slightly, tapering off the ends and thinning down the body in general. It is also has a new contoured stainless steel body, possibly made to differentiate itself from the more plastic based body of the iPhone. New features include a built in receiver for the iPod + Nike software that has been touted at many a Jobs keynote, integrated hard button volume controls and a built in speaker.

Both of these new models include Apple’s new “Genius” playlist system that automatically creates a playlist based on your personal music tastes. The iPod Nano 4g will sell for $149 and $199 for the 8 GB and 16 GB models respectively. The iPod touch will now sell for $229, $299 and $399 for the 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB models respectively.

Finally, while not announced, Apple has added four new colors to the iPod Shuffle lineup. The price still remains unchanged, however, at 1GB and 2GB for $49 and $69 respectively. Stick with theiLife.com for continuing coverage!

Today, at the Let’s Rock iPod event held at Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, Apple has released two major upgrades to it’s current software offerings.

True to the rumors, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off of iTunes 8 today. iTunes 8 contains a number of new features including Accessibility (through VoiceOver), New “Grid” Browsing, and Genius. The Grid browsing is similar to the iPhoto layout where you can browse albums by cover and switch between viewing by Albums, Artists, Genres and Composers in respective tabs above. For any given artist, you can mouse over and see the different album artworks, like you would an event in iPhoto. The Genius feature in iTunes 8 Automatically makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together with just one click. Additionally, the Genius sidebar will make recommendations from the iTunes Store based on the music you already have. Genius information is sent to iTunes servers anonymously (which is optional) and will be used to generate better results for you every week. iTunes 8 is a free download and will be available today for both Mac and PC from apple.com/itunes.

Apple also introduced a new version of it’s iPhone OS, version 2.1 at it’s media event today. iPhone firmware 2.1 is said to contain much better battery life, fewer dropped calls, bug fixes, faster backups to iTunes and no more App crashes. However, it is unclear if the Push Notification made it’s way into the 2.1 version of the firmware. The iPhone OS version 2.1 software will be available as a free download to iPhone users and free to all iPod touch owners who already have the 2.0 firmware (paid for) and installed and will be available for download this Friday, September 12th.

Stay tuned for the latest information regarding Apple’s latest hardware and software announcements here at theiLife.com.

Although a writer from theiLife.com will not be present at the Let’s Rock event, theiLife will be providing a liveblog for readers to watch the events unfold live.

Information coming in from a collaboration of sources will be compiled and continuously updated on this page as the event unfolds. You can bookmark this page now, and at 10AM PST or 1PM EST, start your refreshing! For now, read up on the rumors!

1:25AM EST The liveblog page is up! Only about 12 more hours!!
9:58AM EST The rumor mill is heating up. There have been swirls of new rumors in these last remaining hours. The event is only about 3 hours away!
11:00AM EST Apple Online Store is down! It is getting closer!!
11:44AM EST Several people in Barbarian Group t-shirts have been spotted outside the event. Hmm.. that would corroborate with the Magnetosphere iTunes visualizer rumor.
12:40PM EST T-minus 20 minutes to the start of the event.
12:55PM EST Reporters are filing into the hall with rock tunes bumping!
1:01PM EST Steve Jobs just took the stage. Energetic and skinny, we hear.
1:02PM EST Over 8.5 million songs are available on iTunes. 125,000 podcasts, 30,000 TV shows, 2,600 movies, and 3,000 applications for iPhone and iPod Touch. 65 million user accounts on iTunes.
1:06PM EST“iTunes is getting some new content”. First is High Definition TV shows. HD shows will be $2.99 for computer or Apple TV.
1:07PM EST iTunes 8. The rumored grid view is true. Genius playlists can be made with just one click.
1:08PM EST NBC is back!
1:09PM EST iTunes 8 will be available for download today.
1:10PM ESTGenius information gets sent to iTunes to give them your musical tastes. It’s sent anonymously, and is completely optional.
1:13PM EST Steve just played a John Mayer song. The internet l0lz.
1:15PM EST iPod has a 73.4% marketshare. Followed by 8.6% for SanDisk, Microsoft with 2.6 and other for 15.4%.
1:17PM EST The 80GB is being upgraded to 120GB, and the 160GB is being discontinued.
1:19PM EST New skinny nanos are true. Skinny, rounded, and a lot like the 2nd gen Nano. Portrait aspect ratio plus the exact same resolution display.
1:21PM EST They have added curved glass over the screen, new user interface, and an accelerometer!
1:23PM EST Shake to shuffle is true. Shake the iPod nano, and it will shuffle.
1:25PM EST 24 hours music, 4 hours video. Jobs says that it’s the thinnest iPod ever.
1:26PM EST Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and silver. $149 for 8GB; $199 for 16GB. Both are shipping today; 8GB’s shipping today, 16GB should be in stock by the weekend.
1:30PM EST New accessories including headphones and armbands. The headphone, actually, has an in-band control feature to have volume control, playback control (next, prev, play pause) from the button. There’s also a microphone on the back that works with the voice recording app. These will be $29 next month.
1:35PM EST Over 100 million apps downloaded from the App Store.
1:36PM EST New iPod touch has built in Nike+ support.
1:38PM EST Phil Schiller coming on stage to introduce some unannounced games.
1:39PM EST Demoing Spore. Moving to Real Soccer 2009.
1:45PM EST Now moving to Need for Speed Undercover.
1:48PM EST Both the nano and touch are arsenic-free, BFR-free, Mercury-free, PVC-free, and highly recyclable. Steve is back on the stage and calls the touch the “funnest iPod ever”.
1:50PM EST Touch battery life is 36 hours of music, 6 hours of video.
1:51PM EST The 8GB is $229, 16GB is $299 and 32GB is $399. All available starting today.
1:53PM EST iPhone OS 2.1 available for free for all iPhone and iPod touch users who are already on 2.0. Lots of performance and bug fixes within.
1:54PM EST Steve says: “Back to iTunes and iPod. We’ve got the best lineup we’ve ever had. We’ve sold over 160 million iPods. We’re ready for this coming season. And we really appreciate the chance to share that.”
2:03PM EST Looks like “Let’s Rock” is over with. Thanks for joining us!

Gallery after the jump! Read more…