Daily U2 News Digest for 2008-12-19

	10:56pm	U2 stock buyback puts cloud over music mega-deals – Times of the Internet
	1:11am	Boxed set focuses on U2 at Red Rocks – 2TheAdvocate
	1:40am	Arts, Briefly After Delay, U2 on the Horizon – New York Times
	5:24am	U2 stock buyback puts cloud over music mega-deals – AFP
	6:38am	Learn More About iPod – ScienceBlog.com
	7:01am	Jeremy Piven, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet – International Herald Tribune
	8:04am	U2 announce album date – TeleText
	8:10am	New U2 album soon – Examiner.com
	8:20am	New album from U2 is on the horizon – The Associated Press
	8:55am	Kim Kardashian' wishes you a Happy New Year, U2 sets album release … – The Plain Dealer – cleveland.com
	9:25am	U2 Announces Release Date Of New Album “No Line On The Horizon” – AHN

U2, The Beatles and the iPod

SwitchBlog (Inspired by Apple’s Switch Campaign) mentions U2 in their post ‘Social Currency and the iPod‘ which talks about Apple’s strategy concerning the iPod, digital downloads, DRM and the ‘godlike genius’ of Steve Jobs:

“Rumors have been floated about a Madonna iPod, and others, but without a Beatles iPod as the precedent, it would have been premature. The U2 iPod was an exception. It was a foot-in-the-door for Apple and an opportunity for U2 to welcome the Beatles into the future of music distribution. U2 is the only band with a long enough history and enough current relevance to pull this off.”

Read the full story…
… and a follow up post: The U2 iPod and Its Relationship to the Beatles Deal.

Hats off to the Independent Charity Auction

British newspaper The Independent is auctioning off 43 items linked to work of the paper. All funds raised are split between three charities: Merlin, The Welfare Association (UK) and Anti-Slavery International.

Scroll down the page to find a link to Lot 42: Achtung Baby – Bono’s contribution: a RED T-shirt, a signed poster and black ipod, as well as the hat Bono wore while picking racing tips for the paper.

As of December 14, 2pm CET, with almost a week to go bids stand at a respectable £ 1300.00.

Red is the new black

Gossip mailing list Popbitch this week claims Bono, dining in the Michelin-starred Patrick Guilbaud restaurant in Dublin, was overheard talking about a red Amex card and red iPod for charity.

Popbitch doesn’t mention which charity, but U2 fans will recognise these items would be part of the Red campaign to heighten AIDS awareness as mentioned here on U2log.com in the past.

Bono and Edge Team Up With Jobs

Bono and The Edge were in San Jose, California, today to help Apple announce:

• A special 20GB black U2 iPod that will retail for $349US featuring all four band members’ signatures.
• A digital box set of all of U2′s albums as well as over 25 rare and unreleased tracks. The box set will retail for $149US. U2.com says that those tracks will include material from Hasta La Vista, Baby! and Melon, the Propaganda-only fan club CDs. The total is said to be “over 400 tracks” — which is a lot more than just all the albums. Hopefully there’ll be more on this soon.
• The iTunes music store is now available in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, in addition to the UK, US, Germany and France. (No Ireland?)
• A iPod Photo for sharing your iPhoto library with friends and family who aren’t already sick of your photos. Price: $499US (40GB); $599US (60GB).
• Bono on CNBC, discussing the release: “Music and technology have always been neighbours. Today they moved into the same house.”

Update:Watch the video stream of the event.