The beat goes on: As you've probably heard, yesterday Apple unveiled new and refreshed iPod models, including a video-capable iPod nano, vastly increased storage in the iPod classic, new colors for the iPod shuffle, and the all-new iPod touch, which is kind of like an iPhone without the phone, as well as Mac-free downloading on iPhones and iPod touches via the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. But the biggest reactions today are to Steve Jobs's final tidbit: The 8GB iPhone saw a $200 price drop, now selling for $399, and the 4GB model was discontinued. (You can snatch up Apple's remaining stock of 4GB iPhones for $299.)

Reactions to that price drop have been loud, but also mixed. Some are understandably cranky at having to pay a $200 "early adopter fee," although others aren't as upset -- one blogger points out that if you bought your phone on Day 1, that works out to just $2.94 per day. (Not bad? Your call.) The stock price dropped 5 percent after the news (although it's still up 70 percent on the year), but analysts point out that quick price drops are common in the mobile phone industry. Blackfriars Marketing calls it "a shrewd marketing move," and even at the higher price, the iPhone outsold the BlackBerry, the Palm Treo, and other smartphones in July.

Guesses as to the reasons behind the drop are many. Business 2.0 collects 10 possible reasons, beyond Steve's expressed wish to "put iPhones in a lot of stockings this holiday season." If you bought an iPhone in the past 14 days, you should be able to get a refund of the price difference, and there have been unconfirmed reports of customers talking AT&T into awarding credits on their phone bills.

And here's USA Today's punchy Q&A with Steve Jobs. On the price cut: "That's what happens in technology." On whether the iPod touch will cannibalize the iPhone: "If anybody is going to cannibalize us, I want it to be us. I don't want it to be a competitor." And on the Beatles: "It will happen -- I hope by the first half of next year."

But enough about the iPhone -- what about the new iPods? The conventional wisdom is that the new lineup will cement Apple's dominance in the MP3 player market. Says Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg: "It's hard to see how anyone is going to take much ground away from [Apple] this holiday." (For example, Microsoft cut the price of the Zune by $50 this week, to just $199. "Nobody noticed," said Gartenberg.)

The iPod touch should attract as much attention from hackers as the iPhone has. Ars Technica discusses its capabilities, and Gizmodo quotes a source at Apple as saying the two devices "use the same damn binaries," so hopefully someone will figure out how to port the missing iPhone apps (minus the phone and voicemail, natch) to the iPod touch. Gizmodo also has a photo from Apple's official German website showing a Bluetooth icon on the iPod touch's display, for what that's worth. Apple Insider has photos from the event, CNET has a good hands-on, and you can find a stream of Steve Jobs's speech here. (And here's a theory: Apple could probably sell more Apple TVs if the devices could stream Steve's talks live. Good call.)

More quick hits on the new Apple stuff: What are we gonna call the newly designed nano? Analyst Shawn Wu likes "fatboy." Are the iTunes Store ringtones, the Starbucks deal, and the iPod touch bad news for AT&T? Will the iPod touch, er, touch off a lawsuit from High Tech Computer Corp, makers of the HTC Touch, an iPhone competitor? iTunes 7.4 is out, adding ringtone support, but it also deletes ringtones you already put on your iPhone. iLounge has a good tour of the iTunes updates.

Oh yeah, and there's some others news besides all this. Very quickly:

Apple is finally cool with the Dutch antitrust regulator. Stateside, the company has moved the iPhone-battery lawsuit to federal court.

Why can't Johnny have municipal Wi-Fi?

Apple is quietly pulling the iPod Hi-Fi from online stores.

Microsoft's Office for Mac team offers a sneak peek at Office 2008.

Google rumored to be working on a totally new "gPhone" mobile platform.

Apple Matters disagrees with Rick Rubin's claim that "The future of the industry is a subscription model...the iPod will be obsolete." (Yeah, tell that to Microsoft.)