Interscope Chairman Jimmy Iovine wants to get the iPod generation hooked on high-quality sound. Photo: Beats by Dr. Dre.

The camera crew is setting up for our interview, and Jimmy Iovine wants me to listen to something on his iPod.

The chairman of Universal Music Group’s Interscope Geffen A&M Records is holding forth about how great his Beats Solo headphones sound; and as the overlord of a music empire that includes Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Eminem, and U2, he should know. He hands them to me and nudges the volume higher. The music thumps through, all rich bass and clear vocals.

“These sound pretty amazing,” I tell him, which is a bit like telling Frank Lloyd Wright he has decent taste in houses. Iovine takes this personally; he developed them alongside legendary hip-hop producer Dr. Dre.

The headphones are just one part of an audiophile movement Iovine and Dre are trying to spark in the under-30 crowd, the core music-buying audience. The Internet and digital revolution have greatly increased music’s availability — you can download it, stream it, and take it practically anywhere — but at the expense of quality. Says Iovine: “The sound has been degraded to such an extent that it’s, at times, not even representative of what went on in the recording studio.” He points out that the youngest music buyers, many of whom have never heard an LP, don't know what they're missing. More

The standout new feature in iTunes 8 is Genius, which builds music playlists based on the listening habits of the iTunes community. Image: Apple

It took me a while to get around to it, but I've finally downloaded the iTunes 8 update, and played around a bit with the Genius song recommendation feature. After a test drive, I've decided it's the best thing Apple has (AAPL) added to its music management suite in quite a while.

Genius solves my "iTunes laziness" problem. I've got 4,000 items in my library, I listen to genres as diverse as gospel, alternative and hip-hop, to and I'm too lazy to make good playlists out of it all. I used to count on the Party Shuffle feature to save me, but got tired of how it would end up throwing in random Christmas carols at the wrong times of year. More

Dell's first "iPod killer," the Dell Digital Jukebox, was discontinued in 2006 …

… while Apple's iPods continue to dominate the MP3 player market with a 70 percent share. Photos: Dell, Jon Fortt

From: Jon Fortt

To: Michael Dell

Subject: Taking down the iPod

Dear Michael,

You might remember our recent chat at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference, when you shared with me a theme you've sounded before: "I think the sign of a great company is that it can kind of learn from its mistakes," you said, "and go on to greater heights."

You were talking about Dell's (DELL) PC business, where you've tweaked the direct sales strategy in response to a changing market. But you could just as easily have been referring to your company's tentative plans to release another MP3 player this fall to compete with Apple's (AAPL) iPod. I think if you follow your own observation, you'll delay the product launch. Dell's not ready to make this mistake again. More

By Jon Fortt and Michal Lev-Ram

Will Apple give up some control over the iPhone in order to court corporate customers?

That’s one of the juiciest questions surrounding a gathering on Apple's (AAPL) campus Thursday, where CEO Steve Jobs has promised to open up the iPhone's software secrets to the world for the first time. Apple’s invitation to the event also hinted at new business-friendly features for the device, and Silicon Valley is abuzz about what that could mean. Will the BlackBerry-toting masses be able to trade in the company smartphone for an iPhone? More

Image: Apple

Can Apple regain its status as a Wall Street darling?

So far 2008 has not been kind to the technology trendsetter. With U.S. iPod sales slowing and iPhone hype fading, investors have been seized by worries that the crew in Cupertino isn’t much of a growth story anymore. The stock has fallen 40 percent from its recent highs, losing some $50 billion in market value –and it isn’t clear what could turn things around.

It does seem certain that major relief won’t come from Apple’s (AAPL) newest products. This week's update of the MacBook laptop line adds speed and memory, but no breathtaking design touches. The super-slim but pricey MacBook Air laptop that CEO Steve Jobs unveiled in January has met with mixed reviews, and won’t provide enough of a boost to make up for the iPod slowdown. And Apple TV, the second incarnation of Apple’s failed attempt to bring digital downloads to the television, doesn’t seem to be attracting an iPod-like following either; on Amazon (AMZN), it’s about as popular as a niche backup hard drive.

So where will Apple go for a sales boost to lift its stock? Perhaps overseas.

Even as U.S. tech spending slows, the market for high-tech gear and the opportunity for Apple to grow, is rapidly expanding in Europe and Asia. To wit: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd noted last week that emerging markets accounted for nearly half of the industry’s PC shipments at the end of 2007, and well over half of the growth. More

Apple executives are fond of talking about seven years ago, the last time Wall Street seriously underestimated the company. Faced with an economic slowdown that saw his tech industry peers slashing staff and cutting projects, CEO Steve Jobs proclaimed that he and the rest of Apple would instead “innovate our way” out of the slump.

Jobs made good on that promise. Soon after, Apple (AAPL) unveiled the iTunes Store, the iPod took off, and … well, the rest is history.

This week, you can bet the true believers around Apple’s Cupertino headquarters are thinking back to 2001, while loading up on some suddenly discounted shares. Talk about an after-Christmas bargain: Apple stock is trading at about $140, 30 percent off its December 28 high of $202.96. That’s about the same place where Wall Street valued the stock six months ago, before it became clear that the new iPhone would sell nearly 4 million units in 200 days. More

Apple reported earnings that beat analyst estimates on strong sales of iMacs, laptops and iPhones. But its cautious outlook led investors to slam the stock Wednesday morning, and take much of the Nasdaq down with it.

Why? More

Last year's iPhone introduction was an A+, with a beyond-cool gadget, new software and new services. So how did Apple (AAPL) score this year with its Macworld presentations? A slim laptop with Intel (INTC) inside won bonus points, but aside from that, CEO Steve Jobs had to rely on his top-notch presentation skills. This is how we graded his keynote announcements: More

Flash-based laptops? Suped-up iPhones? The wait is over for Apple's biggest announcements of the year.

The crowd at Macworld 2008 settles in for the Steve Jobs keynote. Photo: Jon Fortt

SAN FRANCISCO — The keynote has begun. There's a Mac vs. PC commercial showing. PC is talking about what a bad year 2007 was, with all of Apple's announcements including the iPhone. PC says 2008, though, will be a great year. "What are you going to do?" Mac asks. "I'm just going to copy everything you did in 2007."

Steve Jobs walks onstage from the left. More

The Wallet MP3 is only slightly thicker than a credit card, and it plugs directly into a PC. Image: Jon Fortt

LAS VEGAS – At the Consumer Electronics Show, you often find those geeky product gems tucked away in a little booth away from the action. That’s where I spotted the Wallet MP3.

It’s an MP3 player the size of a credit card, complete with a USB connector that plugs into a computer. (It actually works; I tried it.) Walletex, the Israeli company that makes them, says the card gets five hours of battery life and charges via USB in 90 minutes. It holds 2 gigabytes worth of music, twice as much as Apple's (AAPL) iPod shuffle.

Why would you want an MP3 player the size of a credit card? If you have to ask, you lack geek cred. It’s cool because it’s weird. Good luck getting your hands on one, though; Walletex doesn’t do retail. They sell these, and identical card-size storage drives, to businesses that want to offer snazzy giveaways to their clients.