Apple unveils new iPod\nSAN JOSE, Calif. -- Apple Computer Inc. introduced a new larger-capacity iPod last week with a color display as well as a first-of-its-kind digital compendium of the rock band U2's songs. U2's lead singer Bono and guitarist The Edge joined Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on stage in a newly renovated 1920s era theater in San Jose to unveil the new products. Apple's latest effort to maintain supremacy in the portable audio player market and the online music business also includes a new special edition U2 iPod. Analysts expect the Apple-U2 partnership to be the first of many to come between artists and music product providers. \nThe digital album set featuring 400-plus U2 recordings will be available for $149 at the iTunes online music store in late November. The package "blazes a new trail, and creates a new distribution channel for artists," said Tim Bajarin, analyst at Creative Strategies. \nMany anticipated that Apple would introduce multimedia capabilities for its popular line of music players, but Jobs stood by his belief Tuesday that it wasn't the right time to include video playback. The new iPod Photo has a color screen that can display photos and slide shows accompanied by music. \nThe 60-gigabyte model can hold 25,000 photos, costs $599, and is available now. A 40-gigabyte model costs $499. The special edition U2 iPod is a 20-gigabyte iPod that's encased in black with a red click wheel instead of being all white. It will cost $349 and will be available in November. U2 was among the first artists to endorse Apple when it introduced the groundbreaking iTunes store that helped jumpstart the legal music download market.
Genetic engineers might save cats from allergies\nThe biotechnology revolution is shaking up the pet world. First came a cloned cat. Then came the fish genetically engineered to glow. Now, a Los Angeles company is exploiting the latest in biotechnology to create cats genetically engineered to be nearly free from the allergy-causing proteins that plague millions of people. \nAllerca Inc. President Simon Brodie said by 2007 the company will use RNA interference to "silence" a gene in cats that produces the irritant, which is excreted through saliva and the skin. Scientists researching everything from cancer to crops are using RNA interference to silence genes to create drugs, gene-searching tools and even a new way of decaffeinating coffee. Now Brodie hopes to bring that same promise to the cat world and eliminate the need for allergic cat lovers to receive symptom-reducing shots while encouraging others put off by the allergy to buy a pet for the first time. \nThe company is now accepting $350 deposits for the British Short Hair breed of cats it plans to charge $3,500 a piece for in the United States and $10,000 each in Japan. Brodie said he hoped to ultimately sell about 200,000 of the genetically engineered cats a year. The four-person company has yet to engineer any cats, which will be spayed and neutered to prevent breeding with naturally born felines. Neither the Department of Agriculture nor the Food and Drug Administration stepped into regulate the Florida-bred GloFish -- a common zebra fish that has been implanted with a fluorescent sea anemone gene -- because it wasn't meant for human consumption.
