So now that we're kindasorta back and everything, are we ever gonna cover something that isn't directly related to Apple's big digital music push? Well, yeah, of course... just not today. Because whatever technical glitches we've encountered with the iTunes Music Store and whatever nagging reservations still linger in our paranoid little skulls about Apple's digital rights management scheme ("Yeah, but what if someday the fate of the entire world rests entirely on our ability to burn that one playlist eleven times? Lives hang in the balance, people!"), the fact of the matter is, ultimately we think that iTunes 4's new integrated music purchasing system is the bee's knees. Possibly also said bee's shins and most of its ankle area. We complain about these little niggling problems merely because we care. That, and because we like to complain a lot.

That's not to say that Apple won't eventually smooth out most of the bigger wrinkles with its Big Honkin' Flatiron o' Love; as the service matures, we expect we'll only dig it more and more. For instance, right now the single biggest obstacle preventing us from firing up iTunes and incurring credit card debt so massive the banks would need to invent more numbers just to send us the bill is the store's selection. Granted, two hundred thousand songs is a whole lotta shakin' goin' on (although it sounds like less when you consider that you could buy every track the store offers and stash them all on a mere 27 iPods if you happened to have an extra $212 grand burning a hole in your pocket), but since 100% of that music stems entirely from major labels, there's an awful lot of great stuff on smaller and independent labels that's conspicuously absent.

But hopefully not for long. MacRumors reports that indie labels are chafing themselves silly to climb on the 99 cent download truck, and for good reason: getting their music out in front of every iTunes 4 user probably represents an audience increase of several orders of magnitude for lots of these folks, and that potential audience will balloon still more when Apple rolls out the Windows version of the iTunes Music Store by the end of this year, as El Stevo promised in Monday's hype session. Furthermore, Apple apparently has every intention of adding indie content in the future. MacRumors links to a TIME interview with Steve Jobs in which Fearless Leader comes right out and says that, yes, independent labels will be coming soon: "Now we're really going to have time to focus on a lot of the independents and that will be really great." (Incidentally, it's one heckuvan entertaining interview, as per Steve's usual; you just gotta love it when he rants that a prominent subscription-based digital music service "sucks." Twice.)

So if you're all over the iTunes Music Store experience but your tastes run more to lower-traffic stuff (like, say, Alkaline Trio and Jets To Brazil instead of *NSYNC and Christina Aguilera), be patient. And keep a little space reserved on that credit card.

Say, you know that Windows version of the iTunes Music Store which Steve promised by the end of the year? Well, there were already plenty of indications that it would eventually materialize in the form of a fully-fledged Windows port of iTunes 4; we're thinking primarily of the exclusive article in FORTUNE last Monday (which also revealed that Steve has trouble buying jeans that are the right size). Now, though, we can erase any doubt: there's hard proof of that fact straight from the horse's mouth-- provided an Apple job posting constitutes hard proof and you don't mind likening Apple's servers to the slightly less messy end of the equine alimentary canal.

What we're trying to say, in our own charmingly obfuscatory and vaguely disgusting manner, is that CNET reports the presence of a public job posting at Apple's site which describes the company's need for "a Senior Software Engineer to design and build Apple's newest Consumer Application, iTunes for Windows." So there you have it, ladles and germs-- one of Apple's cornerstone iApps is indeed making the big move to the Dark Side. What happened to the whole idea of enticing Windows users to switch to Macs just to use all the nifty, free, and Mac-only digital hub software?

What we're trying to suss out is just how supporting Windows with its digital music products and services is ultimately expected to benefit Apple. We doubt it's strictly about direct sales revenue, since iPods and music purchases can't contribute that much to Apple's bottom line. When the iPod became available in a Windows version, we suspected that Apple's strategy was a sort of Trojan horse thingy; hook the Windows users with an appliance so well-crafted and life-changing that they couldn't help but consider making the move to a Mac the next time they were in the market for a new computer. After all, Macs also had the benefit of seamless integration with the iPod via iTunes, whereas the 'Pod was not exercising its full coolness potential with MusicMatch under Windows.

It's kind of plausible, right? But the Mac advantage (for consumer music, anyway) goes right out the window once Apple brings iTunes to Windows, and Windows-using music buffs will have no incentive whatsoever to make the jump to a Mac. Unless, of course, Apple makes iTunes for Windows somehow less desirable than the Mac version. The company could, for example, charge for iTunes for Windows while keeping the Mac version free. Or iTunes for Windows could lack certain features, like album art and Smart Playlists. Or the Windows version could insert clicks, pops, and loud, violent retching sounds randomly into the audio stream as any song is played. Why, the possibilities are endless!

Holy jumpin' catfish, people, we just heard some great news! It seems that, in addition to racking up umpteen awards and rave reviews from everyone and their grandmothers over the past year and a half, the iPod has now just been named American Idol! Take that, Kimberley Locke! Mmmuuaaahahahahaha!!

Oh, wait a sec... we misread. The iPod was actually named as an American Icon by Rolling Stone magazine, and this designation appears to have little if any connection to American Idol. Sorry about that. And, uh, best wishes, Kimberley. We didn't mean anything by it, we swear. (If you win, can we have an autographed photo? Just make it out to "eBay.")

Now, as for this "American Icon" label, on some level we're certainly not surprised. In many ways, the iPod is clearly iconic; it's almost as archetypal and visible today as the original iMac was four years ago, and it's completely upended and reshaped the concept of portable music as we know it. (Who says we couldn't be bombastic rock journalists if we wanted to?) On the other hand, though, have you seen the kind of company with whom the iPod is apparently rubbing elbows these days?

According to Rolling Stone, the iPod ranks right up there in iconicity with such heavy-hitting major arcana as The Dead Rock Star and The Blonde Bombshell. It's splitting a pizza with Elvis, Dylan, and The Boss and getting plastered at Moe's with Homer Simpson. This is pretty heady stuff, and a high honor-- albeit one that the iPod surely deserves. Congrats, iPod, on what may be your highest honor since Religion Monthly's last ranking of the Earthbound Divine listed you as tied for first place with the Pope.

But it still ain't like winning on American Idol.