Lots of goodies announced Apple’s keynote event. Below are some of main offerings presented today:

New iPhones

First off, they announced two new versions of the iPhone: the iPhone 6 which has a 4.7 inch screen, and the iPhone Plus which sports a 5.5 inch screen. Both phones will be available in 16mb, 64mb and 128mb. What I found especially interesting, is according to Tim Cook, the iPhone 6 Plus will have 80 hours of battery life (that’s playing music). Pretty amazing. Pricing for the iPhone 6 starts at 299/399/499 for 16/64/128GB and the iPhone 6 Plus starts at $199/299/399 for 16/64/128GB. Both phones will be available on September 15. Be sure to check out Apple’s updated iPhone page for more information.

ApplePay

Next, Apple announced ApplePay, which will allow you to pay for your purchases directly from your phone with only one touch. During the keynote, Apple played a video showing a customer holding the phone up to register and scanning fingerprint, an example of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor technology. ApplePay will be built into the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Thus far, ApplePay will be available at over 220,000 stores.

AppleWatch

Then, Apple introduced a brand new product: The AppleWatch! Now this is not simply a tiny version of the iPhone but rather the AppleWatch is an entirely new – and drool-worthy – product. The feature list for this impressive new device is too extensive to go into here but it is worth mentioning that the AppleWatch will support ApplePay as well – so you can pay for your purchases using only your watch. Cool, hey? Siri will also be incorporated into the AppleWatch so everyone can act like James Bond and talk to their wrist. Until it’s release in early 2015, you can check out the AppleWatch page on Apple’s site. I wonder when preorders start?

…and a free album

The musical guest for the event was U2 and as a special treat, the band made an agreement with Apple to offer their latest Album – Songs of Innocence to *all iTunes customers for free! Yes, the entire album. To download the album, open iTunes and click on your purchased link. Don’t wait too long however because it will only be around until the end of October.

So new iPhones, ApplePay, AppleWatch and more. To see what else Apple showed off during today’s event, head on over to Apple’s Web Site to replay the keynote.

Oh – and a reminder for music fans: don’t forget that the Apple iTunes Festival is going on through the entire month of September.  More information HERE.

The iTunes Festival in London is back for its 8th year with another stunning line-up of world class performers. Sponsored by Apple, this music concert series begins September 1st and runs for the entire month. This years Festival will feature over 60 acts throughout the month at the legendary Roundhouse in London.

You don’t have to be in the UK however, to enjoy the series. You can stream the shows both live or afterwards for a limited time: via the iTunes Store on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or computer.

To view the schedule and this year’s lineup, visit the iTunes Store.

When sending an e-mail though Apple Mail (also called mail.app), you can choose to send it in either Rich Text (which is the default) or in Plain Text format. Sending your messages as rich text formats the message in HTML format (hyptertext markup language) which allows your recipient to see formatting such as bold, italic, numbered lists, bulleted lists and more. The font settings you specify are sent along with your e-mail so conceivably, your recipent should see the same formatting on his or her end. Some older text only based mail programs might have difficulty displaying HTML formatting.

Sending a message as plain text removes all formatting from the message. In Apple’s Mail application, you can set either Rich Text or Plain Text as the default for all messages sent. If you know your recipient cannot receive HTML messages or need to send a message in plain text format for whatever reason, you can change the format on a message by message basis.

Quick Guide: Set the Default Format for E-mail Messages

1. Choose Mail > Preferences from the Apple Mail menu to display the Mail Preferences dialog box.
2. Click the Composing icon on top of the dialog box.
3. Click the Message Format drop-down list, and choose either Rich Text or Plain Text.
   
4. Click the close button on the window.

Quick Guide: Specify E-mail Format on a Case by Base Basis

1. Click the Compose New Message icon on the Mail’s toolbar or choose File > New Message from the menu or use the ⌘ + N keyboard shortcut.
2. Click Format > Make Plain Text from the menu (or Make Rich Text if the default format is set to Plain Text in System Preferences).
   Or
   Press the ⇧+ ⌘ + T keystroke combination to switch to Plain Text or Rich Text.