LG holds iMac-suitable touchscreen; new iTunes plus hints

One of the companies who supplies display panels for the iMac line is said to have a touch-screen version ready for Apple's picking. Meanwhile, iTunes shoppers have discovered hints that the company may be preparing to broaden its iTunes Plus service with more DRM-free tracks.

Touchscreen iMac display

LG recently opened the doors of one of its factories to gadget publication Stuff.tv, a move that revealed the electronics maker to be working on "full multitouch display for computers."

Seeing as LG supplies displays for the iMac, Stuff speculates that the discovery "actually points to something far bigger – a multitouch Mac."

The report is mostly speculative, however, and provides no evidence to suggest that Apple holds any near term plans to use the part, though it's said that the touch-screen display appears to be ready for production.

Despite the appearance of a related job posting and some patents covering full-sized multi-touch devices, Apple has largely relegated the concept of touch-screen Macs to a "research project."

During a question and answer session last year, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs noted that multi-touch technology is nicely suited for the iPhone but said he was "not sure it makes sense" on the Mac.

More iTunes Plus tracks arriving

Meanwhile, a couple of readers this weekend noted some strange happenings on iTunes Store. Specifically, they claim that a handful of tracks from record labels Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner appeared briefly as tracks upgradable to iTunes Plus format.

Of the four major record labels, only EMI has announced support for the DRM-free iTunes format. However, recent reports have suggested that Apple is currently in talks with the remaining three labels over offering their catalogs through iTunes Plus in the near future.

In particular, readers claim that tracks from 3 Doors Down, Nine Inch Nails, and Neil Young were briefly available for upgrade to iTunes Plus. Although AppleInsider could not reproduce the majority of those findings on Monday morning, it did discover that a handful of Neil Young tracks (Warner) show up as iTunes Plus tracks through the iTunes search function (but not on their respective album pages).