New and Noteworthy: Indies added to iTunes Europe; AirPort Express review; Birth of the iPod

Indie labels added to European iTunes Music Store In a press release Wednesday, Apple annouced that it has reached agreements with three of the largest independent European music labels, Beggars Group, Sanctuary Records Group and V2, "adding tens of thousands of additional independent tracks from leading artists to the iTunes® Music Store in the UK, France and Germany. With three of the most influential independent record labels on board, iTunes Music Store customers in Europe now have access to an impressive catalog of independent artists including Basement Jaxx, The Crystal Method, Interpol, The Libertines, Morrissey, the Pixies, Prodigy, Stereophonics, Paul Weller and The White Stripes." More.

ArsTechnica reviews AirPort Express ArsTechnica has posted their (as usual, very thorough) review of Apple's new AirPort Express: "For a piece of hardware that performs so many functions, it actually does them all fairly well." More.

Birth of the iPod Wired News provides an "inside look at the birth of the iPod" by talking to one of the people involved from the start, Ben Knauss: "'Tony [Fadell's] idea was to take an MP3 player, build a Napster music sale service to complement it, and build a company around it,' Knauss said...Fadell left Philips and set himself up as an independent contractor to shop the idea around. Knauss said Fadell approached several companies and was turned away by all of them, except for Apple." More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• HP printer drivers and slowdowns under Mac OS X 10.x
• iPod Updater issues
• Safari: AutoFill can contribute to delays
• Odds and Ends: New iPods' "lower prices" come at a cost; TechTool Pro eDrive correction; Knowledge Base updates
• Utilities Updates: Temperature Monitor; Hardware Monitor; Picture Rescue; Menu Calendar
• New and Noteworthy: IBM still recovering from 90nm; iPod undermining Microsoft; iPod mini still in short supply

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