Finally … remastered versions of the Beatles’ albums are going to be released on September 9th. The original CDs were pretty good but there were some errors made, especially on the first four albums, and remastering technology has advanced significantly in the 20 or so years since those CDs were released.

There will be the 12 original albums (proper British versions) in stereo, Magical Mystery Tour and Past Masters 1&2 combined into a single release – buy them separately or as a boxed set with a bonus DVD documentary (no word on what that will consist of yet); no bonus tracks. Also available on that date will be a box containing the mono mixes of 10 of their albums along with two discs of bonus tracks – presumably mixes from singles and B-sides.

Still no decision on putting the stuff on iTunes or other online digital stores.

Couple of other quick things that caught my eye today ….

TechCrunch has this piece on Facebook’s struggles to keep up with user demand. The guess is that their electricity bill every month is US$1 million, another $500,000 per month on bandwidth. Users are now uploading 850 million photos every month so they’re also spending like crazy on storage.

Over at Content Agenda, results of a survey in the US say that 90% of consumers think they should be able to back up their DVD to a hard disk or copy the movie onto a portable device. Now here’s the kicker – 40% of consumers say they would buy more DVDs if they could make back-ups. And 51% say they don’t want to pay for those deluxe editions that include a second disk with a “digital copy.” The studios need to wake up to the facts.

Simon and Garfunkel are reuniting again and touring again, kicking off in Australia and New Zealand in June. Any chance they’ll get to Hong Kong or Macau?

Latest inductions to the R&R Hall of Fame last night, and for the first time, tix for the proceedings were on sale to the public. Bobby Womack, Run-DMC, Wanda Jackson, Jeff Beck, Metallica, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Bill Black, DJ Fontana and Spooner Oldham. It took this long for Beck to make it in on his own?

Stupid blogger #4,587: X-Men Origins: Wolverine got uploaded to the internet a month early. It’s distributed by Fox. Fox News entertainment reporter and blogger Roger Friedman wrote a blog entry reviewing the illegally distributed workprint. I suppose he thought that wasn’t a bad idea as long as he gave it a good review. “Right now, my ‘cousins’ at 20th Century Fox are probably having apoplexy…. But everyone can relax. I am, in fact, amazed about how great Wolverine turned out. It exceeds expectations at every turn. I was completely riveted to my desk chair in front of my computer.” He thought wrong. Or did he?

(I’ve watched it. I didn’t write a review because I don’t think it’s fair to publicly review a work-in-progress. Just like over the weekend my gf and I went to a new restaurant in town and I was supposed to write a review but the owner told me they hadn’t had their official opening yet and were still trying to iron out some issues with suppliers, so I didn’t write it. The guy clearly is putting his heart into this place and good or bad, now ain’t the time.)