Knew it would be soon, but am still caught by surprise.

Apple’s released iTunes 7.5 and Quicktime 7.3, which are mainly for minor fixes, and addresses security issues, as well as introduces better iPhone support, and is good for Mac and Windows. (Although only the specific Tiger version of the new Quicktime has been available so far, according to some reports.)

The new iTunes has a new game for specific iPod models. Version 7.5

features the ability to activate iPhone wherever service is offered and support for Phase, a new interactive music game designed exclusively for iPod nano (third generation), iPod classic, and iPod (fifth generation). This release also includes bug fixes to improve stability and performance.”

Get iTunes here and Quicktime here, or alternately, just use Software Update. On Windows, just manually update the apps.

(No word yet if the new iTunes will mess up jailbroken and unlocked iPhones - anyone who tries, please chime in so we all know?)

A 13-minute short film by director Wes Anderson called The Hotel Chevalier is now up for free on the iTunes Store, starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman. It’s supposed to be a prologue/companion piece to Anderson’s forthcoming film The Darjeeling Limited.

Nice the things you find on iTunes, although Portman fans are specially excited about this one because it marks the first time on film Natalie shows up in her birthday suit, wearing nothing but bruises.

Download it here.

(Hmm. So let’s see you not click on the link now.)

Blizzard has always been a game software company near and dear to the hearts of Mac users everywhere. This is because of Blizzard’s insistence on simultaneous release of their games on both Windows and Macs. Well, we got more reason to heart Blizzard now.

In the beta of the forthcoming release of Ver. 2.2 of World of Warcraft, Mac users can now record in-game videos using Quicktime using the H.264 codec, with selectable resolution and frame rates. Vid-cap your red-eye quests and post them on YouTube! Aside from numerous fixes, the beta version also optimizes graphics performance on Macs with Altivec (PPC) or SSE (Intel) systems.

Not all Macs can smoothly record caps, however, as the requirements are a bit hefty. You’ll also need Quicktime 7.1.6 running on OS X 10.4.9.

The beta still isn’t available to the general public yet, and is only for beta testers running in the Public Test Realms of WoW. Not to worry, it’s expected to be released soon.

Fire up Software Update!

Apple’s released iTunes 7.3.1, which, in Apple’s usual detailed and thorough notes, “addresses a minor problem with iTunes 7.3 accessing the iTunes Library”, while also issuing Quicktime 7.2, which “addresses critical security issues” and has “numerous bug fixes”. The Quicktime update also does something for the H.264 codec and adds support for full-screen viewing in the Quicktime Player.

While relatively minor fixes, the things are hefty: on my Windows machine the Quicktime update weighs in at 24.36MB and the iTunes update at 56.80MB; on my Macs QT was 53MB and iTunes at 34MB.

More helpful details (no, really) on the Quicktime update here.