So. New iPods. If you use an iPod, you’ve gotta use iTunes. They’re inseparable. Like love and marriage. Horse and carriage. Bread and butter. Tea and crumpets. Peas and carrots. Peanut butter and jelly. Milk and cookies. Windows and malware. Death and taxes (and we sure know about taxes here in Maine).

Speaking of taxes (and trying not to stray too far from the subject at hand), this week at Apple’s special event those of us who stood in line, braving the sweltering Cooks Corner heat back on June 29th in order to be the first on our blocks to brandish iPhones, learned that we’ve paid an early adopter tax. We’ll call it “EAT”, like the “Value Added Tax” (VAT) in Europe.

How much was our “EAT”? $200 US. That’s right, this week Apple dropped the price of the 8 GB iPhone $200, down to $399, and dropped the 4 GB model altogether.

I figured it out. As of Wednesday of this week that’s 69 days I’ve had my iPhone, so I’ve paid $2.90 per day for the privilege of multi-touch my way around the country. And you know, it’s been worth every penny.

Back to iTunes. There’s a new version out (7.4) that boasts some new features. Obviously, support for the new iPods. iPhone users get some perks too, as the new version of iTunes (and the iTunes Store) lets you create custom ringtones with a built-in ringtone editor. They’re not free. They’re 99 cents, plus the song purchase price (which you get credit for if you already bought the song). So, at under two dollars they’re still much cheaper than the massive rip-offs you see on TV, and you get the entire song as well as the tone.

Later this month, users of the iPhone and the Wi-Fi-equipped iPod touch will be able to purchase and download music “on the road” (well, if the road has a Wi-Fi connection) from the new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. When you get off the road, the next time you dock your iPhone or iPod touch to your computer, iTunes will see the new music and import it into your iTunes library.

If your road takes you near a Starbucks (and what road doesn’t?), your iPhone or iPod touch will sense the Wi-Fi emanating from that Starbucks and help you buy whatever music is playing there, or in the Starbucks catalog. Big deal, I know, but their Pumpkin Spice Latte is, in a word, “scrumtrilescent”.