Steve Jobs playing the Beatles. Just the thought of it made me think of the lyric on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album, in which John Lennon had to laugh while reading the news. Yet Mr. Jobs was right in front of my eyes -- playing a tune from the "Sgt. Pepper" album -- and showing off the cover of that same classic piece of vinyl.

At first, I thought it was an inside joke. After all, haven't the Beatles been at odds with Apple Computer for years over the rights to the Apple name for music? And haven't they been the most sought-after digital music holdouts?

The annual Steve Jobs keynote presentation at MacWorld, where this seemingly unusual event took place, has become the thing that legends are made of. In past years, he has used this event to herald earth-shattering products, like the original iPod.

This year, he said he had three great products to introduce -- an iPod, an Internet device and a phone -- but what he really meant was he had one great device to introduce, and that it would fit the bill when used as any one of the three types of devices. He calls it the iPhone. It's basically a cell phone with music player and Internet browser/e-mail software in a single, well designed package.

I was excited to hear about the device; but during the presentation, he did something that stopped my mind from wandering where it will go. He started to demonstrate the new iPhone's music capability using the Beatles' music and artwork.

Immediately, I started to anticipate yet another blockbuster announcement -- the possibility that he persuaded the Beatles to let him (and perhaps others) offer Beatles music by download. But that announcement didn't come. Instead, he continued to talk about his Beatles music, the album cover, and then other pieces from other artists, before heading onto other subjects.

I waited patiently -- still no blockbuster "Jobs' Apple persuades Beatles' Apple" announcement. With no word, I finally decided that he must have ripped the music from his own personal CD to play on his own iPhone, which would have been legal according to the fair use doctrine. But that would have meant he also would have had to scan the cover in manually -- and that would have taken work that I couldn't imagine him expecting most people to do.

Something didn't add up -- especially when he announced later in the presentation that Apple Computer would become Apple Inc. The Beatles had to be upset about that!

So either he's not letting on that he now has an agreement in place with the Fab Four; or he is so mad at them, he was simply thumbing his nose at them.

This week, I picked up a rumor in the blogosphere that Mr. Jobs did a deal with the Beatles in which the Beatles' remastered love songs album "Love" will hit Apple's iTunes music store on Feb. 14 -- Valentine's Day.

If it becomes official, Mr. Jobs will be giving us something inside that was denied for so many years -- Beatles music for our personal listening devices. Most Beatles fans will agree that any music service offering Beatles downloads would be fixing a hole in its music offering. If it doesn't happen, some fans will take advantage of the fair use doctrine to copy their Beatles CDs for their own use. Others will probably steal the music so they can play it digitally.

Until we know, we'll just hope that Mr. Jobs is gonna try with a little help from his friends to get us the Beatles music we want to hear.