U2 earned its sixth number one album on the U.S. pop charts Wednesday as its new release, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, sold almost twice as many copies in its first week as 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind. 

According to Nielsen soundscan, the new U2 moved 840,000 copies in the Thanksgiving holiday week that ended November 28. The relentless iPod advertising campaign paid off; their previous disc, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, entered in November 2000 on sales of 428,000 copies (it has sold 4.2 million in the U.S. since then). 

U2 crushed Eminem’s Encore across the globe; Slim Shady dropped to two with 471,000 copies and was also knocked off the top of the U.K. charts on Sunday.

The band did see the presence of “Vertigo” slip slightly; the track spent four weeks atop Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks list (based on radio airplay), before settling to its current position at three. 

In the latest issue of Hot Press, Bono responded to the charge that’s been leveled in certain newspapers that the Apple deal represents some kind of sell-out.

“Selling-out? Try using that word on 50 Cent or Jay Z or Russell Simmons,” he told Dave Fanning. “This is such a white bread concept. Selling-out means doing something naff – or that you don’t believe in – for money. It’s embarrassing your fans for cash – and I hope we never do that. How cool is the iPod? It’s a beautiful piece of technology. How cool is the commercial we’ve made with Apple? 

“There’s part of me that likes a bit of a row,” he added. “I loved turning a TV ad into a video and waiting to see if it started a kerfuffle.”