For a pretty long time - almost two months now, one of the iPhone 3G problems that wasn't really up to the design, the components or the handling of the device by the user, and not even up to the service provider, the lack of enough phones to sell, seems to approach its last hour. Rest in peace, iPhone 3G shortage. Amen!

Considering how things started, and the incredible manufacturing rate reached by Foxconn - no less than 800,000 iPhones per week(!!!), it was expected for supply to catch up with demand, and now it seems that moment has finally arrived, although people had to wait up to 8 hours or more to get one so far, and only when they were lucky enough to find a store with enough iPhone 3Gs available...<-125x125 Button - right->

According to analyst Ben Reitzes of Lehman Brothers, all US Apple retail stores are currently fully loaded with 16 GB iPhones, while the 8 GB model has a 99 percent availability! "We have seen a major improvement in iPhone availability in the US throughout August. It appears as though supply has met demand entering September (as expected)," he said.

The most interesting part in Reitzes' report is the opinion that Apple needs to lower the price of the iPod Touch seriously, if they don't want the iPhone 3G to kill it. I fully agree with that, and I am also eager to see the new iPods, Macs, and all that may come from Apple next month!

As you surely managed to notice, I am not into Mac OS X software much, especially because things look quite different here, when comparing them to the Windows platform. In Windows, for most tasks, you get at least 4-5 outstanding programs, a bunch of excellent ones, and entire hordes of good, decent, and lower-class applications, but - obviously - it depends on the task. When talking about text editing, there are a lot of programs worth your money, or only your time - UltraEdit, Notepad++, PSPad, or EditPlus. Those were programs for Windows, as I said, but if we talk about Mac text editing, there's the basic and free Smultron I used to play with some time ago, some other ones, and the almighty BBEdit, our today's topic!

Above anything else, do you know what I like most about BBEdit? Its slogan "It doesn’t suck.®" is simply brilliant, in my opinion. Originally developed for Macintosh System Software 6 by Bare Bones Software, BBEdit is now the favorite tool of most software developers and Web designers working with Macs.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right-> Why? Well, this software is not a word processor, so text formatting and page layout features get out of question, but comes with native support for many programming languages, and power users can easily create custom modules to support syntax highlighting of any language.

This new version, 9.0, is a major update, coming with a lot of fixes and improvements, for example the nnew text-completion feature, improved search capabilities, the new Scratchpad feature that gives an extra place to throw temporary notes, the Projects feature, replacing the old File Groups one, and many more.

Unfortunately, BBEdit's problem is that, like most outstanding Mac OS X software, it doesn't come cheap - the full license is $129, while upgrades from any previous version cost $30; at least those who purchased BBEdit 8.5 to 8.7 on or after the 1st of January, 2008, are eligible to receive a free upgrade...

Every time I see music for sale as individual MP3 tracks, something makes me scream. Just a scream of anger, nothing to tell you about, apart from the reason. Why in the world pay about $10 for the tracks of a album, when you can get the CD for less than 2 times more? I don't have to add anything about the huge difference in sound quality, and the fact that you also get a nice package to keep around, and rip for any media player you own as you wish, instead of messing with those DRM-protected tracks...

I don't want to see iTunes disappearing from the market, since I don't have anything against it, as long as there's the CD alternative, but when I see opinions saying that album sales can bring higher profits than online music sales, something makes me think those guys missed their math and logic classes!

According to The Wall Street Journal, record labels have a problem with $0.99 audio tracks sold on iTunes:

"Apple isn’t willing to sell songs for more than 99 cents. Most record labels see higher prices as critical to increasing revenue. But no other online music store has been able to mount a serious challenge to iTunes.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right-> Apple keeps about 30% of the price of each music sale, whether it’s a 99-cent track or a $10 album, according to people in the music industry. Apple has said it makes little profit from iTunes because of the costs of running the online store.

Irving Azoff, the manager of numerous high-profile acts including the Eagles, says that a few years ago he presented the band with a financial analysis showing that their royalties to date from iTunes sales were far lower than anyone expected."

So...30% out of $0.99 would be about $0.33, leaving a profit of $0.66. A band could simply record an album, release 1000 CDs, and then put the tracks for sale on iTunes. Anyway, concerts bring a lot of money for most bands, and once you start selling CDs, what's the cost of placing the tracks on iTunes? No cost!

Here's a part that's extremely funny - "Shunning iTunes carries risks for the labels. Not only is it the biggest force in music sales, but keeping songs off the service could prompt listeners to look for illegal downloads instead. In addition, customers have demonstrated a clear preference for buying singles instead of entire albums. Only in a few cases have record labels been able to boost album sales over those of individual songs."

I always considered buying full albums, and win singles during various contests/promotions...but since I am one of my kind, as it seems from the WSJ article, I ask for your help - what do you think about this whole deal?

One last thing - if you wondered about the picture with AC/DC, here's the answer to that question - AC/DC is one of those bands that didn't license a single song to iTunes. If you're into their music, or "if you would be into their music," what would you do when next album comes up? Look for it on Pirate Bay or another illegal source, or simply buy the CD?

Do you remember the X-Files? If you're not too young, you must remember it. Even those not into Sci-Fi movies heard of it, just as I keep hearing of Lost or Desperate Housewives, although I am not watching them at all. While X-Files is about a lot of unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena, while the "i-Files" I have in mind would be simply a gathering of Apple secret stuff, as well as publicly available information, such as lawsuits filed against various other companies. Interesting enough?

Now, you don't have to worry, because I won't get that deep into Apple's legal battles, because that would take ages. Anyway, while the recent clone wars are showing Apple as a company trying to hang to some of its rather communist Terms of Service, and lawsuits like the one against the AirPOD are rather hilarious, as long as you're not the one being targeted, <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->there's more to the "i-Files" now, that companies producing software for the iPhone and marketing it through the App Store starting hitting a concrete wall...

I want to believe that Apple is the greatest company in the world, with a flawless attitude towards competitors, developers, employees, and clients, but it seems the truth is out there, and it proves to be a bit different. How different? Well, I am not going to talk about the applications kicked out of the App Store, either! ;)

Here's the story - programmers were bound not to discuss the process of creating software for the iPhone, and this is nothing out of ordinary. The problem is that, usually, such restrictions are lifted once the product in question hits the market, but Apple didn't do it. No explanations given, either, so probably you won't get your hands on any "iPhone programming guide" anytime soon...

As a iPhone developer, you should mind what you say on the Apple official support website, and you are also prohibited of asking questions and sharing tips in public. If you thought China's dictatorship looks bad, welcome to the "dictatorship of the Apple!"

Everyone in the business is saying this approach is stifling innovation, but Apple seems to be deaf so far. Let's hope they'll start hearing those helping them earn mountains of money through the Apple store and step into a "software democracy," as I see it normal. After all, they'll have Psystar's followers available for legal battles, so the "i-Files" won't ever remain without new content...

As far as I know, lies have no color. They don't have any smell either, as long as you're not going to hide a dead cat in the closet and claim it's nothing there, but we're not going to talk about dead cats today, obviously, since cats have nothing to do with Apple, as long as they aren't going to eat your iPod Shuffle or scratch the brand new 24-inch iMac you got last week! Well, today lies seem to have a color - it's Orange!

Why Orange? You probably know that Orange is a mobile carrier with a very large market share across Europe, selling the iPhone in countries like France, Poland, or Romania. So far, so good, but they are not the most honest company I heard of so far... One of the reasons for that Orange France just admitted capping 3G speeds <-250x250 Square - right->without announcing its customers first, and it's obvious this wouldn't have happened if they wouldn't have been pushed to the wall by angry iPhone users paying for a certain data bandwidth, and being provided less.

Leaving France behind, we go to Poland. What's up with Poland? Well, they just got the iPhone 3G last week, and Orange thought some fake queues could help increase sales. Unfortunately, there were only reports from people close to the carrier, but no official statement (not that you'd expect to see any official confirmation of such a fact!). No, no, let's change that - "no official statement so far!"

Responding to queries coming from Ad Age, a Polish Orange official said sales are strong, and everyone is happy, and that "As part of the excitement around the launch of the iPhone, some of our team have been joining customers outside our shops. Their aim is to welcome people to the Orange shop, share in their excitement and give information about Orange tariffs."

Sure, I got that! Wait...is that a pig flying by my window? It seems so... even more, it's an Orange one!