I don't know about you, but I don't miss the Blue Screen Of Death at all. No, I didn't switch to Mac OS X or Linux, although I am using both of them from time to time. Since I started using Windows XP, I only saw the BSOD two or three times, and each time it was about some nasty drivers (that I installed without paying attention to what I am doing), or hardware with problems (last time, it was a damaged memory module, and it wasn't even one of my computers). Now, a new wave of BSODs is coming, but it won't catch me, since I am not using the deadly combination!

What deadly combination? The answer is very simple - iTunes 8, Windows Vista, and an iPod or the iPhone. Pretty cool, don't you think? I always considered the BSOD something funny - obviously, as long as it wasn't happening to me.

Regarding the fatal combination I just mentioned, here's what happened these days to some Windows Vista and iTunes 8 users: as soon as they connected the iPod or iPhone to their Windows Vista computer, iTunes 8 crashed it with a nice BSOD(for some of them, I guess it was a different color, if they were that much into customizing the look of Vista that they changed the default color of the BSOD!).

According to a tech note from Apple, a workaround for this problem would be to uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support, restart the computer, and the download and install the iTunes 8 installer once again. Nobody seems to have any idea about what's wrong with Apple Mobile Device Support yet, so this is all you need to know, for now.

The funny part is that, according to various sources, including Macworld and ZDNet, Apple replaced the files associated with Apple Mobile Device Support with the ones from iTunes 7.7. Not quite the smartest solution, but at least it works!

Here's a very simple question: what do you know about the Apple Store chain? If you haven't updated your information in the last few months, then I must tell you some numbers have changed. Anyway, I don't see any reason to know precisely how many stores Apple has, but here's the list - last month, the Apple Store chain had a total of 230 locations open, as it follows - 197 in 39 US states, 16 in the UK (15 in England, including the largest Apple Store worldwide, the Regent Street one in London, and one in Scotland), seven in Japan and Canada, three in Australia, and one in Italy and China, where a second Beijing store is expected to open next year. These being said, you can also add three more stores to the US Apple Store network...

...since Apple is ready to celebrate the opening of its latest retail stores in Ohio, Maine, and New Jersey on Saturday, September the 13th, at 10AM. That should make it clear they are not superstitious, right? Good, so if Apple is not superstitious, why should we care about that "13," especially since we're talking about more than just opening new stores, as we're going to see right away!

As a very useful way to celebrate, Apple has chosen to offer a free Apple Store T-shirt to the first 1,000 people to visit the new stores, as well as a week full of unique and educational presentations, demonstrations and workshops - all for free, of course!

I know all the above sounds very exciting, and I would do all that's possible to reach one of the locations below...only that I am located on another continent, for now, so I'll pass.

Apple Store Crocker Park
25 Main Street
Westlake, OH 44145

Apple Store Maine Mall
364 Maine Mall Road
South Portland, ME 0410

Apple Store Willowbrook Mall
1400 Willowbrook Mall
Wayne, NJ 07470

If you're one of the lucky ones near one of these locations, or you're going to pass through the area tomorrow...be sure not to miss the opening! If you don't like the Apple Store T-shirts, feel free to send it to me, I won't mind at all!

"The funnest iPod ever" is not the most clever marketing line Apple came up with so far, or maybe I am not smart enough to get to the blessing of its inner meaning. Anyway, as long as I won't buy an iPod Touch, and Apple won't send me one as a present, either, I can't really dig into the device, especially since I am not one of those considering portable media players a "fun device." For me, the portable media players are exactly the stuff you need when traveling and your companions are not quite the ones to chat with.

Now that I told you once again a few things about my position relative to portable media players, let's move on and see what's new with the iPod Touch. No, no problems yet, everything's just fine, although the new iPods are not available yet all over the world. While the devices didn't manage to reach every corner of the planet yet, the iPod Touch 2.1 update is widely available, as long as you're not living in North Korea or some remote island without any Internet connection, so let's talk about it, shall we?

Here's what the iPod Touch 2.1 update offers to its users:

- Speed: overall speed improvements, including faster backup.
- Stability: Safari runs like a puppy, and sites that crashed it before are now loading as well as possible.
- Configurable iPod Shortcuts: more flexible shortcuts, thanks to the "Edit" button available in the "More" window (unfortunately not available for Videos).
- Genius: "smart" playlists, but no "smart" guide for iTunes Store purchases. Anyway, for that, there's the Genius in iTunes 8!
- Battery Life: Much better, as early reports are showing.

We talked about this before, but let me remind you that the iPod Touch 2.1 update is worth $9.95 for those having the OS 1.x, while those with version 2.0 already installed can get it as a free update. Like it or not, you should pay for this, since it can turn your "old" iPod Touch in a whole new portable multimedia monster!

With the latest software update, I really hope there will be less iPhone 3G problems left for iPhone users to deal with, especially since tech experts all over the world have already started to talk about problems with the new iPods. What kind of problems? Well, that's exactly what we should discover in today's article, but I can tell you one thing for sure - for now, we're talking more about speculations, since real new iPod problems will start appearing in a few weeks, at least, as more and more people start using them.

Let's start with the new iPod Touch, pictured above. It's shaped like the iPhone 3G, it has most of its functions, apart from the phone-related ones, and features extended battery life, as well as a bunch of other goodies. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people still considering it a bit too expensive, especially since the subsidized $199 iPhone is a very attractive alternative.

For example, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu told clients that "We think [the] refresh of the iPod line is the necessary and appropriate strategy to maintain the firm’s dominant market share. We expect the lower pricing to drive demand elasticity, and while the cost reductions could raise concerns about gross margins, we believe it will stimulate demand and benefit profits."

Next, we have the new and colorful iPod Nano. Described by Apple as having "nine amazing colors and a new design," this 4th generation is the first I really can say I like a lot. Any problems I can imagine? Too light, if you ask me, but at least it's larger than the shuffle, but very light gadgets are also easier to loose, and the video playback time announced by Apple, only 4 hours, doesn't seem enough at all.

Since competition in the iPod Nano's price range is very tough, I think Apple will lose a few percent of its market share in the media players field, but most problems will appear in the coming weeks/months, if there's something wrong with the design and manufacture, and I am thinking about the battery, first of all.

At last, iTunes 8, the application that will be used with all these new iPods, fails to behave as expected, since I heard that the new "genius" features aren't living up to the expectations, in some situations. Anyway, since we're talking about suggestions made based on your previous choices, so a pattern matching AI algorithm, they can't be perfect. One can only hope these features will start working good for himself, sooner or later, since some may get lucky, while others won't get lucky at all.

This is it for now, and I wouldn't be amazed to see some supply problems in the coming days, especially with the iPod Nano. The reason is obvious - no matter what some may say, Apple still rocks!

If I look back, I guess nothing that special happened in September, 2007 for Apple. If I forgot something, please go ahead and remind me, I will be grateful for that. After all, I am not a walking and talking library, so I forget things from time to time - that's human nature, after all. Anyway, if we look at 2008, there are plenty of September facts to talk about already, as we're going to see right away...

First of all, it's the not-so-long awaited Apple event that happened about a day ago. Without any doubt, Apple rocks! If you're using iTunes, you can watch Steve Jobs' latest keynote speech at the Apple Special Event page on Apple.com, but if you don't want to wait for ages for the stream to load, it's OK. After all, the new iPods are making it to the first page of every technology site, but there also some other "smaller" things you should know.

For example, did you know that the App Store downloads just passed by the 100,000,000 mark? Now you do!

On the other hand, Steve Jobs promised the iPod Touch 2.1 update to arrive this Friday. Guess what? He lied! Well, at least this was one of those nice lies, since the iPod Touch 2.1 software update arrived a few days earlier. Hooray! Unfortunately, there's one thing I really don't like, but must be added - while this upgrade is free for iPods already having version 2.0, users of the 1.0 version will have to pay $10. Come on, Apple, I am sure you can provide software updates for free! After all, the iPods aren't exactly the cheapest players on the market...

Other than the above, we talked already about the new iPods, iTunes 8, and Steve Jobs' short statement regarding his health - "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

At last, it should be noted that Front Row and QuickTime also got updated at the same time as iTunes. Oh, yeah, one more for the keynotes collectors - if you want to download the keynote, just go and grab it via the Apple Keynote podcast! That's all for this year's September facts, folks!