Apple's iTunes was always in a close battle with its counterpart from RealNetworks, that one being RealPlayer, of course. Despite their rather uninspired proprietary media format, RealNetworks managed to hang on in there and keep the second position on the media streaming market, after Microsoft's Windows Media Player, but things have just changed...

According to recent studies, the situation looks like this: Windows Media Player - 76 million, iTunes - 36 million, and RealPlayer - 27 million. Obviously, we are talking about the number of users each of these players has...

It's pretty clear that Media Player's growth has one main reason, and that is the fact that Microsoft had the (very good, I must admit) idea of making it a part of its Windows operating systems, but how did iTunes managed to get a steady growth?

Well, let's think a bit - now they have movie rentals, and Apple TV "Take 2" is going to arrive pretty soon, an event that may boost iTunes usage even higher, and we shouldn't forget about the inspired move Apple made when decided to make QuickTime and iTunes available for the Windows platform too (that's an ancient story, anyway, but I think it is worth being mentioned here).

Other than the above, I must confess that I used RealPlayer only when I had to, and that didn't happen too often. Also, the existence of completely ad-free programs such as RealAlternative had its part in slowly pushing back RealPlayer's popularity...

At last, let's congratulate Apple for this success and hope that, maybe, one day in the future... you know what I am thinking about, so I don't have to say more!

I am NOT an Apple fanboy. I will only say this once. I am not crazy about the iPhone, or their iPods, but I must admit Apple is changing the world with every new product, finding new paths and setting the direction for the rest of the industry, and that's what really matters, in the end. No matter how many weak points may find people in the MacBook Air (I made it clear already - I love the MacBook), it has become clear already that Apple's latest notebook has changed the direction of other companies, and I am talking about PC manufacturers.

I don't like to rely on rumors, but sometimes I write about rumors too, because they proved to be true in so many cases... but this time, it's the naked truth: according to a source with inside information from Intel, in the near future, two PC makers will start manufacturing systems powered by the same custom Core 2 Duo processor used in the MacBook Air! Unfortunately, we don't have a single clue about who these companies are going to be, but let me guess - Dell and Sony, maybe?

According to Connie Brown, Intel spokeswoman, while the CPU we're talking about here was designed especially for Apple's MacBook Air, "other PC makers can use it". Well, this is the natural flow of things, and I don't think it would have been useful for Apple to pay for being the exclusive user of this technology, especially since the new 45nm Core 2 Duo mobile chips may be similar to the custom 65nm design used to power the MacBook Air...

Do I need to say more? Sooner or later, we'll get to see if I was right with my prediction (remember, Dell and Sony, all right?), because one thing is obvious: Apple still has the power to change the IT world, and this is happening right now, as we speak. For Intel, this was the first time to develop a small form-factor chip for a "normal" mobile processor, and soon, it's going to be someone's privilege to step behind the MacBook Air and, who knows, maybe even release a thinner and lighter notebook!

A few days ago, Apple released updates to its iWork '08 office applications suite, but that wasn't such a big event, after all. What everyone is (still) waiting is the Apple TV "Take 2" software, the update that would enable Apple TV users "to rent high definition movies directly from their widescreen TVs", and according to an official statement from Steve Jobs' company, "Apple now plans to make the free software download available to existing Apple TV customers in another week or two.", which shouldn't be that bad, after all...

As you probably know already, the new Apple TV software update, together with iTunes Movie Rentals, will allow you to rent movies from a collection of over 1,000 titles (by this month's end), all by pushing a button on your remote once! In this collection, there should also be over 100 HD titles, with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. The prices are going to start at $2.99 for older titles, up to #4.99 for new HD releases.

If you're still asking yourselves about the meaning of my title, now I will reveal to you something that you probably didn't know so far (I must admit I found about it today) - while the Apple TV software update may arrive a bit late, you can take your time to check the brand-new Mac video tutorials website launched by Apple as a part of Apple.com. This sub-site, available here, has six sections, each with video tutorials between 1 and 4 minutes long. The sections available are Mac OS X, Photos, Movies, Web, Music, and Documents, each with various subsections, such as "Anatomy of a Mac, "Customize Your Mighty Mouse", "Email a PDF", and so on.

These being said, I hope you will enjoy the "Find out how" website while waiting for Apple TV "Take 2"...

First of all, let me try to rephrase the title...do you think "less expensive iPhones" sounds better? Since an entire planet is running to get best possible price for every product, it's not that easy to reach a target sales number as large as millions without cutting the prices and, according to analysts, that's exactly what Apple should do with the iPhone...

When the iPhone was launched, Apple said its target is to sell 10 millions by the end of this year, and now they only have about 11 months remaining. Since its launch, the iPhone got its prices dropped once, but that doesn't seem to be enough now.

According to a report by Priya Ganapati, Apple reached the 4 million mark, but to get to that target they set as high as 10 by the end of the year, they have to sell an average of 2.5 million iPhones per quarter, with 0.2 millions more than last holiday season!

Ezra Gottheil, Technology Business Research analyst, says "The number is a challenge, but unless the global economy slows down profoundly, Apple will make it happen", and I can't do anything else than agree with that. Even more, if US consumers need less expensive iPhones to buy more of them, it's useless to add how much a price drop would help Apple's smart phone to get better sales in the rest of the world.

Now, that the glow has been thrown officially, we have to see when they decide to grab it and do the right thing. Hopefully, before it's too late...

I wouldn't go that far to say the iPhone was released without proper software support, a practice very "popular" with hardware producers these days, but it's always strange to see software updates that should improve the usability and features of a certain device, but come with new problems instead. Unfortunately, exactly the same happened with the 1.1.3 software update for the iPhone...

The good part is the problem noticed by many users after updating the software of their iPhones is not such a big one, after all. Being given the previous bad updates from Apple, when some iPhones registered with Apple's carriers lost data, and the unlocked ones died for good, this time we only have to be afraid that the SMS messages on the mobile won't remain in order as before.

To make things even better, it seems that not everyone experienced the problem that causes SMS messages to appear out of order, but there are plenty of people who's iPhones were affected. The topic related to this problem from Apple's support forums appeared almost 2 weeks ago, and in the meantime it grew to over 200 replies, and over 11k views. While most plagued iPhones seem to belong to UK based O2 customers, reports from owners located in other countries have also been noticed.

Apple acknowledged the program, and their explanation is this:"When sending or receiving text messages on the iPhone, the SMS messages may be displayed out of sequence. This can occur if the iPhone is not displaying the same date and time setting as the carrier network time."

All fine, but when do we get a serious update? For now, Apple's solution is this:"Make sure iPhone is setup to receive the network time. Choose General > Date & Time and turn Set Automatically to ON. (Note that in some locations, network time may not be available and in some cases, you may not see this option). If the issue continues after turning this setting on, the issue may be occurring because messages are being sent in quick succession (more common if the messages consist of only a few short words).", so I guess you should try it, if your SMS messages are in complete disarray after the last software update...