News Roundup for December the 3rd

Okay, let me start with an apology: Sorry, but I really couldn’t care less about Apple’s Premiere In-Ear Headphones. Even though I’m currently in the market for a new pair of earbuds, I simply cannot muster even a modicum of interest. I hope this goes some way to explaining my reporting yesterday that Apple were delaying them due to technical difficulties. Yes, it now appears that they are available for pre-order shipping, bringing to an end months of anguished waiting. Or something. But it seems all is still not well, since they apparently don’t support volume adjustment on the iPhone. Which Apple apparently said they would do. Sorry, I think I’m falling asleep as I type.

Let’s interest things up a little with a few statistics. 18% of the music sold in the US these days is in the form of digital downloads, and unsurprisingly, Apple dominates the market, holding 70% of it. Meaning they’re responsible for about 12.6% of all music sold in the US, for those of you who can’t do basic percentages in their head. Meanwhile, the iPhone is said to account for 16.6% of all smartphone sales, putting it in second place behind the BlackBerry. And while we’re on an ‘Apple done good’ roll, let’s throw in their legal victory over Chinese company The New Apple Concept Digital Technology Co Ltd, for using the suspiciously familiar-looking logo to the right.

Back to the iPhone, and a couple of pieces of good news for iPhone developers. Firstly, Apple’s given them an enforced break over Christmas, closing the developer back-end to the App Store from the 24th to the 27th. (This move has only fuelled speculation that Santa’s regular job is as an admin in Apple’s server farm.) Secondly, Apple has published lists of the top App Store app downloads for 2008. And it’s amazing to see how many flashlights and ToDo lists aren’t on there. Finally comes the news that developers can, at last provide gratis ‘promotional’ licences for their apps. Each app has 50 of them to give away — and since we’re within the Top 50 Best Apple News Sites Ever on MacBlips, I guess that means an avalanche of free apps is about to cascade in our direction. (Pretty please?)

Right, what else? Well, having successfully wound the Windows fanbois up to squawking fever pitch by suggesting that Mac users might want to install some anti-virus software, Apple have now gone and disappeared the page in question. Adobe has decided that MacWorld 2009 isn’t the place for it, since it would have meant getting up early and it really isn’t a morning company. Or something. And Apple’s latest crazy patent is for a water-cooled laptop, which is welcome news to any MacBook user who has ever tried using the computer on their lap, only to discover just how warm it can get. (There a ‘roasting chestnuts’ joke somewhere round here that I just can’t reach.)