Although Apple and Cisco temporarily settled their dispute over the name "iPhone", industry analysts warned that this does not mean Apple will suddenly open up its more profitable technologies, in particular, iTunes.

Instead, the more likely scenario is that Cisco and Apple could partner in the near-term or lower profile projects that could include integrating Cisco's Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP technology into Apple's iPhones.

Market researcher IDC senior analyst Danielle Levitas said she doesn't expect Apple to open up iTunes any time soon. Associated Press quotes her saying that Apple partnering with Cisco is more about Apple preparing to tackle the "connected-home" market where digital entertainment is delivered through a variety of devices.

Eventually, Levitas said that Apple would open up, and Cisco would be the first to benefit, but this would not happen in the next 12-18 months.

It must be remembered that earlier this month, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs urged the world's major music companies to abolish DRM that were preventing Apple from selling music that would play on any device. One analyst said that Cisco could use  the iPhone name as a negotiating tool to have Apple open up to the idea of cooperation with other companies.

Ah, America. Land of political WTF-ery. In one of the strangest foreign policy moves ever done during the Bush administration , the US government is trying to impose trade sanctions against North Korea, specifically against items that Kim Jong Il likes or which are gifted to him by loyalists.

What does the North Korean leader like, aside from platform shoes and bling-bling? Why, tech stuff and other assorted luxuries, of course. The Associated Press report says that, in addition to any new tech, such as iPods, PS3s and the like, they also want to ban just about everything else, even sports equipment (Kim compensates for his short stature with a love for basketball, apparently).

The AP article cites a lot of other items among those to be placed under trade sanctions:

But the list of proposed luxury sanctions, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim's swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis.

Now, let's get some perspective on this. The man makes secret nuclear tests in his country and the people under his rule suffer from food shortages. That's a result of rather selfish decisions on Kim's part, as well as a lack of foreign aid because no one really likes him for messing with nukes right now.

The plan, as "creative" as some of the supporters of the trade sanctions might think of it, would only push North Korea's world leader to use more money to purchase the same things through the black markets (or eBay). If the leader of nuclear-capable nation wants a PS3, why would you try a stunt like this to get him to listen to you?

Robert J. Einhorn, a former senior State Department official who once went to Korea, said of the plan, "It can't hurt, but whether it works, we don't know." Trust a gamer to tell you this plain and simple: if PS3 fanboys are willing to wait out in the cold for days to get a PS3, and grey market sellers don't mind shooting people for those goods, you are wrong in assuming it can't hurt.

With all the news of Dell laptops blowing up, you can't help but wonder if Dell is going to get back up from all the problems it's facing this year.

Well, this isn't the news that's going to turn the tide of bad press they're getting. In fact, it doesn't look good for Dell on both the laptop AND desktop side of the business.

In an Associated Press review on Yahoo by Robert Weston, the Mac Pro defeated a Dell desktop PC with similar specs on both price and functionality.

According to the review, there is more than a $900 difference between a low-end Mac Pro and a Dell Precision 490 with identical configurations, and the difference in price gets even better for Apple with more upgrades.

Borrowing a high-end Mac Pro with a pair of 3 gigahertz processors, an Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 graphics card with 512 megabytes of video memory and four 500 gig hard drives and 4 gigs of system memory, Weston compared the Mac Pro setup to a Dell Precision 690 with the same specs. The result? $7449 vs $8534 in Apple's favor.

Not only that, but there is a large amount of easy customizability. As Weston notes, "It comes with two optical drive bays, four PCI Express expansion slots and four hard drive bays. The computer also can handle up to 16 gigabytes of system memory." The changing of hard drives is also a breeze with the Mac Pro - just pull out a tray, take out one drive, stick another one in, and push it back! No cables and a ton of ports for different uses makes it versatile, with the ease of use only making it more enticing.

Dell has a lot of catching up to do, or they may just get completely decimated by the competition. First, they have to stop their products from blowing up, then they have improve their tech and their pricing scheme. Then they have to pray for a bigger miracle. Let's hope something good happens for Dell soon, before the final nail gets driven into their coffin.

Speaking of nails and coffins... You may want to know that the Mac Pro can just as easily run Windows as a Mac OS. Another point to Apple.