What we like about N'gai Croal is how he's able to pull off asking some of the tough questions that would get other games and tech reporters shot (by French ninjas, no less). He let us know of a funny new post to his tech blog where he discusses, in an iTunes playlist style, who should be watching out for themselves in a future filled with Apple's iPhone. Some of them you might know because you own these pieces of tech now: the PSP and DS.

On the PSP side, which is at number seven, he notes how the development of the iPhone could eat into the mobile media industry that Sony's trying to get a handle on. He writes,

After all, the iPod has iTunes (with music, movies, TV and games); while the PSP has the PlayStation Network (for PS2 games that can run on the PSP's emulator and...nothing else right now - more than two years after its launch.)

Suffice it to say that with the advent of even more tech that's touch-screen enabled, Sony really ought to think about following suit, possibly integrating it with their now-famous XMB interface.

Nintendo's dual-screen handheld doesn't really have a lot to fear from the iPhone, at least when it comes to getting sold. The problem will lie in sustaining the interests of casual owners. Croal asks: "How long will it take publishers to bring knockoffs to the touch-enabled iPhone, along with other games that take advantage of the iPhone's audio, video and communications capabilities?"

While we could talk about how Apple should be afraid of its own iPhone announcement (it's at number two, by the way), one of them will really hit us hard. That's the one in which Croal talks about us, as Time's People of the Year. Do we really want to spend a couple of hundred dollars for a phone/medium-range PC/ portable movie theater? Personally, if my iPhone doesn't make my coffee in the morning, I'll stick to my bulky, but lovable, Hello Kitty custom-case home computer, thank you very much.

This is weird but this thought had been bugging me for days: Why Apple haven't joined the console war? Or even the serious gaming industry for that matter? Sure Mac is not as popular around here as Windows but it provides serious competition. We all know how Microsoft got started, anyway. Nintendo and Sony were slugging it out and then Microsoft thought, "why not join in the fun?"

Given that, I couldn't help it but look at one of Apple's strongest product now: the iPod. Well, in case you've been living under gigantic stereo for some time now, the iPod comes in with a few simple games like Breakout, Parachute and Solitaire. Those certainly are not PSP and DS toppling games but that would be a good place to start.

I admit that I'm not familiar with most Mac games (Diablo Forever!) but a quick glance at its latest system MAC OS X (OpenGL and various Core technologies) and you'll know that there is a strong technological foundation. Proof of this is the recently announced Project Alky from Falling Leaf Systems that promises to bring high quality Windows games to Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.

Without a doubt, Apple has the financial and technological capacity to enter into this arena. The big question now is, what are they waiting for?

LED backlit notebooks are the new fad for notebook manufacturers, the forerunners being Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Asustek. Now Apple and Hewlett Packard (HP) are going to release their models with the said technology in Q2 2007.

Even when big notebook makers are using LEDs, Taiwan LED manufacturers are unlikely to profit from the innovation, according to DigiTimes.com

The use of LED backlights has become more popular, but LED manufacturers in Taiwan would unlikely supply the demand since their LEDs simply don't cut it. The specifications of a backlit notebook is 1,680 nits, and Taiwan LED makers have yet to reach that brightness level. Patent restraints would also be a hurdle since notebook makers consider that better than cost competitiveness.

However, they will continue making the LEDs for handsets though they are constantly under pressure to be cost competitive.

Andre Vrignaud, otherwise known to the net as Ozymandias, pulled a Nostradamus of his own recently with his predictions for 2007. Being a Microsoft spokesperson though, you'll have to admit that some of his predictions are somewhat pointed, even if they do happen to be very logical.

We'll tread lightly here with one of the somewhat obvious Microsoft-favored predictions as an example:

By the end of 2007, total lifetime unit sell-through of home consoles will be led by the Xbox 360, followed by NintendoÂ?s Wii, with the Playstation 3 third. This order will also be true of units sold-through solely in 2007 (ie, not lifetime sales).

There's enough evidence to make that prediction viable, though we'd have to say the Wii is catching up far quicker than anyone expected. Since the total number of PS3 units created does happen to be far less than the total number of Xbox 360 or Wii units sold, Sony is the obvious dark horse for a 2007 sell-through victory.

Here are the rest of his predictions. Take a good note of his PSP-related predictions, as our own Chris L. made a fearless forecast similar to Ozy's. As for everything else, just remember that this is all speculation rather than fact, though you're quite free to put in your own two cents on the predictions he's given.

The original PSP (with memory stick) will be discontinued, and replaced by a new model with an integrated hard drive. The new model will enable connectivity to the Playstation store via internet connection, and allow you to purchase and download both emulated PS1 and native PSP games directly. Over time (meaning not in 2007), it will also allow you to purchase music and movies from the Sony store.

The future will have... ROBOTS! More of Ozymandias' insights and predictions after the jump.

Let's see... What has the Wiimote been able to control so far? Remote-controlled cars, guitars, Sony's PlayStation 3, EverQuest II, and some other items. Yep, that's a lot of stuff.

Now, how about the king of MMOs?

Someone's decided to make a tutorial video for using your Wiimote to play World of Warcraft. As you can probably see from his interface, he's using DarwiinRemote to get the job done, so you'll have to remember to get that too. It isn't perfect though, as the there isn't a function for the right mouse button just yet, but this is a great first step.

In any case, what are we waiting for? If you have a Wii, an account for WoW, a Mac OS, and a few minutes to spare, you might as well learn how to do this little trick, right? All that's left is to figure out how to get my character to dance on-screen, and I'll be the hottest Night Elf dancing queen this side of Ironforge. Sweet!

Someone must have rolled over in his grave when MacUser.com's Aaron Freedman wrote the following words: "I never thought IÂ?d say this, but it seems that Microsoft has a product that works better with the Mac than the Sony equivalent." He was talking about his observation that the Xbox 360 system meshes with Apple systems, but that the Sony PS3 didn't.

However, just looking back at our coverage of both consoles, and the comments to Aaron's article, sounds like he needs to make a revision of observation.

There's the observation that "the PS3 can't play music directly off the iPod." Uh, Victor B., can you help me out here? "... the 20 GB video iPod was recognized by the PS3, but you'll need to use the above-mentioned Display All feature to view everything on your iPod." (The "Display All" feature is simply pressing Triangle to browse through - and play - the content of connected media storage devices like the iPod).

And besides, as a MacUser commenter pointed out, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 won't play iTunes-signed music content. But then again, that's Apple's DRM, not MS or Sony.

Now there are things that the Xbox can do with Apple that the PS3 can't, but that's because of the one-year lead time of the Microsoft console, which gives hackers time to play with both devices. The 360 controller could be used with a Mac through a hacked driver and the USB cable, which we won't visit for all the potential EULA repercussions. Even Aaron admits that the SIXAXIS communicates through Bluetooth, which can, in due time, talk to a Mac as well (again, with all potential EULA repercussions). And the SIXAXIS has a USB connection too, by the way.

That's Aaron's admission: in due time, hackers will probably develop more drivers and code that will enable the PS3 to communicate with the Mac and iPod and God-knows-what-else, creating a very weird menage-a-troi lovefest electronica that neither MS, nor Sony, nor Apple would have envisioned (toss in the Wii and now we have a party!). Enough said.

Computer and electronics companies including LG, Panasonic, NEC, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba are planning to come up with a set of standards for WiHD or WirelessHD. WiHD is a high-definition digital interface - it will let devices communicate with each other to share high-definition audio/video streaming and also to allow high-speed data transmission.

Basically, it's like a WiFi standard, only more robust and manly. WiHD aims for 5 gigabits of data per second - and up to a distance of 30 feet. Transmission will take place at the 60GHz frequency. To compare, WiFi operates at around 2.4GHz to 5-point-something-GHz.

60GHz! That's a high frequency usually only used by the military or in ship-to-ship communications!

The companies plan to have a standard drafted and ready by early 2007. Then they'll put WiHD into all their HDTVs and all their audio video gadgets. So...

• Will the PS3 take advantage of WiHD in the future? Did somebody mention HDTV? Yeah, Sony is one of the companies (that's their old Bravia ad in the YouTube vid; we chose it for this article because we love the music).
• Where's Microsoft and Apple? Will they follow suit, team up, or make their own standards? Like WiFi, will we end up with several standards - will there be a WiHD.a and WiHD.b and other standards?
• The Nintendo Wii shunned HD, right? Will this new development make Perrin Kaplan eat her words?

This should spark some debates among the die-hard Apple-addicts reading this. Analyst house Gartner says that if Apple wants long-term success, it should do what game firm Sega did in response to the Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox. In case you're not a gamer, what Sega did was to retire from the game console manufacturing business and concentrate on software publishing and development.

Yep. In an ambitious analytical report, entitled "Apple Should License the Mac to Dell," Gartner is suggesting exactly that. Apple licenses Mac-making to Dell, and quit hardware manufacturing altogether, to concentrate on OS and software.

Why, oh why must Cupertino give up on those little bundles of computing joy to Dell? Same reason Sega bailed on their Dreamcast: competition. In Apple's case, Gartner believes that increasing market pressure will cut into Apple's profit margins with the Mac. This is because Apple is recently using Intel chips, which is also a big reason for a surge in Mac popularity, says Gartner. They also say that Intel, as a component maker, effectively "subsidizes" Apple production.

But with pricing pressure from other computer firms like HP, Gartner believes that Intel "cannot go on supporting Apple (or any other customer) indefinitely." Instead, Apple could license Mac production over to Dell - which also uses Intel chips, and is "Intel's closest ally" - which has a more robust production and marketing infrastructure in place. The firm even believes that by doing so, Mac OS could capture 20% of the market, and Macs themselves could become more affordable.

Will Steve Jobs take heed? Silicon.com's conclusion is that he's not worried much about Apple's position in the market - or about the competition either. Most likely not, in that case. Nothing in the report either about other Apple hardware, like the iPod and upcoming iTV. What do you guys think?

Consumer Reports (November 2006) conducted a computer reliability survey of "127,800 computers" among their readers and Mac got the top spot. It left behind desktop and laptop models from Compaq, Dell, eMachines, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba. However, the organization chose to withhold its "Best Buy" stamp of approval from Apple's machines because of its hefty price tag.

Among the criteria that the Mac aced are speakers and expansion. Out of the 77,000 readers surveyed only 11% reported problems with their Macs. Sony PC users experienced more bugs (15%). Gateway desktop PCs got the dubious honor of King of Lemons with 19% of users reporting technical glitches with their machines.

In the laptop category, 18% of the 50,100 respondents reported Apple troubles while Sony received a better (but not significantly different) 15%. As for tech service, Apple's service was +20% ahead the first runner-up despite the company's limited 90-day free warranty and its pricey extended warranty.

"Apple continues to dominate the digital music player and online music markets, despite new competitors constantly entering the market," or so says PiperJaffray's recent findings. Accordingly, Apple Computer conducts a bi-annual survey for around  six years now. That sounds like bordering on paranoia and with the sampling just comprised of 1,000 high school students, the computer company might not be getting the real picture.

Since we are here anyway, the research says that the iPod is taking much of the market share with 79%. Closest competition is Sony with a lowly 8% share. In the meantime, the study found out that almost 80% of the students are currently downloading music online, and majority of those use P2P music sharing networks.

"But of those students who use legal online music services, 91 percent said they use iTunes, which is up significantly from our spring 2006 survey," comments PiperJaffray's analyst Gene Munster. The middle market investment bank and institutional securities firm accordingly attached this growth from iTunes increasing content variety.

Apple maintains that winning the teenager sector is pivotal to the company's continued long term growth. Judging from the research firm's numbers, it seems that the Cupertino-based company will be enjoying this comfortable lead for quite some time.