Windows Media Player remains the number one player with 75.8 unique users in December 2007 but Apple iTunes popularity is on the rise going past RealPlayer last April. It continues its climb with over 35 million unix for the month of December. This is a 26.8 increase from last year. On a sour note for Apple, Quicktime usage is falling.

Via 

Having problems with firmware 1.1.3 on your iPhone or iPod Touch? One solution reported is to downgrade iTunes from 7.6 to 7.4.2 temporarily while running iPhuc. Running the iPhone utility client with iTunes 7.6 will get you introuble but WickedPsyched has found a way to revert back to 7.4.2 while running iPhuc. Full instructions after the break.

1. get an old framework, you can use this to pull out the MobileDevice:

imac /tmp/ open iTunes7.4.2.dmg 

imac /tmp/ gunzip -c /Volumes/iTunes\ 7.4.2/iTunes.mpkg/Contents/Resources/
AppleMobileDeviceSupport.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz | pax -r 

2.  Then copy it over to your /System/Library area:

imac /tmp/ cp -rp System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework.iphuc

3. Now backup the original Framework:

imac /PrivateFrameworks/ cp -r MobileDevice.framework MobileDevice.framework.1.1.3

4. The script below assumes you now have this layout in
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/

imac /PrivateFrameworks/ ls -ltrad MobileDevice.framework*
drwxr-xr-x   5 root  wheel  170 Jan 19 18:17 MobileDevice.framework.iphuc
drwxr-xr-x   5 root  wheel  170 Jan 19 18:22 MobileDevice.framework.1.1.3
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel   63 Jan 19 20:06 MobileDevice.framework ->
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework.iphuc/

5. Finally here is the new script you can run in place of iphuc:

imac /~/ cat /opt/local/bin/76iphuc
#!/bin/sh

FWPATH=/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/

echo copying framework \(may need sudo password\)
sudo rm $FWPATH/MobileDevice.framework
sudo ln -s $FWPATH/MobileDevice.framework.iphuc/ $FWPATH/MobileDevice.framework
/opt/local/bin/iphuc
echo putting framework back \(may need sudo password\)
sudo rm $FWPATH/MobileDevice.framework
sudo ln -s $FWPATH/MobileDevice.framework.1.1.3/ $FWPATH/MobileDevice.framework

Even though Apple charges a $19.99 fee for the newest iPod Touch firmware upgrade, there are a lot of takers. Having Mail, Maps and other goodies like Stocks, Weather and, at last, Notes on an MP3 player, but around the world people have been complaining that they cannot upgrade their iPod Touches. They have the money, it’s just that the Apple iTunes Store is not available in their area. Let’s see. The iTunes Store is available in the following territories:

• U.S., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Republic of the Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

If you do not have a billing address in any of these countries, Apple will not let you purchase anything from the iTunes Store. Amazingly, all of Latin America is out. That means, even if you live in Puerto Rico, which is just a boat ride away from the U.S. and even Mexico (just across the border of the Apple base country), you cannot get have an iPod Touch with Maps and Mail. In Asia, though the iTunes Store is available in Japan and the Philippines, it is not available in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia nor Mainland China. Now, I can understand Apple’s reluctance to sell to China, but Taiwan and Singapore?

Looks like it’s time for Apple should check their own Maps application.

Check out Hong Kong’s Victor Heung’s complain about iTunes Store non-availability in his home.