According to the October report from Net Applications, the Mac remains mainly an American platform. Mac market share in the U.S. has been steadily climbing, rising in recent months from 11.2 percent in August to 11.4 percent in October. That percentage roughly correlates with Mac sales data published by Gartner and IDC, which put the Mac’s market share in the U.S.at 9.3 and 10.6 percent, respectively, for the third quarter of 2010.

The correlation is important because Net Applications derives its data from some 160 million visitors per month to a network of sites. If Net Application data follows sales data for the U.S., that data likely proves true for calculating Mac market share worldwide, and that’s not exactly good news for the Mac. For October, Net Applications has OS X market share at 4.98 percent worldwide, down from 5.03 percent in September.

Looking at the trend for OS X over the last two years, it’s apparent there’s been a flattening of growth worldwide. iOS is showing growth, and so may be accounting for more of people’s internet browser time. That’s not necessarily bad news for the Mac, though. Just because you opt to surf the web on your iPad doesn’t mean you don’t also own a MacBook Pro, for instance.

Again, Net Applications derives its data from web browsing, and the biggest increase in web browsing as measured by Net Applications over the last two years or so has come from iOS devices. In just over two years, iOS has seen a tenfold increase in its market share, and now registers 1.25 percent of all operating systems. That small percentage represents easily more than a hundred million devices and growing.

What this means is that iOS is growing faster than OS X, hence the increasing market share, but what’s really interesting is that Windows is also seeing a decline in market share. Last year, when Windows 7 launched, combined market share for all versions of the OS represented 92.54 percent. A year later, that Windows market share has fallen to 91.12 percent.

Of course, iOS isn’t the only mobile OS that’s seeing rapid growth. Android also has seen tenfold growth, going from .02 percent a year ago to 0.27 percent of OS market share for October 2010. According to Net Applications, iPhones and Android phones have shown roughly the same growth each month for the last four months. That means 14 million iPhones last quarter was just enough to achieve parity with all Android phones combined. If Apple wants to maintain that parity, the Verizon iPhone can’t come soon enough.

As for the Mac, with Apple selling record numbers of computers every quarter, the Mac isn’t in danger of obsolescence, but the days of Mac preeminence at Apple is gone forever. “Back to the Mac” or not, iOS is the future of Apple.

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The next iPhone could take advantage of Near Field Communication (NFC) to allow you to take your preferences, files and even applications from your home Mac and use them on other Apple computers. The inclusion of NFC tech could make having Macs on premises a priority for hotels and other businesses.

The rumor about NFC in the next iPhone revision comes courtesy of a source talking to Cult of Mac, who wished to remain anonymous. Initially, according to the report, the iPhone 5 would work sort of like an electronic wallet that carries around your personal information and allows you to use it on other Macs. That could include address book information, logins and more. Later, it could fully transform any Mac into a mirror image of your own.

Of course, the NFC tech needs both a transmitter and receiver, so Macs would have to be outfitted with the tech to take advantage, but that’s an easy enough addition to future models on the manufacturing side of things.

Apple’s recent hiring decisions back up these new rumors. Recent hires include a leading expert in the NFC field, and Apple has a lot of related patents on the books, so it’s likely that they are working on something to do with the tech. Whether what they’re working on will every see the light of day is another story.

If implemented, the new system could have a positive impact on Apple’s presence in enterprise. Imagine being able to change virtually any Mac into your own personal workstation just by being in proximity and entering a passcode. It’s something people who work on the road would really appreciate, and likely something that hotels and other businesses that cater to those travellers would have strong financial reason to implement.

It also would help Apple transition more of OS X to the cloud, a likely direction for all operating systems to take in the future, and it would be another link between Apple’s notebook and desktop OS and its mobile products. Greater integration is clearly a goal for the Mac maker going forward. Plus, if made available to iOS and Mac developers as a public API, there’s no telling what kind of innovative software we could see.

RFID is already rumored to be coming to iPhones sometime down the road, and that’s a type of NFC, so this is definitely one to watch. I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see at least the seeds for this kind of remote portability sewn in Apple’s next round of major mobile hardware revisions.

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MC Hammer and Jay Z are going head to head (AP)

MC Hammer, the pop-rapper who went from megahits like “U Can’t Touch This” to bankruptcy, on Monday released a music video alleging that Jay-Z is controlled by the devil after the music mogul made light of Hammer’s financial woes.

“Hammer went broke so you know I’m more focused,” Jay-Z rapped on “So Appalled,” a Kanye West track released online in September. “I lost $30 million so I spent another 30, ’cause unlike Hammer $30 million can’t hurt me.”

Hammer responded to Jay-Z’s mocking lyrics on Twitter, writing “you wanted my attention … you got it” and promising retribution on Oct. 31.

The video for “Better Run Run,” posted to YouTube on Nov. 1 and credited to “King Hammer,” shows a Jay-Z lookalike collaborating with Satan in a recording studio to write the lyric “Jesus can’t save u,” while the lyrics allege that Jay-Z’s success comes from a pact with the devil.

“Devil said, ‘Imma give you the world,’” Hammer raps on the track. “’I'll take it, plus give me a girl.’” He goes on to have Satan state that a hand gesture representing Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella record label is “one of mine.” The video concludes with Hammer baptizing the Jay-Z stand-in by pushing him into a lake.

“So Appalled” is expected to appear on West’s forthcoming album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” due out on Nov. 22. MC Hammer has not yet announced any upcoming releases aside from “Better Run Run.” His most recent album, “DanceJamtheMusic,” was released in 2009.

-NewsCore

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is gearing up for a campaign to retain his seat as the United Nations’ top official for another five years, U.N. diplomats say. This, rights advocates suggest, may be the reason he sidestepped the issue of human rights during his latest visit to China, his fourth in as many years. Ban did not raise the issue of Beijing’s alleged rights abuses during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday. Nor did he call on the Chinese government to release jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner. 

“It is correct he did not discuss human rights (in China),” Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters in New York, adding that he also did not raise the issue of Liu’s detention. He noted that the secretary-general’s Oct. 8 statement on the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize “still stands.”

Ban’s carefully worded statement on the award, which was criticized as “mealy-mouthed” by Foreign Policy magazine’s Turtle Bay blog, did not call for Liu’s release and offered only indirect praise of his work as a dissident. (In contrast to Ban, the Nobel Committee praised Liu for his “long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights” and reiterated its belief in a “close connection between human rights and peace.”) In the same statement the U.N. chief was full of praise for Beijing: “Over the past years, China has achieved remarkable economic advances, lifted millions out of poverty, broadened political participation and steadily joined the international mainstream in its adherence to recognized human rights instruments and practices,” he said.  Beijing was infuriated by the decision to give Liu the award, describing it as ”an obscenity.”

It’s not as if human rights are off-limits for the secretary-general. Hardly a week goes by in which Ban doesn’t publicly call on the military junta of Myanmar to release Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. His latest appeal to the leaders of the former Burma was issued on Friday, when he urged the government to release all political prisoners ahead of the country’s first election in 20 years, scheduled for Nov. 7.

It’s politics, diplomats and human rights activists say. The former South Korean foreign minister is expected to make a bid for a second five-year term before his current mandate expires at the end of 2011. Ban, they say, has already begun closed-door campaigning and his efforts to avoid annoying China are no surprise.

China — unlike Myanmar — is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council and has a great deal of power when it comes to choosing the secretary-general. Like the other four permanent council members — Britain, France, Russia and the United States — China can block any candidate it dislikes. Oficially it is the full 15-nation Security Council that passes on a recommendation of who should run the United Nations to the 192-nation General Assembly for approval. In reality, it is the five veto powers, known as the “P5″, who make the decision. And offending Beijing by raising the issue of a jailed dissident shortly before he might ask for their support was apparently not something Ban wanted to do.

“Ban’s silence on human rights in China is inexcusable, particularly at a time when human rights defenders in China are being harassed and intimidated by the government,” Human Rights Watch advocacy director Philippe Bolopion told Reuters. “If he’s trying to curry favors from the Chinese for his re-election bid, he is losing the support of those who would want a more courageous and principled secretary-general. His silence is even more disturbing coming from someone who has often advocated for private diplomacy.”

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On Friday, Apple released an important software update to iPhoto ’11, the newly refreshed poster child of their just-released iLife ’11 suite of home media management applications for the Mac. The update addresses what Apple described as an “extremely rare” problem. Here’s the line from Software Update:

This update addresses issues that, in extremely rare cases, could result in data loss when upgrading a library from an earlier version of iPhoto.

Data loss, eh? Sounds terrifying. On the surface, it is. A brief search through the Apple Support forum reveals users who, at first blush, apparently “lost” their entire iPhoto libraries after upgrading to version ’11 (which is actually version 9.0 of the product).

The most commonly reported problem is a frozen upgrade process. After installation, the first time a user launches iPhoto ’11, they must upgrade their existing library if they want to use it in iPhoto ’11. Sadly, for some users, the upgrade never completes. Instead, it never gets past a spinning progress indicator.

The problem isn’t all that common, nor is it irreparable, though for those affected, the fix is quite convoluted. Some have apparently even had to restore from Time Machine backups.

For the record, I haven’t had any problems myself, despite upgrading multiple libraries ranging in size from a few hundred megabytes to a 300GB. I have found that iPhoto slows down considerably as it churns through the Faces database.

Another reported problem with iPhoto 11 is missing help files. Once again – I couldn’t reproduce the problem on any of my Macs. But if you are having problems accessing Help in iPhoto 11, you can find a solution here.

iLife ’11 was, for me, something of a mixed bag. I expected more from Apple, and the few updates we got to some of the iLife titles didn’t set my world on fire. Even though I haven’t experienced any problems myself, seeing library upgrade problems like these cropping up only makes me even less enthusiastic about the suite.

Let us know if you’ve had problems with iPhoto 11… or whether you intend to upgrade at all.

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Rafa Benitez, Inter Milan's Spanish coach faces a testing time in his first season.

CNN's Pedro Pinto will interview Inter Milan coach Rafael Benitez on Thursday 4 November. Leave your questions for the Spanish manager at the bottom of the blog.

November could be a crucial month for Inter Milan and coach Rafa Benitez. By the end of it, the Nerazzurri will either have built the necessary momentum to have a successful season or see debilitating cracks appear that could lead to a premature ending of the Spaniard’s tenure in Italy. That's how finely balanced former Liverpool coaches popularity is right now.

This week Inter will play English side Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. Hardly an intimidating venue for a club that has won three European Cups and has graced the greatest grounds on the continent in recent years, but the Champions League match against Spurs could nonetheless be a decisive one in Group A.

If they win, the defending champions will guarantee first place, therefore ensuring an easier draw for the first knock-out stage. However, a defeat could see them overtaken by Tottenham in the standings and facing the embarrassment of early elimination from the competition.

A fortnight ago, Inter were already warned of what their English rivals could do. Spurs, who were a man down and trailing by four goals at half time, stormed back after the break and nearly grabbed a point at the San Siro.

That valiant second-half display will give them belief that they can beat the European Champions at home. Faced with their biggest European game in several decades in London, the players, the fans and the manager will be ready throw everything including the kitchen sink at Benitez’s side.

The Spaniard, having managed in England for six seasons, won’t be rocked by the atmosphere, but it will still be a stern test of his team’s true colors. Furthermore, he has to play in London without star goalkeeper Julio Cesar and inspirational midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, both injured over the weekend.

If that game is challenging, then what can be said about the contest scheduled for 15 November? That is the date of the season’s first Milan derby with the Nerazzurri and Rossoneri locking horns at the San Siro. Without being dramatic, this is a must win game for Rafa. After Inter lost to Roma and failed to secure home wins over Juventus and Sampdoria, another unimpressive performance and result against another top Serie A rival will undoubtedly undermine his position as boss.

It may still be early in the season, but after the club enjoyed so much success with Roberto Mancini and Jose Mourinho, failure just won’t be tolerated by their fans and the media. It’s just that so far he hasn’t been able to win them over and as a matter of fact he has been criticized for a pragmatic approach, and for relying too much on the goals of Samuel Eto’o.

In other words, the pressure is on. Watch this space. November could be a month that makes or breaks Inter’s season.

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Mercedes has come out with a new Magic Sky Control roof that is incorporated with the 2012 SLK. The company has tested the vehicle with their new addition that promises to keep cabin components (shifter, armrest, etc) up to 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than a standard sunroof.

The device is claimed to be powered with the capacity to block the dangerous UV and Infrared rays. The switch located on the overhead console allows the chromic glass roof to darken within seconds and this block the harmful rays from penetrating to the interiors.

The car was tested repeatedly by the company and sp cams have spotted the car at the Death Valley. Engineers are making it ready for a perfect launch, scheduled for 2011. The launch may likely occur in Detroit or Geneva and the company has given great expectations for the auto lovers around the globe although they are still to come out with the authentic tech-specs of the vehicle.

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According to our friends over at the Free Software Foundation, VLC Developer Rémi Denis-Courmont recently sent Apple “a formal notice of copyright infringement” concerning the VLC Media Player iOS application. Rémi, who contributed a fair amount of work to the desktop version, finds fault with the app’s distribution in violation of the terms and conditions of its GNU General Public License (GPL).

Applidium, developer of the iOS app, first submitted it back in September as an iPad-only app. At the time there was some question as to whether or not it would be accepted, but ultimately it was, and it even got an update in October to work on the iPhone as well. Although Applidium does make the source code for the iOS application available for public use, distributing it through the App Store still violates the specific wording of the license:

“Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients’ exercise of the rights granted herein.”

According to the terms of the GPL, distributors may not impose additional restrictions on recipients of licensed software beyond those terms laid out in the original license. Apple adds its own DRM and usage rules for every application distributed via the App Store, so it’s a clear violation. The whole idea of the GPL is that each time a licensed program is distributed, the recipient has the same rights to modify and redistribute that work under the same terms and conditions.

How will Apple react? More than likely it will pull VLC from the App Store, as it did when a similar problem cropped up several months ago regarding an iPhone port of GNU Go. In that situation Apple refused to modify its terms of service to account for applied GPL, and instead simply removed the app from the store.

If you haven’t yet grabbed your own copy of VLC for iOS (which is free), I’d suggest you do it soon. While I applaud Rémi for having the courage to stick to his principles, the spoiled child in me mourns for the loss of a great iOS application. Ultimately I think he’s right, though. VLC owes a lot of it’s success to the fact that it’s open source. I’d hate to see it’s success as a desktop application harmed by an ill-fated attempt to distribute it under iOS. On the other hand, I’ve already got my copy anyway.

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Say what?

Quantitative easing is a way central bankers can help boost economic growth.  It's a little controversial, but the idea is to create money out of nothing and to get it in the hands of bankers, businessmen, and consumers to spur economic activity.

So how does it work?

Well, the central bank kind of goes shopping.  The Fed, for example, will knock on the door of a bank and offer to buy up government bonds that the bank can't unload at a decent price.  The Fed buys the bonds with cash it's created and – voila! – the bank now has a pile of cash.  The hope is that the bank lends out the money so companies can grow and consumers spend.

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Will Trezeguet’s performance for Hercules be enough to catch Blanc’s attention?

If David Trezeguet has anything to say about it, then yes. On this Sunday’s edition of Telefoot, he declared himself “available” to Blanc should his former France teammate decide to call him up.

In the past, Trezeguet has not always been “available” to France’s previous coach, Raymond Domenech.  Trezeguet hasn’t been a consistent call-up for France since 2006 – supposedly because Domenech never really forgave him for missing his penalty in the 2006 World Cup final against Italy.  Since his last call up in 2008 (when he was chosen as a replacement for an injured Benzema), he has been absent from the national team due to competition in the striker position as well as a self-imposed international retirement. When explaining his reasons for retiring in 2008, he said the mains reasons were…

The awful Euro 2008 and the reappointment of the coach. I see football differently from how they see it in France. Euro 2008 was very negative, but what annoys me more is that Domenech is staying.

But if David really wants to return to the France side, he will have to convince Blanc that the team needs his leadership and experience.  Blanc has been staunch in his commitment to developing the next generation of French talent, something which Trezeguet has noted…

The coach’s speech was clear, he relies more on a new generation. If someday there is an opportunity to be reconvened [to the France national team], it could be something special for me.

Trezeguet has scored 5 goals for Hercules this season since his summer transfer from Juventus. For Les Bleus, he has 71 caps and 34 goals.  But will that be enough for him to surpass Benzema (Real Madrid), Payet (Saint-Etienne) and Remy (Marseille)?

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