There's been lots of rumors in the past about iTunes going to some sort of a cloud-based service, with the ability to store or access music remotely over the Internet, but the new word around town is that what's actually revealed at the event next week won't be quite so ambitious. Peter Kafka over at All Things Digital now says that instead of streaming, the new iTunes might be more social, with iTunes accounts serving as nodes on which users can share recommendations for apps or songs, or even share playlists or song information. You wouldn't actually be able to share music, but the idea would be to lay the groundwork on a more connected iTunes system, and set up the music software as not only a location to store your personal music, but to connect with others through the media.

Sounds interesting, and of course a rumor like that dovetails right into what Apple is working on with Game Center, where iTunes accounts will serve as the portal for connections in and around App Store games. This current round of speculation also includes improvements for the web-based version of iTunes pages, and presumably improved ways to browse and post app reviews and recommendations.

As always, we'll have to see. Nothing's confirmed until Steve walks out on stage and shows it to us, so even if Apple is working on a system like this, there's no confirmation we'll see it at the event next week until we, you know, do.

While it may not come as much of a surprise, it's still going to aggravate owners of aging PPC Macs that the upcoming Firefox 4 browser is probably going to drop support for the older architecture. Mozilla program manager Mike Beltzner noted that the next version of the open-source browser, currently in beta, is not working on PowerPC machines now and the update will not be automatically offered to them.

Computerworld points to two separate technologies in FF4 that are standing in the way of a PPC build: the OOPP isolated plugin system, which prevents browser extensions from gumming up the works; and the JIT (just in time) compiler for the new JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine, which sounds like a drunken simian but is actually supposed to speed up JavaScript compilation manyfold. Neither have a functional equivalent on the PowerPC.

It's not clear if the Camino browser, which does work on both Mac processor platforms and is based on the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine, will be able to update to the Gecko 2.0 platform that powers Firefox 4. In the same message thread, Beltzner allowed that developers could certainly work on a PPC version that left out the two problematic components, but that it most likely would not be allowed to carry the Firefox brand (which has happened before with custom optimized builds for specific architectures). He also pointed out that there aren't development resources within Mozilla to extend support for OOPP and the JIT compiler to PPC, and that outside help has not been forthcoming.

[via Download Squad]

A new update to iWork is providing some fixes to bugs (primarily with tables) in Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, but also provides a new export option that makes Pages documents compatible with iBooks.

The iWork 9.0.4 update is recommended for anyone using iWork 9.0 - 9.0.3. The fixes for Keynote include patching an issue that occurred when printing handouts with rule lines, resolving a problem with the slide switcher, and also fixes an issue when automatically resizing some images when changing the size of a slide.

Pages received the fix for tables, as well as the ePub export option. Numbers was impacted the least, with only the table fix being applied to the app.

The update is available via Software Update or can be downloaded from the Apple Support Downloads page. It's about 71.2 MB in size via Software Update. There's also a MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update for mid-2010 15-inch and 17-inch models.

Thanks to Michael K. for the tip!

A few days ago, Facebook divulged the number of users of its mobile apps. The most impressive figure from their posting also turned out to be the most controversial -- according to Facebook, more people were using its Facebook for iPhone app (104 million) than the actual number of iOS devices out there (around 100 million units, inclusive of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad).

Facebook has given Engadget revised figures: according to Facebook's spokesman, there's actually only 44 million Facebook for iPhone app users. Apparently, Facebook was initially counting as "active" any user who used the app at all. After excluding people who only "liked" or commented on stream stories, Facebook revised their "active monthly users" figure downward by 60 million.

44 million Facebook for iPhone users is still a substantial percentage of the iOS devices out there, but it's a number that makes far more sense than the earlier 104 million figure. Facebook certainly is ubiquitous, but it was stretching credibility to claim that virtually every iOS device out there was running its iOS app.

The Dev-Team has announced that there will be no jailbreak for iOS 4.0.2 or 3.2.2. It stands to reason, as the release did absolutely nothing other than patch the security hole that was using as an exploit. It's also not a big surprise, minor updates are regularly skipped over. So, if you're a "jailbreaker" and would like to keep it that way, just don't update to 4.0.2. You won't be missing out on anything.

The Dev-Team explains that escalating the "cat and mouse game" doesn't benefit the users, so they're letting this one ride. That's reasonable, too, as I reminisce about radar detectors, laser detectors and the cat and mouse game that happened between lead-foot citizens and law enforcement. No one really benefited, other than the electronics manufacturers who fuel that battle.

It's noted that any future jailbreak for the upcoming 4.1 firmware update might be backwards-compatible with 4.0.2, but don't pin any hopes on it. If you're interested in keeping your firmware up-to-date with the latest goodness, you probably wouldn't be considering that, anyway. Right?

All sorts of buzz in the blogosphere this afternoon after Plex, makers of a respected Mac-based digital media center application updated their blog with a cryptic hint that seems to point to next Wednesday's Apple event.

Plex provides a centralized way to access your media library from a simple TV interface -- think FrontRow on steroids. Many Mac mini-based media centers have been built around Plex.

So does Plex's post add weight to "Apple TV" refresh rumors? It certainly tantalizes.

Thanks, Robert