Apple's 91-day quarter yields some impressive numbers -- take them apart a little and you get the kind of stats you can reel off at a dinner party without being seen as too utterly crushing a bore, for example, did you know there's one iPhone being sold for every two people being born into this world today?

Apple sold 16.24 million iPhones in the December quarter. That sure is a lot of iPhones, and while dwarfed by the 650 million bottles of Heinz Ketchup sold around the world each year means Apple sells more iPhones each year than there are cars sold worldwide.

"Take iPod for example -- very expensive, only worked with Macs (latest with firewire). Then USB solution came, but still PCs didn't have iTunes, thus significant work arounds required. Nobody took Apple seriously on iPod -- too expensive & minute addressable market.

"Couple, three years later -- all in rapid succession -- Apple releases iTunes for Windows, iTunes Music Store, cut prices and introduced the iPod mini. Within 9-12 months iPod share exploded from 20-30% to 70-80%. Just like that Apple had sewn it up. It was too late for competitors. None of any valiant attempts were able to dent iPod share thus they folded their hands in concession. iPod created a new market.

After downloading the desired firmware below, you can shift-click (PC) or option-click (Mac) the Restore or Update buttons in iTunes. A file dialog will open and let you choose the downloaded ipsw-file.

Note: Your browser may change the ipsw-file into a zip-file. In that case, just rename it to end in .ipsw and iTunes will accept it.

The iPod was never sold on the grounds of its technical merits: Apple hit a gold-mine by marketing a cool new way of integrating music in your life. Even when Apple announced the iPod with video, it presented it not as the best multi-media player in the universe, but as a cool new way of watching "Desperate Housewives" and other TV shows.

In the seemingly never-ending debate about Apple's successes, announcements, new products and predicted-but-unannounced über-gadgets, features and technical specifications often seem to dominate the debate. Yet if there's one lesson to be learned from the company's recent successes, it is a very simple one: features don't matter any more.

Welcome to the Age of User Experience.

Kottke tipsar om en smart spellista för iTunes.

Mark Pilgrim om hur man konverterar video för att passa för iPod 5G.

Ars Technica visar hur man gör för att få över videofilmer till en iPod video, både från mac och pc.

En utmärkt guide från Mark Pilgrim om hur man rippar DVD för nya iPod video med hjälp av det fria programmet Handbrake.

Mac Observer sammanfattar en intressant intervju med Steve Jobs om Apple och vägen fram till OS X. Här får vi bland annat veta att det var när Adobe tackade nej till samarbete som Apple valde att göra egna program för digital video.

Upplever du att din iPod favoriserar visa låtar? Apples tekniker försäkrar att det verkligen är slumpmässigt. Det är antagligen din hjärna som letar mönster som inte finns.

En artikel från BBC News om att 1000 låtar är den perfekta storleken för en bärbar musikspelare

En närmare titt på iPod Photo, framförallt med en del intressanta knappkombinationer som ger tillgång till gömda lägen.

En tillbakablick på en Wired-artikel från 1997 när vissa trodde Apple skulle dö.

En bild som tydligt visar hur fet nya iPod Photo är.