Just as we promised in last week's Weekend Warrior feature, we kept a close eye on the aftermath of Apple's new releases and found that the Cupertino-based company had nothing but good things going for them this week. As a result, the homebrew community was also optimistic in its efforts to deliver substantial alternatives for iPhone users who are looking for goodies outside of the Apple box. Find out more of what we were able to cover over the past week in our full article.

Recent reports from Gartner's Client Computing Markets group revealed that Apple is now one of the top three PC vendors in North America. The Cupertino-based company saw phenomenal sales during the second quarter of the year, with a spike of 38% in sales alongside Dell and HP. Find out more in our full article after the jump.

As the week closes, we proudly announce the first issue of the Weekend Warrior of PC Gaming - an article dedicated to games and gaming on the birth platform of the most popular franchises to date. We'll be tackling the still-hots and what-nots of the week from the most-talked about mainstream games, as well as ushering in a little of the independent scene as well. But we'll also juggle around with the platform's latest technological advancements, plus the new drive to revitalize PC gaming. A hailstorm follows at the full story.

Gartner Inc., considered the PC industry's leading technological research and advisory company has just corrected EA DICE's Ben Cousins' approximations of the PC hardware install base - it's not just hundreds of millions. According to Gartner, there's already more than 1 billion PCs used all over the world, and if the hardware adoption rate continues, it will reach 2 billion by 2014. That's close to a third of the world's total population. Facts and more at the full story.

Ever wonder when we'll ever see a 3G-compatible Apple iPhone? Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney thinks that we won't have to wait very long, and we won't be running out of stock soon either. Read more on what Ken Dulaney has to say about the iPhone's future, based on information he's received from certain Asian circles. All the information after the jump.

While it's good news that Intel and Micron introduced the fastest NAND flash memory chip to date, there's more good news on the horizon. A substantial decline in the price of NAND flash memory has gadget companies in a race to bring forward tech with larger storage capacities and lower pricetags. Details in the full article.

The iPod was a success - the iPhone was a success - the iPod Touch is a success. The effect? The word is spreading and the Mac is more popular than ever: research indicates that the company may move to become third strongest computer company in the US when it releases its latest quarterly report.

Currently, Apple may be moving at a faster pace than Microsoft which took nearly seven years to launch the Vista after Windows XP. Apple, on the other hand, is releasing a new operating system almost every year. Their latest, the Leopard version of the OS X, will actually be released this Friday.

Steve Jobs, on comparing the Vista and Leopard, commented that Apple's gives more value for money than Microsoft's Ultimate Edition (Vista's most elite version): "Everybody gets the Ultimate edition and it sells for 129 bucks, [...] the Ultimate edition of Vista [...] sells for 250 bucks."

Apple is particularly popular for its laptops. Two-thirds of a Apple machines sold in the US are laptops. In terms of revenue, Apple already outstripped the competition (because their machines are [generally] more expensive). A lot of their consumers are former Windows users who have crossed over to the other side, partly in thanks to the success of the iPod and iPhone.

The research firm Gartner has forecasted that Apple will rise 37% in the market. And if Leopard continues the tradition and sweeps the market off its feet, what's Apple's plan? Upgrades. Lots of product upgrades for the Leopard that might last for as long as a decade, says Jobs.

Research group Gartner has released the preliminary results of their Q3 2007 marketing report, which indicates Apple Inc.'s share of the U.S. computer market to be at 8.1%. As a point of comparison, Apple's market shares from the same time frame last year were at 6.2% - this indicates that the company enjoyed a 37.2% boost in growth compared to last year's figures.

Delving into these figures further, we find that Apple's U.S.-based Mac shipments for Q3 2007 totalled at around 1,338,000. The figures for last year are recorded to be 975,000 shipments. The Gartner report marks Apple as holding the third largest share among the U.S. PC market's top five vendors, although the company has experienced the biggest year-to-year growth among its competitors.

Hewlett-Packard experienced similar growth, with its market share increasing by 16.5% as compared to its figures from last year. Toshiba, just below Apple in Gartner's top five, reports 16.3% growth, while current market leader Dell experienced a 5.5% drop.

It'll be interesting to see how far Apple will go in the near future, or how the recently announced  Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 will affect their future sales.

Many phones with access to email are now available in the market, and there is no need to spend big bucks to afford a phone with such feature. Given that more people are demanding email on the go, research firm Gartner believes that SMS would soon be a goner.

According to the firm, one of five people will be using mobile email by 2010. 20 million wireless email users today will grow to a whopping 350 million on the same year, said firm's research vice president Monica Blasso. She noticed that the availability of low-cost phones with mobile email functions is driving consumer adaptation.

"Once email becomes available more or less free of charge by default on your mobile handset, people will gravitate to that rather than just continuing to use SMS," added Robin Simpson, mobile and wireless research director at Gartner Australasia. This is due to mobile email access being offered free as part of mobile phone contracts in Australia, he said.

According to Simpson, low mobile email uptake in Australia can be credited to high costs, but competition between carriers like Hutchison 3 and Virgin Mobile will drop prices rapidly. "The interesting thing is that SMS, if you look at it in terms of actual cost for the data, is really expensive, and where we're heading is you'll get a free email package when you sign up to your monthly plan," he continued.

Call history. Calculator. Multiple ringtones. Text Messaging. These are just a few of the features mobile phone users take for granted. At a glance, one may think that little by little, mobile phones are conquering the landline phone market.

But think again. Despite the booming technology of mobile phones (ever-increasing file storage space, increasing camera pixels and whatnot), more people and businesses still cling to their desktop phones.

Cisco Systems, Avaya Inc, as well as many other telephony companies have developed advanced mobile communications solutions, such as dual-mode phones that work with extension dialing that comes with PBX (private branch exchange) systems, even on the go. Another variant, which are softphones for laptops, are also adding more features and are decidedly more user-friendly than desktop and landline phones.

However, despite of all the improvements that mobile communications has to offer, many people still prefer using the more traditional landlines as well as their Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) counterparts. "People still relate to their physical phone. It's like their office space. It's very near and dear to their hearts," said a network administrator from a Canadian engineering company, who asked to remain anonymous.

There are more reasons beside mere sentimentality. There are the still-recurring issues that plague mobile phones, such as lesser sound quality compared to their more traditional siblings, and the softphones' dependence on PC performance.

With about 500 million users, desktop and landline phones can't be phased out that easily. "It would take about five to seven years for wireless phones to replace wired," according to Ken Dulaney, mobility analyst for Gartner Inc.