While many have criticized Apple for (debatably) giving its handheld lineup more priority than the Mac, it looks like sales aren't suffering because of it. Presumably due (at least in part) to the halo effect stirred by Apple's marketing blitz of its iPhone and iPod, Apple's US personal computer shipments for Q2 of this year landed them in a tie with the once mighty Gateway in terms of American market share. Granted, Gateway did have a few more shipments than Apple, but if Gateway continues to fade and Macs continue to move, we could see Cupertino raising up the bronze (outright) here soon. Attaboy Steve -- just snag 18-percent more of the market and second place is all yours.

Sure, moving 100,000 units doesn't seem all that extraordinary when you consider that Microsoft managed to foist off 92,000 of its own add-ons last Christmas, but the number does manage to garner a bit more respect when you realize that the Xbox 360 addition nor HD DVD PC drives are included in it. The North American HD-DVD Promotional Group is now claiming that sales of set-top HD DVD players have finally hit the 100k mark, presumably ready to smack down that Blu-ray supremacy talk and prove that the recent surge in disc sales was more than a well-planned fluke. Of course, claiming the feat really says nothing in the grand scheme of the ongoing format war, but we can officially start the countdown until the Blu-ray camp proudly trounces these figures and yet again claims momentary dominance.

[Via TGDaily]

Okay, so we're not waxing rhapsodic about a conspiracy theory just yet, but seriously, why can't the general public get a few hard numbers regarding the HD DVD / Blu-ray format war? Since both formats hit the market, we've all been wondering who would be the leader in terms of disc sales once the holiday season was behind us, and although Nielsen VideoScan has finally loosed the deets, we're still (relatively) in the dark. We've wondered exactly what was taking so long for these data to surface, but instead of VideoScan perfecting their report, it has apparently delayed the information only to release several inconclusive "charts" and "ratios" that, quite frankly, aren't what we all want. For whatever it's (not) worth, it looks like Blu-ray titles outsold HD DVD titles by a 2:1 margin during the admittedly slow first two weeks of 2007, but overall, we're still stuck analyzing Amazon's sales figures while trying to piece together the truth. Still, if you're more interested in having the best of both worlds regardless of which is on top (or still around) in a couple years, you know where to go.

[Thanks, Jed]

TiVo's transformation from a ad-skipper's best friend to an ad agency's biggest asset is nearly complete, as the firm's StopWatch system is aimed to provide "second-by-second" viewing data which Nielsen has refused to offer thus far. While the company went public about its intentions to become an ad-friendly platform awhile back, it looks like the time has come for its voyeuristic service to go live, as it begins marketing a system to carefully watch its 4.5 million or so customers whiz through commercials and schedule season recordings. This indeed marks the "first time a syndicated ratings service has detailed live and time-shifted viewing data on a second-by-second basis," which advertisers should absolutely drool over. Notably, Starcom has already signed on as TiVo's first taker, and with the amount of critical data now available to media agencies, we hardly believe it'll be the last. So the next time you crank up your TiVo and cruise on by every single costly commercial on your favorite recorded drama, take comfort in the fact that Big Brother is taking notes on a moment-by-moment basis.

[Via PVRWire]