Apple finally launched the Japanese version of its iTunes Music Store today, but less widely reported tie-ins with three major car makers will probably have a greater impact on the company's fortunes.

Simply place your iPod into the TuneDok and let our secure, suction-cup functionality keep it easily accessible. TuneDok provides security and stability, along with flexible construction for a perfect fit in your car's cup-holder console. With its innovative height-adjustment capability, our ratcheting-neck feature lets you reposition your iPod easily. The cable-management clip eliminates loose and tangled cords--and this helps keep your iPod experience simple as you drive.

Apple, yesterday, announced their 3rd quarter 2005 financial results: Apple said net income for its third fiscal quarter ended June 25 rose to $320 million, or 37 cents per share, from $61 million, or 8 cents a share, a year ago, on a split-adjusted basis.

The incredibly successful iTunes Music Store is nearing its 500 millionth song download. In celebration of reaching this half billlion mark, Apple is running the 500 Millionth Download Promotion, wherein the purchaser of every 100,000th song until the 500 millionth is sold will receive an iPod mini and a 50-song iTMS gift card. What's more, the individual who downloads the 500 millionth song will receive the grand prize of:

Apple has issued a press release announcing that the company is merging the iPod and iPod photo lines of digital music players.

At 10AM PDT today, Steve Jobs will kick off the Apple WWDC 2005. The World Wide Developer Conference is a yearly gathering where Apple and outside developers can get close and discuss the latest in Mac OS X development technology, see what's on the horizon, etc. Occasionally hardware rollouts take place during the keynote, but nothing iPod related is expected for this round. You never know until it's underway, however.... We will keep readers posted on any iPod-related news that may emerge.

However, the combination of this desirability with the technical superiority of the new Tiger operating system makes the Apple computer a much stronger alternative to Windows PCs.

Apple recently released it's second quarter financial results, covering the quarter that ended on March 26, 2005. For the quarter, Apple posted a $290 million profit-a notable increase over the year-ago quarter's profits of $46 million. Revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter showed an increase of 70 percent from the year-ago quarter.

The iPod mini: The previous mini, the 4GB unit (1000 songs), dropped in price to $199 to make way for a new 6GB unit (1500 songs) that retails for $249. The new minis are available in blue, pink, green, and silver. The control icons on the click wheel now match the case color.

Today marks the official start of the second round of the Pepsi iTunes Music Promotion. The first winning bottlecaps appeared in Los Angeles, CA last week but unredeemable until today. One in three caps of specially marked bottles of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Sierra Mist, and Mountain Dew contain a winning code redeemable at the iTunes Music Store for one free song. The full set of official contest rules can be found here.