Only Internet-years behind the rest of the cell phone toting, SMS messaging texting world, iPhone users are finally able to send MMS messages. MMS messages are “Multimedia Messaging Service” messages, meaning that instead of just text, you can send multimedia items such as pictures and videos.

Microsoft announced some time ago that it was going to set up Microsoft stores, similar to Apple’s highly successful Apple store. But it seems that Microsoft doesn’t think that imitation is the only form of flattery. Apparently actually poaching Apple’s employees to run the new Microsoft stores is right up there too.

No matter how snazzy a cell phone is, it’s only as good as the carrier that is servicing it. And in the case of the iPhone, it turns out that it is straining Ma Bell’s system to the point that AT and T’s 9 million iPhone users are disproportionately dragging down AT and T’s network infrastructure.

Are you getting the message “Unable to locate New York 18 font” when running a Mac application or game such as Oregon Trail 5? Are you looking for a way to download the New York 18 font? The problem is that the New York 18 font went the way of the Mac Classic OS environment, ending with OS 9, and which stopped being included with any Mac OS install after OS X 10.4. This can be very frustrating if you are trying to run an application which require that darned New York 18 font! But fear not, because the fix is pretty easy. In fact, the good news is that the New York 18 font may be as close as your Mac hard drive; and if it’s not, we’ll tell you where to download the New York 18 font.

David Molnar over at Ephermata had a great idea. His girlfriend was moving from Chicago to California, and he thought “Hey, let’s track her stuff as the movers take it cross-country.” He did it using a $99 iPhone and the “Find My iPhone” service included with Apple’s Mobile Me, and it worked really well. So well, in fact, that he discovered that it’s possible to track anyone using their own iPhone, and doing so is pretty trivial.

From our “Now I’ve heard it all” department, Gregory McKenna (misreported in many articles as “George McKenna”) is suing, among others, the St. Louis County Police Department, the FBI, and Apple Computers for allegedly allowing the Mafia to bug his iPods (along with his house, his cars, and more) and allowing them to play sinister songs with hidden messages to him on his iPods.

iTunes won’t sync with your Palm Pre or other smart phone, when previously it would? Your Palm Pre isn’t broken – Apple has intentionally disabled the ability for non-iPod or iPhone phones to synch with iTunes in it’s newest version of iTunes, iTunes 8.2.1.

It was a seemingly watershed moment in iTunes history. Earlier this year, Apple finally broke down and did away with their previously iron-clad pricing structure of .99 for any song in the iTunes catalog. Instead, they introduced their “iTunes Variable Pricing”, meaning that you might pay any of .66, .99, or $1.29 for a tune. But what makes this really interesting is that, in addition, now the entirety of Apple’s iTunes music catalog has lost the Apple-proprietary digital rights management (DRM) and is DRM-free, which is the + in “iTunes Plus”.

Microsoft has announced the new HD Zune (“Zune HD”), which features HD video (along the lines of high definition TV (HDTV)), as well as HD radio. In the portable MP3 player wars, this leapfrogs the Zune ahead of the iPod Touch, with the Microsoft Zune being the first to market with HD video and the first to market with one of the first portable HD radio receivers anywhere.

Apple has just publicly copped to the fact that you can get a “small and quick electrical (static) shock from your ear buds while listening to iPod or iPhone.” The problem is not specific to the Apple ear bud type of head phones (those headsets that fit into the opening of your ear canal), but rather is specific to iPod and iPhone, and other sorts of MP3 players, and can happen with any brand of earbud.

If you have found yourself wondering “Where are my image files stored in iPhoto?” or “How can I find the actual pictures in my iPhoto library?”, well, you’re not alone. Judging by the number of people searching to find out where iPhoto stores their picture files, it’s a pretty common question. Fortunately, it’s very easy to find your image files; your Mac and iPhoto actually hide them in plain sight!

Rumours of an Apple Media Pad – a cellular-enabled touch-screen device larger than an iPhone but smaller than a traditional laptop or tablet – are swirling. And it would seem that rumours of the Mac Media Pad are more than just rumours, as industry insiders confirm the imminant announcement of the Apple Media Pad (which may be or be the precursor to the much-awaited Apple Tablet), as well as that they are to be offered through Verizon, along with a Verizon iPhone light version. (Although it won’t be called “iPhone Lite”, it is rumoured to be a stripped-down version of the iPhone, modified to work on the Verizon CDMA network.)

If you believe that Apple really manually reviews and approves (or disapproves) every iPhone application before it can be sold through iTunes, then you have to believe that Apple inexplicably approved an application that simulates a crying baby which can only be quieted by shaking it to death (demonstrated by the cessation of the crying, and red Xs over its eyes).

Oh goody. The anti-privacy folks at Flexi Spy, who brought you cell phone tapping software for Nokia 60, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile phones back in 2007, have just announced a new iPhone cellphone spying software version of FlexiSpy. Whee!

For those of you who are easily offended, stop reading right now. Otherwise, well, you have to know where to draw the line, and Apple apparently does. Flatulence is in – jiggling breasts are out. That is the message behind Apple’s banning the newly minted iPhone iBoobs application, while iFart has rocketed to become the #1 in the iPhone appstore (the applications store).