While you were sleeping last night Mozilla launched a long-awaited update to Firefox. The open source web browser that has everything now has more of it.

Firefox 3.5 makes surfing the Web easier and more enjoyable with exciting new features and platform updates that allow Web developers to create the next generation of Web content. Native support for open video and audio, private browsing, and support for the newest Web technologies will enable richer, more interactive online experiences.

Flash crashes in Safari far more often than it crashes in Firefox.

Newsweek’s Daniel Lyons on Apple:

Apple is looking like what Microsoft was 10 years ago—a Bigfoot…

He’s the same Daniel Lyons who wrote the delightfully insightful Fake Steve series. Elsewhere:

Bully behavior also invites backlash, as it did for Microsoft when that company rose to power in the 1990s.

Amen. Apple as struggling underdog is a great story, a company with great products and loyal customers. Apple as bully is just Microsoft with a different logo.

There’s lies, damned lies, and statistics. One stat that should raise an eyebrow or two among Apple’s Mac competitors is NPD’s latest. It’s not market share that’s important. It’s revenue and profit share, especially of the more lucrative segments. Joe Wilcox:

Move over Microsoft. Apple can claim big, big market share numbers, too. According to NPD, in June, nine out of 10 dollars spent on computers costing $1,000 or more went to Apple. Mac revenue market share in the “premium” price segment was 91 percent, up from 88 percent in May.

Microsoft’s Windows is fast becoming the Walmart of desktop operating systems, only attractive to the low price crowd.

Apple’s financials for fiscal 4th quarter, 2009:

The Company posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.6 percent, up from 34.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

From CNNMoney.com:

• Mac sales: 3.05 million units, up 17.3% year over year
• iPhone sales: 7.4 million units, up 41% from last year
• iPod sales: 10.2 million, down from just over 11 million a year ago
• iPod touch sales were up 100% from last year
• Gross margin: 36.3%, up from 34.7% last year
• Cash: $34 billion, up $2.9 billion from $31.1 billion last quarter
• Guidance for the December quarter: revenue between $11.3 and $11.6 billion, EPS between $1.70 and $1.78, gross margin 34%

All this during a crummy economy.

How many ways can we watch movies, or TV shows, or play music on our Macs? Adobe gives us one more—the Adobe Media Player, or, AMP, which uses Adobe’s AIR platform. A good first look of Adobe’s newest Flash comes from Peter Cohen of Macworld:

AMP is an interesting way for Adobe to leverage Flash video away from its “traditional” place on Web pages. The technology works reasonably well on the Mac. For now, there’s a relative paucity of compelling content, and nothing unique to AIR to make it a “must have” product.

ArsTechnica calls it an “AIR Ball”.