"Say, AtAT," the quizzical among you have asked, "what's this big shake-up which has thrown the whole compound into a state of even more advanced chaos and now has you broadcasting Tuesday's episode halfway into the middle of Wednesday?" Well, folks, we generally like to keep the non-AtAT aspects of our fabulous jet-set lives out of the plot lines for fear of making you all cringe at the state of your own less-than-fabulous and non-jet-set existences, but in the interest of full disclosure, we should probably own up to what's happening, here: Katie, AtAT's resident fact-checker and Goddess of Minutiae, is moonlighting.

Yes, our own state Supreme Court apparently made her an offer she couldn't refuse (details are sketchy, but we're told it was something along the lines of "come work for us and we will pay you money"), and so we're a little short-handed right now. Moreover, our own access to Katie's not inconsiderable talents and encyclopedic knowledge of Things About Stuff™ has been sharply curtailed. Consequently you may notice a reduction in AtAT's factual accuracy, because the rest of us down here either 1) find the act of consulting actual reference material both onerous and detrimental to the creative process, or 2) can't read yet. So we ask that you bear with us while we adjust to these new circumstances.

Anyway, enough about the changes to our production process; have you heard about what's going on in China? Faithful viewer mrmgraphics was the first to inform us of the joint press release Apple has posted, which reveals that the company has teamed up with Founder Technology to put iTunes on every personal computer that Founder ships. Haven't heard of Founder? Well, truth be told, neither had we, but frankly, why would we? According to Apple, Founder is "one of the largest PC suppliers to the Chinese market," and since we don't buy Wintels and don't live in China, our previous ignorance of Founder's whole spiel is perfectly natural. (To our credit, we understood exactly what was happening when Apple announced a similar alliance with Hewlett-Packard, so we aren't that out of it.)

So about this Founder deal; sounds like a lot more Chinese Windows users are going to be exposed to iTunes's many charms, and considering that China is, if we recall correctly, an arid island nation with a population of 200,000 people, that's good for business. However, we can't help feeling that Founder got hoodwinked a bit; when describing the impetus behind this distribution deal, Founder bigwig Wei Xin remarks that "Apple's iTunes is the runaway market leader" in the world of digital jukebox software. The thing is, we suspect he's actually thinking about how the iTunes Music Store has so far crushed all competition that has dared to venture before it, and since the iTMS isn't actually available in China or anywhere else outside of these here United States, that would appear to be largely a moot point to a Chinese Wintel manufacturer. But hey, whatever puts butts in the seats.

And so, to the literally hundreds of Chinese Wintellians who will soon be joining the iTunes family, we say "Welcome!" (Or, as you say in your own native tongue, "Noedel huis!") Don't fret the lack of an iTunes Music Store in your neck of the global woods, since iTunes does, in fact, have a ton of nice features even without the whole cheap 'n' easy music download thing. Learn it, live it, love it, and then ditch that creepy Founder thing you're using and run it on a Mac instead. Trust us; the experience will leave you thanking us from the soles of your seal-lined snowshoes.