We've got one last item to catch up on: remember how Apple and Pepsi are about to redo that whole iTunes song giveaway from last year? While there are plans to make it bigger and better than the original promo (200 million songs, a free iPod mini given away every hour, a fresh new citrus scent, etc.), many people are understandably concerned that Pepsi will muff the whole thing once more by forgetting to put yellow-capped bottles on shelves again until about thirty seconds before the giveaway ends. Sure, there are other possible ways for Pepsi to screw things up, such as by raising prices to $4.98 for a 20-ouncer or dipping each bottle in bat guano, but history indicates that neglecting to ship the game pieces is the likeliest scenario by far.

Well, you can unclench slightly; it looks like Pepsi learned its lesson, because cap distribution is reportedly already about a gazillion times better than it was last year. We've gotten reports from all over the country from viewers who've spotted isolated clusters of yellow-capped bottles already on store shelves and in vending machines-- and the promo doesn't even officially start until this Monday. Better yet, there have been multiple yellow-cap sightings in Los Angeles, a market that didn't get any game pieces in the last giveaway until it was practically too late to redeem them. No excuses this time around, folks; the goods are out there, so get ready to suck down fizzy sugar water by the gallon, all for the sake of feeding your iPod.

So in a few months, we'll get to see if lousy cap distribution was indeed the main factor in the last promo's truly pathetic 5 percent redemption rate, although the explosive increase in iPod users in the past year makes for a shockingly unscientific test. Personally, between the early shipment of yellow caps and all these new iPod users milling around, we're optimistically expecting something in the range of 20 percent success, which breaks down to 40 million free songs downloaded by customers in insulin shock. Given that Apple currently sells that many songs in a month, it's not as much of a potential boost to Apple's download count as it might have been, but hey, every little bit helps.

Incidentally, we're receiving conflicting reports on the status of The Tilt: some viewers tell us that current yellow-capped bottles have a pattern molded into the bottle's neck which makes peeking at the cap's underside impossible, while others say that nothing's changed and a quick tilt of the bottle will let you pick a winner every time. So what gives? Is Pepsi actually mixing in some unshipped yellow-capped bottles from last year's promo? Mmmm... old soda. Get chugging, folks!