Apple Chairman Steve Jobs has always wanted Apple to “change the world.” Of course it has, but only the wealthy, tech-savvy, privileged part of the world. Despite its incredible success, Apple hasn’t changed the world for billions of poor people.

To date, Apple has changed the world only by solving only first-world problems: “My Windows laptop came loaded with crapware and stickers.” “My PC is noisy and ugly.” “I hate audio CDs and CD players.” “My cell phone is counterintuitive.” “I want to surf the web while watching TV, but my netbook sucks.”

These are the kinds of problems Apple has solved for millions of people.

But there are bigger problems out there that Apple is in a unique position to solve.

In fact, a single solution could help solve five real problems, and change the world in five meaningful ways. It could even accelerate Apple’s phenomenal growth.

I challenge incoming CEO Tim Cook to consider the following proposal.

Here’s the latest twist in the story of an early iPad buyer who had his pinky torn so a thief could get his hands on Apple’s must-have device.

Brandon Smith, 22, pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated robbery and second-degree assault, the Denver District Attorney’s Office announced.

The plea isn’t completely out of nowhere: the scales were looking weighted after Smith reportedly thought his theft case would go away if the victim was ‘eliminated.’

Reiterating previous reports that Sprint will be getting the iPhone 5 in the coming weeks, a leaked internal Sprint memo reveals that the carrier is blacking out the first two weeks of October for the “possibility of a major phone launch.”

Sprint employees are not allowed to take vacations between September 30th and October 15th. After all, Sprint will need as many hands on deck as possible to deal with all of its new iPhone customers.

The PowerSkin for iPhone 4 ($80) is a silicone case with a built-in rechargeable 2,000 mAh battery that claims to double your device’s battery life with patented “XPAL Power” battery technology. Like most battery cases, it uses a mini-USB port to charge and sync your iPhone simultaneously, and you can turn the case on and off when necessary. The four-LED battery indicator will let you know how much juice you have remaining at the touch of a button.

Steve Jobs is NOT dead — it’s a screw-up by CBS.

The rumor — which is lighting up Twitter like crazy — was caused by an errant tweet from CBS’s “What’s Trending” feed. The tweet said:

“Reports say that Steve Jobs has passed away. Stay tuned for more updates.”

But CBS has now pulled the tweet and kinda apologized:

“Reports of Steve Job’s [sic] death completely unconfirmed.”

So, they don’t know one way or the other.

We’ve called Apple and left messages all over the PR department. The one live person we talked to said they’d get back to us shortly. But there obviously wasn’t a fire drill there, so it’s safe to assume Steve is still alive.

We showed you our final round of the ‘Coolest Mac Setups’ gallery yesterday, and now we’re starting a new reader submitted series called “Me and My Mac.”

Happy Friday, developers! Apple has seeded iTunes 10.5 beta 8 and iWork beta 3 for iOS in the Developer Center.

The update fixes several performance bugs and adds updates to iTunes Match.

When they aren’t just accidentally losing their prototypes in bars, the security around Apple’s prototypes can be quite impressive. Just listen to what some early-access devs had to go through to check out the original iPad before it was released. The only thing they didn’t have to acquiesce to is wearing explosive collars around their necks.

You might remember a security kerfuffle from a few weeks ago involving DigiNotar issuing compromised security certificates to websites after being hacked, including one for Gmail. Well, Apple’s just fixed that at the root level of OS X Lion and Snow Leopard 10.6.8 with the latest Security Update.

Timing is everything. That could be the message from news Apple’s chief iPad 2 supplier is expected to churn out 20 million of the tablets for the third quarter – just in time for the all-important holiday sales period. Shipments of the iPad 2 for the quarter were already expected to hit 14 million, thus topping the last period’s 9.25 million tablets Apple sold.

When Sprint gets the iPhone 5 next month, expect it to differentiate itself from Verizon and AT&T with a truly unlimited data plan. Better? Unlimited data might not just be a bait-and-switch tactic to get new customers, quickly phased out in favor of 2GB data plans, but a permanent incentive to sign up with Sprint.

Apple’s iPhone again ranks as the most satisfying smartphone by JD Powers’ customer survey. This makes the fifth year the handset has been listed on top, scoring 795 in customer satisfaction. Motorola placed second while legal nemesis Samsung was dead last in customer satisfaction.

It was a tragic week in Cupertino as Allen “Skip” Haughay — a popular iPod engineer and six-year Apple veteran — was struck and killed by a truck in San Jose, California while riding his cherished horse, Regal Bull.

Lowe’s, the nationwide chain of handyman havens, is planning a new tool for the do-it-yourself consumer: an iPhone app able to store your home’s layout along with all the items needed for that weekend project. Meanwhile, 42,000 Lowe employees will get iPhone 4s enabling them to take customer orders and answer questions.

In the case of a German judge, looks are everything when deciding to permanently ban Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in that European nation. “For the informed customer there remains the predominant overall impression that the device looks” like Apple’s iPad, a Dusseldorf court ruled Friday.

Following the mysterious increase to shipping times for a number of Apple products yesterday — and the speculation that followed — it seems the Cupertino company has decided to remove shipping times completely from its online store.

Today the tip is for all you neat freaks out there. I get pretty sloppy when I’m working on a project and I tend to leave a bunch of different files on my Finder desktop. I tend to gather all these up after I complete the  project and later I throw them into a folder. I used to do it the hard way, but not any more.

“We will find you and redefine the experience of genital torture.”

Don’t mess with Lars Vortiz, president of Apple’s internal Torture Division!

Apple’s plans to build a ‘spaceship’ campus in Cupertino have had us all in awe over its magnificent design which will take up a whopping 3.1 million square-feet of land. However, not everyone in Cupertino is looking forward to ‘Apple Campus 2’.

While blogging services like Posterous, Tumblr, and WordPress have long catered to those of use who like to write up posts on our iPhones, Google made us wait a long time for an iPhone app for Blogger. But now it’s finally here, and it does a great job.

Wireless networking is de rigeur these days, but in large buildings or crowded urban environments it can sometimes be difficult to get connections working reliably throughout a facility. Extending your WiFi network allows you to provide strong coverage through a home or workplace while allowing wireless devices to roam about and keep connectivity.

The most reliable way I’ve found to extend WiFi network coverage is to create a single network with multiple Wireless Access Points, connected via a wired backbone to a single internet router. Here’s how this is done.

Following its move to shun T-Mobile and begin selling Verizon devices instead, a screenshot from Radio Shack’s internal system reveals the retailer is set to begin selling the CDMA model of Apple’s iPhone, and its iPad 2, from September 15.

That’s right, folks — that downtime earlier today wasn’t to introduce new products, but to update the online store instead. Apple has made purchasing the iPad 2 a much nicer experience, and seems to have tweaked things behind the scenes to make its online store a lot snappier.

The Apple Store is currently down. Nothing is rumored, AFAIK, but we all know that Apple loves surprises. Let’s hope it’s something big!

Anyone got any wishes?

Thanks Steven in Settle.

Pioneer has just launched its own versions of an AirPlay-equipped system, and they’re characteristically bigger and badder than the rest of the crowd.