If you’ve been hanging around in Apple’s developer center since iTunes 5 beta 8 dropped last week, impatiently awaiting the release of iOS 5 beta 8, you might want to give yourself a break. According to a “trusted source,” the eighth beta of Apple’s next major iOS firmware will not drop until this Friday, with the Gold Master release scheduled for September 23.

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.

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.

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.

For those concerned Android was catching up with Apple’s iPad, JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz has this message: stop your worrying. “Beyond the iPad, there has not been another high-volume tablet offering, yet,” he told investors Thursday. When one does, don’t look to Mountain View, but Microsoft for a credible Apple competitor.

Apple has a pretty long and storied history naming their products after celebrities. In fact, it goes way back to 1994, when Apple’s engineers code-named the Power Mac 7100 “Carl Sagan” because they hoped to sell “billions and billions” of them. Sagan C&Ded Apple over the codename, which prompted Apple’s engineers to rename the computer internally to the BHA, or “Butt-Head Astronomer.”

Now reports indicate that Apple’s at it again, calling iOS 5’s upcoming Shortcut text-expansion feature after another butthead, Ashton Kutcher.

Have you ever attempted to read the whole iTunes Software License Agreement after installation? No, me neither. And there’s one good reason for that: it’s so dull it makes me want to gauge out my eyeballs and smash up my Mac. But one grab student has transformed the endlessly boring body of text into a pain-free masterpiece that even Apple itself would be proud of. 

Bigger isn’t better, smartphone makers are learning at a Berlin trade show of new devices going up against Apple’s iPhone. After striking out with pricing and features, competitors are now turning to larger screens as a way to set themselves apart. One minor problem: consumers hate them.

In typical Apple fashion, the company is keeping the release date for iOS 5 and the accompanying iCloud service a big secret, but the launch of these products could be right around the corner. According to screenshots taken from its internal RetailMe application, Apple has now begun training retail store staff for the upcoming release of its new services.