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Apple's acquisition of mobile assistant Siri and its partnership with speech recognition leader Nuance Communications (the latter confirmed by references found in code), appear to be coming together in the launch of a new feature called "Assistant," to appear in the forthcoming update to iOS 5, Apple's mobile operating system.

According to leaked information, it appears that the smart technology found in the Siri iPhone application will now be fully baked into the operating system itself. With Nuance's ability to understand natural language queries, iOS 5 will have it all - voice navigation, voice control and voice assistance - allowing users to go beyond simple search and basic actions. When Siri's technology is fully integrated, users will be able to direct their iPhone to actually "do" things, too.

This week the firm Strategy Analytics released research indicating that although Apple shipped nearly three times as many iPads in Q2 2011 as it did in Q2 2010, the company has fallen from a marketshare of 94% to one of 61%. That's because Android shipments have surged to 30.1% marketshare. Microsoft has a 4.6% share and RIM has 3.3%.

However: 1) Shipments don't necessarily equal sales and 2) Consumers may be adopting Android tablets not, but according to data released (PDF) by Good Technology, Enterprises were still activating iOS devices at a much faster rate than Android devices in Q2.

OS X Lion, Apple's newest version of the Mac operating system, launching today, represents a first effort at blending Apple's mobile platform made popular by the ubiquitous iPhone with that of the desktop. Several features found in Lion seem inspired by the mobile experience, from full-screen apps to multi-touch gestures, both now commonplace on mobile devices.

But can the mobile and desktop platforms ever truly merge? That's a question that neither Apple nor its competitors have yet to answer.

Today Apple released its third quarter earnings. Perusing the revenue figures, I was struck by just how much the iPhone and iPad have overtaken computers and music as Apple's main form of revenue. The iPhone and iPad combined now make up 68% of Apple's entire revenue, compared to just 18% for what were (until the last couple of years) considered the main form of computers: desktops and "portables." What's more, music is now a relatively small part of Apple's revenue - the iPod contributes just 4.6% and iTunes sales about 5.5%.

Specifically, the iPhone is responsible for nearly half of Apple's revenue (46.6% to be precise). The iPad contributes 21.2% towards Apple's revenue. Computers, both desktops and portables (MacBooks), contribute just 17.9% of Apple's total revenue. It's been no secret that iPhones and iPads are very profitable for Apple, but these figures ram home just how much the computing world has changed. Who would've thought even five years ago that computers and music combined would make up less than 30% of Apple's revenue?

It's quarterly earnings season, and following Google's solid report last week, all eyes were on Cupertino today as it was Apple's turn to boast. And boast it did, announcing an all-time record revenue ($28.57 billion) and record quarterly profit ($7.31 billion).

No surprise, these numbers were fueled by the continuing popularity of the iPhone and iPad. Apple says it sold 20.34 million iPhones in its third fiscal quarter, up 142% from the third quarter of 2010. It also sold 9.25 million iPads - every unit that Apple could produce - resulting in a 183% increase in units sold from the same time last year. These numbers exceeded what analysts had predicted, which has been good news in turn for Apple stock.

It pains me to say this, as I was very excited to try HP's TouchPad, but the combination of the webOS mobile operating system packaged in the form factor of the TouchPad tablet is far from being any sort of iPad killer. That's not to say that webOS doesn't have its perks - for example, the fast app switching involving stacks of "cards" you can swipe through on the homescreen, system-wide notifications that appear at the top right with just the right amount of interruption, a nifty "touch to share" feature that lets you move content between a Palm Pre and TouchPad.

But everything that's great about webOS comes in a heavy, chunky, plastic-y and cheap feeling TouchPad. It's a disappointing experience that detracts from the great features of the operating system. And this is only one of the problems with the tablet - it also has issues with its Web browser, Flash, a still paltry app catalog and more.

The iPad isn't just a hot new consumer device, it's also an increasingly popular tool for business. Each week we take a look at the new or updated business apps for the iPad, and highlight trends in how tablets are being used in the enterprise.

This week we take a look at how the Veterans Administration is planning to roll out iPads, the Khan Academy's open source iPad app and more.

Horace Dediu of asymco posted this chart (below) to his Apple trend-tracking blog this week, showing that, finally, app downloads have overtaken downloads of songs on iTunes.

Analytics firm Flurry has analyzed trends on its network of 45,000 companies and 90,000 apps to determine where developers are investing their R&D budgets this year. In a comparison of Q1 2011 and Q2 2011, you can see that the Android project starts have dropped from 36% to 28% while those on iOS have picked up.

We just came across a new service which app developers are going to love: App.net, a site that lets you make customizable landing pages for your mobile application. Using simple templates, your landing page can feature a description, a mockup of a mobile phone with a rotating carousel of the app's screens, links to download the app on various app stores, social sharing buttons and links to your company's online presence on sites like Facebook and Twitter.