Steve Jobs Takes A Leave Of Absence.

On January 14th Apple released a press statement that Steve Jobs was stepping down as CEO of Apple and taking a leave of absence due to his medical state. Later that day Jobs sent out an email to Apple imployee's to inform them of his plans to return in June:

Team, I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June. I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple's day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan. I look forward to seeing all of you this summer. Steve

I can't really say this move surprises me, with Apple's recent announcement to pullout of Macworld and for Phil Schiller to present the last keynote instead of Jobs, something was definitely going on. Jobs had a battle with Cancer in 2004 and let's hope that's not rearing it's ugly head again. Let's hope Jobs has a quick recovery, and gets back to making the worlds great electronics.

Macworld Expo 2008. "Something's In The Air".

The MacBook Air, man I want one. I've wanted a Mac for a while but this device seems like a perfect fit for me. Since I have a decent desktop and laptop, I don't really need to replace either and this wouldn't be technically replacing them. Plus what better way to get my first steps into OS X than with a MacBook built with a bunch of great new features. At $1,700 dollar (for the base model) it's a steep entry point, but you don't buy a Mac to save money.

Here's a Guided Tour from Apple about the MacBook Air.

Apple also talked about the new 1.1.3 firmware for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Watch the Guided Tour from Apple here.

• On the iPhone they added the ability to send multiple people the same SMS (text) message, something in my opinion should have been around from the start.
  
• They also added GPS of sorts to the iPhone and the iPod Touch. On the iPhone they use a combo of cell towers and WiFi hotspots to triangulate your location, on the Touch they only use the WiFi hotspots.
• On the iPhone you now how the ability to rearrange you icons on the home screen. A very cool easy feature that us iPhone users have been asking for since day one. Now it's so much easier for me to text and drive!
• A new feature Apple is calling "web clips" is where you basically put a bookmark to a website on your home screen. The iPhone also now supports multiple home screens (up to 9) so you just swipe left or right to get to a different screen. So you can now have a total of 144 icons on all of your Home page, this will be most useful with developers start making "official" apps for the iPhone.

The only news that people didn't like is that when iPod Touch users go to get all these new features they will have to fork over $20 dollars for the apps, iPhone users get it for free. Lame.

The Apple TV is also receiving a substantial upgrade in the near future. Apple is looking to dominate in video just like it has in the music industry. The new Apple TV is completely functional all by itself, no Mac or PC is needed just an internet connection. Once it's up and running you can rent movies in HD or SD, buy movies and TV shows, and download podcasts right from your TV. It's like an Xbox 360 without the gaming part...

The last thing Steve Jobs talked about was backup features for all your Mac needs. The newest version of OS X 'leopard' has a feature called "Time Machine" which would backup your data to any external HDD that you plugged into it. Now while this sounds like a good feature you still have to buy and then always have plugged in, an external HDD. Apple announced a new product called "Time Capsule" which is a wireless router with a HDD shoved in it. So not only does this Frankenstein product facilitate your wired/wireless needs but it also backs up your Mac's for you automatically. There's a 500 GB and a 1 TB version available for $300 and $500 respectfully.