Steve Jobs Quits as Apple CEO

An important news on Apple was published on The Wall Street Journal and I copy below the main points for your convenience.

Steve Jobs, the ailing tech visionary who founded Apple Inc., said he was unable to continue as chief executive of the technology giant and handed the reins to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.

Steve Jobs has spent his career challenging conventions about personal computing. He's transformed an industry and changed the way we think about technology. A look back at the accomplishments of an American business icon.

Apple said Mr. Jobs submitted his resignation to the board of directors on Wednesday and "strongly recommended" that the board name Mr. Cook as his successor. Mr. Jobs, 56 years old, has been elected chairman of the board and Mr. Cook will join the board, effective immediately, the company said.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know," Mr. Jobs said in his resignation letter. "Unfortunately, that day has come."

Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech and an Apple board member, said in a statement that the board "has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO." He added that Mr. Jobs will "continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration."

Apple MacBook Pro

The Apple MacBook Pro comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 2.4 GHz processor speed and 3 MB L2 cache. This gives you better multitasking Image by dansays via Flickrperformance and at the same time saves power and gives you significantly longer battery life.

With a single charge, the battery can last up to 10 hours. Additionally, you are able to fully charge and discharge it 1000 times, about 3 times that of typical notebook batteries.

The MacBook Pro is also equipped with a 250 GB hard drive, 4 GB installed RAM that is expandable to 8 GB, a 8x SuperDrive with double-layer DVD support. As for graphics, it comes with the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics card providing you with high performance visuals whether you are watching videos, playing games or viewing photos.

You can read a complete review in the Mobile Computing Blog

Google buys Motorola Mobility

An interesting news published on the The Economic Times
is the purchase of Motorola by Google.

I copy below the main points:

NEW YORK: Research in Motion and Microsoft Corp are emerging as potential winners after Google Inc said it would buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Potential losers include Motorola's handset rivals that partner with Google such as HTC Corp, Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson. These licensees of Google's Android software now face the risk promoting a direct rival.

If this tie-up irks manufacturers, companies with their own software such as Microsoft and RIM could gain as handset makers start to shy away from the Android system.

Meanwhile, the deal announced on Monday is unlikely to affect Apple Inc's quest for the hearts and minds of smartphone customers.

SAMSUNG, HTC, LG ELECTRONICS, SONY ERICSSON

Phone makers that partner with Google for its Android software officially said they welcomed the deal. But some analysts questioned their sincerity because their efforts to promote Android would now benefit a director competitor.

"Google is essentially granting most favored nation status on Motorola," said J. Gold Associates analyst and consultant Jack Gold.

MICROSOFT

Android handset makers may be more willing to take a gamble on the unpopular Windows phone as an alternative.

But the deal brings Microsoft directly into legal conflict with Google over Android patents, which may hamper its attempts to collect royalty payments from Android handset makers.