We all knew that the day would come when Steve Jobs would step down as God, er, excuse me, CEO of Apple, but still finally seeing the headline was a shock.

Letter from Steve Jobs

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

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. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role. 

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve 

As the letter states Jobs plan to maintain a role with the company and there is no doubt that Apple will continue to benefit from his vision and leadership in the coming years. However, as Tim Cook takes on the CEO role permanently, you can’t help but wonder what the future will hold . . .

Abraham Lincoln once said that “If you’re a racist, I will attack you with the North,” and these are the principles I carry with me in the workplace. – Michael Scott, The Office

If Michael Scott had a Twitter, that’s the kind of delightful Tweets we might expect from him. Do you tweet? Do you have an iPad? Well, if you so you’ll be glad to hear that the official Twitter iPad app is now available for download from the App Store.

The interface is simple and straightforward and it’s clear that Twitter has made an effort to use all of the available screen space of the iPad.  The reviews on iTunes are mixed but most of the negative reviews are due to issues with crashing. The app is free and it’s worth giving it a try and seeing how it stacks up to the app your currently using for Twitter.

While a lot of magazines have made their way to the iPad either through individual apps or through Zinio, a new magazine has debuted and it has set the bar and surprisingly, it’s People.

The People Magazine iPad app is now available in the iTunes App store and individual issues are priced at a reasonable $3.99 per issue. But here is where People has broken new ground; if you are currently a subscriber to the People print edition than your iPad subscription is free! And that, my friends, is how all iPad magazines should be. Take note, publishers!

“What is this compulsion to have people over at your house and serve them food and talk to them?” – Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm

This is the best news I’ve heard in a long time! HBO Co-president Eric Kessler has announced that HBO will soon be launching HBO Go, a streaming TV and movie service to bring the channel to portable devices including the iPad. And, even better, the service will be available at no additional cost to subscribers.

Since HBO has a deal for online rights to movies from Universal, Fox and Warner Bros this will make a library of movies available on demand. HBO also produces some of the best shows on television in past few years, shows like True Blood, The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage.

There has been talk of a rivalry between Netflix and HBO and this will only add fuel to fire. Netflix right now has exclusive online rights for movies from Paramount, Lions Gate Entertainment and MGM as well as all Starz movies and programming like Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Party Down.

This is mostly good news for iPad owners as more and more programming comes to the device and more companies compete to bring media to iPads and other devices. The down side is most of these services will mean an additional monthly subscription fee and those fees are starting to add up.

So kudos for HBO coming to the iPad at no additional fee!

Finally! Adobe released Photoshop Express for iPad which lets you quickly edit and share photos right from your iPad. The reviews were very mixed after the debut of the app, but it seems like they are already addressing issues with updates. And, hey, it’s free!

The MobileMe app had an update recently and is now iPad compatible. So those of you that are MobileMe subscribers will now have a full app to use on your iPads.

What’s New In Version 1.2
- Designed for both iPhone and iPad
- Multitasking support for iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (iOS 4 required).
- Quickly switch to another app and back to iDisk
- Play audio from your iDisk while using another app
- When app is opened, the last file or directory viewed is displayed
- Option to open iDisk documents in compatible apps such as iBooks
- When sharing a file, an email can be sent from any configured email account
- The URL for a shared file can be copied and pasted
- Various stability improvements

One feature in particular stands out and that is the ability to play audio from iDisk while using another app. While this is not the cloud solution I’ve been waiting for Apple to launch it is at least heading in the right direction. The ultimate goal would be to store your music, movies, documents etc. in the cloud vs. needing to buy 64GB (or bigger) device to hold it all.

There is however one major flaw here. While iDisk will play your music, it will only play it one track at a time! So you can’t select a playlist and sit back and listen while using other apps like you can with the iPod app. After each song you will need to go select the next song. Without the ability to play an album or playlist this is a pointless feature. Back to the drawing board Apple!

Tweet Defense for iPad or for iPhone is free today and today only. Tweet defense is the Twitter tower defense game that is normally $8 for the iPad version and $3 for the iPhone version. Reviews on the App store range from love to hate but, hey, it’s free!

“I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany. ” – Ron Burgundy

Blogshelf is the latest RSS app to hit the iPad and visually it’s my favorite. Designed for the casual blog reader Blogshelf allows you to subscribe to up to 90 blogs and houses them neatly on a woodgrain bookshelf. Essentially it just mimics the look and feel of the iBooks app but you really can’t go wrong with the look of a classic bookshelf.

One of the key features, offline reading, allows you to catch up on your favorite blogs even with you don’t have an internet connection by caching all the blog posts you’ve missed. While there are RSS readers out there that are more feature rich, for $4.99 Blogshelf will satisfy the needs of most users.

The Hulu Plus app is now available from the iTunes store for the iPad and the iPhone. Hulu Plus has not officially launched yet, but if you download the app now they’re accepting email addresses for invites to the “Hulu Plus Preview” and when spaces open up you can get an invitation to use the service early. Hulu Plus has more programming, available on more devices and all in HD for a $9.99 a month access fee. Gizmodo has some great feedback after playing with the preview.

So it’s here. Hulu for iPad is here. I thought when this day came I would be jumping up and down with excitement, but . . . somehow, eh.

Let me first say, I’m a huge fan of Hulu and I actually watch several FOX and NBC shows exclusively on Hulu and never bother to add them to my home DVR. I like to have some programming to watch when I’m taking a break at my desk or traveling on business. When the iPad first debuted I was very much looking forward to watching Hulu on my iPad.  So I’m surprised that I’m not more excited about Hulu arriving on the iPad. Perhaps it’s the fact that I watch very little TV in the summer while all the best shows are on hiatus. Mostly, I think it’s the fact that Hulu Plus comes with a $10 a month pricetag. It’s not that I don’t think the content on Hulu is worth $10 a month, in fact it is. . . . continue reading

After just nine days Wired Magazine for the iPad has already sold over 79,000 copies. That’s pretty impressive, and to put it in perspective their newsstand sales average around 80,000 per month. While that number does not include subscription sales, this is still quite a coup for iPad magazines.

It will be interesting to see what will happen in coming months. We might see that sales were high for Wired on the iPad because of the newness and excitement and will drop off in the coming months. Or we might see Wired (and parent company Conde Nast) lower their pricing and continue to improve their offering.

What do you think? Would you rather get Wired on the iPad or print? What about other publications you read? I renewed my MacWorld subscription on my iPad through Zinio rather than the print edition. I really enjoy reading MacWorld and the other magazines I’ve subscribed to on the iPad. I love the interface and I love that all my magazines are with me at all times. But I have to admit I miss a few things about actual print magazines. I can’t dog ear a page to remind me to come back to it. I can’t hand the magazine over to a friend when I’m done with it. I can’t leave a copy on my coffee table for others to look through. If you’ve ever been to my house you know I like to leave a copy of Scientific America out on the coffee table to impress you.