Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates will be remembered as two of the biggest tech luminaries of their time, long after both have passed on. Anyone who has seen Pirates of Silicon Valley will know how both Apple and Microsoft's histories are deeply intertwined, and how closely - and often not - Jobs and Gates worked together.
As Apple has just posted record-busting sales figures for the opening fiscal quarter of 2012, the amount of intrigue in the company based in Cupertino, California is at an all-time high.
With so many different ways of measuring how well both Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems are doing, it's almost impossible to work out just which is on the up and which is on the decline. If you throw enough figures at something then you can always make then read what you want them to.
This year's CES has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that 2012 is going to be the year that the computer market at large is going to catch up with Apple. At least, it will in the world of ultra-light, ultra-portable notebooks like the MacBook Air.
Since the launch of the original iPhone nearly 5 years ago, Apple has prided itself on keeping customers coming back for more with every new release.
The iPhone 4S-owning world have been enjoying the many benefits of Siri for over three months now, taking advantage of all of the features which the next generation intelligent assistant provides. Such was the hype surrounding Siri, that we have even seen a number of applications trying to enter the Android Market, trying to pass themselves off as the real thing before being pulled from sale by Google.
If the speculation is to be believed, then Apple has plans in place to adopt and support the new 802.11ac specification across Airport base stations, Time Capsules, Apple TV, Notebooks and potentially the company’s range of mobile devices.
The ongoing patent ware between Apple and Samsung has been promising to brew beyond control since September 2011 when Apple notched notable rulings over the Korean giants which related to the sale of certain Samsung tablet devices. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with who is actually launching lawsuits against who in the mobile industry, with Apple and Samsung continuously going at each other and Motorola Mobility also being dealt a blow recently with the ITC making an initial ruling against their suit against Apple.
To coincide nicely with the impressive educational announcements made today in New York, Apple have also released iTunes 10.5.3 which adds synchronization support for the newly announced interactive books.
Roger Rosner demonstrated the beautiful new iBooks 2 application for iPad, which allows users to view and interact with beautifully presented, and highly engaging virtual books, but just where do these books come from? Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, there is an app for that.

