Steve Jobs takes leave from Apple

We officially heard about the hormone imbalance earlier this month, but it seems the health issues concerning Steve Jobs are more serious than first thought, with the Apple boss now starting a leave of absence. The intention is to return in June. The full letter reads:

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

Chinese mini-iPhone

Short of sounding redundant or even idotic, the m888a is simply the realization of the dream of many of owning a smaller size iPhone. Specs are pretty dull to be honest of this iPhone Nano clone: 2.4-inch touchscreen with stylus, dual-band GSM and a VGA camera, but it comes in black and white and a neat Apple-like package. What the original doesn’t have and the m888a is proud of offering is a dual-SIM support and, of course, freedom to be on any GSM network.

Skype comes to Android. iPhone?

Skype has announced a new Android version of its mobile VoIP service, porting Skype Lite which is currently available on a range of Java handsets. Skype Lite, currently in Beta, will let Android users utilize a standard voice channel to make a local call, which is then converted to VoIP. There will be charges for the local calls, but users could stand to make gains on long-distance calls if those called are logged on to Skype.

“Call on Skype wherever you are – no WiFi or 3G required”, reads promotional material for Skype Lite. A version for the iPhone may show up, but will be technically challenging. Getting the application to the Apple Application Store would not be a walk in the park either.

Apple's partner operators will likely frown on users being able to convert international calls into local call charges. The store already includes a VoIP application from Truphone, which was added when the developer agreed to remove 3G network support. Skype Lite's Java client uses GPRS (or alternative) to keep an updated list of Skype contacts, and provide IM features.

Skype doesn't stand to gain much financially from this development, but instead hopes to entice more users to adopt Skype use on a regular basis.

Steve Vai loves his iPhone

And signes iPhones as well:

iPhone cradle in Mercedes-Benz cars

German car manufacturer Mercedes is buying the iPhone-is-God credo, and has come up with a designated piece of gear to allow Benz drivers to integrate their iPhones into the car system. The US$249 gadget works with the C-, E-, CLK-,
CLS-, S-, CL-, SL-, M- and R-Class cars, as well as the forthcoming GLK-Class. It connects your phone to the car's audio system via either the optionally available Media Interface or the retrofittable iPod® Interface Kit.

Opera and Mozilla for iPhone?

Firefox Mobile Concept Video from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Mozilla posted a new video, showing mobile Firefox. Actually they aren't talking about Mozilla on iPhone yet, because of restrictions for applications, distributed at Apple AppStore. But they're working and who knows – maybe Safari will be not only the browser for iPhone.

Another news come from Opera camp. Opera's executive said to iphoneatlas.com:

“Our goal is to make the Opera browser available on as many devices and platforms as possible. So while we can’t currently confirm that we’ll make an Opera version for the iPhone, it’s certainly something we have the opportunity to do in the future.”

So, we'll see.

Windows Vista on iPhone!

Of course it's not possible today. But it's possible to make iPhone look like your big Vista-powered PC.

Just install this theme. It's not yet on the installer, so just go
here, download it and install via SSH

iPhone nano?

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