It was announced today that Arthur Levinson, who sat as a board member for Google as well as Apple, has resigned from Google’s board. Levinson’s resignation comes amid a federal probe into potential anticompetitive ties between Apple and Google boards.

Levinson sat as a Google board member since 2004. His resignation was proceeded by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who sat as a board member for both companies as well. Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board two months ago and continues to sit as a Google board member.

Although Apple and Google were once close allies, they seem to be more and more competitive as their markets expand. Both companies have search engines, mobile operating systems, as well as Internet browsers.

There is an ongoing investigation into Apple’s decision to block Google Voice services, which was one of the first indicators of the increased conflict between the two companies.

Reuters

In an odd turn of events, it was just announced that a Vonage App will soon be made available in the Apple App Store. The reason the announcement is odd is because Google Voice offers the same VOIP service that Vonage does but has been denied access to the App Store for some time now.

How exactly the App will work is unclear at this point. The Vonage press release did not reveal any details, except that the App had received approval from Apple. Vonage stated that the App is currently beta testing and that details on the general release will be out soon.

The question as to why Apple would deny Google Voice App Store access and approve Vonage still persists. Apple stated that Google Voice would be contradictory to the services they already offer, so why then does Vonage have access to the App store when it offers a similar service? From here we will have to see how Vonage will fit into Apple’s plans.

Vonage Press Release

In a decision that comes as little surprise, Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s board. Schmidt sat as a board member for Apple as well as Google, and due to the growing conflict between the two companies Apple felt best he resign. This decision comes shortly after the FCC made inquiries into why Apple denied the Google Voice application for its iPhone App Store.

Schmidt held his position at Apple since 2006, and many people believed that his resignation was inevitable. Apple and Google continue to compete within the Internet and mobile markets. From the search engine battle between Safari and Chrome, to the competition on the mobile front between the Apple iPhoneGoogle Android, the two companies have become major rivals. operating system and

Tomorrow will mark the 25th anniversary of the birth of Apple’s first Macintosh computer, The Macintosh 128K.  Created by the legendary Jef Raskin The Macintosh was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature the mouse and graphical user interface.

The first in a long line of Macintosh computers from Apple; Raskin’s machine had a black and white 9 inch screen, 128k ram, floppy drive, keyboard, and a single-button mouse. The name was derived from Raskin’s favorite type of apple the McIntosh, but the spelling had to be  modified due to legal issues.

Most of you remember the famous Superbowl ad for the Macintosh and all it’s sledge hammer hurling glory. Directed by Ridley Scott, and costing Apple 1.5 million, it helped get the point across that the Macintosh would set a new standard for personal computers, and that it did!

Happy Birthday Macintosh! We have embedded this video in your honor!

Link to Mac ad on YouTube

Source

iTunes 8 finally hit the internet yesterday with all of the hype you would expect from Apple!

So What’s New?

Genius Playlists
Genius is one of the best features on the new iTunes8.  Genius allows users to add a song to a playlist and genius will find songs (based on statistical data from other users) to add to the playlist, hopefully saving you time and giving you a great mix of songs with little effort.

Genius also integrates (optional) with a mass audience by sharing your playlists, and selections to compare and add to the cloud of other playlists.  Thus giving Genius the ability to choose better matches.

Genius Sidebar
The Genius sidebar will recommend new songs to download/buy that are not already in your library based on what you are playing.  I love this feature, for me, this is huge, I always want to find ways to keep up with my genre’s and sometimes I am way to busy to listen to the radio, go to concerts, read on new artists, etc.  But with the music world changing quicker then ever, this is an AWESOME feature to stay “in” with the  tough “who’s hot” crowd.

Grid View
The grid view concept is nothing new to music management software.  Packages such as Windows Media player, WinAmp, and even Banshee (Linux) have been using grid view as a  way to consolidate space and provide relevant information about genres, artists, songs, etc for a long time now.

photo credit: mac_filko

HD TV Shows
The new agreement for Apple to sell HD TV shows is going over very well already. With competition from sites like Hulu Apple is stepping up the game with HD.  Most shows starting at just $2.99 an episode it looks like Apple has a real winner with this feature!  More and more people report every year watching more TV online then the year before.  With the Apple TV sales still doing very well, this new feature is going to further help the movement of TV on your PC!

New Visualizer
The new Visualizer will get you lost in a 3D-scape of spheres, ribbons, and lights that pulsate to the beat and tempo of the song you’re playing.

photo credit: mononexo

Conclusion

Certainly with all of the new changes iTunes8 have some awesome features that will makes you life much easier! Certainly this has to be one of the best things for iTunes since the iPod! iTunes is no longer just a music management/download platform but a full blow media center for your PC.  iTunes8 is taking desktop media to the next level once again with it’s easy to use interface and features which make it a delight to use.

I would recommend upgrading, I am glad I did, and certainly if Apple continues on this road to integrating multimedia into the PC as a center piece of usage we should see a consistant migration pattern to television on the PC.