The CEO of Apple announced his plans to resign this week.  In a letter to the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community, Jobs stated that he believed, “Apples brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it.”

Jobs will continue his involvement with Apple as the Chairman of the Board.

In a recent press release, Art Levinson, a member of Apple’s Board of Directors, had this to say about Jobs, “Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company. Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”

I think we all knew this day was coming, especially since Steve Jobs took a medical leave this past January. Still, when a visionary like Jobs steps down its definitely a shock to the system.

To ease into the transition, check out the inspirational Jobs quotes gathered in this article by Federico Viticci at Macstories.

My personal favorite is this one:

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

-Steve Jobs

Wow, you can’t stop a Lion from growing!

According to the International Business Times, this first release improves the reliability of Wi-Fi connections, addresses an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari, resolves an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out, and more.

“Mac OS X 10.7.1 comes in two versions for client systems: One for the new MacBook Air and Mac Mini that Apple refreshed last month, another for all other machines running the new operating system,” states Gregg Keizer in an article for Compterworld.

Keizer goes ont to report that 10.7.1 is different from a typical Apple update in regards to its small size, 17.4MB.

Topher Kessler, who recently wrote OS X 10.7.1 fails to address prominent Lion issues, feels that, “… the updater is just a minor bugfix that addresses some of the issues people have had with Lion, and enhanced fixes will likely come with the more hyped 10.7.2 update, which was mentioned as being in development before the 10.7.1 update was even discussed or released.”

Have you upgraded to 10.7.1? What are your thoughts on the improvements made?

What type of messaging do you use? I get a fair amount of text messages and occasionally have to pay extra on the monthly phone bill.

Surfing through the news this morning,  an article about Facebook’s new stand alone messenger caught my eye. According to the author, Jason Kincaid, Facebook acquired Beluga, in February of this year. Following a few months of speculation, Facebook launched the standalone application, Messenger, this past Tuesday utilizing the best features of Beluga and Facebook Messages.

Though personally not an intense Facebook user, I can definitely see how a smooth messaging application could replace text messaging. Not paying for each text individually would be fantastic. Also, depending on a person’s workflow, having all your conversations in one place could be a real plus.

Sometimes, before reading a particularly sensational bit of news, I scan the comments.

Based on the opinions of the other readers, Apple will merge iOS with OS X on May 21st 2011. Just kidding, but this rumor does smell a bit like the sky is falling. Though it is entirely possible. We’ve been surprised in the past–I’m looking at you Mac App Store–with changes that were not expected.

According to the Tiernan Ray, the theory that the two systems will merge originates from Peter Misek, an analyst for Jefferies and Co.

“Specifcially, Misek sees the Macbook Air gaining Apple’s next processor, the “A6”, as he calls it, in the second half of 2012, or some time in 2013, and in the “iPhone 5″ next summer.” The author goes on the say that Misek believes that the MacBook “Pro” models will not follow suit until 2016.

There are a variety of other articles that have been recently written covering this story. Many of them source back to Barrons, though the first site to write about the theory may have been The International Business Times.

According to The International Business Times, “Misek believes the cloud will form the center of Apple’s strategy, allowing users to effectively keep their identity and content profiles in the cloud. Users will log on to a device where the profile, content and apps will be customized and optimized for the device.”

Okay, that sounds convenient  for users. What would the possible drawbacks be? As an employee of a third party development company, I wonder how this type of change would affect developers.

Whatever happens, we always find a way to roll with it. Still, its human instinct to be wary of change. Which is why I’m glad I started building that bunker back in May…