The biography of Steve Jobs is already the #1 best seller and it isn’t even going to be released until October 24th (2011). Sony Pictures have acquired the rights to turn the book; into a movie.

The biography of Steve Jobs is without a doubt the most anticipated biography to be released yet. Steve Jobs personally gave the author of this book, Walter Issaacson, exclusive rights to his life story.

There is no doubt that Mr. Jobs kept most of his life away from the public, until now. There is little information about what exactly the biography will include, but we already know that the book will include a mashup of over 2 years of interviews with Jobs, his friends and family, coworkers and even his rivals. But the book just be full of interviews, in fact, we also are told that the exact reasoning behind why Steve Jobs notoriously wore a black turtleneck, gray New Balance sneakers, and patched up jeans.

The rights to make the biography of Steve Jobs movie were recently acquired by Sony Pictures for a rumored amount of anywhere between $1 million and $3 million. While the details are scarce about the actual deal details itself, and when the production will start/movie will be released, we do know that we can be expecting a killer movie, one perhaps that will topple over the recent success of “The Social Network”.

Preorder sales the biography have recently skyrocketed and easy bumped the new biography, called “Steve Jobs” to the #1 Best Seller on Amazon.com, which according to many is revitalizing the entire publishing industry as the majority of consumers want the full affect by having an actual paper copy of the book, instead of perhaps a digital version for the Kindle.

Steven Jobs undoubtedly changed the way we all live today, and basically built his company up until the day that he died. He passed away on October 5th 2011 leaving behind a wife and four kids.

It’s a sad day not just for Apple fanatics and the company but the entire gadget world. The former Apple CEO Steve Jobs has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. Steve Jobs is the mastermind behind Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes.

“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” read a statement by Apple’s board of directors. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”

Apple’s Website also includes a short memo to Jobs.

Steve Jobs will certainly be remembered in the computing world. Here’s an inspiring message from Steve Jobs himself during the Commencement exercises at Stanford in 2005.

Just weeks after resigning as Chief Executive of Apple for health reasons, Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56.

The man, who many say single handedly crafted Apple into the computer and electronics powerhouse it is today and brought us household names including the iPad, iPhone and iPod, had been fighting a rare form of pancreatic cancer for some years.

Jobs who co-founded Apple in his garage in California in 1976 will be missed by millions of Apple fanatics.

Designing signs, banners and other promotion gear used to be the purview of trained graphic designers, but the new iPhone app released by VictoryStore.com puts the power of design in the hand of anyone who can use a phone.

“We are a market leader in online sign design and wanted to extend our dummy-proof sign design tools to the smartphone platform,” said Steve Grubbs, company CEO. “Users can pick products and templates and using the tools in the smartphone, personalize the text and colors.”

“Steve Jobs and Apple have used their various computing devices to pioneer graphic design, but no one has created an app for the iPhone which allows users to design, personalize and order signs online. VictoryStore.com has accomplished this goal,” said Grubbs.

Davenport, Iowa based VictoryStore.com (http://www.VictoryStore.com) provides users the ability to personalize more than 100 products online with more than 5,000 design templates. The iPhone app launched with just a few products which will grow over time. Once a user personalizes the design they have the option to save it, email it to a friend or email it for a quick quote from VictoryStore.com.

While most early apps were designed to be personal tools for the user, a growing number of businesses are putting tools in the app store previously used by customers and employees. The growing number of business apps demonstrates the transition from Blackberry to iPhone for businesses as a technology platform.

Plans for an Android version are in the works and is expected in the summer of 2011.

VictoryStore.com was founded in 2000 and is listed as one of Internet Retailers Top 500. Steve Grubbs, a former state legislator from Iowa, founded the company in 2000 in an effort to allow candidates to design political yard signs online. After fast early growth, he purchased his former elementary school and built a successful online retail store.

The app was created by Victory Enterprises, Inc. (http://www.VictoryEnterprises.com), a sister company to VictoryStore.com. All Victory Enterprises apps can be found at http://www.VictoryApps.com.

The results are in and the Forbes 400 lists the richest people in America. Results show that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has overtaken Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

It’s no surprise that Bill Gates still reigns supreme on the Forbes 400 list of richest people in America. His estimated wealth valuation is $54 billion. In a not too distant second place, Warren Buffett came in with an estimated $45 billion. Rounding out the top three on this list of I-have-more-money-than-I-can-shake-a-fist-at was Oracle Founder, Larry Ellison, with $27 billion.

What is surprising is to see 26 year old Mark Zuckerberg, who didn’t even qualify as a billionaire last year, ranked higher than Steve Jobs.  Ranked at No. 35, Zuckerberg ($6.9 billion) meteoric rise is largely due to a $200 million infusion of cash in Facebook last year. Interestingly, Jobs’ (No. 42; $6.1 billion) net worth is not based on his success with Apple, but comes from his shares in Disney, which bought his Pixar animation studio in 2006 for $7.4 billion.

Zuckerberg does appear to be putting his massive wealth to good use, announcing today that he was donating $100 million to schools in Newark, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Analysts are speculating that the Apple TV could be Apple’s response to Google TV if things go as planned.

Critics hoping for more from Apple Inc’s Web-to-TV plans — a device, say, that would revolutionize living room entertainment the way the iPad changed tablet computing — may just need to wait a bit longer.

Shortly after Apple unveiled its latest Apple TV product on Wednesday, complaints surfaced from some circles that the company had failed to live up to its own high standards. The device is smaller and cheaper than the one it brought out in 2006, but it also has shortcomings.

Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu, for instance, called the Apple TV product “underwhelming” and said some innovative applications, such as those on the iPad, would have helped. “It seems it’s strictly more of a rental machine.”

But most expect that Apple has more groundbreaking plans for a future version of Apple TV, and for marrying the Web to the television, up its sleeve.

“Longer term, I do think they have more ambitions in the living room,” said Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw LLC.

“They didn’t announce it today, but we’re talking literally about an Apple TV, not a gateway product, which integrates a TV and a Mac. That’s a 2011 event. I’m not sure which other features it could have,” Kumar said.

Analysts said the ability to run applications on a TV-connected device would be a key development down the line for Apple.

As it tackles the TV frontier, Apple will increasingly battle with the likes of Google Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc, which have all sought to forge ties with Hollywood studios to distribute movies and shows online.

That has been a minefield for technology companies because of the rights issues involved. Hollywood studios and cable operators have pushed back, with Google encountering some resistance to its Internet-connected Google TV, which would allow users to search for content on the Web.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs gave an indication of the company’s overall strategy by announcing Apple TV will stream content from iPhones and iPads through its AirPlay wireless technology.

“The most important hint of Apple’s real ambitions in the living room come from AirPlay, which puts iPhones and iPads in the driver’s seat and makes the TV just an output device for the Apple ecosystem,” said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey.

“Expect Apple to gradually push more and more in that direction, but as of this moment in 2010, Apple has not yet made a significant play for control of the TV,” he said.

Only 12 percent of U.S. adults who use the Internet are familiar with the original Apple TV, according to Forrester Research. Analysts said that the new $99 price point for Apple TV, down from $299 before, could give it wider adoption.

Meanwhile, consumers already have access to a broad range of devices that connect TVs to the Internet media players, from Blu-ray players to video game consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox and the PlayStation from Sony Corp.

And then there are stand-alone media players such as those from Roku Inc, which CEO Anthony Wood said is closing in on 1 million unit sales in three years.

Wood said of Apple TV’s relaunch, “I was initially worried it would be better than it was but it’s not something we couldn’t compete with.”

An internal memo from Apple is circulating the net showing how Apple Store employees are supposed to address customer concerns about the iPhone 4′s reception problems.

Apple doesn’t appear to be giving up any ground on the issues surrounding reception with its hot-selling iPhone 4. Many have reported issues with the phone losing bars (which leads to dropped calls and neutered internet speeds) with some even posting on YouTube to voice their frustrations.

Steve Jobs first suggested that users need to adjust the way they hold the phone to improve reception and Apple later released an official statement which noted that all phones can suffer from reception problems.

Now, however, Boy Genius Report has secured an internal Apple memo which describes to Apple Store employees how to deal with customers that come in with problems. In typical Apple fashion, the memo starts off by praising the iPhone 4, stating, “The iPhone 4’s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. Our testing shows that iPhone 4’s overall antenna performance is better than iPhone 3GS.”

The memo goes on to say that, “If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 4, avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.” The problem with that suggestion is that for many people who hold their phone in their left hand, your palm naturally rests on black strip that Apple references.

The memo also notes that no warranty work will be performed for iPhone 4’s that are afflicted with reception problems and echoes earlier statements that customers should use a case to alleviate the problem.

For customers hoping to get a free case out as a result of these reception problems, Apple has an answer for you:

We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers – DON’T promise a free bumper to customers.

Apple is outsmarting Microsoft and their competitors in a number of ways proving they are the CE company of tomorrow.

Microsoft, which has been slow in responding to Apple’s advances, was recently taken by surprise as Apple edged past the software giant in market capitalization.

Recently, Apple emerged with a market value of roughly $222 billion compared with Microsoft’s $219 billion. Apple spearheaded into the second highest-valued American company directly behind Exxon Mobile, which was valued at $278.6 billion.

Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle says against Microsoft, Apple funded better, executed at a higher level and marketed the benefits of the product more successfully.

“Microsoft actually had what should have been a more attractive service, retailers liked them better and Microsoft had a more robust product, but Apple out executed them on marketing to an incredible level,” Enderle says. “Oh and Microsoft chose to fight Apple on Apple’s turf by bringing out a hardware device and that is always a really bad idea.”

The Mac vs. Windows campaign directly targeted the Vista launch problems, kept them front of mind even after they were fixed, Enderle claims, adding that Microsoft’s failure to market the improvements drove the positive result for Apple.

“Apple’s marketing program took reports of problems with Microsoft Vista and blew them out of proportion in an attack worthy of a first-tier political campaign,” Enderle says.

The Mac vs. PC campaign ran directly into the Vista launch and is recognized as being one of the most effective of its type. Apple not only helped slow sales for Windows, but Vista also never really recovered while Apple tripled their market share, according to Enderle.

Apple competes hard, likely knows more about many internal programs going on in competitors’ firms than related executives do and has the ability to develop and execute a strategy that is repeatedly successful against these competitive threats, he says.

“The iPod, AppleTV, iPhone and iPad were all big risks and only the AppleTV didn’t meet expectations and they haven’t stopped funding or developing it,” Enderle says. “Microsoft, on the other hand, takes few big risks, tends to under resource those it does and then wonders why these smaller risks are unsuccessful.”

He pointed out Mira was ignored, Origami was unfinished and Windows Media Server was crippled and underfunded as was Media Center, Media Extenders, Portable Media Center, Windows Mobile, Zune and Chrome Effects. And while Microsoft has often come up with ideas first, Apple generally executes better and walks away with the benefits.

“Apple enjoys lower customer churn, higher margins and owns the most profitable segment in the PC market,” Enderle says. “When Steve Jobs brought out the iPhone, retained control and drove the same customer focus, subordinating the needs of the carriers to the needs of the phone users, Apple became the most profitable vendor in this segment.”

Microsoft has increased the complexity of its customer mix and often seems unable to differentiate between the conflicting needs of users, IT shops, retailers, OEMs and government buyers, Enderle says, adding the end result is that the related products have a tendency to miss the needs and expectations of all groups because there is no real focus on any one group and users’ needs and expectations are often in conflict.

“If Microsoft wants to move ahead of Apple again, they have to cease accepting failure as an acceptable outcome and either resource efforts to levels where they can’t fail or recognize that if you aren’t going to play to win, there isn’t much point in taking the field in the first place,” Enderle says.

Separately, he gave the example of how Apple actually torpedoed the HP MP3 player by licensing the iPod to HP and then reneging on all of the promises they had made.

“They underpriced the HP product, wouldn’t let HP use any color but white, and wouldn’t allow transcoding even though they had indicated all of these were possible initially to close the deal and the contract locked HP out of doing their own player until Apple had locked up the market,” Enderle says, adding it was “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen HP do and one of the smartest from Apple. If Apple were to do something similar today they’d have anti-trust problems up the wazoo (technical term).”

While Microsoft still leads Apple in sales, there is every likelihood that Apple’s income could surge past Microsoft’s in the next few years.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage during the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in early June. Jobs previewed the successor to its smart-phone line, the iPhone 4, which features a faster processor and videoconferencing, which the company calls FaceTime and includes a bigger battery and two cameras. As it continues to deliver its innovations, Apple has become the dominant technology company of this decade.

Apple says it’s sold more than two million iPads less than 60 days after they were introduced.

Folks may still be skeptical about tablet computing devices, but Apple nonetheless seems to have a success in it’s hands with the iPad: the company has just announced it had sold over 2 million iPads, and it’s hit that sales milestone less than 60 days after the devices were first launched to consumers in the United States.

The announcement comes on the same weekend Apple first began offering the iPad for sale outside the United States; sales started this weekend in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Apple plans to launch the iPad in nine additional countries in July 2010, with launches in additional countries coming later in the year.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs also acknowledged obliquely the company is struggling to meet demand for the devices. “Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do. We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”

Apple announced that it had sold its first million iPads at the beginning of May, just 28 days after the product’s initial launch. At that point, the iPad was only available in the United States.

Although Apple’s financial results for the quarter won’t be put into the books for a while yet, industry analysts are already speculating iPad sales could add $1.5 billion or more to Apple’s bottom line for the quarter.

After years of playing the underdog, Apple has surpassed Microsoft in “enterprise value.”

For years, Apple has thrived on the image of being the underdog, offering a hip alternative for the trendsetters that don’t want to go with the majority. The company played up the image of itself as David, facing a hydra like Goliath that has multiple heads all looking to destroy the upstart computer company that simply wanted to make the best possible hardware for the selective user. Now after years of fighting, Apple has won the war of the underdog, and now takes its place as one of the biggest companies in the world as it surpasses its most bitter rival, Microsoft.

The decades-long battle between Apple and Microsoft quickly became the stuff of legend. There was even a TV movie about the early days of the two companies and the animosity that formed between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, that ended with Microsoft having seemingly won. Microsoft soared, Jobs left, and Apple went into what Jobs later called “the wilderness years.”

The Jobs returned and the culture of Apple changed.  The company assumed the underdog mantle and stopped trying to appear to be an equal to Microsoft, but rather a better alternative for a smaller group.  Soon iMacs were everywhere, Macs and Macbooks became the stylish alternatives, and then everything changed.  The term “MP3 player” was replaced in the pop culture lexicon by the iPod, and Apple found its niche.  Apple’s profits soared, and the rest is history.

Now the results are in, and Apple is officially worth more than Microsoft. The Business Insider has a full breakdown on the numbers, but the projections are based on the enterprise value, which is the value of its actual business, not the stock market capitalization. This means that it does not include the net value of cash and debt in the company’s books.

There are other ways to look at the value of a company, but in terms of the enterprise value, Apple is worth $200 billion, while Microsoft is worth a measly $197 billion.

It is important to note that Apple does its books a bit differently than others, and Microsoft has value in other fields that aren’t counted, so the numbers may be a bit slanted.  Plus with estimated values, there are always hidden costs and profits, including unannounced research, long-term investments, and dozens of other things that would skew the numbers, but it is still big news to see that Apple has caught up with Microsoft and in some ways surpassed it.

It looks like Apple is no longer a David, but has become one of the Goliaths.