Quite a few Apple HDTV rumors have been talked about today, although this time it comes from renowned Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who took to the stage at IGNITION: Future of Media conference this morning. According to his predictions, Munster is certain that there will be an Apple TV launching next year. He basically told everyone in the audience that if they were thinking of purchasing a new TV to wait, as it’s going to be amazing. Sounds awesome!

Which computer maker this year introduced three new tablets, a speedy new smartphone, an edgy new global branding campaign, and the launch of an outer space science competition with Google?

If you guessed Apple, HP, or Dell, think again. It’s Lenovo, a computer giant you’ve probably never even heard. The company is focused on the enterprise market–big companies, school systems, government agencies–and China. It’s also determined to become China’s first global consumer brand. “For Those Who Do” is their tagline.

Lenovo also engineered its thinnest and fastest laptop (with a 10-second or less startup time) while producing record financial results and outgrowing the competition for the eighth straight quarter.

Apple, HP, and Dell certainly know Lenovo. Lenovo, led by CEO & Chairman Yang Yuanqing, last quarter it passed Dell to become the world’s second-largest PC-maker. Only HP sells more gear. Lenovo’s third-quarter profit of $144 million is also up 88% from a year ago.

Sweet, Huh?!

iPhone 4S Sales Top Four Million. Apple’s just issued a press release noting that sales of the iPhone 4S have surpassed 4 million over the course of its launch weekend. Phill Schiller notes that it’s the “most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days.” More than 20 million customers have already signed up for iCloud too

If the iPhone 4S has one standout feature, it is the Siri personal assistant. You ask Siri to do things by speaking to it. It can call anyone on your contact list, send them a text message or email, set up a meeting, play a song, set up a reminder for yourself, get directions, or just ask a question. How cool it that! It’s a conversation starter in more ways than one.

Apple’s iPhone 4S has beaten a single-day preorder record set by its predecessor, the iPhone 4.

According to Apple, first-day preorders of the iPhone 4S hit 1 million, easily besting the previous single-day preorder record of 600,000 set last year by the iPhone 4.

“We are blown away with the incredible customer response to iPhone 4S,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said in a statement today announcing the feat.

“The first day pre-orders for iPhone 4S have been the most for any new product that Apple has ever launched and we are thrilled that customers love iPhone 4S as much as we do.”

The iPhone 4S is available for preorder to AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint customers. On its preorder day, the iPhone 4 was made available only to AT&T customers. More carriers, so more potential customers.

As you may or may not know, apart from stepping down as CEO of Apple – Steve Jobs is currently a very ill man. There are even photos on other websites showing just how ill he looks. We came across some great stories from other business people who have worked with Steve and we would rather show that, so here we go…

Vic Gundotra, Google’s VP of Engineering
One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said “Caller ID unknown”. I choose to ignore…The message left was from Steve Jobs. “Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss” it said.

“So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I’ve already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow” said Steve. “I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject “Icon Ambulance”. The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products…In the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I’ll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

Mark Parker, president and CEO of Nike
We had worked together on a Nike-Apple collaboration called Nike+. So we took what Apple knows and Nike knows, and brought new technology to the market. Anyway, long story short, he said, “Congratulations. It’s great [that you've been named CEO]. You’re going to do a great job.” I said, “Well, do you have any advice?”

He said, “No, no, you’re great.” Then there was a pause. “Well, I do have some advice,” he said. “Nike makes some of the best products in the world–products that you lust after, absolutely beautiful stunning products. But you also make a lot of crap.”

He said, “Just get rid of the crappy stuff, and focus on the good stuff.” And then I expected a little pause and a laugh. But there was a pause, and no laugh at the end.

Allen Paltrow, student at Princeton University, via Tumblr
Growing up I was a huge apple fan-boy (fine, still am.) The first NY apple store in Soho opening was probably the coolest thing that happened to me between the ages 6 and 12. For a while I would spend almost every weekend there. Every year for halloween I was a mac, and I made a habit of shaving the Apple logo into my head to celebrate every OS launch. My neighbor Brooke mentioned that Steve Jobs, busy as he is, always reads email sent to his public address. I think I was around 12, and I sent a very enthusiastic and grammatically incorrect message including a picture of my shaved head. Apparently he forwarded it to the head of Public Relations, Katie, and I got invited to the opening of the 5th Avenue Cube. I can never thank them enough. This was probably the high point of my childhood.

Jonathan Berger, Apple intern, via Blogspot:
Steve got to about his 4th question from the audience [at an Apple Town Hall in 2000] and by this point almost every single intern had their hand up. He gestured in my direction but I could tell he was actually looking at an intern in the row right in front of me. I got a bit aggressive and barged ahead with my question anyway before the other intern could begin. Steve smiled a bit in apology to the intern I had just trampled over but let me continue. I was nervous. “Steve, many years ago you left Apple to start Next. But recently you returned to Apple. Why did you come back to Apple?”

[Jobs answered:] “When I was trying to decide whether to come back to Apple or not I struggled. I talked to a lot of people and got a lot of opinions. And then there I was, late one night, struggling with this and I called up a friend of mine at 2am. I said, ‘Should I come back, should I not?’ and the friend replied, ‘Steve, look. I don’t give a fuck about Apple. Just make up your mind,’ and hung up. And it was in that moment that I realized I truly cared about Apple.”

David Sheff, freelance journalist, via Playboy magazine’s 1987 interview:
The Interview was all but complete when I met [Steve] Jobs at a celebrity-filled birthday party for a youngster in New York City. As the evening progressed, I wandered around to discover that Jobs had gone off with the nine-year-old birthday boy to give him the gift he’d brought from California: a Macintosh computer. As I watched, he showed the boy how to sketch with the machine’s graphics program. Two other party guests wandered into the room and looked over Jobs’s shoulder. ‘Hmmm,’ said the first, Andy Warhol. ‘What is this? Look at this, Keith. This is incredible!’ The second guest, Keith Haring, the graffiti artist whose work now commands huge prices, went over. Warhol and Haring asked to take a turn at the Mac, and as I walked away, Warhol had just sat down to manipulate the mouse. ‘My God!’ he was saying, ‘I drew a circle!’ “But more revealing was the scene after the party. Well after the other guests had gone, Jobs stayed to tutor the boy on the fine points of using the Mac. Later, I asked him why he had seemed happier with the boy than with the two famous artists. His answer seemed unrehearsed to me: ‘Older people sit down and ask, “What is it?” but the boy asks, “What can I do with it?”

via @fastcompany

Visionary CEO Steve Jobs has resigned from Apple. In a letter to the board of directors, Jobs wrote, “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know.”

“Unfortunately, that day has come,” he added.

Jobs then suggested that COO Tim Cook be named his successor, although requested that he stay aboard as chairman of the board.

Whether or not his health played a role in his decision to step down is unclear, though likely. In January, Jobs took a medial leave of absence, leaving Cook in charge of day to day operations.

Jobs is largely credited with reviving Apple, taking it from a bankrupt company to the world’s most valuable company in a ilttle over a decade, with the launch of revolutionary products such as the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Whether Apple’s string of successes will continue in a post-Jobs world has been a serious question for investors and consumers alike.

Ending his letter, Jobs concluded on a positive note.

“I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it,” he said. “And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.”

Only a month on the market, and the device that HP said would give Android and Apple a run for their money is already finished. Rumors were confirmed today that HP will discontinue its TouchPad tablet as well its WebOS phones. Reports indicate the company plans to instead focus on software and services, while distancing itself from hardware–HP may spin off its personal-computer business and acquire enterprise software company Autonomy for $10 billion.

In an earnings call following the news, HP CEO Leo Apotheker attempted to explain the chaos surrounding HP’s direction. “[There] is indeed a lot of news, so let me put it in perspective,” he said. “Today is about transforming HP for the future.”

The Personal Systems Group, which oversaw the TouchPad, will now be separated from HP, and possibly sold off, so HP can sharpen its focus on cloud solutions and software.

Recognizing the challenges HP faces, Apotheker lowered the company’s outlook for next quarter. “I’m taking ownership for these decisions,” he said. Apologizing to investors, the HP CEO added, “I feel your pain.”

No doubt a tough earnings call for HP, but the harshest damage may come for company’s brand. Acquiring Palm for $1.2 billion, investing a year to build smartphones and tablets, spending millions of dollars marketing and pushing the products out, only to shut down the TouchPad after a few weeks…

“We are focusing on what needs to be fixed, and what needs to be shut down, and what needs to be separated,” Apotheker said.

Goldie Hawn And Kurt Russell Malibu Retreat, CA (below)
The $14.75 million oceanfront residence of Hollywood duo Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell was recently renovated in 2005 and features 4,300 square-feet of luxurious living space. The Malibu retreat features a master bedroom with ocean views, Chinese Onyx bath area, designer kitchen and a separate guest house. Outside, a partially covered outdoor living room extends from the main property while a gated courtyard and fountains highlight the expansive grounds.

Elizabeth Taylor Compound, CA (below)

The epitome of stardom and Hollywood glamour, Elizabeth Taylor has been called the greatest movie star of all time. Her Bel Air residence is on the market for the first time since she bought in 1981. The 1.3 acre estate has its own guard house, 7,000-sqaure foot main house, and iridescent mosaic tile pool with adjoining sauna. The grounds have formal gardens, a bamboo jungle, rose gardens, a koi pond and greenhouse for cultivating orchids. $8,600,000.

Bing Crosby Estate, CA (below)

Bing Crosby’s 7200-square foot, 6-bedroom Southern Colonial mansion sits on 2-acres in LA’s Touluca Lake. With an over-the-top Master Bedroom Suite, billiard room, commercial kitchen, and a separate 2-bedroom guest house, it seems like a steal at $4,795,000.

Katherine Hepburn Waterfront Estate, CT  (below)
The greatest actress of all time, Katherine Hepburn lived in this estate that was in her family for the past century until her death at 96 in 2003. The 8,400-square foot 6-bedroom home is beautiful, but the $28,000,000 price tag reflects the one of a kind seaside setting on the shore of Long Island Sound in Old Saybrook, CT. Occupying 3.5 acres, it has nearly 700 feet of waterfront with a private dock and beach, as well as a pond.

In 1977 at 1:12 seconds into a television report Bill Gates says this “There’s a lot of people who are forecasting that there will be software stores just like there are record stores today. And that there’ll be thousands and thousands of those, and I think I have to agree with that.”

Boy was he was right. Mostly all the record stores have gone and there are now thousands of software stores. Absolutely amazing Stuff! See below…

Photojojo has announced a lens mount for DSLR lenses that is compatible with the iPhone. Sweet!

The adaptor, which is part of an iPhone case, allows Canon EOS or Nikon SLR lenses to be mounted onto the iPhone.

Several different types of lenses can be attached, including telephoto, wide-angle, macro and fixed length, which will only be able to be manually focused once fitted.

Furthermore, only lenses with an aperture ring, such as old film camera lenses, will have the ability to adjust aperture when mounted to the iPhone. Photojojo also say that around 1 to 2 f-stops are expected to be lost when using the adaptor, so if you can’t alter the aperture, expect to brighten up the images in post-production.

Since the mount doesn’t have a mirror inside as an SLR does, photos taken will be upside down and need to be rotated using an editing app.

The Nikon SLR mount works with all Nikon lenses using an F-mount adaptor, while the Canon SLR mount works only with EOS lenses using an EF-mount adaptor, meaning Canon EF-S or FD lenses won’t work.

The case, which is made from aluminium, comes with a special UV filter along with 2 loopholes at both ends to allow for a camera strap to be attached and the iPhone and lens hung around the neck.

Photojojo sells a range of camera accessories, and already stocks an iPhone telephoto lens and iPhone video rig.

The adaptor can be bought for either iPhone 4 or iPhone 3, priced at $249.00 and $190 respectively. Find out more at the Photojojo website.