Apple Proves Immune

Through some of the hardest economic times the company has faced since its founding, and the temporary withdrawal of Steve Jobs, Apple still manages to produce outstanding results, which exceed analyst expectations.

The company made a net profit of $1.61bn (£1.15bn) for the quarter to the end of
December, compared with $1.58bn during the same quarter last fiscal year.

With sales of the iPhone up 88% after selling more than 4mil iPhones and iPods, I think the company is close to being able to claim and copyright the term Economic Immunity(c)!

President Barrack Hussein Obama

The 44th President of the United States of American, Barrack Hussein Obama, was sworn into office today.

Facebook Hits 150mil Active Users

Facebook says it has hit the milestone of 150 million active users, just more than two months after reaching 120 million and about four months after reaching 100 million. The site hit 140 million in the middle of December.

The announcement was made on the Facebook company blog
by founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Should Facebook sustain this rate
of growth, the 5-year-old site could hit 200 million users before
Zuckerberg reaches his 25th birthday this spring.

Nearly half of those 150 million members, Zuckerberg wrote, use
Facebook every day. Most of the site’s new members now come from
outside the United States. “This includes people in every
continent–even Antarctica,” the post read. “If Facebook were a
country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead
of Japan, Russia, and Nigeria.”

Madoff Defies Judge’s Orders

Bernard L. Madoff, the financier accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme,
violated his bail terms by sending his friends and family packages
containing 13 watches, 4 diamond brooches, a jade necklace, two sets of
cufflinks and other jewelry totaling at least $1 million, federal
prosecutors argued in a legal brief released Wednesday.

Prosecutors said Mr. Madoff had defied a judge’s orders not to
dispose of any assets by sending the packages of jewelry and valuables,
and they argued that his actions violated the conditions of his bail
and made him an increased flight risk. They asked that Mr. Madoff be
taken into custody.“The defendant has assets that cannot be effectively
restrained, and his ties to New York have been largely severed by the
loss of his New York business and his loss of status in the New York
community,” prosecutors said in the court filing.

Prosecutors, in
the brief filed Tuesday, said most of the items sent have been
recovered by the government. The brief said that two additional
packages with unknown contents had been sent to Mr. Madoff’s brother
and an identified couple in Florida.

The magistrate judge, Ronald L. Ellis of United States District Court
in Manhattan, is now expected to rule, possibly later today, on whether
Mr. Madoff should stay under house arrest at his Upper East Side
apartment, or be remanded to jail.

iWork ’09 Review

I have been playing around and doing work in iWork ’09 all afternoon/evening, and thus far, Pages show nearly no change, but Numbers and Keynote have great potential.  I have bought the software, and will post more when I use the applications more, and integrate them into my workflow, replacing their ’08 counterparts