Apple will be holding a special media event in early September with sources claiming a keynote will be held on September 9th. The event is expected to hold announcements for new iPods, but there is no indication of whether or not Apple will be introducing the heavily rumored iTablet at the event, as sources close to Apple are not indicating that such a device will be part of the announcements. 

This can be taken with a grain of salt, however, as Apple never tends to tip its hand about new product launches before events. A new version of iTunes is also expected to be announced.

Upon announcing that Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, resigned from Apple's Board, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs notes,  "Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest."

Microsoft released an official press release this morning, revealing that the company has struck a deal with Yahoo! to power Yahoo!'s search product while giving Yahoo! the position of being the exclusive worldwide sales force for both companies search advertisers. With the recent launch of Bing, the news that Microsoft will be taking over search for Yahoo! gives Microsoft a much larger foothold in the search arena and more weight with which to challenge Google.

In case you missed the news this weekend, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO who has been on leave since early January, had a liver transplant.

With the Mobile World Congress conference (MWC) around the corner, rumors of Microsoft designing their own smartphone have returned. These rumors have varied from just another smartphone to something more like a part Zune-part smartphone creation and answer to Apple's iPhone. In the face of all these rumors, Microsoft continues to deny that it is working on any such device. Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet is now claiming that her sources say that Microsoft is not working on a smartphone, but rather designing a Zune-branded smartphone chassis upon which other manufacturers will design their actual smartphones that will run Windows Mobile 7.

A business model for mobile like this would mirror Microsoft's approach to desktop computing in designing a structure for what criteria a device must have in order to run Microsoft Windows, but leaving the actual design and manufacture of those devices to other manufacturers. Offering such a structure for a Zune-based smartphone may be an attempt to find some sort of middle ground between the fully closed and tightly controlled design of the iPhone and the openness of Google's Android platform. If we do see the arrival of such a chassis and basis for smartphones at MWC 2009, most likely we'll also see a few early partner phones emerging, so stay tuned.

Last week Western Digital made a splash with a 2-terabyte, eco-friendly hard drive sporting eco-friendly, energy saving features. While the capacity is sure to excite computer enthusiasts looking to store massive amounts of media or even those looking for a spacious drive for data backup, the few that demand speed from their hardware will be disappointed as the actual disk rotational seed has yet to be disclosed.

On the other hand, Seagate unveiled a drive with the same capacity running at a speedy 7200 RPM. Seagate achieved the monumental capacity through four platters housed within the enclosure, each with an areal density of 500 gigabytes. The drive — which is part of the newly created Constellation moniker — is aimed at enterprises looking for a ton of space. While it's not the same eco-conscious drive Western Digital is showing off, Seagate's Constellation drive does power down when not in use.

The only downside: Seagate won't be shipping these bad boys until sometime this September. If minimal power draw and slower performance aren't a huge setback for you, Western Digital's newest 2 TB drive should satisfy your hunger data storage whereas Seagate's new Constellation drive would be the optimal choice for speed.

Following upon Apple's recent earnings report where Apple COO Tim Cook seemed to shoot the proverbial warning shot across Palm's bow regarding the Palm Pre's possible infringement upon the iPhone's multitude of patents, Palm company spokesperson Lynn Fox told Digital Daily:

“Palm has a long history of innovation that is reflected in our products and robust patent portfolio, and we have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space.... If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.”

Palm currently has a large group of former Apple employees working for them, most notably Jon Rubinstein, who would appear to be one of the driving forces behind the Palm Pre, and who happens to be the former head of hardware engineering for Apple. It's a little early to say whether Cook's statements and Fox's statements point towards an eventual legal battle between the two companies, but if you've been thinking about getting your hands on a Palm Pre when they are finally released, you're going to want to keep your eyes on this situation. Currently, neither side appears to be blinking in the face of the other side's comments, so it could very well result in a legal battle that could delay the arrival of the Palm Pre.

Apple made over $10 billion in revenue last quarter, breaking previous records by selling almost 23 million iPods, 4.3 million iPhones, and 2.5 million computers — but that doesn't mean they're ok with other companies ripping off their designs.

During Wednesdays earnings call Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook made a comment that appeared to be a jab at the recently announced Palm Pre by saying: "I don't want to talk about any particular company. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off. And we will use whatever weapons we have at our disposal." The Palm Pre has a similar multi-touch interface as the iPhone, an interface that Apple claimed at the original launch of the iPhone to have patented.

In the call, Cook also mentioned that Apple was watching the netbook market, but felt the computers were underpowered to meet consumer needs. He also indirectly dispelled rumors of an iPhone Nano — when in a discussion about the iPhone he said that developing software on different screen sizes and resolutions was difficult on developers, something the company wants to avoid.

So, no iPhone nano. No Apple netbook. Apple does have close to $26 billion dollars in cash lying around now however (with no debt to speak of). Chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company has "some fun ideas" on what to do with it all.

What would you like to see come from Apple next?

According to Reuters, Sony may be announcing their first loss in over 14 years, in the neighborhood of $1.1 billion dollars in lost operating costs. Sony spokeswoman Mami Imada told Reuters that the loss figure was speculation, but would not comment further. To find out whether these rumors are true or not, we'll have to wait until Sony's next quarterly earnings announcement, which is scheduled for January 29th. Upon news of this rumored loss—the first for the company since 1995—Japan's stock market took a dip with the NIKKEI falling almost 5%.

The fifteen years without a loss speaks to Sony's spot as a leader in the technology industry and a 2008 loss from the company would most likely be the first in a series of such reports to come from electronics manufacturers.

A new rumor has emerged from a Cult of Mac source who claims to have information from "friends who work at Apple" that Apple decided to leave Macworld behind after this year's final Steve Jobs-less appearance in order to attend CES 2010. This seems highly unlikely since when Apple announced that Macworld 2009 would be their final Macworld, Apple stated that "trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers." Apple has instead had growing success with their own events, like the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and special events like October's special notebook event.