“I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death,” said a statement released through his spokesperson. “Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

“Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.”The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.” “For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”

Microsoft and Apple have, of course, had a storied rivalry lasting over 30 years. Jobs and Gates had locked horns while the rival Macintosh and Windows platforms went head-to-head throughout the 80s and 90s, and right up until Gates stepped down as Microsoft CEO in 2008.

Microsoft’s co-founder Paul Allen also released a statement calling Jobs a “unique pioneer and auteur.”

“He’s done a fantastic job,” Gates once said of Jobs’ reign at Apple, adding, “Of all the leaders in the industry that I’ve worked with, he showed more inspiration and he saved the company.”

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has sent out the following email to all Apple employees:

“I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

     Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

     We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

     No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

     Tim“

 Apple has also setup a special page to share your memories, thoughts, and condolences. The page can be accessed by clicking this link.

For the first time ever, watch how people use a simple smartphone to play a life-size version of the cult Angry Birds game. Complete with real shooting birds and exploding pigs!

The BlackBerry Tablet ‘PlayBook’ will hit the Indian market in July 2011. It will also be launched in 15 other countries at the same time.

The BlackBerry tablet was launched in the US and Canada in April 2011. It will be launched in India, Britain, France, Australia, UAE, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland, Mexico, Indonesia, Venezuela and Columbia.

It is not immediately known what will be exact price of the BlackBerry tablet. However, it is being sold at $499 – $699 in the US and Canada. The tablet is available in three models – 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB.

HTC Sensation, the new Android phone with the latest HTC Sense 3.0 is now available for purchase from LetsBuy, for Rs. 30,699.

The HTC Sensation is one of the few phones with the latest HTC Sense 3.0 UI which comes with 3D effects including 3D widgets, smart shortcuts, multi-functional lock screens, and 360-degree menu interface . The phone runs on the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, powered by a 1.2GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which features a 4.3 inch qHD S-LCD capacitive touch screen with 540 X 960 resolution, 1GB internal storage, 768MB RAM, microSD slot(supports upto 32GB), 8.0 megapixels camera with 1080p HD video recording, VGA front facing camera, 3G, Bluetooth3.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, EDGE/GPRS, Gyro sensor, Proximity sensor, Digital compass, A-GPS, 1520 mAh battery etc.

Google launches YouTube Box Office in India!

Google has launched the Indian edition of YouTube Movies. They call it YouTube Box Office. It would showcase Bollywood movies that could be viewed online using a web browser. YouTube Box Office would debut one new movie every month. This month, you can watch Band Baaja Baaraat for free!

Opening the box office in India is Yash Raj Film’s Band Baaja Baaraat. Users will  have the option to view the movie in 720p and 1080p apart from the other standard resolutions.

The company is offering around 1500 movies through this new section. The service is supported with online advertising. YouTube said that they are in talks with various production houses in India to expand the availability of movies. The company said: “We are working with the companies to fulfill business needs, from securing global distribution to marketing films, creating new business models around old content, and engaging with fans.” It remains to be seen if this service would offer a paid option in the future for watching fresh launches. It could become a solid alternative to premium movie channels.

The famous mobile phone game “Angry Birds” is now available for Windows users. The game is available for download at a cost of $4.95.
The game has proved to be hugely successful since it was first released by Rovio. The company is offering a trial version of the game to users who might want to feel it before buying it.

When the game was first released, it was offered on Apple’s iPad, iPod and iPhone. However the success of the release got the game released for Android-based phones later. The game was again released on Google’s browser Chrome.

With the new release, the game does not require a browser to play. Players will have to download and install the program as standalone software. With the deployment of the game for Windows, the game has now been deployed on all platforms.

To play the game on a Windows platform, the operating system should be Windows XP SP2 or an OS which was released later than that. Paying for the game gives a user the chance to download the game three times. With the same activation key, the game can be downloaded onto three different computers.

Internet reports suggest that Twitter will launch its own picture sharing service this week. The move will undoubtedly affect third party picture sharing service providers that are currently on the miniblog.

The chief executive of Twitter, Dick Costolo, is expected to make the announcement during the D9 conference on Wednesday. Costolo is billed to address the conference on Wednesday and TechCrunch was the first to report that he will make an announcement of the service. If the report turns out to be accurate, third party picture sharing service providers like Twitpic and Yfrog will be disadvantaged.

The companies along with other similar providers are currently the only means to share picture on the famous social site. It is believed that Twitter is trying to take back control of its services. The company had in the past announced some services which were previously offered by third party providers.

The report did not indicate how Twitter plans to implement the picture sharing service. The third parties took users to their website where they made profit by displaying advertisements along the picture that is being viewed.

Twitter’s popularity is skyrocketing because of the many celebrities and personalities that use the service to keep their followers informed.

Microsoft Introduces the next generation of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8,” The new version, optimized for touch, presents a radically different interface similar to Windows Phone 7. The company says that it’s designed for not only laptops and desktops, but for tablets as well (which makes sense, given its big, touch-friendly buttons and visual style).

Microsoft’s official list of new features:

• Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
• Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
• Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
• Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using thecapabilities of Windows.
• Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
• Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10

Check out the video for a quick overview: