Apple has posted Steve Jobs’ resignation letter (and no, apparently there’s not an app for that). Like you’d expect, it’s short and sweet. Full text below.

Steve Jobs and Apple may not have an official presence on Twitter but within minutes of his resignation as CEO, the Cupertino company is a trending topic.

Four out of the five trending topics were Apple-related at this writing: CEO of Apple, Tim Cook and STEVE JOBS RESIGNS (caps not ours).

While it’s not surprising that a shift at the helm of the one of the world’s most powerful companies trends on the microblogging service, it’s still surprising to see how fast it happened.

We’re going to skip over all the iQuit jokes; a few of our favorites so far:

“Steve Jobs sets all-time high-score on second attempt, retires undefeated.” Matthew Vosburgh

“Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO of Apple should be no surprise to anyone. It’s been listed on page 46 of iTunes terms & conditions for weeks.” Bill Walton

“Steve Jobs has done more to change our world, the flow of information, technology, the economy and perception of what is possible…” Mark Davidson

Surprising news today from Cupertino that Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple, Inc. Jobs has stepped down and the board is naming Tim Cook as his replacement. The company said, “Steve extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company, ” and Jobs stated:

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.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. 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.

Steve

Steve Jobs will remain as the Chairman on Apple’s board. Check out the complete press release after the break.

You know what they say, the third time’s the charm. After round one and round two of our reader submitted Mac setups gallery, we’re back with round three.

As usual, here are some awesome setups from fellow Cult of Mac readers. Enjoy!

Yesterday, Samsung used Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey — a forty year old science fiction movie about a future that is now ten years old — as an example of prior art in their ongoing IP lawsuits. Samsung claimed that the tablets shown in 2001 were prior art, and they proved that Apple didn’t actually invent the idea of a touchscreen tablet; therefore, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab can’t be accused of ripping off the iPad.

Seems like a pretty good argument. The only problem? The devices shown in 2001 aren’t touchscreen tablets at all!

Are you an iMac user that’s been experiencing a weird graphics glitch in OS X Lion? Then you’re in luck. Apple has just issued an iMac Graphics Firmware update to fix random system freezes and hang ups.

Someone get Steve Jobs and Jony Ive on the iPhone, because, Houston, we have a problem. An iPhone/iOS design flaw has been uncovered. And by “design flaw,” we mean something so minute that only the folks at Cupertino would cringe.

Love it or hate it, Launchpad is here to stay in OS X Lion, but even if you’re on board with the idea of Launchpad philosophically, it does have one blatant problem in that it shows every app on your machine by default… not very handy for those of us with a thousand pieces of software on our machine who’d like to use Launchpad as a more minimalist launcher for our favorite apps.

We’ve looked at utilities before that help manage LaunchPad, but they were pretty rudimentary affairs… just a list of apps and some tick boxes.

Launchpad Cleaner 2, though? Bloody gorgeous. You can not only hide apps from showing up in Launchpad and rename them, you can even back up your Launchpad layout and export it to another machine. Sounds like just the sort of thing that could actually make Launchpad usable for power users… surely worth $4.99.

[via MacStories]

Rumors that Apple will sell its upcoming iPhone 5 through Sprint is just the next step in what one analyst views as a tactic the tech giant can use to grow iPhone and iPad sales.

[polldaddy poll=”5449659″]

Earlier today, Apple won a big victory against Samsung in Europe, after a Dutch court agreed to an injunction against Samsung’s popular line of Galaxy Smartphones, banning them from sale in the EU.

Do you think in suing Samsung over their Android tablets and smartphones that Apple is going too far? Answer our poll and, if you feel like it, we’d love for you to elaborate more in the comments.

A new report says that when the iPhone 5 debuts in Fall, it will launch simultaneously on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. It’s about time.

More interesting? Despite the fact that over a million iPhone users are on T-Mobile already, they are doing so without 3G access, just EDGE. When the iPhone 5 comes around, that’s about to change.

Samsung had used the Netherlands as a loophole against an EU-wide ban on its products. That option is now closed after a Netherlands court rules the Korean company’s smartphones violate Apple patents. The decision could tie a knot in Samsung’s distribution chain, the latest win for the Cupertino, Calif. iPhone maker.

About eight years ago, I didn’t have an iPad or an iPhone, I had a Dell Axim X5, Dell’s woefully ugly entry into the Pocket PC market. I loved the thing, especially in conjunction with a wonderful accessory that allowed me to collapse a roughly netbook-sized keyboard into the space of a small pocket notebook.

I’m sort of amused, then, to see Logitech dusting off this old approach to mobile keyboards with their new Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard for iPad, but it’s almost like they were taking stupid pills when they were designing it.

Apple’s profits stashed overseas is getting restless for a trip the the United States. The tech giant, frequently seen wealthier than the U.S. government and Exxon-Mobile, is lobbying the U.S. government for a five percent ‘tax holiday.’ In a bizarre picture, Apple is aligned with Republicans and against the Democratic American President.

Apple began emailing iOS app developers today to tell them all about a new “auto-ingest” tool for retrieving iTunes connect Sales & Trends data. The new tool is Java-based and will run on any operating system, giving developers quick and easy access to their daily or weekly sales reports.

A new iOS app from Penny Arcade is set to hit the App Store next month with a mission to help you discover your next gaming addiction. Called the Decide-o-tron 8000, the app builds up a library of games based on what you like and what you don’t, then uses its predictive technology to tell you what you should be playing next.

This concept video by San Francisco design house Aatma Studios starts off pretty well: they envision future iPhones and iPads using a combination of a built-in pico projector and IR sensors to project a light-based keyboard on a flat surface. Just type on that projected keyboard as you would on any other and the iPhone will register your keystrokes.

It’s a sickness, this desire for iPads. That’s the diagnosis of the head of Acer, the netbook maker that has had the stuffing kicked out of it by, um, the iPad. But don’t fret, the Acer chairman says this tablet “fever” consumers have contracted will break.

New data published by RetailSails this week — an independent analyzer of the U.S. retail industry —  has revealed that Apple is the highest ranking U.S. retailer when it comes to sales per square foot, way ahead of companies like Tiffany & Co, Costco, and Best Buy.

Score a huge, huge win for Apple in its IP fight with Samsung: a Dutch court has just granted Apple a preliminary injunction preventing the Samsung Galaxy series of smartphones from being sold in Europe, effective on October 13th.

Here is a useful tip for new Mac OS X Lion users that will show you how to configure what is visible in your Finder windows sidebar. I think this particular tip is most useful for people who are new to the Mac OS X especially people who have switched from a PC to a Mac.

No, it’s not. But a quick glance at its box might fool you into thinking so, and that’s because Sony seems to have used Apple’s default OS X Lion wallpaper as the background image on the company’s EX621 BRAVIA TV.

The security experts at McAfee have published details of a new study that found during the second quarter of 2011, Android-powered devices faced a staggering 76% increase in malware than that of the first quarter — while Apple’s iOS devices remained unaffected by malicious exploits.

One of Apple’s education profile stories has caught some heat for highlighting how Mac products are teaching a new generation of journalists the trade.

Some question whether those would-be Woodward and Bernsteins at the Missouri School of Journalism should be pledging allegiance to Apple, one of the world’s most powerful companies.

An new police app takes the game of cops and robbers to a different level: concerned citizens – plus hooligans, miscreants and various and sundry – in Surrey, U.K. can now see where the police are.