Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs died today at the age of 56, Apple announced in a statement. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts,” Apple’s statement today read.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “people familiar with the situation” have said that the 54-year-old Steve Jobs has been spending much of his time working with the new touch screen gadget device that Apple is cooking up. Furthermore, one person working on the product’s advertising and marketing strategy said that they are under intense scrutiny from Steve Jobs himself. While rumors of the “iPad” have been heating up recently, some stories have been published saying the rumors are simply rumors and the product doesn’t exist.

There were reports a while back that Steve Jobs was “healthy and energetic,” but more recent news from the Wall Street Journal is even better. According to them, Steve Jobs “… received a liver transplant in Tennessee about two months ago …” and is expected to make his return later this month as initially declared by Apple. However, they do point out that it may only be part time, at first.

Tim Cook, who will be filling in for Steve Jobs for Apple’s day to day operations over the next six months, is a veteran employee of large companies in the technology industry, and he has a good schooling career to back it up. During his early years, he “earned an M.B.A. from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University.” He then started off his career at IBM, where he eventually became the lead of the manufacturing and distribution functions. Soon, he found himself as vice president of Corporate Materials for Compaq. Not too long after that in March 1998, Cook first took his position at Apple as the Chief Operating Officer, where he was responsible for the company’s worldwide sales and operations.

When he’s not peeing from his Segway, our favorite innovator, Steve Wozniak, is using his vast technology oriented brain to help advise some of our favorite companies. The latest news surrounding this interesting character involves his new role on the Axiotron Board of Advisors. For those of you who don’t know, Axiotron is best known more »