Bill Gates the founder and former CEO of Microsoft, sat down for an interview with “Nightline” ABC News in which he discussed several topics about his private life and the moments he shared with Steve Jobs. Gates talked in detail about his last meeting he had with Steve Jobs at his house a few days prior to his death, and how his passing affected him.

Sunday, January 16th marked the quarter-century anniversary of the Macintosh Plus’s 1986 release. The Plus is widely considered to have been the first real workhorse tool variant of the original compact AIO desktop Macs, with an 8MHz 68000 Motorola processor, able to support up to 4MB of user-upgradable RAM and connect to external SCSI devices, including external hard drives. Other members of the compact Mac family included the 128K, the 512K, the Mac SE, the Mac SE-30, the Mac Classic and the Mac Classic II.

Some official and some leaked (and some officially leaked), the Black Friday retail sales are finding their way onto the Internet. Trouble is, those iPod, iPad, Apple TV and other Apple-related deals are often hidden beneath the muck of Dell Netbooks and Halo t-shirts. To help you know where to shop, we’ll round up the best of the Apple specials here. Check back often for updates as they’re released.

The folks over at Ahoys have put together an article called “7 Seriously Enviable Office Desk Setups.” I’m satisfied with my iMac at work and the MacBook at home, but have secretly dreamed of a set-up like a Geoff Downes keyboard arrangement at an Asia concert. Those covered at Ahoys don’t quite reach that level, but they truly are enviable (well, those that feature Macs, anyway).

It’s official: Microsoft has answered Apple’s challenge in retail store sales. Locations and opening dates have not been specified yet, but it appears the number of stores will be small, with a focus on building brand awareness and excitement for Windows products. The effort is being spearheaded by a former Walmart executive, David Porter, who was most recently head of worldwide distribution for Dreamworks SKG. It would appear that the Apple Store’s runaway success in luring consumers has finally made enough of an impact on Microsoft that they feel the need to respond—eight years late, but better late than never, right?

It happens every so often: Apple declares certain older products obsolete or vintage. Vintage machines are those made between five and seven years ago, and obsolete machines are those made more than seven years ago. What’s been interesting of late is the amount of Macs on the list that are still in fairly heavy use, and really don’t seem that old. Think the lampshade iMac, PowerBook G4, iBook, and PowerMac G4s.

Although Psystar may be old news, another company seems to want to challenge Apple with their own Mac clones. Against Mac OS X’s end-user license agreement (EULA), the clones are attempting to compete with Apple’s Mac line of computers, and clone makers are always trying to find ways around Apple’s EULA. German company HyperMegaNet UG has just released a line of computers that are capable of running Max OS X Leopard.

PCMag reported late last week that the CEA has announced they’ve sold out their section devoted to the “Mac” for CES 2010. The iLounge Pavilion, as CES is calling it, sold out in one week, so CES had to quadruple the size to accommodate the demand. And so, the PC web vultures have already starting circling.

A patent filed yesterday from Apple shows off a possible option for dynamic sound control on Macintosh computers and, potentially, the iPod/iPhone ranges. The patent suggests the device is fitted with an ambient sound sensor to detect sound around the user and alter the volume as necessary. So, a loud environment would increase your music to an audible (not dangerous) level, while being in a quiet environment would lower the volume to a comfortable level. Although the end user would still have ultimate control over volume, the system would use set ranges to extend between, always keeping your music sounding at a constant level whatever is happening around you.

Everybody has a MacBook nowadays, and with most people taking the notebooks on the go, many seek sleeves and protectors to encase them in. Woodworker Rainer Spehl has come up with a, well, more alternative case.