memos

Here's the full text of the e-mail Steve Jobs sent to his employees about stepping down as Apple CEO for a medical leave of absence.

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the … Read more

Yahoo began laying off 1,520 employees around the world on Wednesday as the company tries to deal with its financial difficulties.

Here's what outgoing Chief Executive Jerry Yang had to say to employees about it in a memo that uses his trademark lowercase style.

yahoos,

today, most of our layoffs in the US are happening, and they've been underway in other regions around the world.

this is a tough time for all of us and i wanted to take a moment to reach out to you.

saying goodbye to colleagues and friends is never easy. they all … Read more

Coolfer has an interesting post this morning, responding to Peter Kafka's suggestion that it's getting too hard to buy music because fewer retailers are stocking CDs. I think Kafka's confusing cause and effect--if retailers were still making lots of money on Britney and Rihanna, CDs would be sold front and center. But regardless of the chicken-and-egg question, Coolfer makes the very good point that most music purchasers don't seek out music and aren't willing to sift through the racks at their local record stores, but rather pick up a CD as an impulse buy on … Read more

Here is the full text from Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang about his decision to step down to his earlier role as Chief Yahoo.

From: Jerry Yang

Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 5:03 PM

Subject: update

yahoos -

i wanted to address all of you on the news we've just announced. the board of directors and I have agreed to initiate a succession process for the ceo role of yahoo!. roy bostock, our chairman of the board, is leading the effort to identify and assess potential candidates for consideration by the full board. the board will be evaluating … Read more

Here is the text of an internal memo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent Saturday afternoon to Microsoft employees:

From: Steve Ballmer

Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 5:18 PM

To: Microsoft - All Employees (QBDG)

Subject: Withdrawal of Offer to Acquire Yahoo!

This afternoon I sent the attached letter to Jerry Yang announcing that Microsoft has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo. We proposed the deal in the belief that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would create a combined company with the resources and assets to win in the fast-growing market for advertising and online services.

Although the acquisition of Yahoo would … Read more

Editor's note: CallRec was tested on a Treo 650.

Pros: Records independently of app, tracks remaining storage, two recording input options, multiple ways to share Cons: No trigger hot key, two-second lapse with phone call recording

At a baseball game last summer, my friend recorded the incessant howls of a boisterous seatmate with his smart phone, replaying it in my ear with tinny imperfection. Too bad he didn't have a Palm device with CallRec tucked onto his memory card to forever capture the fan's clamorous "woo-woooos" with lifelike clarity.

CallRec is a midsize piece of commercial software (207KB on-phone storage; $30) that makes clear recordings of your notes-to-self and phone calls, and has enough options for tweaking the recording quality to cut out most background noise. The clean, understandable interface provides screen-touch buttons to start, stop, and replay recordings, though you can also initiate and end sessions by pressing the Treo's side button. CallRec names recordings with a time stamp, but it's easy to rename files, and to organize them by file name or duration. … Read more

Michael Dell's got his new executive team fully in place, and they intend to turn things around by shoring up the core businesses and reaching customers in new ways.

The Wall Street Journal (subcription required) reported Friday on a memo sent to Dell employees Wednesday informing them of the results of a recent executive meeting of the minds. A Dell spokesman confirmed the memo was genuine.

Among other things, the memo vows that Dell is going to improve efficiency and look at new distribution strategies, which could involve the company altering its fundamental direct model.

"The Direct Model … Read more

We may be fully ensconced in the Digital Age, but when it comes to note-taking in meetings, nothing beats an old-fashioned pen and paper.

The good news is there are gadgets that take those doodles (er, copious notes) and capture them digitally for later editing on a PC. One such product is the DigiMemo A402, which looks and feels a lot like a standard clipboard, only with a distinctly early 21st century touch.

Using electromagnetic technology, the product, which came to our attention via Tech Digest, lets you place ordinary A4-size paper on the pad and use the digital inking … Read more