Tim Cook makes his move

A week after being appointed Steve Jobs’ successor and the new chief executive officer of Apple, Tim Cook has apparently wasted no time making his first move. According to 9to5Mac, Cook has promoted Eddie Cue, who was Apple’s iTunes chief, to senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. His duties will include overseeing all of Apple’s cloud offerings, such as the App Store, which is a cornerstone to the iPad’s success, iTunes, iBookstore and the forthcoming iCloud.

In an glowing email leaked on the site, Cook credits Cue as playing a “major role in creating the Apple online store in 1998, the iTunes Music Store in 2003 and the App Store in 2008.”Cue is also a 22-year Apple veteran that was ranked by business-focused website Fast Company as being the “second most creative person” in their annual list of creatives, which cited Cue as ‘holding the key to the Apple kingdom.’ The move will likely go a long way towards reassuring that Apple is in capable hands and on track with its current course following Jobs' resignation.

Google launches offline Gmail, calendar, docs

While Gmail and its associated applications have become prime examples of cloud-based productivity, the company announced this week the launch of Gmail Offline, in recognition of the fact that many people still find themselves in situations where they do not have internet access.The new Chrome Web Store app though only runs on Google’s Chrome browser. The company explained that it’s intended “for situations when you need to read, respond to, organize and archive email without an internet connection. This HTML5-powered app is based on the Gmail web app for tablets, which was built to function with or without web access.” After installing  the Gmail Offline app users will be able to continue using Gmail when they lose their connection by clicking the Gmail Offline icon on Chrome’s “new tab” page.