Apple claimed 87.4 percent of the tablet market before the Galaxy Tab hit the scene, according to an IDC study of tablet share. Apple had a near-monopoly of the tablet market last summer. Analysts also expected 17 million tablets to have shipped by the end of the year, almost all of which would still have been iPads.

Of course Android would have cut into Apple’s share in the fall with 1.5 million Galaxy Tabs estimated sold and will likely cut into it even deeper in 2011 with the Motorola Xoom for one. RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook could play a part as well.

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs has just announced that the Apple Board has granted him a medical leave of absence. This leaves Tim Cook to be responsible for the day to day running of Apple while Jobs is away. We don’t have any details about what the medical leave relates too specifically, or how long he will be gone for.

The email that was sent out by Steve Jobs to Apple employees is below, and it does say that he will continue to be involved in Apple’s major decisions, which is great news for everyone.

We knew that Apple wanted faster mobile graphics for the next iPad and iPhone and we have some more details about its choice. The company is now said to be using the SGX543MP2, specifically the dual-core version. The new video is estimated to have about four times the performance of the current SGX535.

This speed increase would be welcomed along with the rumored 2048×1536 display resolution of the next iPad and could enable the kind of higher quality movie playback that would keep Apple competitive against it’s foes. It would most likely support 1080p video decoding in hardware.

If you are a music lover then you have probably dreamed of what you could do with a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Well, Apple is giving away just that to one lucky person who downloads the 10 billionth app from its App Store. It could be you.

The company is on track to hit that milestone. So far around 9.76 billion apps have been downloaded. The counter is going up up up. Users are limited to 25 downloads a day, automated software will disqualify you, and you have to agree to let your name and image be used for Apple.

The SynthStation49 keyboard controller by Akai is using Apple’s iPad in a creative way, by installing a built-in iPad dock. It will work with Akai’s SynthStation software offering direct in-app MIDI recording, as well as the iOS CoreMIDI allowing it to be used with a wide variety of other iOS music apps.

The new keyboard features 49 full-size velocity-sensitive keys, nine MPC-style drum pads and a variety of controls. There’s an adjustable-angle charging iPad dock, a USB port for connecting to a Mac or PC and professional 0.25-inch outputs. You also use the SynthStation49 as a traditional USB MIDI controller with your computer.

Here’s some good news from Apple. Apple has now dropped the price of the last generation iPhone, the iPhone 3GS to $49 with a new two year mobile contract. This goes along with the recent price drop from AT&T on the iPhone 3GS and comes just as we are expecting Verizon Wireless to announce the Verizon iPhone, so this is AT&T’s chance to lock customers into a new two year contract before Verizon starts selling the iPhone.

We aren’t sure if Verizon will be selling a version of the 3GS as well as the iPhone 4, but we suspect that it will just be the iPhone 4 and we won’t see another iPhone available on the network until Apple launches the next iPhone.

Apple may be planning an end to its restocking fees at retail which would help fuel the Verizon iPhone launch. The company would permanently waive the 10 percent penalty for anyone returning a device in the usual two-week grace period, starting January 11. That’s the same day as the special event.

However, 9 to 5 Mac didn’t say if it was a permanent policy or just a one time promo with the Verizon deal, but it wouldn’t be exclusive to the one device. Of course the company has not commented on this as yet. This might help get customers to try an apple product, if they were hesitant before.

Apple’s Mac App Store got off to a shaky start since it didn’t take long after the store was launched for people to figure out how to get some apps off without paying. But there’s some better news today. Apple has officially confirmed that over a million apps have been downloaded from the store in its first day in business.

Since the store offers over 1,000 free and paid apps, it wasn’t going to take long to hit that mark. The Mac App Store is available for Snow Leopard users through a Software Update as part of OS X 10.6.6 if you haven’t checked it out already.

We love Apple’s MacBook Pro because of the sleek design, but this HIDE laptop concept design might just do a tad better. This laptop design has slim panels on the side of the display, which cover up the sides of the laptop and the ports, when the lid is closed.

And so it appears to be one solid piece of aluminum when closed. As a bonus, it also protects the peripheral ports from damage. This HIDE laptop concept would be easy to incorporate into today’s laptops and it makes good sense.

The time is right for Microsoft to make a play for the set top box market. Apple is never at CES and Google is asking its partners at CES this year to hold back while Google takes its Google TV back to the drawing board. The timing seems perfect.

And according to the Seattle Times that is just what they are doing. Looks like Microsoft is going to enter this market with a stripped-down version of Windows suited for set-top boxes and connected TVs. The software is a version of its embedded device software, overlaid with the Windows Media Center interface, with media streaming and remote-control capabilities.

MiLi Power has something different to show off in Las Vegas this year. The MiLi HD is a pretty simple device and you have to admire it’s minimalist nature. It’s a full featured charging dock, but it also includes an internal speaker, a mini-USB connector and an HDMI output.

It will help you stream iTunes downloads from your iDevice of choice right onto your television without an Apple TV. It will be available soon for just $99.99 if it fits your needs.

Barnes & Noble hinted at the fact that the Nook may have led to a major turnaround in its business. They certainly needed it. The company said that its “comparable store sales,” or those at large stores open for more than 1.25 years, were almost double what they had expected, at 9.7 percent. So what happened? Not surprisingly, they credited sales of Nook e-readers to the overall spike and to having its best-ever single day of sales on December 23. Seems like the Nook has saved the day.

The company said that more details will be made available on January 6. The company’s paper sales have been declining, especially at retail, so they have turned more toward digital devices and Apple-style displays that push the Nook.

Apple’s iPhone alarm clock experienced a strange glitch with the new year and failed to wake users on New Year’s Day and January 2. This is caused by a bug that Apple still hasn’t fully explained, but the company did make a statement yesterday saying that the failure of its clock app only happens when you set a one-time alarm, and that it will somehow fix itself on January 3. However despite that, the problem still apparently exists.

So if you want to make sure that you wake up on time and don’t piss off your boss, here’s how to work around the problem until we get a proper fix.

Your pets should have the same interests you have right? So, if you are a Mac enthusiast, it makes sense that you would want your fish to love Mac too. Now he/she can. This “Macquarium” is made from an old Power Mac G4 Cube. The cube has been specially modified with bonded plexiglas to make it safe for your fish.

This aquarium measures 8.9″ H × 7.7″ W × 7.7″ D. If you have the $149.00 necessary to get this aquarium, go ahead and geek up your fish, changing it’s computing allegiance from neutral to Apple. Maybe you can put a little Steve Jobs figure in there and play Stevejob Squarepants.

There’s an app for everything, or so it seems. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Apple has a high chance of passing the 500,000 app milestone for the App Store in 2011, based on current data. They have already unofficially passed 325,000 active titles as of December 26, with the App Store seeing about 25,421 apps submitted per month.

That means that if every app were approved, Apple could exceed the half-million point in just seven months or so. Of course what with app rejections, titles voluntarily pulled from the store etc, it might take a bit longer. Whenever it actually hits, it is quite a milestone.