Internetnews.com reports that “

[p]ersonal computer sales managed the barest of growth rates in the fourth quarter of 2008 even in the face of a worldwide economic slowdown.  The U.S. saw the worst damage done, but even then it wasn't enough to cause a year-over-year decline.  Technology research firm Gartner said Wednesday that fourth quarter 2008 worldwide PC sales reached 78.1 million, up just 1.1 percent over the same period in 2007. For the year, worldwide PC sales rose 6.1 percent.  For the year, worldwide PC shipments totaled 302.2 million units, a 10.9 percent increase from 2007, with almost all of that coming in the first three quarters of the year. The top five ranking remained unchanged compared to 2007, with HP on top, followed by a resurgent Dell.”

According to Internetnews.com, “Apple probably will be sued by investors unhappy with the company's about-face on the health of its visionary chief executive, but the law is not clear on what duty the company has to disclose personal medical information, legal experts said on Wednesday.  Apple said CEO Steve Jobs, 53, will take a medical leave of absence until June. The announcement that comes just nine days after the pancreatic cancer survivor downplayed investor concerns about his dramatic weight loss in recent months, saying it was caused by an easily treatable hormone imbalance.”

Mercury News, meanwhile, has an interesting article on Tim Cook, Steve Jobs’ temporary replacement at Apple. 

In a different article, Mercury News speculates on whether new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will sell the company’s search business to Microsoft or not.

CNetNews.com writes that “[i]n a series of separate posts on various official Google blogs Wednesday evening, the company announced that it is terminating, stopping development on, or restricting access to six products that clearly haven't been adding much to the Google brand or bottom line lately:”  Google Video, Google Catalog Search, Google Notebook, Dodgeball, Google’s Mashup Editor, and Jaiku.