Unlike the iPod (but like the iPhone), Apple TV will be cross-platform from its first day on the market, continuing Apple's embrace of the tremendous base of Windows users.

ENGADGET: Switched On: Apple TV deletes DMA deficiencies

The company has been in turmoil since the day the first Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone was released.

FORBES: Research in Motion vs. Shareholders: The Final Showdown

"And fortunately this isn't one of them, " quipped Jobs, addressing a crowd of European Macintosh-faithful on the first day of the Apple Expo trade show held annually in Paris.

CNN: Apple tries to get G4 export ban lifted

After years of using various Research In Motion devices, the arrival of my first Apple iPhone 4G felt like a day of liberation.

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Since that first day, August 24, Wall Street and legions of Apple fans have had their gazes fixed on Cook.

CNN: Mark Milian,

Apple sold more than 300, 000 iPads on its first day of availability.

FORBES

So, for now, it looks like Missouri students are free to give their teachers an apple and send them a Facebook friend request on the first day of school Monday.

FORBES: Judge 'Dislikes' Missouri Ban On Teacher-Student Facebook Friendships

At this rate, Apple might one day even put new products on sale in China first.

FORBES: Your iPads Won't Be Smuggled To China Now

But for everyone else, here are the thoughts of someone whose first computer was an Apple III, and who has studied, written about and even worked for Apple literally since the day it began.

FORBES: Apple R.I.P.