Satyam scandal, police search row and Apple without Jobs

One of January's big stories was Apple CEO Steve Jobs' decision to temporarily step down as CEO of the company while he recovers from health problems.

Jobs is due to return in June, so this month silicon.com took a look at who will be in charge at Cupertino for the next six months, including COO Tim Cook, financial chief Peter Oppenheimer and marketing chief Phil Schiller.

Stories of the month - January 2009

Click on the links below to read the stories everyone is talking about...

Steve Jobs steps down for six months' sick leave

So who's running Apple now?

Satyam chief quits over financial irregularities

Cheat sheet: Windows 7

A first look at Windows 7 in action

Full steam ahead for police plans to hack home PCs

'We'll block police home PC hacks': Security vendors

Warship computers scuttled after virus attack

Virgin Atlantic's IT director on budget cuts and having fun

Dear Gordon, here's how to spend that £17bn

The other big story in January was the admission by the founder of Indian outsourcing giant Satyam that the company had inflated its revenue by nearly $1bn.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been ramping up preparations for its next operating system Windows 7 and it seems the first impressions are pretty good.

January also saw the Home Office reveal it will work with the European Parliament to extend police powers to conduct remote searches on computers.

Security vendors Kaspersky Labs and Sophos responded to the news by saying they'd block attempts by the police to hack into computer systems without a warrant.

Sticking with security, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced it had disabled computer systems on Royal Navy warships, following the detection of a virus on a MoD network. With the machines down, many staff were left without email or internet access.

Another top story came in the form of an exclusive interview with Virgin Atlantic's IT director. Mike Cope discussed embracing Linux, coping with budget cuts and how to have a bit of fun along the way.

With Prime Minister Gordon Brown setting aside £18bn for investment to help UK plc get through the recession, silicon.com also took a look at what tech investments the PM should be spending the UK's cash on.

And finally, as 2009 creaked into life, silicon.com's tech guru Peter Cochrane outlined a few of his New Year wishes.