According to a source with 9to5Mac, Apple Design Chief Jony Ive and CEO Steve Jobs is overseeing the redesign of Apple retail stores. Personal setup in the stores is going to be called “Startup Sessions.” The new Apple Bars are going to be more interactive. The signage will be changed from paper signs to interactive iPads. And some locations will have huge displays added with brand new sound systems. Apple is also believed to be working on a new Apple Store iOS application.

Sony Corporation CEO Howard Stringer said that the hacker that knocked out the PlayStation Network that exploited 100 million customer accounts was a hiccup in the company’s strategy. “Nobody’s system is 100 percent secure,” stated Stringer. “This is a hiccup in the road to a network future.”

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is expected to begin shipping 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch MacBook Air models that feature Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt in late May for a launch that is expected to happen between June and July. Quanta Computer is doing the assembly, Catcher Technology is doing the casings, Shin Zu Shing is supplying the hinges, Auras Technology is doing the thermal modules, and Simplo Technology and Dynapack are supplying the batteries. [DigiTImes]

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has added Pivot tables to Google Docs to make it easy to summarize large sets of data. To set up a Pivot table, go to Data > Pivot Table Report after selecting the data. When editing the pivot table report editor, set the rows, columns, and values. Fields in the values section can be added as a Sum, CountA, Average, Max, Min, or Product. Check out the video demo below:

Microsoft Corporation (NASDASQ:MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates said that he urged the board of directors to acquire the Skype VoIP service. Last week Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion. This was Microsoft’s largest acquisition ever.

Professional social network LinkedIn.com has made another filing with the SEC that increased the price per share to $42-$45, giving them a $4 billion valuation. This is an increase from $3 billion that was reported yesterday. LinkedIn is offering 7.84 million shares for sale and is looking to raise $406 million in the offering. These funds will be used for working capital, sales/marketing, administrative purposes, and capital expenditures. [TechCrunch]

iFixit.com has opened the iPhone 4 to find out how the device mysteriously cancels internal noise. Inside of the iPhone 4 was a mysterious chip labeled 10C0 01S8 0077. The chip has a marking that is labeled Audience, indicating that the iPhone 4 uses an Audience-powered low power audio signal processor. This is the same processor that is used in the Nexus One.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has submitted a proposal for a standardized SIM card design that is smaller than the micro-SIM card that is being used on the iPhone 4 and iPad. French telecommunications company Orange has agreed to support the new proposed standard.