The rumors were true : Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO of Apple and taking over will be senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus. Cook will remain at the company as executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors, according to a press release . Ternus will assume the CEO role on Sept. 1. Also as expected, in his role as executive chairman, he will engage “with policymakers around the world.” Basically, he’s taking it upon himself to bend the knee and maybe hand out more glass discs mounted on 24-karat gold bases to appease dictators presidents. Apple shared a “community letter” from Cook , published on Apple’s home page after the announcement.…