The founder of Apple and its chief executive Steve Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, stated recently that a hormone imbalance is what caused his weight loss that was widely reported by the media. Jobs, 53, said he will receive a “relatively simple” treatment and will remain the head of the company. Investors seemed happy to have some clarity on his health. Apple’s shares rose $3.42, 3.8 per cent, to $94.17 in early trading.

Speculation about Jobs’ health permeated in 2008 as he appeared slim in his public events. The rumours compounded after Apple decied in December that Jobs would not be making his annual keynote speech on Tuesday in San Francisco at the Macworld conference.

Officially Apple stated Jobs would not give the presentation since this year will mark the company’s last appearance at the show, which is held by a separate company, the IDG technology media group. Phil Schiller, an Apple marketing executive, would give the company’s presentation instead.

Some analysts have began questioning the company’s viability without Jobs, who has emphasized the design principles that made standouts out of Apple’s Mac computers, iPods and iPhones.

In his letter Monday, Jobs said, “I will be the first one to step up and tell our board of directors if I can no longer continue to fulfil my duties as Apple’s CEO.”

For those of you planning to attend Macword this year, you may want to reconsider, as a major attraction — the Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) keynote speech — will not be taking place this year. Instead, you can expect to see Apple’s Senior Vice President of marketing deliver the conference’s core speech.

This is not just a one year pitfall, either. It is said that Steve Jobs will not be giving anymore Macworld keynotes, and after 2009 Apple will no longer be presenting at Macworld, at all.

In the past, Macworld was the place to be for Apple news, as both the iPhone and the iPod made their debut at the tradeshow. Apple now states that they will be scaling down their tradeshow efforts, and putting a greater emphasis on their retail outlets.

Here’s somewhat of an odd decision, especially knowing how technically-minded many Japanese are. Nokia, the largest producer of wireless phones world-wide, is scheduled to stop producing phones (apart from a small luxury brand) for the Japanese marketplace.

The decision was doubtlessly made with many facts at hand. A few that were probably prevalent are, of course, trimming down during the economic crisis, as well as the fact that eight-five percent of Japanese citizens already own a mobile phone — with many of them containing advance features.

What’s the competition up to? Well, Appple, makers of the iPhone 3G have still been enjoying some success in Japan, selling approximately 200,000 iPhone 3Gs in the two months after its release. However, while that is a seemingly impressive number, they had forecasted one million Japanese iPhone 3G sales during that period.

There was never any doubt that the iPhone is popular, but just how popular it is is making headlines.

New reports indicated that the iPhone 3G is currently the most frequently purchased mobile handset bought by US consumers. This is the actually the first time a smart-phone has lead the pack among all handsets.

This news means that the Motorola RAZR, which had been on top for almost three years now, has been displaced. The iPhone also outpaces popular handsets shut as the LG Rumor and the Blackberry Curve

Now, while this is positive news for Apple, as you might suspect, due to the tough economic times mobile sales are down fifteen percent from last quarter. So, times are good for the iPhone, but perhaps not as good as they could be.

Well, IBM employees best be careful before they turn their backs on the big-name tech company, as they could find themselves involved in a lawsuit. A former high-ranking executive who left the company for Apple, is finding that out now.

The executive in question was suppose to begin employment with Apple in only a few weeks time, but as he was a tenured employee with deep knowledge of IBM’s secrets and strategy, he may be barred from working for Apple, an obvious IBM competitor.

As someone who has worked in the technology sector, and been subject to a variety of non-compete agreements, I can certainly see IBM’s point, as is the basis of the lawsuit. IBM claims that according to a contractual agreement, their former-exec must wait one years time before working for a competing business. This is particularly important, as in this case, the employee was a key part in the team that produced IBM’s System X and BladeCenter of which Apple has competing products.

Since dumping Seinfeld, Microsoft has launched a new ad – kind of a parody on the whole “I’m a Mac” thing – and it’s surprising good. Surprisingly human, too. If they want to hit back at Apple, this is the direction they need to be going in. Remind people of all that Microsoft is, and that they’re still the preferred platform.

** I have both a PC and a MAC and consider myself an unbiased party. Check out the ad below:

The rumor is back, and if it’s true, iTunes can charge my visa card right now, because it would be a heck of deal for music connoisseurs, like myself.

An anonymous tip is currently circulating the blogs-of-Mac-worship, buzzing that Apple is preparing to launch an unlimited downloads, iTunes subscription service. If it’s true, other music subscription services will be forced to compete, or risk being put down.

Apple, and more specifically CEO Steve Jobs, have been publicly resistant to the possibility of an iTunes music subscriptions offering, stating that users wish to “own their music”, and standing by its popular retail model, while companies such as Napster, Real Media and even Microsoft try their hands at ruling the unlimited-download arena.

The anonymous tipster responsible for the resurgence in iTunes subscription rumors claims to have details of the possible offering: the subscription would run for $129.99 a year for regular users, and 179.99 a year for use with Mobile Me. It was also stated that songs would be of 256Kbps quality, with half of the iTunes library initially offered.

Now, before we get too excited, rumors of an iTunes subscription service have surfaced before, but they’ve never made it “to the shelf” as it were. However if Apple realizes that this is what its users are clamoring for, it could very well become a reality.

Apple is smokin’ — literally this time. Reports out of Japan indicate that users of first Generation iPod Nanos (circa 2005), have experienced battery problems resulting in the unit emitting smoke. This is mostly likely to occur during battery recharge, as the battery and subsequently the unit overheat. I know, I couldn’t believe there were people out there still using First Gen iPod Nanos, either.

Kudos to Apple, as they are stepping up to the plate on this one, and have issued the following statement – “Apple has determined that, in very rare cases batteries, in first generation iPod nanos sold between September 2005 and December 2006 can overheat causing failure and deformation of the iPod nano.”

The Apple representative, also spoke of replacement Nanos for those affected:

“Any first generation iPod Nano customers who have experienced their battery overheating should contact AppleCare for a replacement. Any other customers who have concerns about their first generation iPod Nano battery should also contact AppleCare.”

So if you’re using a iPod Nano First Gen from Japan, it may be time to upgrade, or, beware of fire!

Finally, Apple is going to see some competition in the App market, as T-Mobile intends to rival Apple’s App Store by developing a similar offering of their own. Their intention, which sounds to be a daunting task, is to bring these new services to their complete line-up of handsets, across all platforms. Apple has it a lot easier, with just the iPhone to support. The T-Mobile system will work in a similar fashion to Apple’s App store, as 3rd party developers will be able sell their applications, with T-mobile enjoying a percentage of the purchase price.

From T-Mobile brass Venetia Espinoza,

“The devPartner Community site, which is in its alpha stage, is just a taste of what T-Mobile has in store and we encourage you to stay tuned for more details in the coming
weeks.”

It’s likely that other handset competitors will follow suit and begin to develop APP stores offerings of their own in an effort to compete with Apple.

                                                    
Today’s big announcement comes from Rhapsody, the online music service previously known for its subscription-based streaming music for a monthly fee. Well, turns out people are more interested in owning their music rather than renting. So now we have another major competitor for iTunes and Amazon MP3.

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