After initially releasing a report from both Apple’s board and Steve Jobs himself claiming he was healthy and would remain CEO until June, this about-face comes as a striking blow to shareholders, investors and enthusiasts alike.

Apple Media Advisory:

Jan 14, 2009 — Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees:

Team, I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Source: Apple URL: http://www.apple.com www.prnewswire.com Copyright (C) 2009 PR Newswire. All rights reserved ( /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ )

We wish Steve the best.

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Stanton thanked Pixar Animations which produced the film, and Walt Disney, which distributed the film. Specifically, he said the entire message and communication between humans and obscure robots “couldn’t have been made anywhere else.”

Perhaps helping Pixar steal the award away from competing heavyweight film Kung Fu Panda, by Dreamworks, is their impeccable track record which is pretty mind-blowing: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Ratatouille, Cars, Monsters Inc., A Bug’s Life and most recently WALL•E. Also, they are set to release “Up” next summer.”

The debate between what was the better film, Kung Fu Panda or Wall E has been heated. Kung Fu Panda cost nearly $130 million to make and in its fourth week in the box office made roughly $180 million, quickly turning a profit. Total however for Kung Fu Panda (worldwide with DVD sales), was roughly $750 million. Wall-E had a production budget of $180 million and brought home over $600 million worldwide with DVD sales included.

Either way, Pixar’s Wall-E took home the award, and we suspect the underlying message of “going green” and “balancing the digital life with nature” theme resonated a little thicker than the core message of “morale, pride and triumph” in Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda.

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Initial reports pointing to the absence of Jobs’ keynote have been relatively unfounded. As normal, IDG and Apple have been quiet on the matter. IDG because of lack of info from Apple, and Apple, because that’s how they operate. As IDG has explained before, just because they help run the Expo does not mean they are privy to any information the public doesn’t know.

If Jobs were to skip Macworld, it would be universally seen as a bad thing. First, speculation about his health would spook Wall Street once more. Additionally, there’s concern that Apple doesn’t have much to crow about in the product pipeline.

It’s a little unclear how much Jobs may have to say in a keynote. Snow Leopard, the latest version of Mac OS X will no doubt figure prominently, and there can easily be some incremental updates to existing product lines. One persistent rumor calls for an iPhone nano, while another focuses on a Web tablet, which would essentially be an iPod touch with a larger screen and perhaps some other enhancements, Hasseldahl explains.

Macworld 2009 is expected to draw a crowd nearly identical to last year’s in size. However, speculation regarding new products has remained relatively quiet. A few leaks and tips have pointed towards iPhone news and some possible Snow Leopard news. A new product or new product category is not expected to be addressed by Apple.

Updates: BusinessWeek further clarifies (via MacRumors): “Now Paul Kent is clarifying his statement. Here it is verbatim: “We haven’t made an announcement yet. We hope to in the next two weeks,” Rather than clearing the picture up, it just got muddy again.”

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The following video is a demo that Ars Technica’s Erica Sadun, and Freeverse, makers of Moto Chaser, have collaborated to produce. It’s a tech demo showing off what is capable when applying some of the iPhone SDK’s hidden features. The iPhone’s accelerometer is used for input, which routes the game video output through a connected video cable into the television. Additionally, correlating with an article run by Touch Arcade, Freeverse was able to confirm that the program ran best on a second-generation iPod touch (The new iPod touch utilizes a 532MHz CPU versus the iPhone’s 412MHz).

“I got in touch with Freeverse, makers of Moto Chaser, one of the top iPhone games in App Store. After a few back and forth e-mails, they agreed to try applying the MPTVOutWindow class to Moto Chaser (iTunes) to create a TV version of their game,” Sadun explains.

Bruce Morris from Freeverse was adamant about the fact that TV-enabled Moto Chaser would not be showing up in the App Store in the near future. “We only use approved Apple methods and approved frameworks in our programs,” he states. One of the coding classes used, while public, is technically unpublished. “Among other reasons, we don’t want our software to break,” he said, “and we have been very happy with our relationship with Apple. We’re going to continue to follow Apple’s lead. It’s been great for us.” If Freeverse is able to share this working demo with Apple, than they may be inclined to expand the SDK to open TV output for developers.

They are still working to improve the frame rate of the gameplay to enhance the overall experience, noting that they would not release a final product that could not exceed 20 frames/second. “Our video methods have room to improve,” Morris stated, “and we’re positive we can bring up that frame rate with time and work. But we won’t release anything at 20 frames per second. Right now, we see this as a tech demo. If we have the chance to grow it and improve the user experience, we will.”

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As MacBlogz previously explained, Amro Mousa and Return7 were subject to a harsh rejection by Apple from the App Store.

Amro Mousa explained to MacBlogz, “As far as the experience, Apple has generally been helpful in the past. They sent the rejection letter on November 5th and have not responded to our request to reconsider. To their credit, it hasn’t been very long, but it’s still very frustrating to have someone reject an update in a seemingly arbitrary and inconsistent manner. I’ve never been able to get through to their 800 number.”

Moments ago, Amro Mousa, co-founder of Return7 emailed me to share the good news, “I wanted to let you know that Apple came through and approved CastCatcher 1.3. Thanks for your assistance in getting the word out.” Fortunately, the word got around to Apple that the application was not doing anything different than it was prior to being rejected. The harsh decision was reversed and the application has been welcomed back to the App Store.

Congrats to the Return7 crew, the decision is deserved and we are more than happy we could help get the word out!

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While previous information from Fudzilla (which has never provided an accurate source of inside information related to Apple news), was cited around the web as pointing to a release date of November 10th for a new iMac and possibly Mac mini refresh. MacBlogz refrained from posting the falsely speculative information based on the information we’ve received, and questions we’ve asked ourselves.

“Our holiday line-up is set,” Apple spokesman Bill Evans told Macworld.

Interestingly, MacBlogz received an anonymous tip this morning from someone claiming to work at a third party accessory firm. They claimed to know some information regarding the iPhone’s short term roadmap. “The tipster claims to work with a third party iPhone accessory supplier, and to be in the know when it comes to the iPhone’s short-term roadmap. I have never received a tip from them before, and although I would take this information with a grain of salt, it could very be well be dead on,” MacBlogz previously explained.

“That rumored red iPhone… It’s not happening. The only iPhone news I know for certain is that it’s getting bumped to 32GB in January.”

The accuracy certainly correlates between both pieces of information. Apple officially announces that no new products will be announced prior to the holiday season, and once again, a tipster denounces the (PRODUCT) RED iPhone. While we’re not surprised about the colored iPhone, the confidence in storage boosts at MacWorld is beginning to make sense.

The Cupertino tech firm has consistently delivered new products since this summer’s release of the iPhone 3G. Apple has already smashed its goal of selling 10 Million iPhones, updated its iPod line, revamped its entire notebook line, and introduced a new Cinema Display in the past few months. While speculation regarding a new Mac Pro remains heavily debated, following MacWorld’s reports, no new products will be released before the holiday season.

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