Steve Jobs, who historically would spend hours a day logged into a chat client, has been using his computer less since taking his six-month leave of absence, according to a report by former PBS journalist Mark Stephens.

“Steve Jobs has stopped using his computer. He’s off curing himself of something he won’t name and in some manner we can’t know but I CAN tell you right now it doesn’t involve using his computer,” Stephens wrote under his pen name, Robert X Cringley.

Stephens argues in his post that because Jobs has not yet resigned from his position as CEO at Apple, his health is material to Apple and to Apple shareholders, is material to the company, and should be disclosed.

Because Jobs’ previous habit was to be available online to his coterie of personal contacts, a trend he apparently continued even after he announced he’d be taking a six month leave of absence near the beginning of this year, the apparent fact that he is no longer logging on daily is, according to Stephens, “important.”

“His condition remains squarely on the table, hot and steaming and ready to be served-up,” Stephens writes. “Who cares?

Anyone cares who actually expects Steve Jobs to return to Apple.”

Via MacNN

This post at The Next Web made me stop and think for a moment. I’ve been one of the many people who’ll cheerfully spend a dollar or two on an app that looks enticing and has generally good reviews.

After all, a dollar or two is nothing, right? Less than a cup of coffee, less than a pint of beer in my local pub.

But what’s the cumulative effect? Let’s see now… Open iTunes, click iTunes Store, click on my account ID, enter my password, click “Purchase History”, do some adding up, and the total is:

£68.60, or US$99.70 at the current exchange rate.

One hundred bucks, near as dammit, on iPhone apps. Wow. I had no idea was going to be that much. I was expecting about half that.

It also highlights just what an excellent idea the App Store is, and how well it has been designed. Shopping there is so simple, so instantaneous, and often so cheap per-app, that it almost becomes a thoughtless act. “This app looks cool. I’ll try it.” A dollar here, a few dollars there.

I’m not complaining, I’m just noticing my own App Store spending habits for the first time. This information is available to anyone who goes digging around inside iTunes to see it, but perhaps Apple could make it a little easier to keep track of spending.

How about a small box on the iTunes Store front page, which says “So far this month/year/to date, you have spent $X on iTunes.”?

Something small and unobtrusive; but visible.

Confession time: how much have you spent? And is it more or less than you expected?

In a not-terribly-surprising report, the Wall Street Journal notes that Mac sales were down 6 percent year-over-year in January, the first time that’s happened in three years.

This shouldn’t be terribly surprising — Apple only introduced the 17″ MacBook Pro in January, which is a niche product that is only now shipping. Beyond which, Apple makes expensive computers, and all computer-makers are seeing sales drop, including those who make the cheap-o ones.

From what I can tell, the only category enjoyed sales increases at the moment are Netbook makers. Maybe it is time Apple looked into that, eh?

WSJ via BoingBoing Gadgets

A small study indicates that students who listened to podcasts remembered more than those who attended lectures.

The study, as reported in New Scientist, tested 64 students on information retention.

To see how much students can learn from podcast lectures alone, students were given a single lecture on visual perception from an intro psychology course.

Half sat through a live lecture and were given printouts of the slides used.  The other 32 downloaded a podcast that included audio from the same lecture synchronized with video of the slides. These students also received a printed handout of the material.

Microsoft used an image of an ambling snow leopard licking its chops for the backdrop to its Live Search homepage on Thursday, prompting a few in the business and technology press to speculate why.

Among them, Ina Fried at c|net is likely furthest from the mark, with her suggestion Microsoft could have been showing a player’s tell that Live Search will be the default search engine in Safari’s tool bar when the next version of OS X launches.

Fried suggests that because Microsoft has money to spend and because it might be willing to do so in order to get the market share boost for Live Search that such a deal would bring, well, she admits the idea is a “crazy” one, but she put it out there any way.

Why it won’t happen: Apple doesn’t need the money and has almost never made it a practice to co-brand its products with services that suck.

Image: Thomas Hawk

Teens are apt to disregard requests (and even orders) from their elders and will often turn the volume on their iPods louder when told to turn it down, according to a new study published by the Colorado Daily Thursday.

Shocking inferences of teen rebelliousness and even disregard for their own hearing health come from a University of Colorado study of 29 metro-area Denver teens who participated in a survey about their iPod use and attitudes toward music.

A 2006 study conducted in Boston by Cory Portnuff, now a CU audiologist and doctoral candidate, showed listening to iPods on maximum volume for more than 5 minutes a day increases one’s risk of hearing loss. Portuff’s new study confirmed long-held suspicions such as:

* teenagers who feel like they wouldn’t enjoy their music as much on low volume tended to listen loud

* teens turn up their iPods to drown out the soundtrack of the surrounding environment

* teens who indicated the most concern about hearing loss from iPods played their music louder than their peers.

While no one in the study preferred the highest volume, the evidence showed between 7 percent and 24 percent of the teens listened to their iPods and MP3 players at risky levels, and boys listened slightly louder than girls across the board.

iPhone developer Jason Cross has the antidote to the nine thousand fart apps available on the AppStore, an ingenious application called iFreshener.

FIGHT BACK against Fart app inanity!

Simply launch iFreshener and touch the screen. Using its non-patent-pending psychosomatic virtual smell nonenzymes, iFreshener will make you and those around you feel like better smells are on the way.

Among the reasons Cross touts for spending 99¢ on his app:

* iFreshener costs less than the average name-brand non-virtual air freshener

* Non-virtual air fresheners eventually run out of air freshening chemicals. iFreshener’s virtual smell nonenzymes never run out (so long as you keep your iPhone/iPod charged).

* iFreshener won’t blind you if accidentally sprayed towards your face.

* Free updates for life are included with iFreshener.

Do you get free lifetime updates with real world non-virtual air fresheners? I think not!

Apple made a huge detail about the non-removable battery it created for the 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro. By going with a sealed design, the company argued, it would be possible to make a much-higher capacity battery. Well, the guys over at iFixit have had their way with one of the new models, and it’s pretty clear the battery isn’t THAT hard to remove. It actually surprises me how much it looks like the interior of my existing MacBook, giant fans excepted.

Definitely check out the full slideshow — it’s good stuff. Anyone picked up a 17-incher yet? What do you think?Check out a couple more shots from iFixit’s meticulous disassembly operation after the jump.

Palm continues to be a thorn in Apple’s iPhone as the handset maker announced its touch-screen phone will include Adobe’s new mobile Flash version.

After engaging in saber-rattling over the Pre, the two companies face-off on a nagging problem for the iPhone: lack of a suitable version of Flash. Until recently, smartphone makers were forced to choose either Flash lite or the bulkier Flash version meant for desktop computers. Recently, Adobe said it was still committed to developing a version of its graphics software that met the requirements of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

As part of its announcement, Palm also said it would join Adobe’s Open Screen Project, an industry-wide initiative.

iFart Mobile, maker of a wildly popular app for iPhone and iPod Touch, asked a court on Friday to rule that it can use the term “pull my finger” without risking trademark infringement claims by another iPhone fart app named, …wait for it, Pull My Finger.

InfoMedia, which developed iFart Mobile, filed a complaint for declaratory judgment in Colorado District Court naming rival Air-O-Matic as defendant after a lawyer from Air-O-Matic demanded $50,000 from InfoMedia for its use of the phrase, according to an InfoMedia blog post.

Apparently, Air-O-Matic first approached Apple with complaints that InfoMedia was guilty of unfair business practices and trademark infringement because it used the term “pull my finger” in a news release and YouTube promo video. Air-O-Matic also asked that iFart Mobile be removed from the iPhone App Store, but Apple told the companies to work it out among themselves, according to a report at Cnet.

Early this year, iFart Mobile was one of the more popular titles on the AppStore, where there are currently over 75 fart-themed titles on offer. The bloom may be off the rose, however, as only iFart (99¢) Mobile and the free app Atomic Fart are in the top 100 downloads of either category.