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It has been in the air for some time, but Apple can dodge the question no longer: How important is Steven P. Jobs to its future?

By all accounts, Mr. Jobs’s perfectionism, autocratic managerial style and disregard for conventional wisdom are at the heart of Apple’s remarkable streak of success.

Since he returned to Apple in 1996, the company has set a new standard for design in personal computers, built a chain of sleek and always-crowded stores, jump-started the sale of digital music and turned the mobile phone into a fun, flexible computer.

This is clearly the stuff of business legend. But now the company faces the real possibility that its inspirational leader may fade from the scene. Mr. Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and chief executive, said on Wednesday that he was taking a leave of absence from Apple until June because his health issues — he is a survivor of pancreatic cancer — are “more complicated” than he first thought.

Source: NYtimes

Apple was forced to end exclusive iPhone contract deals with Orange in France. The immediate effect of the contract, which offers the latest iPhone to all of France via Apple and Telecom SA (Orange) will be cancelled by France’s competition authority.

This exclusive contract could knock out all rival phones within France, making the iPhone the most popular smartphone in France. Even with O2 selling the iPhone exclusively in the UK, France competition authority had to step in after a complaint was filed in September, from the successful launch of the iPhone and iPhone 3G, by Orange.

Apple has appealed the decision with the French competition authority to once again sell the iPhone exclusively through Orange. If the decision is passed, Apple will begin selling the iPhone shortly after in France. Until the decision is final, the iPhone remains off the shelves in France to all consumers.

Apple will launch an upgrade to its low-end desktop, the Mac Mini, at January’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, according to an Apple corporate employee who contacted Wired.com.

The source, who wished to remain anonymous (to keep his job), could not disclose details about the Mac Mini other than its upcoming announcement at Macworld Expo, which begins Jan. 5. That’s where CEO Steve Jobs traditionally launches major products during his famous keynotes (assuming he does indeed show up).

Here’s what Wired.com believes will be in the next Mac Mini, based on trends seen in Apple’s latest products:

• Similar to the MacBooks, the Mac Mini will sport a silver enclosure composed of a block of aluminum.
• Some internal parts will be PVC-free, and combined with its size and low power requirements, Apple will tout this as the "greenest Mac ever."
• For video output, the Mac Mini will use the DRM-crippled DisplayPort for connectivity, which Apple is offering to manufacturers for a no-fee license.
• It’ll have a CD-DVD slot loader (i.e. Super Drive). There will be no Blu-ray player, because Steve Jobs believes the format is a "bag of hurt."
• It’ll ship with 2 GB of RAM, expandable to 4 GB - up from the current 1 GB, expandable to 2 GB. (The aluminum case should make expanding RAM easier than in the original Mini.)
• It’ll ship with at least a 160-GB hard drive.
• The Mac Mini will come in two options with different processor speeds: a 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo and a 2.3-GHz Core 2 Duo (up from 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz).
• Like the higher-end MacBook and MacBook Pro, the 2.3-GHz Mac Mini will ship with an Nvidia video card, making this higher-end model a decent gaming device.
• The 2.0G-Hz Mac Mini will ship with an Intel video card, perhaps the GMA X3100 graphics card found in the low-end, white MacBook.
• The slower model will cost $500, and the faster model will cost $700 ($100 less than the current Mac Minis), in light of the recession.

Apple’s latest update to OSX, 10.5.6, includes an impressive list of performance and bug fixes but hidden amongst the latest and greatest is that 10.5.6 disables the Pwnage tool, making you unable to jailbreak or unlock your iPhone or iPod Touch with Mac OSX.

The update prevents jailbreaking by disabling the software at the OS level. Apple is stopping 10.5.6 Mac’s from recognizing the device in DFU (device firmware update) mode by using new code that affects the USB ports on Apple computers at the driver level and how they interact with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Apple is constantly caught up in a cat and mouse game with the iPhone dev team, a group that has successfully jailbroken the iPhone and iPod Touch to allow 3rd party applications that are not listed on Apple’s official AppStore. At the time of writing the dev team has not commented on Apple’s latest trick.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will become the second mass-market retail chain to start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone, with two store representatives saying the world’s largest retailer will carry two models of the Web-surfing handset this month.

Employees in the cell-phone departments at five California stores, contacted by phone today, said Wal-Mart will offer iPhones by the end of December. Employees are currently being trained on how to sell the device, all five said.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs tapped Best Buy Co., the largest U.S. electronics retailer, in September to sell the device as he works to win more buyers. Before then, the iPhone had been sold only by Apple and AT&T Inc., the exclusive provider of wireless service for the phone in the U.S.

Analysts say Apple may offer a discontinued 4-gigabyte version through Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart and sell it for $99. Apple currently sells two models at $199 and $299.

“A $99, Apple-branded cell phone is inevitable,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst for Kaufman Brothers in San Francisco. “One of the key things Apple needs to do to drive broader iPhone adoption is to build a more complete product line” with low- end, mid-range and high-end products, Wu said in a Dec. 5 note.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling wouldn’t respond to the report and said the company “does not comment on rumor or speculation.” Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman said the company hasn’t made an official announcement on an iPhone offering and has no comment. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel declined to comment.

Source: Bloomberg

148Apps, which tracks and reviews iPhone Apps, says 10,000 applications have now been released on the iPhone App store (the site is named after the fact that you can add up to 148 applications to an iPhone or iPod touch).

A tribute page shows a mini icon for every application. And it also gives some interesting data. About 24% of apps are free; 35% cost $.99. The average cost is $3.12, including free apps. About 34% are games or entertainment, and there are 49 weather related apps for the iPhone despite the fact that a weather app is built in.

If you’re an iPhone user, tell us the apps you can’t live without in the comments. The ones I use every day: Aqua Hoops, Recorder, SearchMe, iGolf, Google, Zombie (its cathartic), iThread (CrunchBase on the iPhone), and the social networks (Loopt, Facebook, MySpace).

Source: TechCrunch

We knew this day would eventually come, but somehow we’re still misting up a little — Linux has been ported to the iPhone and iPod touch. Dev Team member planetbeing is the mastermind in charge of bringing everyone’s favorite open-source OS to Apple’s handhelds, and while it’s a little rough around the edges (read: no touchscreen drivers, sound, or WiFi / cell radio support), it’s definitely the first step on the road to hacking nirvana. The team is hard at work, and it even sounds like they’re thinking about porting Android in the near future (!), so hit the read link to try it out and lend a hand if you can — or just head on past the break for a quick vid of the port in all its text-scrolling glory.

Link: Linux on iPhone
Download: iPhone Linux Demo
Video: iPhone Linux Demo video
News source: Engadget

In what seems to be a never ending lineup of lawsuits, this time around Apple is being sued for patent infringement. This time, real estate developer Elliot Gottfurcht and two co-inventors have brought a suit against Apple Inc. claiming that a technology used by the iPhone to browse websites infringes on their patent.

The lawsuit has been filed by EMG Technology LLC, (a company founded by Gottfurcht) on Monday in the US District Court located in Tyler, Texas.

Stanley Gibson, Gottfurcht’s lawyer has noted that they have not considered suing HTC or RIM, even though both companies use similar technology to that of Apple. Strange. Perhaps they’re testing the waters with Apple and will move on from there.

Even stranger is a comment from Gibson:

“We haven’t looked at anything other than the iPhone…That was the device that we looked at. Obviously it’s very popular.”

The iPhone is the only device you’ve looked at!? Surely you’ve got to be kidding me. Surely it’s not out of your reach to get your hands on the latest BlackBerry or HTC device. Something is up.

Obviously I’d like to see more details on their actual patent before I make any further comment… But one thing you can count on, Apple’s lawyers are hard at work on this one. I’ll keep you posted.

Source: RedOrbit

Apple’s Black Friday sales have begun around the world in their New Zealand store and Australia stores. The sales show modest discounts similar to previous years.

The only Macs that are on sale include the iMac and the MacBook. When translated to U.S. dollars, the discounts appear to be about $100 for mid-to-high end MacBooks and iMacs and about $50 for the entry level models. These discounts are consistent with last year’s Black Friday sale and also consistent with whispers we’ve heard. If it holds true for U.S. pricing, it also dashes unfounded analyst predictions that Apple would offer 15% discounts.

Apple is also providing discounts on the iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod touch as well as discounts on a number of accessories.

We previously detailed sales at online retailers on Macs, and will post an update with more Black Friday deals tonight.

Source: MacRumors

Safari browser for Leopard, Tiger, and Windows has been updated to version 3.2.1. The only note about the changes is "This update includes stability improvements and is recommended for all Safari users." This update comes only 12 days after 3.2 was released, so good for Apple on keeping up even with the smaller bugs!
From a quick look around the web, it looks like the probable cause is do to some incompatibility with third party software that was causing Safari to crash for many users, which should be fixed now.

Download: Safari 3.2.1