Steve Jobs

Apple Inc. today announced that more than two billion applications have been downloaded from its App Store, which currently hosts more than 85,000 apps available to the more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide and over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program.

It's official, everyone! Apple has confirmed that Steve Jobs, their CEO, has returned to work at the company. “Steve is back to work,” Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesperson, told Bloomberg earlier today. “We are very glad to have him back.” Steve's return has been the subject of much controversy and rampant speculation since he left in January.

CNBC says they have information from some Apple employees that Steve Jobs was back in action today at the Cupertino headquarters: "...we still await official word from Apple, but employees are confirming this. The news is solid. Jobs is back in the house, at least for today." It would make sense, as Jobs was due to return to the company some time at the "end of June".

The Wall Street Journal just reported that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is on his way to returning from his six month medical leave of absence later this month. According to the report, certain Apple executives were receiving weekly updates on his health from his physician, and now he is on his way to recovery. They also say he'll be bringing a new iPhone with him.

Italian news site setteB.IT has conformation from multiple sources that Steve Jobs made an appearance at Apple headquarters in Cupertino yesterday. Meanwhile, Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniac says he has spoken to Steve over the phone, and he sounds healthy.

Now that people have realized that Steve Jobs wasn't going to make it back to Apple in time for WWDC to announce a new iPhone, analysts now believe the announcement will happen upon his return in late June. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster now says he thinks Apple is planning a second event after WWDC to coincide with the return of Jobs, at which time a new iPhone and other big announcements will be revealed.

With the announcement from Apple that Steve Jobs would not be keynoting the last Macworld, many speculated that his health was the culprit. Because of this, Mr. Jobs has posted an open letter to the community regarding his health. In the letter, Steve revealed that a hormonal imbalance has been causing him to lose weight throughout 2008, something which has fueled much of the speculations about the CEO's deminishing health.

Today Apple announced that Macworld 2009 will be the last time they exhibit at Macworld Expo. According to the press release, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will be delivering the opening keynote with no mention of Steve Jobs. This will be Apple's last keynote at Macworld.

There had been some concern last week that Jobs may not deliver the keynote, although those rumors were quickly disregarded. The press release issued today confirms that Steve's presence at the keynote will be minimal at best.

Jim Goldman of CNBC had the opportunity to sit down with Steve Jobs after his keynote on Tuesday to discuss the new iPod Nano and touch, the success of the Mac, and issues with the iPhone during the interview. He also was given the opportunity to ask about Steve's health after the interview, which was off-camera but still on the record.

As you might remember, a bunch of users on the Apple Discussions forums have been complaining about strangely bad reception on their new iPhone 3Gs, causing one analyst to blame the Infineon chipset used in the device. Not long after, BusinessWeek claimed their sources said Apple was on it and would issue a software update. Now one user claims that he emailed Steve Jobs about the problem and got a response from His Steveness himself.