Cupertino, Calif. - Hoping to deflect further questions about his health, Apple (NASD: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs on Monday issued a statement addressing his continuing weight loss over the past several months. "Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause -- a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this," wrote Jobs, adding that he has begun treating what he terms the "relatively simple" nutritional problem.

This is just in - 2009 will be the last year that Apple (NASD: AAPL) will exhibit at IDG's MacWorld Expo, and Steve Jobs will not hold his signature keynote (which usually steals some of the thunder from the rest of the tech crowd gathered in Las Vegas for CES). Instead Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote. The reason, according to Apple's spin doctors, is that the company believes that expos and trade shows like the one hosted by IDG, parent company of the Macworld brand, are a twentieth century fad of little value to Apple with its popular consumer products and marketing reach:

San Francisco - On Monday, the first day of the Macworld trade show that highlights Apple (NASD: AAPL) products, Google (NASD: GOOG) introduced a new user interface for owners of Apple's iPhone. The upgrade includes speeder Gmail that doesn't require users to refresh inboxes, and a new month view for the iPhone version of Google's Calendar application. Users can now also access their iGoogle applications -- such as weather, stocks and news feeds -- on their iPhones.

It is rumored that Steve Jobs will announce a video rental service for iTunes in his much-anticipated MacWorld keynote on Tuesday. Adding fuel to the fire of speculation, Netflix has preempted Apple's announcement saying it will offer unlimited access to its streaming video library to most customers. To lend context to the announcements, I wanted to profile Netflix and Blockbuster, the two biggest players in online movie rental.

San Francisco - Apple on Tuesday unveiled its long-awaited iPhone, a touch-screen mobile phone with music, video and Internet capabilities, as well as a device that wirelessly transmits video and other content from a computer to a television.