Shortly after 9 a.m. California time, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld, the biggest conference of the year for the maker of the Macintosh computer and the iPod.

Expectations for announcements this year are for an uber-thin and uber-small notebook Mac and perhaps an online video rental service.

And, of course, perhaps there will be the usual, “Oh, and one more thing…” That last phrase is a vintage Jobs tactic for saving “the best” for last at Macworld. But nothing is likely to come close to last year’s Macworld, when Jobs unveiled the much-anticipated iPhone.

Spotted this year at Macworld milling about before the festivities began: Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

During his keynote, Jobs announced a wireless back-up device called Time Capsule and software updates to the iPhone, among them including local location mapping technology.