Given the phenomenal success of netbooks — small, cheap, lower-performance PCs — everybody wants to know what plans Apple, the only major PC player that doesn’t have a netbook offering, might have for the space. Netbooks are one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak PC landscape.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs openly dismissed netbooks.  And when the company was asked again asked about them on the conference call following its quarterly results Wednesday, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook sounded similarly unimpressed. Current netbooks, he said, suffer from “cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware.”

“Not something that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly. And so, it is not a space as it exists today, that we’re interested in. Nor do we believe that customers in the long-term would be interested in. It is a segment we would choose not to play in.”

Cook continued: “We do look at the space and are interested to see how customers respond to it. People that want a small computer, so to speak, that does browsing and e-mail might want to buy an iPod Touch or they might want to buy an iPhone. So, we have other products to accomplish some of what people are buying netbooks for. So, in that particular way, we play on an indirect basis.”

And finally: “Then, of course, if we find a way where we can deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, then we’ll do that. We have some interesting ideas in the space.”

Apple is widely rumored to be developing some sort of small touchscreen PC or similar device.

It used to be that Apple could do little wrong, if the unrelenting mania among the masses for the iPod and iPhone is any indication. Now, the company may have made an unusual and embarassing mis-step in selling a 99-cent “Baby Shaker” application for the iPhone.

Designed by Sikalosoft, the program encourages users to silence an incessantly crying baby by shaking their iPhone until the infant desists, and two red crosses replace the baby’s eyes.

On Wednesday, the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, whose mission is to spread awareness of infant brain injury incurred through abuse or disease, condemned Apple for hosting the application.

“As the father of a 3-year-old who was shaken by her baby nurse when she was only 5 days old, breaking 3 ribs, both collarbones and causing a severe brain injury, words cannot describe my reaction,” Patrick Donohue, Founder of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, stated in an open e-mail to Apple CEO Steve Jobs and several of his executives, demanding a personal apology.

“You have no idea the number of children your actions have put at risk by your careless, thoughtless and reckless behavior! We will do everything we can to expose your reckless actions and reverse the horrific impact it will have on the innocent children throughout the United States.”

Apple, which expects to sell its one-billionth app download this week, says it vets every program for sale on iTunes. The app was pulled as of Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman said without elaborating.

According to the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation’s communications director, Jennipher Dickens, whose 2-year-old son has irreversible brain damage as a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome, the app is most likely to be downloaded by the very same young male demographic statistically most likely to shake infants.

Perhaps most controversial was the sales pitch for the app: “See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!”

Krapps, a website that writes about apps for iPhone, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, first shed light on the Baby Shaker controversy.

With the Apple’s developers conference now formally on the schedule for June 8-12, that leaves more than two full months for the rumor mill to really crank up.

With updates of Mac laptops, desktops and iPod shuffles already on the books, whispers, speculation and conjecture abound about what — if anything — the company has in store for the gathering, to be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

A new iPhone is a distinct possibility, analysts say. Apple released the 3G version at the event last year.

There is also the matter of that much-buzzed-about device that no one seems to be able to quite pin down — a touchscreen of some sort, possibly a netbook or a tablet or a larger iPod.

Of course, many wonder whether Steve Jobs will make an appearance. When he announced his medical leave in January, he said he would return at the “end” of June, although the Apple faithful would certainly be thrilled if he pushed that timeline up a week or two and turned up at the conference. Jobs did not appear at the Macworld expo in early January, the Apple annual meeting in February, or the iPhone software event last week.

As part of the ongoing battle among PC makers to out-green each other, Dell says it will now take your unwanted gadgets off your hands and give you something for the privilege. Most of us are familiar with the concept of trade-ins in some form – cars, mainly – but under the program launched today, the company will exchange Dell gift cards for your e-junk.

Dell Exchange covers all sorts of products, from phones to cameras to PCs to media players. It’s partner in the program, Dealtree, will refurbish and resell the gear it can, and items with no trade-in value can be recycled for free. The program is similar to services already offered by third-party sites such as Gazelle, which pay you in cash.

A 2-minute test drive of the new Dell program turned up predictable results. An 80GB iPod classic in good shape could land you a $116 gift card from Dell — but a rickety and slow 5-year-old laptop will get you little more than an exceptionally clean conscience.

Dell has been very aggressive in pursuing its stated goal to become the greenest IT company around, vying with arch rivals Hewlett-Packard and Apple for the mantle of most eco-conscious. As part of its announcement, Dell also said it’s expanding its electronics recycling partnership with Goodwill, bringing the total number of participating stores to more than 1,000.

According to the EPA, in 2007, only 18 percent of the 2.25 million tons of TVs, cell phones and computer products tossed out was collected for recycling.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs told the world Wednesday that he discovered that his health issues are more complex than he had previously thought, so he’s taking a medical leave of absence. Jobs, who earlier this month said his recent weight loss was caused by a hormonal imbalance that was relatively easy to treat, plans to be off until the end of June. Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will mind the shop in the interim. Once Apple shares resumed trading after-hours, investors knocked off about 10 percent of their value.

Here’s a quick roundup of what we found online about these latest developments (And of course, here’s the Reuters story before we get to the other ones):

Silicon Alley Insider:

Tim Cook should do fine as Apple’s interim day-to-day leader. He took control of the company last time Steve went on a leave of absence to treat his pancreatic cancer. Steve says he plans to “remain involved in major strategic decisions” while he is out.

Gizmodo (saying it was right all along for posting a rumor on its blog about this very subject in recent weeks, a blog that other reporters chopped into a million itty bitty pieces):

What’s interesting is that while we broke the rumor of Steve being sick a few weeks ago, and speculated that he was resigning months ago, peers at CNBC and All Things D and others were not convinced, because it was hinging on one particular source. Apparently, they believe the story now and are both moving quickly to report it. The letter above clearly notes that his health issues are more complex than previously thought, but his reasons for stepping down include the fact that stories about his health distract the company from doing its core work.

The Wall Street Journal (providing background):

Last week’s disclosure came on the eve of the Macworld trade show, which he had attended every year since 1997. Last month, Mr. Jobs said he wouldn’t give the keynote speech at the conference and Apple would no longer participate after this year. At the time, Apple said he wouldn’t appear because it was cutting down on trade show activities, but the decision spurred new speculation about Mr. Jobs’s health.

Bloomberg (providing way-back background on why Jobs and Apple are intertwined from many investors’ points of view):

Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976, returned as CEO in 1997 and transformed the money-losing maker of Macintosh computers. His focus on stylish design and simple-to-use gadgets won over millions of buyers, turning Apple’s iPod media player and iPhone into best sellers. Jobs, who had successful surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, appeared thinner at Apple events last year.

And finally, a Paul Chapel commenting on the Engadget blog about Jobs’s importance to the world:

Get well, Steve, and thank you for the MacBook Pro I got over Christmas. That thing has helped me meet more girls at Starbucks than what would have been possible otherwise. Look forward to seeing what you have prepared for us in June.

The New York Times headline on Apple’s Macworld convention is so snappy that it almost frees me of the obligation to write this blog entry today:

Want to copy iTunes Music? Go Ahead, Apple says.

Fortunately, the Times couldn’t fit this other part into the headline, giving us something to quote:

Beginning this week, three of the four major music labels - Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group - will begin selling music through iTunes without digital rights management software, or D.R.M., which controls the copying and use of digital files. The fourth, EMI, was already doing so.

In return, Apple, whose dominance in online music sales gives it powerful leverage, agreed to a longstanding demand of the music labels and said it would move away from its insistence on pricing all individual song downloads on iTunes at 99 cents.

Instead, the majority of songs will drop to 69 cents beginning in April, while the biggest hits and newest songs will go for $1.29. Others that are moderately popular will remain at 99 cents.

The music industry thinks these moves will help sales, while people who like to share their music or play it on devices that are not iPods might stop re-mixing geek rallies with street protests.

The move was as much about competition as beneficence, as The Wall Street Journal noted:

New online-music rivals have also emerged, including Amazon.com Inc., which sells many songs at a cheaper price than iTunes and without copy protection, giving users more freedom with the songs they have purchased.

Also from the WSJ:

Starting Tuesday, Apple said iPhone 3G owners will also be able to download songs from the iTunes Store via their cellular networks instead of having to connect to a wireless Internet network. The company said the price, selection and quality of the songs would be the same as they are online.

Reuters and Bloomberg focused on the Macworld show itself, and how from a fireworks perspective, it was plain boring.

Bloomberg:

The company said last month that it won’t attend Macworld conferences anymore after this week. Apple shares often fall after its events because investors frequently want bigger announcements, said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in Minneapolis. Even so, today’s presentation was “underwhelming,” he said.

“Apple made a statement that Macworld is not important and they showed it with the products they announced,” Munster said. Updated software, a new notebook and iTunes price changes are “nice, but not needle moving.”

And Reuters:

With consumers flocking to low-cost PCs like netbooks, which Apple has dismissed, many analysts hope to see some new product catalyst in the near term to bolster the company’s sales in a recession.

Of course, Reuters noted, that’s not what they got this week.

Keep an eye on

New York TImes, Part 1: Your correspondent and a bunch of others wrote about the paper’s decision to start running display advertising on the front page, with CBS getting the first slot this past Monday. So far, that’s the only one we’ve seen. Tuesday and Wednesday featured ad-free fronts. C’mon advertisers — save your favorite paper! (To be fair, The Wall Street Journal and other papers don’t ALWAYS sell their front-page ads every day)

New York Times, Part 2: Writing in the Atlantic, Michael Hirschorn posits the notion that the Times could go under — in a few months’ time. Having scared the kids, he points out how slim the odds are. It’s tempting to embrace nightmare scenarios, but let’s keep in mind that the Times could do a lot of things to preserve its core: the newspaper. (The Atlantic)

New York Times, Part 3: Many media writers can barely resist the urge to beat up on Times Co Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr, the latest of the Ochs-Sulzberger clan to chair the company and publish the paper. There’s plenty of reasons to do so, as New York Observer’s media writer extraordinaire John Koblin points out. Still, he said that Sulzberger is sticking to the task at hand: journalism. That might help the Times ride out the storm when other newspapers founder. That, Koblin said, is why the NYO has named Sulzberger one of its “Media Mensches” of 2009. (New York Observer)

(Photo: Share your Randy Newman tunes, courtesy of Apple. Here’s Randy performing at Macworld. Reuters)

Despite strong sales of Apple’s iPod Touch and Macbook computers, bloggers are clamoring for Steve Jobs and his team to introduce a range of new devices, or significant upgrades to existing models, beyond the usual Mac rumor mill.

At Silicon Alley Insider,  they think it’s time for Jobs to consider a tablet Mac. SAI says the iPod Touch could be combined with the cheap, small ‘netbook’ laptops that are selling well for Dell and Asus.

It’s time for Steve Jobs to smash them together into a killer multi-touch tablet. We’re calling ours the iPod touch HD for now, and we’re hoping we can buy it before next Christmas.

SAI thinks a new device should not have keyboards.

Keyboards add bulk and weight, and are hardly useful in miniaturized form. If anything, let us hook up an external Apple wireless keyboard for another $79.

But at Gizmodo, they believe the one thing the iPhone might be missing is a physical keyboard. Gizmodo has a Photoshopped vision of what that might look like, courtesy of blogger Mat Brady in New Zealand. Also see it here. The keyboarded device is nicknamed the iPhone Pro. Gizmodo says:

Something we don’t expect at MacWorld 2009 at all. However, we do expect something like this to come at a later date. Why? Because it just makes sense

Meanwhile, Brady has also included a charming note to Jobs asking for a better camera on the iPhone:

Hi Steve,

As you can see I’ve made a few design suggestions to your iPhone.
I’ve held off getting an iPhone until it gets a better camera. (See pic)

Let me know when I can get rid of my N95.

Cheers,

Mat Brady

So there you are, global recession or not, Apple lovers still can’t get enough of that Cupertino, California design magic.

(Photo: Reuters)

With all the hand-wringing about consumer spending and the holiday shopping season, at least one technology device appears to be holding its own: Apple’s trusty iPod. In fact, the now ubiquitous music and media player is faring so well that Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu is beginning to see a shortage.

Wu said stocks of certain iPod models have been harder to come by at Amazon.com, Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart. He expects iPod sales to reach 21 million in the current quarter, down 5 percent from last year.

Wu says: “Frankly, we find these sell-outs on iPods surprising given how difficult the macroeconomic environment is, putting a crimp on consumer spending. From our assessment, we believe iPod is holding up better than most, due to its relatively low ASP (average selling price) and strong consumer understanding of the value it provides.”

Wu also sees growing adoption of Mac computers and iPhones. He cites research showing that Microsoft Windows’ operating system market share dropped below 90 percent in November, while Apple’s Mac OS X, which is used on Macs and iPhone, grew its share to 9.25 percent.

Other analysts are also noting Apple’s strength in the tough economic climate. More specifically, a new report from research group ChangeWave that shows Apple’s new Macbook gaining traction.  In the group’s November survey, 33 percent of respondents said they plan to buy an Apple laptop over the next 90 days, while 27 percent plan to buy an Apple desktop. In the same survey a year ago 29 percent planned to buy an Apple laptop, and 29 percent a desktop.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new iPod nano that lets users shuffle songs by shaking the device.

Not content with the so-called “shake to shuffle” feature, Jobs also boasted that the nano is the thinnest and cleanest iPod Apple has ever made, calling it “highly recyclable,” “mercury free” and … um … “toxic free.”

The 8-gigabyte model costs $149 and the 16-gigabyte version costs $199.

(Photo: Reuters)

We all know about the interest in Steve Jobs’ health – how many blogs and columns have been devoted to the subject? He even joked about it on Tuesday, with the help of a video screen that read, ”The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Without further delay, here’s how the Apple CEO looked.

Here’s how Jobs looked at previous company events.

Jobs at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California June 9, 2008

Jobs at the Macworld Convention and Expo in San Francisco, California January 15, 2008

Jobs in San Francisco, California September 5, 2007

Jobs at World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California June 11, 2007

Jobs at Apple event in San Francisco, California January 9, 2007

Jobs at Apple event in San Francisco, California, September 12, 2006.

Jobs at Apple event in Cupertino, California, February 28, 2006

Jobs at press conference in San Jose, California, October 12, 2005.

Jobs at opening of the Paris Apple Expo September 16, 2003

(All photos by Reuters)