Another Steve Jobs health rumor? No, not a rumor this time. Information from an open letter from Steve Jobs, filed via press release, confirms that he is skipping Macworld due to illness. Yet, at the time of this writing, AAPL stock is up! The reasons: openness, and a non-dire illness.

Yes, AAPL is up to $93.30, nearly 3%. One thing I’ve always said is that Apple being close-mouthed about Steve Jobs and his health, a source of much attention for those tracking Apple, hurts as much as an actual illness. By opening up about the problem, it actually relieves investors’ anxiety (at least, if it is as it seems to be, non-life-threatening).

Here’s what Jobs said in his letter: More

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Yes, there will be a Steve at Macworld, just not the one people wanted and expected. While Apple announced in mid-December that this would be its last Macworld, and that Steve Jobs would not attend, on Wednesday Axiotron announced that the “other Steve,” Wozniak, will “participate in the unveiling of Axiotron’s latest products and technologies” at Macworld.

Axiotron’s press release said:

Mr. Wozniak will present his vision of how Axiotron’s approach may represent a bridge between past breakthroughs and future innovations.

“I look forward to Steve’s participation at Macworld,” said Mr. Haas. “His excitement about our Modbook has been both gratifying and inspiring. As fellow Newton MessagePad enthusiasts, Steve and I share the desire to bring back some of those powerful pen tablet features that have been dormant for so long, and I am delighted to present some of what we have been working on.”

Mr. Wozniak, a recipient of the National Medal of Technology, developed the much-admired Apple I and Apple II personal computers that propelled Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) to a position of leadership in technology innovation and helped to launch an entire industry.

You’ll recall that Axiotron shipped its ModBook tablet PC version of the MacBook, an aftermarket modification to a standard MacBook in January.

Axiotron integrates its own hardware and software with a state-of-the-art Wacom Penabled digitizer and an Apple MacBook computer. Buyers can either submit their own MacBook for “Modservice,” or buy a complete solution built with a new MacBook.

Steve Wozniak is an active member of Axiotron’s board of advisors.

There have been several rumors about a possible iPhone nano of late, most of them because of leaked images of nano cases. Most of these have been discounted, although nano references on the site of a reputable case maker increased the speculation. But on Wednesday an analyst for it believes that Apple is gearing up to release several new products during the first half of 2009, including the so-called iPhone nano.

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Craig Berger released a note Wednesday morning which stated that his “incremental checks into the Apple supply chain” have revealed the prospect that “a lower-cost version of the iPhone is coming … possibly in mid 2Q.”

Obviously that would be the nano (assuming it’s named as such). Berger also predicts a cheaper MacBook, though he said it would probably not qualify as a netbook. Perhaps this would be the large screen iPod Touch I wrote about earlier.

Finally, he also indicated a smaller iPod Shuffle would be coming. Perhaps micron-sized, this time.

One thing to remember: Craig Berger doesn’t exactly have a stellar record in terms of his Apple coverage.

I’m also unsure why people keep clamoring for a smaller iPhone. There are plenty of people who want a larger screen, not a smaller one. That’s the same thing I keep saying to those folks who think that PCs (even laptops) will disappear in favor of smartphones.

Not going to work for everyone, particularly when you take account the “graying” of not just America, but the world.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Yep, as we surmised in our last PS3 post, Circuit City and Target had indeed jumped the gun. As you recall, Sony said they had no “current plans” of a PS3 price drop a few days ago. No way of knowing if Sony had planned to announce this at the E3 press conference, and simply decided it had better just make the announcement now.

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), Inc. today announced a new 80GB model of its PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3(TM)) computer entertainment system. Beginning in August, the new PS3 model will be available in North America for a suggested retail price of $599/$659 CND and will be sold with the popular online-enabled racing game MotorStorm(TM). In conjunction with this news, the company also announced that effective immediately, the current 60GB PS3 model will be available in North America for $499/$549 CND, or $100 below the original launch price. Source: Sony Press Release at Yahoo! Finance

We Say: Well, at least this price drop has brought about a new trend … PS3 stories instead of iPhone stories … It’s not like that price point has been abandoned anyway, with the new model taking the $599 price point.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

You’ll probably recall that earlier this year the judge in the RIAA v. Jammie Thomas declared a mistrial in the case, setting aside the original verdict. A retrial date has already been set, but the RIAA had a chance to appeal the mistrial ruling. It has lost that appeal, and the retrial will apparently go on.

Jammie Thomas is the only target of the RIAA to take her case to trial. In October of last year the trial ended in an RIAA victory, with a $222,000 penalty assessed against her — $9,250 for each of the 24 music tracks she allegedly made publicly available on the Kazaa P2P network.

However, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Duluth, Minnesota, ruled that he had erred in his jury instructions. Thus, the mistrial.

Recently, the RIAA stated that it will give up on threats and lawsuits, instead opting to work with ISPs to institute a “Three Strikes” rule that will result in terminating broadband for a user caught downloading. However, cases already underway are continuing.

Additionally, at least one ISP, admittedly a small one, has stated that if the RIAA wants it to “play cop,” it will have to pay the ISP.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

I had my doubts about Dell’s claim of carbon neutrality, when they trumpeted it in August, and it appears I was right. However, I may have been wrong when I said I felt they had made some major strides in that direction. At least, I get that feeling after reading a Tuesday Wall Street Journal report.

The report notes that by Dell’s definition, it has reached carbon neutrality. The problem is that there is no standard for what a carbon footprint should include, and so every company calculates its differently.

Dell’s definition of their footprint excludes resources used to make their computers, transport them to customers, and the like. It only includes the emissions “produced by its boilers and company-owned cars, its buildings’ electricity use, and its employees’ business air travel.”

According to the WSJ, that amounts to about 5% of Dell’s actual footprint. Additionally, Dell is neutralizing that 5% mostly by purchasing carbon credits. While it’s no secret that many companies are doing so, the word “mostly” is unsettling.

In terms of positives for Dell, they recently took a swing at Apple’s “green laptop” claims. The WSJ also ran a similar story about Apple on Tuesday. Apple’s claims of greenness appear to be as much about marketing as Dell’s. So perhaps Dell doesn’t have to feel quite so bad.

By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

I consider myself a big technology fan, not only do I work in technology, I like using new technologies, whether it’s software, gadgets, or a combination, and I like talking about them, usually. My kids and I have a tablet, an UMPC, four laptops, four desktops, two iPods, two iPhones, a Zune, two Xbox 360’s, an Xbox, a Wii, and an old Playstation, I have a 12MP digital camera, a flip video camera, an older camcorder, a binocular/digital camera, Oakley Thump sunglasses, heck, I still have my Atari 520ste, monitor, hard drive and 2400 baud modem. Boyah!

I like reading about tech stuff on the web, new websites, new software, new gadgets, new uses for old stuff, old uses for new stuff, etc, etc. I’m not the biggest social networking fan, but I’ve tried Second Life, I have a MySpace page, LinkedIn profile, some tumblr blogs, wordpress blogs, and some twitter accounts, but, I really don’t get all the excitement over twitter, if you read techmeme there’s some new posts about twitter everyday, how can twitter make money, we need a better twitter search, we need search by authority, we need search by retweet, how far does a retweet travel if a follower retweets your tweet. Say that three times fast.

I say: Who cares? Does anyone outside the tech echo chamber use twitter or even care that it exists? Do you tweet? Have you ever said tweet out loud? Does retweet mean you repeat or retreat? Do you fill like Tweety Bird if you say retweet out loud? Do you care if twitter ever makes money? If a tweet falls in the woods does anyone read it?

I’m sick of twitter and I never use it, surely I’m not the only one…..

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

As a new father, I have to admit, watching my wife breastfeeding our daughter brings on feelings in me, but not sexual ones, rather sweet ones, as I find the interaction between mother and daughter beautiful. Facebook, on the other hand seems to think breastfeeding is obscene, having removed many photos from its site, citing violation of its terms of use.

It has resulted in the creation of a Facebook group, Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!. At the time of this writing, the group has about 78,000 members. This actually was first reported as an issue in 2007, but has really come to a head of late.

On December 27th, the group held its first Mothers International Lactation Campaign (MILC) virtual event, with 11,000 Facebook users posting breastfeeding pictures (some of which were removed), as well as an actual sit-in (or, I guess, a nurse-in) at Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters.

According to the Washington Post, the above image (which I wouldn’t have posted if I felt it was obscene) resulted in Kelli Roman being warned that her account might be suspended, as well as having the picture taken down. Is that really obscene? I mean, really?

On the other hand, one might wonder just why a nursing mother would want their picture posted at Facebook. There’s no way my wife will let me take such a picture, no matter how modest the pose.

It should be noted that Facebook has said it only removes pictures with a visible nipple or areola, and only when they are flagged by other users. While a protest against Facebook is probably called for, perhaps users should be also protesting against the close-minded people who report such images.