Apple CEO Steve Jobs has returned to work on schedule after taking a six-month leave of absence due to medical issues, the company said on Monday.

He will be working at the Apple offices for a few days a week and working from home the remaining days, said Katie Cotton, an Apple spokeswoman, in an e-mail.

“We are very glad to have him back,” Cotton said.

Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, took a leave of absence from Apple in January, citing health issues. At the time he said he was diagnosed with a hormone imbalance that caused him to lose weight. The health-related issues were “more complex” than he originally thought, Jobs wrote in a memo to Apple employees at the time.
Read more »

We have to hand it to that Twitter thing. From further boosting the egos of outspoken tech industry personalities to supporting Iranian revolutions, the service has demonstrated its strengths. Today, the service can let relatives know you are still alive.

Developed by Japanese geek forum Koress Project, the Akiduki Pulse box does this by autonomously posting your heartbeat to Twitter. Once there, friends, family and enemies can all watch as your natural rhythms play out on the world stage in real time.

From the translated promotional video:

“Now I can die and post this info to Twitter. That’s what I call a revolution!” and “Use the Akiduki Pulse box when you do sports, are in love or don’t even know yourself if you’re still alive!”.

The tweets themselves contain some basic info about your heartbeat, as well as an evaluation (Jack needs food—badly!). The device is open source (cool), but to use the system you need access to a heart monitor (not cool).

Article Source

Within hours of the death of pop star Michael Jackson, spam trading on his demise hit in-boxes, a security firm said today as it warned that more junk mail was in the offing.

Just eight hours after news broke about Jackson, Abingdon, England-based Sophos PLC started tracking the first wave of Jackson spam, which used a subject line of “Confidential — Michael Jackson.” The spam wasn’t pitching a product or leading users to a phishing or malware Web site. Instead it was trying to dupe users into replying to the message in order to collect e-mail addresses and verify them as legitimate.

“The body of the spam message does not contain any call-to-action link such as a URL, e-mail or phone number,” said Sophos in its SophosLabs blog today. “But the spammer can harvest receivers’ e-mail addresses via a free live e-mail address if the spam message is replied to.”

“Undoubtedly we’ll see more with Jackson,” said Graham Cluley, a Sophos senior technology consultant, today. “Actually, spammers and hackers have done Jackson before. Several years ago they pitched a breaking news story, claiming that he had attempted suicide.”
Read more »

There’s a huge interest in a potential price drop because games are getting increasingly better (and nicer) on Sony’s platform. However, for all the past predictions of a price drop, nothing really showed up. All the pre-E3 rumors were fluff, although we also recognize that the second half of the year is a smarter time to cut prices.
Read more »

Echoing a companywide theme of affordability, Microsoft said Thursday that Windows 7 will be cheaper than the last version of its trademark operating system.

Retail prices for Windows 7 when it rolls out Oct. 22 will range from $119.99 to $319.99. The price points are 10 percent lower than Windows Vista, the version of Windows that 7 will replace.

From today through July 11, Microsoft is running a half-off special, with Windows XP and Vista users able to pre-order the new operating system for as little as $49.99.

“For first time we will have some aggressive offers that customers can take advantage of,” said Tami Reller, chief financial officer of the Windows group in a conference call Thursday.

Anyone buying a new computer that comes installed with Windows Vista starting today will qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7. “There’s sort of this continuing trend with Windows 7 of removing any potential barriers to getting people to upgrade,” said Michael Cherry, an analyst at independent firm Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland. “The pricing just seems to follow that pattern.”
Read more »

Windows is installing “surprise updates” against the wishes of some users, who have expressly set up the operating system not to deploy patches without permission, researchers charged today.

Numerous readers of the popular Windows Secrets newsletter have reported that they have watched their PCs install updates from the June 9 set of security patches as they’ve rebooted or when they’ve turned on their machines, said Brian Livingston, the newsletter’s editorial director. Those users have set options in Windows Update (WU), the operating system’s default update service, to require their okay before installing patches, or before downloading and installing updates.

“If you have an incomplete update download, Windows won’t display the fact that you have updates,” said Livingston, referring to the icon in the taskbar that should appear when updates are pending approval. “Then at shutdown or reboot, those updates start installing, even though the user has set Windows Update not to do so.”

Only users who have set WU to the “Automatic” setting should have patches downloaded and installed without any additional action on their part.
Read more »

Apple CEO Steve Jobs received a liver transplant about two months ago to treat an undisclosed medical condition, according a news report published in the Wall Street Journal late Friday.

Jobs, who is on leave of absence from the company because of health issues, received the transplant in Tennessee, according to the news report. He is recovering well and is expected to return to work later this month on a part-time basis.
Read more »