So many Apple rumors. Who can keep up with all of them? Most revolve around the latest gadgets from the company. The latest rumors are regarding Apple CEO Steve Jobs decision to not be a part of Macworld, cite to the state of his physical health as the reason. According to sources, “Apple misrepresented the reasons behind Macworld and Jobs’ keynote cancellation.” The real cause is said to be his rapidly declining health.

With this recent alleged news Apple has chosen to remove the “hype factor” instead of letting it later destroy the company when the news of Jobs’ health surfaces later this spring. Apparently, no longer needing Macworld is just a cover designed by the worldwide “loyalty” department.

Apple’s Mighty Mouse already offers a 360-degree scrolling capability with a multi-button interface. We really didn’t think there was much room for improvement. That’s because MacBlogz has done all of the thinking for us, creating this simple yet elegant prototype of how a multitouch Mighty Mouse might look.

It’s aluminum and its profile is kinda sexy. The scroll ball on the Mighty Mouse has been a problem for most users, so this design makes a lot of sense and should this concept mouse actually make it into production some day, users will be very happy campers.

I guess you could say that it’s the end of an era. Apple just issued a press release saying that this next MacWorld in January will be the last, and sadly Steve Jobs won’t be there. Instead, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will be heading it up. It marks an end to the daily conference that has launched some of the most important pieces of consumer tech in recent years.

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, and trade shows have become a very small part of how Apple reaches its customer base. Also, the increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores factor into it as well. More than 3.5 million people visit them every week. Plus the Apple.com website lets Apple reach more than a hundred million customers around the world.

Despite Apple’s Mac Mini being due for an overhaul, Apple has invalidated any recent rumors that they may be launching new products this year. Company spokesman Bill Evans told Macworld that Apple’s line up “…is set” for the holidays.

This is an uncommon move for Apple to stifle the rumor mill but it seems that any hopes of seeing a new iMac or Mac Mini will have to be put aside until next year. Apple has however put out some new iPods lately, as well as some new MacBooks so maybe that is enough for the year? After all, they’ll of course need something big for MacWorld in January.

Nothing much new to see here, but since we have been taking a look at the pissing contest between Microsoft and Apple, I thought I’d share this one as well. Microsoft’s marketing guys are spending all the money on advertising Vista instead of actually fixing Vista, so he’s holding a bake sale with some pricey cupcakes. When will it end?

No one can deny that Apple’s iTunes store is seriously popular. The store is the single largest music retailer and has one of the largest collections of music available. The App store is wildly popular and the iTunes movie rental, sale, and TV show market is booming. It seems that Apple can’t do wrong with iTunes.

In fact, Apple has announced that it has now sold over 200 million TV show episodes via iTunes. Apple also says that over 1 million of those shows sold have been in HD resolution. Major networks all contribute programs to the iTunes store including FOX, CBS, ABC, and CBS.

Apple has now added a 24-inch Cinema Display to accompany their 20, 23 and 30 inch versions. The difference here is that the new version adds an LED backlight and built-in iSight with mic, 1920×1200 resolution, built-in stereo speakers, plus 3 port usb hub. The cable also has a Mag Safe connector, USB, and mini Display Port that will run off the monitor. It will be available in November for the price of $899.

You can bet that there are lots of iPhone fans out there counting down the days until Christmas hoping ol’ St. Nick will be stuffing an iPhone in their stocking. Last year there was a glut of holiday purchases for the original iPhone along with problems finding devices in some areas and crowded stores.

AT&T has announced that it is already gearing up for holiday sales of the iPhone 3G by streamlining the buying process and allowing shoppers to do the glut of the work online. AT&T has started a system that allows customers to pre-qualify for the iPhone online.

The iPhone is certainly one of the most talked about mobile phones among gadget hounds. Many were not happy when the original iPhone launched as an AT&T exclusive. When the iPhone 3G launched and AT&T began subsidizing some of the cost of the iPhone, people began to take a bit more notice of the handset.

According to market research firm NPD Group one in three iPhone 3G buyers have come to AT&T from other service providers. I am sure this is exactly what AT&T was hoping for when it agreed to subsidize the cost of the iPhone.

You won’t see too many unboxing videos on the ‘Brick. They’re pretty dumb. If you want to see something unboxed, then go buy a thing and then open that thing. In the case of this video, the packaging looks like it would be a breeze to open, but things don’t go as planned. Still, items that are packaged well and hard to open hardly ever get damaged in shipping, which is a plus. Video below.

Apple wants to enhance your audio experience with a good fit, with these Apple In-Ear Headphones. They feature two high-performance drivers, a woofer takes care of all of your bass needs and mid-range sounds, while the tweeter takes care of the high-frequency audio. These drivers translate into accurate and rich audio depending on the quality of your MP3 encoding. Apple priced the pair affordably at $79. Comes with three different sizes of ear tips to cater for all kinds of ears, a carrying case and a cable-control case.

Ask anybody and they’ll tell you Apple invented the iPod. Not entirely correct according to Apple themselves, who has credited a UK man as author of some of the original patents that outlined how today’s PMPs work. Kane Kramer had no idea about iPods back then, but he sketched out a rudimentary media player in 1979. Sadly, financial difficulties in 1988 meant he couldn’t renew the patent and so it entered the public domain. Apple then used the concept as evidence in their legal case against Burst.com, who were accusing the company of patent infringement and looking for a slice of iProfits.

Kramer’s PMP was called the IXI, and stored only 3.5 minutes of audio and oddly enough it even looks just a bit like what eventually became the iPod. The inventor had to endure ten hours being questioned by Burst’s legal team, who had claimed that the intellectual property of four patents they held was being used by Apple without payment or agreement. Obviously now that Apple has fessed up, Kramer is looking at some kind of compensation. Apple did give Kramer a free iPod that apparently broke after several months. Sadly if not for the lawsuit Kramer may have lived in relative obscurity and we would never have known.

According to Research and Markets’ latest report, both Apple and Sony are looking into developing screens that could be worn inside glasses.

“Today’s personal viewers provide video only with limited visibility of the environment. Sony and Apple are developing the next generation personal viewer, the navigation/video sunglasses. These products will offer navigation features in full see-through mode as well as video viewing with a clip-on to block the background,”

With the launch of Apple’s Application Store today came a whole mess of applications newly available for download to use on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Topping the list of the free ones is the Remote application, which allows users to control iTunes and even AppleTV wirelessly with your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The application requires the iPhone 2.0 software update and comes in 16 different languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Norwegian among others. The remote application lets you control playback of your media and see the songs and album art on the mobile device with the application.

The Apple Application store for the iPhone and for the iPod Touch is finally now live and you can check it out here. The store is loaded with applications for use the the mobile devices that are both for sale and for free.

Topping the list of “Free Apps” early on today include Remote which lets you control iTunes on your computer through Wi-Fi with your iPod Touch or iPhone, an AIM application and applications for use with Facebook, Google Mobile, eBay and Twitter. Some of the top applications in general include Super Monkey Ball (big surprise), MLB, Texas Hold’em and Cro-Mag Rally.