In case you haven’t been keeping up with current iPhone location tracking events, it was recently revealed that cellular iOS devices such as the iPhone and 3G enabled iPad collect location data from where you are and store it in an unencrypted file on the device.

However, according to an email purported to be from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Apple does not track anyone. Android, however, does. Here’s the exchange, according to a MacRumors reader:

Q: Steve,

Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.

A: Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

So, if this is really from Steve Jobs and you have a cellular iOS device, I guess you don’t need to worry about Apple tracking your every move. If you’ve got an Android-powered device, I guess you’re not out of the woods yet.

Of course, the question is if this email is really from Steve Jobs and if so, do we believe him? More on this as it develops. Meanwhile, I would bet we’ll see a software update sooner or later that addresses this “issue” which will either eliminate it all together or do a better job of hiding it.

Either way, the other big question is does anyone but a vocal minority actually care if their location data is being tracked? If you have an opinion one way or the other, be sure to sound off in the comments!

Say what you will about Apple CEO Steve Jobs, but one thing is for certain, he’s never boring. However, he is extremely private and keeps most of his thoughts and feelings well hidden. That is, until now.

Well, at least until 2012 when the first, official authorized biography about Mr. Jobs is set to launch from publisher Simon and Schuster, who announced the book over the weekend. The book, titled “iSteve: The Book of Jobs,” was written by Walter Isaacson, who began writing it in 2009.

According to reports, Isaacson worked closely with Jobs and also interviewed his family members, co-workers at Apple, and even those at Apple’s competitors. Previously, Isaacson has written books about Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, served as CEO at CNN, and worked for TIME. So, he’s no slouch either.

“This is the perfect match of subject and author, and it is certain to be a landmark book about one of the world’s greatest innovators,” said Simon & Schuster publisher Jonathan Karp. “Just as he did with Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson is telling a unique story of revolutionary genius.”

I agree, Although, not sure I’m in love with the title. After all, Steve Wozniak’s biography was called ‘iWoz” and this one is pretty close to that. Surprised Mr. Jobs let that one go.

No matter what, though, with the unprecedented access Isaacson has had for this book and the huge amount of interest in Mr. Jobs and Apple, I expect it to be one of the biggest biographies ever. I know I’ll be reading. How about you?

Of course, now that the book is on the way, the other thing we have to think about is who’s going to play Jobs in the movie based on this book? Whoever it is I sure hope they can get David Fincher to direct and Aaron Sorkin to write the screenplay. Now that’s a movie I would see.

The big announcement from Apple that everyone was waiting for happened this morning. Some were wondering if Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO who has been experiencing health-related absences of late, would do the honors of introducing the company’s update to the popular iPad tablet device. That he did.

Let’s just get this out there: the iPad is Apple’s most important product line at the moment. In 2010, the company dominated the tablet market by getting there first, producing the devices at the price-points they have, and frankly by creating a tablet far superior to anything else that has arrived to market since.

In 2011, that market dominance is by no means guaranteed. Hot new tablets like the Motorola XOOM are encroaching on Apple’s dominance and in response, Apple didn’t so much perform a year-end spiff of the iPad; instead, they completely revamped it. Meet the NEW iPad 2. Here are some bullet points on the device itself:

• All new design. Radically thinner.
• 1/3 thinner than the first iPad. 13.4 Mm down to 8.8 mm thick.
• The iPad 2 is thinner than an iPhone 4.
• White and black models. White will be available launch day.
• All new CPU, the A5, 2x faster but same power consumption.
• Graphics are 9x faster.
•  Front and rear cameras.
• Built in gyroscope.
• iPad 2 is lighter.  1.3 pounds instead of 1.5 pounds.
• AT&T and Verizon both supported from launch day.
• Same impressive 10-hour battery life.

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It’s an historic day Apple fans as we look back 27 years ago at the first time Apple unveiled the Macintosh computer to the world. Steve Jobs introduced the revolutionary Mac on January 24, 1984 to a crowd of around 3000 people and, needless to say, they were quite enthusiastic about it.

The original Apple Macintosh was the first personal computer to run the Mac operating system, then known as System 1.0. It featured impressive (for the time) specs including a 9-inch greyscale monitor, an 8 MHz processor with 128 K of RAM and no internal hard drive, just a floppy. It did, however, feature a really cool rectangular mouse, which you can see in the photo above.

The price? $2495. Which seemed high then and seems really high now. Good thing prices have come down, at least a little. To celebrate, check out the video of Jobs revealing the new Mac after the jump.

As someone who uses a Macintosh every day (I’m writing this on one right now) I thank you Steve Jobs and the entire Mac team for inventing this great machine. Here’s to 27 more years.

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According to Apple PR, Steve Jobs sent out an email to Apple staff this morning stating that he is taking a medical leave of absence. In the email he says Tim Cook is in charge of Apple’s day to day operations. Jobs will remain CEO and weigh in on strategic decisions. The text of the email is below:

Team,

At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.
I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.

Steve

As you probably know, Jobs had a liver transplant in 2009 to treat complications from pancreatic cancer. What does this announcement mean for Apple? At least Jobs waited until after the Verizon announcement, which is smart. Plus, the company seems to have a definite roadmap for the next year at least, so it will probably take a stock price hit but keep on going strong.

But whatever happens with Apple, we wish Mr. Jobs all the best and we hope he makes a speedy and complete recovery.

We don’t always take rumors very seriously around here. When you’ve been in the news game as long as many of us have you tend to take most rumors with a Gibraltar-sized chuck of salt. So, it is with that caveat that we bring you news of the new Mac App store and its rumored launch date.

According to one of those infamous and anonymous “inside” sources, Apple plans to launch the Mac App Store one week from today, on December 13th. Why then? Well, as the source indicates, Apple CEO Steve Jobs actually wanted to launch the new store today but those pesky “delays” pushed the launch back to next week. I’m sure Jobs took that well.

In case you’re not familiar with the forthcoming App Store for the Mac, it will be OS X’s equivalent to the iTunes App Store for iOS devices. It won’t be the only place to get Apps for the Mac it will just make it more convenient and better for developers. . . hopefully.

It gets tougher every year to surprise the Apple fanboy/fangirl on your holiday shopping list. They probably already own every gadget Apple manufactures, perhaps several times over, so how to surprise the Apple fan this year? It’s got to be this guy.

No, not me, but the face of Apple himself, Steve Jobs as an amazingly detailed glorious action figure. As described by the manufacturer, “The most phenomenal Steve Jobs figure ever. It looks insanely like Steve.” Indeed it does.

Chinese online store, M.I.C. (Get it? “Made in China?”) offers this unique action figure for $79 and the attention to detail is quite high. From Jobs’ receding hairline, right down to his trademark New Balance sneaks, nothing seems to have been missed. The figure even sports removable glasses and a scale iPhone in his left hand. Even the figure’s base is shaped like a white apple logo.

M.I.C. is also offering an “accessory kit” for their latest toy. Included are a number of “speech bubble” cards so that you can make Steve say some of his famous catch phrases, a brush and a permanent marker. I’m not sure what the brush is for precisely, and now that I’m thinking about it, I’d probably save the extra $2.99 and just make my own.

I’d also like to see other Apple products, such as the iPad or perhaps Macbook Air  included in an accessory pack. And finally, one thing that remains disturbingly unclear, is whether Steve is pose-able or not.

Update: It appears the company has gone “Out of Stocks” (sic) on this product, but if you’re interested in something like this, you may want to keep an eye on the company’s product page as I’m sure they’re making more.

We’ll give you three guesses what will be announced at this event Apple will be holding on October 20th and the first two don’t count. That’s right, if you can’t tell from the obvious animal peeking out from behind the Apple logo what the company’s got up its sleeve, you need to turn in your amateur detective decoder ring.

Having a bit of trouble? Okay, we’ll give you some hints. That animal, it’s a lion. So, that means the next version of OSX will probably be called Lion because, in case you re not aware, Steve Jobs likes cats and all of the version were named after some sort of cat. The most recent, of course, being Snow Leopard.

So, it follows that the next one, aka OS X 10.7,  will be called by a cat name as well. Oh, we can also assume this event will focus quite a bit on the Mac itself, at least judging from the tag line “Back to the Mac.”

Whatever happens, we’ll bring you all the news. In the meantime, let the predictions begin. . .

At a packed media event today Apple announced some new things that were met mostly with enthusiasm by the attending crowd. Among these new things was iOS 4.1 and 4.2, new iPods and a new version of the Apple TV.

Here’s a summary of the announcements:

iOS 4.1 – iOS 4.2

• High Dynamic Range photos: Takes three photos and combines them to form one better one.

• Proximity sensor, Bluetooth and the iPhone 3G.

• High-definition video upload over Wi-Fi.

• TV show rentals and purchase

• Game Center debut

iOS 4.2

• Brings iPad up-to-date with iPhone 4 including folders, better multitasking, etc.

The iOS 4.1 update will be available next week through iTunes. iOS 4.2 will come in November.

New iPod Nano

• New square design
• Touchscreen interface
• VoiceOver
• FM radio
• Nike+ and pedometer
• 24-hour battery life
• Six colors
• $149 for 8GB and $179 for 16GB
• Preorder today, shipping in a week

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Two things that we’re pretty big fans of around The Flickcast offices: web comics and Apple. A good portion of us are proud iPhone owners, and some of us (mostly those who can’t deal with AT&T) show our Apple pride with other products like the Mac or iPad.

We all know how crazy the ever-changing world of consumer electronics can be, but Apple certainly takes the cake. I couldn’t tell you how many old iPhones or iPods are now sitting on my desk as paperweights due to my need to buy the “next big thing.”

We’re also fans of the humorous web comic The Oatmeal. Their zany, original humor has made us smile at least once, and now they’ve brought it to a whole new level by outlining what it’s like to be an owner of an Apple product.

Check out the web comic after the jump, and we’ll be sure to bring you the latest news about the next cool new Apple product to hit the market.

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Apple CEO, Steve Jobs kicked off Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference today from the Moscone Center in San Francisco and we’re bringing you all of the big announcements.

While Job’s typically uses his keynote speeches to announce new products, much of the wind has been spilled from his sails, as details of the next iPhone were leaked months ago by gadget reporting site Gizmodo. Still, given Apple’s well-known secrecy, there are bound to be some surprises in store. Jobs himself even commented on the pre-conference speculation and rumors by saying, “You won’t be disappointed.”

With that said, we’re anticipating that Jobs will most definitely unveil the next iPhone, details and a launch date for the iPhone OS 4, and rumors are suggesting a possible cloud-based version of iTunes that allows wireless syncing. So let’s separate fact from fiction; read on for all of the big announcements from Apple this morning.

Jobs did not, as I anticipated, begin with a joke. “So an iPhone developer walks into a bar . . .” Instead he launches into some amazing stats on Apple’s most recent product launch: the iPad. 8,500 native apps for iPad, downloaded 35 million times, 17 per iPad. Some impressive numbers for a product barely into its 3rd month.

The iPad’s iBook app gets an update. With 22% market share some new features are coming online for this popular book-reading app. The ability to make notes, added control to bookmark page to make it more like Amazon’s Kindle, the ability to view and read PDFs, added a selector on top, a new bookshelf just for PDFs.

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Speculation as to if Apple CEO Steve Jobs would make the keynote address at this year’s Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco can finally be put to rest. Today, Apple issued a press release officially announcing that Jobs will deliver the WWDC keynote on June 7th.

The event, which sold out in a record eight days, will take place at the Moscone Center’s West building with Jobs kicking things off at 10:00 AM Pacific. Of course, now that Jobs has confirmed his appearance for the keynote, the real speculation can begin as to what he will announce that isn’t already out there.

The folks at Gizmodo and others have probably already revealed the new iPhone. Fortunately, we haven’t seen the final version of iPhone OS 4.0 and had an exhaustive demo of its features so expect that. Plus, even though Gizmodo supposedly had the real iPhone, there’s no guarantee it was the final design. The phone could look a lot different once its “officially” revealed by Jobs.

Not only that, WWDC isn’t only about the  iPhone, so expect to see some other things announced during the keynote. On that note, here’s a few predictions of what you may see announced by Jobs:

• iPhone 4th Generation with A4 processor (like iPad), more memory and storage. Front facing camera for iChat. Released end of July.

• iPhone OS4 release announced for end of July also.

• New version of iTunes.

• Mac OSX 10.7 Preview. Look for more improvements under the hood and less “amazing” features. Also, may see more of Apple’s move to the ‘cloud.”

• Updated Mac Pro systems.

Check out the full press release after the jump.

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