TVSquad

As MacWorld opens today in San Francisco, people are talking about the statement released by Apple CEO Steve Jobs yesterday concerning rumors about his health. Jobs has gone through a rather obvious loss of weight and people have speculated that he had a serious health problem, perhaps related to the cancer scare he had a while back. But in the statement, Jobs says that the weight loss was caused by a hormonal imbalance and that he is undergoing treatment to solve the problem.

Also, he doesn't have PMS.

That's the little joke that CNBC anchor Dennis Kneale made on the network yesterday, in a report about Jobs' statement and the price of Apple's stock. While throwing to another reporter, Kneale asked if "all of this was about PMS, something like that?" Kneale apologized for the remark (which he called "word play") after the report. I don't think Jobs should be offended, though I bet some women will be.

It seems like something weird happens on CNBC every day now.

If you were a bit underwhelmed by Apple's first set top box, the Apple TV, you weren't alone. At Macworld today, Steve Jobs pretty much admitted that the Apple TV was a failure. Part of the reason for that is that people didn't want a two-step solution that required them to download videos from the iTunes store on their computer and then stream them over a home network to the Apple TV for watching.

So Apple TV take 2 lets users download movies from iTunes directly. No computer required. Oh yeah, and you can also rent movies now, with prices ranging from $2.99 to $4.99. Older movies will be at the lower end of the scale, with new releases and HD rentals filling out the higher end.

There's also support for more watching more YouTube videos, Flickr images, and .mac support. Apple has also dropped the price of the Apple TV from $299 to $229. And current users can get all of the new features through a free software upgrade.

There's still not PVR functionality, which some people were hoping for. But all things considered, the new Apple TV at $229 is a lot more attractive than the old version with fewer features for $299.

Macworld opens January 9 in San Francisco, and rumors are swirling that Steve Jobs will be accompanied by The Simpsons in his much anticipated January 10 Keynote Address. Macenstein predicted awhile back (see prediction #7) that the animated icons would be keynoting with the Apple kingpin as part of an announcement by Apple and Fox they are licensing Fox content, in particular episodes of The Simpsons, for the iTunes store.  Like Macenstein, I'd far prefer episodes of Family Guy myself, and maybe a little Futurama action as well, but it will be interesting to see if this prediction pans out either way.

Speak up and let Steve Jobs know what you think, TV Squad readers! What Fox content do you want on your iPods?

[ via this story at DIGG ]