It may not be MobileMe 2.0, but Apple has applied another shot of elbow grease to its suite of Web services. Continuing MobileMe's slow and steady trend this year, minor new features and fixes have been applied to almost every aspect of the service's Web apps.

Detailed in this support doc, MobileMe Mail, Gallery, iDisk, Account, Back to My Mac, and Push services are all sporting small updates. Mail now displays an unread message count on the Inbox and every folder (but still not the toolbar icon as originally previewed at last year's launch), and forwarding or replying to HTML (rich text) messages will maintain the original formatting instead of converting it to plain text. Gallery now allows iPhone 3GS users to publish videos to an album, and iDisk now displays a proper progress indicator when uploading to a Public folder with a browser.

In addition, Apple now allows more freedom for merging and keeping data when adding or deleting MobileMe accounts from iPhone and iPod touch. Also, speaking of merging, MobileMe accounts which have no upgrades applied to them can now be converted to Family Pack sub-accounts.

There's a handful of other fixes and updates in this latest MobileMe Web app release, including new icons for iDisk and Account, so be sure to peruse the afore-linked support doc for the rest of the details. Note, however, that you may need to resume holding your breath, as that iDisk iPhone app that Apple promised on its MobileMe product page is still "coming soon."

Cooliris, the visually-enthralling free browser plug-in that allows you to navigate through online photos and video via a 3-D image wall, has been updated to version 1.1.1. New to this version is support for displaying Cooliris within tabbed windows, sharable URLs, and greater support for Flickr information and MySpace content.

At one time Cooliris completely took over your computer screen with its wall of images and movies. While this was a beautiful way to view this content, Cooliris blocked access to other content. With version 1.1.1 you can now invoke Cooliris within a tabbed window and have multiple instances of it running in different tabs—your Flickr page in one tab, Cooliris’ main browser in another, and an Amazon.com search in another. If you prefer to browse the Web in a not-so-visual way, simply navigate away from a Cooliris tab or open a new tab.

Cooliris windows now bear URLs, which allow you to set one as a home page, bookmark pages so you can later return to view their contents, and share the contents of a Cooliris page by sending its URL to a friend. Additionally, when you view the contents of a Flickr page you see more information—title, author, description, and tags. With MySpace images you can view any page of a content wall.

Cooliris is compatible with Firefox (Windows XP/Vista, Mac, and Linux). Internet Explorer. and Safari (Mac).

When is a point update not just a point update? When it’s a point-five release, naturally. On Tuesday, Mozilla released Firefox 3.5, the latest version of the popular open-source Web browser, bringing joy into the hearts of children and adults alike.

Besides sporting a fancy revised icon by the Iconfactory, Firefox 3.5 brings several new features to the program, including support for HTML5 video and audio content embedded directly on a page, a private browsing mode, and location-aware browsing, which allows you to share your location with Web sites if you so choose.

Arguably the biggest improvements in Firefox 3.5 are performance-based: the browser’s developers boast that its JavaScript performance is more than twice as fast as Firefox 3, and ten times faster than Firefox 2, thanks to the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. The software also incorporates the latest version of the Gecko rendering platform, which brings faster rendering of onscreen content.

Originally, the 3.5 update was supposed to be version 3.1, but in March, Mozilla decided to change the version numbering, believing that it better reflected the breadth of new features and functionality that the update brought.

A free download for all, Firefox 3.5 is available in more than 70 different languages. The program runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. The Mac version requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later, any Mac with an Intel-based or G3, G4, or G5 processor, and at least 128MB of RAM.

Bob Borchers. The name holds a special place in the heart of iPhone users everywhere, even if most of us were never quite sure how to pronounce it. Bob was the host of the original blockbuster iPhone Guided Tour video that burst on the scene in June 2007, as well as its sequel, iPhone 1.1.1, and was one of the more visible of the company employees, who are usually shrouded in, well, shrouds of secrecy.

But Bob, Bob is no more. No fear: he hasn’t shuffled his way off this mortal coil, but he has departed Apple, where he’d served as senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing for the last couple years. According to the Wall Street Journal, he’s now off to work at venture firm Opus Capital where he’ll be checking out “the range of white spaces in the mobile world.” Uh. Yeah. That sounds, um, exciting.

To be fair, it’s been a pretty busy—and likely stressful—couple years for Borchers, what with three major product launches, so maybe this is his way of kicking back and taking it easy. “It was kind of a no-brainer,” were his words to the Journal. We’ll miss you, Bob: your calm, reasoned tones; your vaguely Stephen Colbert-esque haircut; your soothing gestures. But at least we’ll always have pinch-and-zoom.

[via Infinite Loop]

Who’s got time to talk about Steve Jobs’ liver when the iPhone is a harbinger of economic DOOM! Meanwhile, buyers give us the four-two-zero on netbook ownership and porn finally arrives at the App Store! Sort of!

iPhone buyers kill the economy

Sometimes there’s a certain madness that afflicts people who cover Apple. Douglas A. McIntyre, writing for 24/7 Wall St. (not an actual address), wonders Will Apple iPhone Sales Cause A New Recession?

It’s a wonder the economy is in such bad condition, what with a brain trust like this providing analysis for us. Noting that total cost commitments to iPhone purchases could balloon to as much as $4 billion by the end of the summer, McIntyre warns:

The success of the new phone is either a sign that customers have the cash to help push up consumer spending, or they are willing to return to their leveraged habits, habits that helped bring on and then exacerbate the recession.

Binary much? Apparently it’s not possible that some of the people who bought an iPhone will be able to pay it off immediately and some are borrowing to pay for it. No, the fate of the economy hinges on how you paid for your iPhone.

McIntyre suspects we were all irresponsible and wags his finger at the naughty, naughty iPhone buyers.

No one pay cash anymore if they can use leverage. The recession has probably not taught people a thing.

Which is strange because he wasn’t always concerned about where the money comes from. Like back in September when he suggested that taxpayers would gladly open their wallets even further to make the angry Wall Street volcano god stop erupting. Shorter Douglas A. McIntyre: buying things for yourself = risky and irresponsible. Buying things for Wall Street brokers = prudent fiscal policy.

For the record, the Macalope bought two iPhones and he pays off his credit card bills every month. So the brown and furry one doesn’t need some Wall Street scold to lecture him financial responsibility.

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Savvy billionaire super-investor Warren Buffett is the latest to chime in on Steve Jobs’s “secret” liver transplant. (Coincidentally, my band, Secret Liver Transplant, is playing tonight in Boston—you should all drop by).

In an interview with CNBC, the full transcript of which is available on the network’s “Warren Buffet Watch” blog—its goal, apparently, is “Keeping Track of America’s Billionaire Next Door,” I suppose in case he gets absent-minded and wanders off—Buffett had the following to say about Jobs.

Certainly Steve Jobs is important to Apple.  So it’s a material fact.  Whether he is facing serious surgery or not is a material fact.  Whether I’m facing serious surgery is a material fact.  Whether (General Electric CEO) Jeff Immelt is, I mean, so I think that’s important to get out.  They’re going to find out about it anyway so I don’t see a big privacy issue or anything of the sort.

The old, country Buffett does not use the term “material fact” lightly—that’s actually a regulatory term referring to those details publicly-traded companies are required to disclose to investors. Meanwhile, others have argued that Apple and Jobs did their duty by announcing Jobs’s medical leave of absence back in January.

And, of course, among the directors of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway—whose Web site, incidentally, looks like it dates from about 1947; go ahead, look. I'll wait...right?—lurks the investor’s longtime friend and fellow billionaire, Bill Gates, suggesting that perhaps—aw, never mind. You know, Bill Gates’s retirement has taken all the fun out of concocting conspiracy theories centered around him.

Still, the most perplexing issue here is the fact that CNBC has an entire blog devoted to watching Warren Buffett, as though he might suddenly decide to rampage through downtown Tokyo, buying companies left and right.

Evernote, the ubiquitous digital-scrapbook service that wishes it were your third arm, has finally taken the next logical step and enabled sharing. Users can now open up their notebooks for collaborative editing to a select few individuals, or even the entire world.

Announced on the Evernote blog, users logged into the Web interface will see a new Sharing Setup panel in the sidebar. Users can enable sharing on a per-notebook basis, opening up a lot of possibilities for co-workers to collaborate on projects, families to plan for vacations, students to compile research, or for couples to get shopping done.

Sharing a notebook with the world appears to allow full add-and-edit functionality, while sharing with specific individuals by email address allows for setting permissions, such as view-only.

There are a couple of caveats with Evernote's new sharing features. First, it requires that users be Premium members to enable sharing on a notebook (free users can still make edits, however). Premium memberships only cost $5 per month, and considering Evernote's many features and ubiquity across Mac, iPhone, Windows, Web, and generic mobile clients, it's not a high price to pay.

The other catch is that Evernote's sharing features are only accessible on the Web for now (you can't even see a shared notebook in the Mac client, let alone add content to it). The company says this is "Phase 1" of the sharing-feature deployment; Phase 2 will allow those using native desktop or mobile clients to access and add content to shared notebooks.

Psystar may be in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings, but that’s not going to stop Apple’s lawsuit against the clone-maker from moving ahead. As reported by Jim Dalyrmple over at the Loop, a bankruptcy judge in Florida has lifted the automatic stay placed on the case after Psystar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May.

This week’s order by Judge Robert Mack clears the way for Apple’s lawsuit to proceed as scheduled. The case, in which Apple argues that Psystar is infringing on its copyright by selling PCs with Mac OS X preinstalled, was slated to go to trial this November.

Apple had asked the judge to lift the stay, arguing that Psystar had filed for bankruptcy just after a court ruling that required the clone maker to turn over documents to Apple and just before a scheduled June deposition of Psystar. Apple agreed not to collect any damages from Psystar if it wins its copyright infringement case, prompting the bankruptcy court to lift the stay. (In previous filings, Apple has asked the U.S. District Court for a permanent injunction that would bar Psystar from selling any more hardware with Apple software and require Psystar to recall every clone it’s sold—moves that would effectively put the clone maker out of business.)

So what’s next in the Apple-Psystar back-and-forth? Ars Technica notes that the original deadline for discovery in the copyright infringement case is just a few days away. The judge in that case could extend the discovery period, or Psystar could appeal the bankruptcy court’s ruling. No matter what, a November trial date looms, as Apple looks to stake out a position against the growing number of would-be clone makers.

Confirming a weekend report in the Wall Street Journal that Steve Jobs underwent a liver transplant, Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute of Memphis, Tenn., said on Monday that it had performed the procedure on the Apple CEO. The hospital's announcement came after receiving permission from Jobs.

According to James D. Eason, the program director and chief of transplantation at the institute, Jobs received the transplant because he was the sickest patient at the institution when the donated organ became available. According to the hospital release, Jobs had the highest MELD score—Model for End-Stage Liver Disease—among patients of his blood type at the time of the procedure.

The press release goes on to say that “Mr. Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.”

The hospital did not confirm when the procedure took place. According to the original Journal report, Jobs received the transplant two months ago. Indeed, several sources have already reported that the Apple CEO is back at work, albeit on a part-time schedule.

Jobs first announced he was taking a leave of absence to deal with undisclosed health issues in January, and that he would return to work at the end of June.

The little Apple news that hasn't been about the new iPhone this week seems to be swirling around Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Unless you’ve been staring at your iPhone 3G S’s Compass application since its release on Friday—so hypnotic—you’ll probably have heard the reports, first broken by The Wall Street Journal, that Jobs underwent a liver transplant earlier this year.

But the real question is whether or not Steve Jobs has returned to work. Since Jobs’s announcement that he’d be taking a leave of absence, Apple’s public statements on the matter have consistently stated that the CEO would return to work “at the end of June.” Jobs was quoted in Monday’s press release about iPhone 3G S sales—the first time that’s happened since his absence took effect—and since the calendar shows just a week left in June, is it possible he’s already back in the saddle?

CNBC’s Jim Goldman says yes, yes—a thousand times, yes ! Goldman cites unnamed employees who confirm that Jobs was been seen on the Cupertino campus on Monday of this week; a Reuters reporter also said that he saw a beturtlenecked Jobs leaving campus (the turtleneck and jeans confirming beyond the shadow of a doubt that this was not merely some Jobs decoy).

This wouldn’t be the first time reports have suggested that Jobs has been seen on the campus in the past few months, so it’s possible he’s just dropped into the office to touch base with Tim Cook and crew. Or maybe he accidentally left his Beatles Anthology collection on his desk—who knows?

Either way, Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether or not Jobs had returned to work, but we imagine that if he's flipped his iChat status back to “Available” then we’ll all know for sure before long.