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By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press


      SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple CEO Steve Jobs briefly emerged from a
medical leave Monday to unveil a free service that lets customers
share calendar entries, songs and other files among their devices
more easily.

      The company also announced new software to make Mac computers
behave more like mobile devices and Apple's mobile devices more
like rival smartphones.


      Jobs received a standing ovation as he appeared at Apple Inc.'s
annual developers' conference, his second major public appearance
since he went on medical leave in January for unspecified reasons
and duration.


      Jobs left many of the specific announcements to top executives.
In the first hour, he appeared on stage for only a few minutes.
Typically, he's on stage longer at major public launches.


      Apple's stock was down $4.38, or 1.3 percent, at $339 in
afternoon trading. The stock was up in the morning, but fell soon
after Jobs left the stage.


      James Brown's "I Feel Good" played over the loudspeakers just
before Jobs walked on stage, looking thin, in his signature outfit
of mock turtleneck and blue jeans.


      One audience member shouted out, "we love you."


      Jobs returned to stage about 80 minutes into the presentation to
announce a service called iCloud.


      An iCloud account will store user information from several
devices, including iPhones and iPads, and make sure the same
contacts, calendar events and files are available on all of them.
It also backs up the data on Apple's servers. It mimics Google's
Docs system for online files, and products from smaller
online-storage companies like Dropbox.


      ICloud will also allow customers to store their music online.
Buy a song on iTunes once, and it will be available on up to 10
devices.


      The basic service will be free for now and replaces a $99-a-year
Apple service called MobileMe, which Jobs said "was not our finest
hour."


      For $25 a year, iTunes will be able to scan a computer's hard
drive for music files that have been converted from CDs. If the
same songs are available in the iTunes store, they'll be added to
the iCloud locker. That means there's no need to purchase the songs
again or upload them. The service, known as iTunes Match, will
upload any songs to iCloud if it's not already available through
iTunes.


      The company has been in talks with the major recording companies
to make the service possible.


      ICloud could give users a wide array of music for their iPhones,
iPads and Wi-Fi-capable iPods, without having to connect them to
their home PCs to transfer songs. Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
have launched similar services.


      The music portion of iCloud is available right away, with
remaining features coming in the fall.


      Jobs seemed animated as he unveiled iCloud, walking back and
forth on stage and making many gestures during the presentation. He
walked off stage briefly to let an executive demonstrate an iCloud
feature. After about five minutes, he walked slowly back up the
steps to the stage to continue.


      Earlier, Apple unveiled an operating system update for Mac
computers called Lion. With it, Apple is expanding the ways
finger-touches can be used to control the software. For instance,
with the swipe of the fingers over the Mac trackpad, the user can
switch from one program to another.


      In another nod to bringing the computer closer to the iPhone and
iPad, Apple is adapting more of its programs to run in a special
full-screen mode, in addition to the traditional "window" mode.


      Lion will be available to consumers next month for $30. A
preview version was made available Monday to software developers.


      Apple also unveiled updates to its software for iPhones and
iPads. It will present notifications of new emails, missed calls
and other events in a more intelligent fashion, reminiscent of the
way Google Inc.'s Android smartphone software already does. The
software will present all pending notifications in a list,
accessible with the swipe of a finger.


      The new mobile software, iOS 5, will have a newsstand for
newspapers and magazines that you subscribe to on iPad. New issues
are automatically downloaded and placed there.


      Apple also announced greater integration with Twitter, so that
you can tweet photos, for instance, directly from a photo app.


      The software would be available to consumers in the fall.
IPhones, iPads and iPod Touches will now able to get operating
system updates directly from the Internet, without having to
connect to a PC running iTunes. It's something Android phones can
now do.


      Apple didn't announce a new iPhone model. In recent years, it
has revealed one in at the developer's conference in early June,
then launched it a few weeks later. This year, a new iPhone model
isn't expected to reach stores until the fall.


      Jobs made a public appearance in March to announce a new iPad.
On Monday, Apple said it has sold more than 25 million iPads since
they went on sale 14 months ago.

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Science

Apple CEO Steve Jobs briefly emerged from a
medical leave Monday to unveil a free service that lets customers
share calendar entries, songs and other files among their devices
more easily.

Jobs emerges from leave, unveils new products

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