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It's a question friends and family have been asking me ever since The Wall Street Journal reported last Saturday that Apple Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs had undergone a liver transplant two months ago: Should our health records be made public?

I admit I'm of two minds on the issue. On the one hand, Apple shareholders have the right to know how the company they essentially own plans to manage itself both today and in the future. They deserve enough information to make informed decisions about whether they wish to retain their ownership stake and how they wish to remain involved, as shareholders, in the evolution of the company. It's a fundamental pillar of our economic system that publicly traded companies provide enough transparency to keep shareholders informed -- not to mention senior leaders honest.

Download Google Chrome 3.0.189.0 Beta for Windows from Fileforum now.

After Apple yesterday released a bug fix update to its Safari 4 Web browser for Mac OS, reportedly to address incompatibility issues between it and certain features in iPhoto '09, the company also issued a new file for the Windows version as well. Though some in the press have been told there wasn't really a difference, and although the new file still installs with the build number 530.17, it wasn't the same file that Apple issued last week.

Miss the '90s? Peace and prosperity and the dot-com bubble and whatnot? The European Union is here to help, dragging on the interminable antitrust suits against Microsoft. (Don't look so shocked; it worked out well for Mississippi, which just got millions of dollars for making a sustained cranky noise. More on that in What's Next.) Meanwhile, the world has moved on -- to open source, to Google (which ought to be taking notes for future reference), to a plethora of browsers and much higher awareness among the general population of how to acquire and use them. At the end of a thrilling week (let's all gasp in unison), it's not all that comforting to see that some things never change.

Microsoft and EU still at odds

Even though Apple used the graph shown above at WWDC this week to illustrate the iTunes App Store's dominance in the mobile applications space, it was missing a big contender that could make its presence much less commanding.

During the Digital Downtown Mobile Apps Shootout today, Vice President of Strategy and Analysis at Interpret LLC Michael Gartenberg reminded the audience that more than 25,000 applications have been developed for the Windows Mobile platform, a number slightly greater than Microsoft's estimate late last March. This figure stresses the impact Microsoft's mobile app store could have.

Truly, Carol Bartz is the gift that keeps on giving to tech writers. During an interview on Fox Business News Monday, the Yahoo CEO uttered some tart criticism of Bing's momentary grab of the second-place StatCounter ranking last week ("They didn't beat us by much. It was one day."), an eyebrow-raising claim ("half the Internet users in the world use Yahoo"), and a smackdown concerning merger talk -- not the usual Microsoft chatter, but regarding AOL. More on the Unsinkable Carol Bartz later in What's Now, but first, what do you call a release candidate candidate?

Firefox's not-yet-release-candidate goes public

I've got a confession to make: I miss Steve Jobs.

Although I don't believe in worshipping at his altar alongside his legions of ardent fans, I can't deny that a Jobs keynote -- or anything he says, thinks or touches -- is more memorable simply because it came from him. While it's fair to say the vast majority of today's wonder-devices and services exist because of visionaries who had the guts to see beyond the here and now, it's also true that these very individuals have traditionally been quiet geniuses, content to drive their companies from behind a wall of corporate secrecy.

Download Safari 4 for Windows 4.30.17.0 from Fileforum now.

Perhaps the absence of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, or any hint of his existence, will go down as the biggest disappointment of this year's WWDC conference in San Francisco. But it may be on the top of a list of more than one item, and down that list not too far behind Jobs' no-show, there is this news: The final release version of Safari 4 is not the fastest Web browser on Windows, despite what SVP Phil Schiller told attendees today.

AT&T subscribers who purchased an iPhone 3G and wish to upgrade to the 3GS early can do so by renewing their 2-year agreement and paying $399 or $499 for the 16GB or 32GB for the new device plus an $18 upgrade fee, the mobile operator said today.

In today's WWDC presentation, Apple listed the new handsets as costing $199 and $299, and did not include the unsubsidized price.

Among today's announcements at Apple's WWDC, iPhone Software Senior Vice President Scott Forstall presented many of the new updates coming with the iPhone 3.0 software upgrade, which will endow the popular iPhone with more than 100 new features. Among these will include the highly demanded support for MMS and bluetooth data tethering, which the popular device has lacked.

Unfortunately, though, the United States' exclusive iPhone carrier AT&T was not listed among the launch partners supporting these updated services, which elicited boos from the audience this morning. The new 3.0-enabled tethering feature was simply listed as being available "later this summer," from 22 carriers worldwide, but with no mention of AT&T.

Sporting new displays, a new non-removable Lithium Polymer battery with a promised 7-hour charge, an SD card slot in place of ExpressCard slots, and offering a new 13" option, Apple's 2009 notebooks comprise its "most affordable lineup ever."

At the bottom of the revised lineup is the new 13" aluminum unibody MacBook Pro, with a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB and SD card slot for $1,199. This can be upgraded to a 2.54 GHz Core2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, and 250 GB of storage for $1,499.

As of about 10:45 am PDT this morning, the "beta" label still appeared on the download page for Safari 4, though we expect the label to be dropped perhaps within the hour.

Betanews will certainly be testing Schiller's claim that Safari 4 is the fastest Web browser on all platforms, but throughout the beta period, it did run circles around Firefox and even bested Google Chrome. The last beta build to be distributed, however, encountered performance problems in the Windows 7 RC that it didn't face in Windows Vista SP2. We'll find out whether Apple corrected those deficiencies in time.

Here's an idea, see what you think: You remember that big Domain Name System cache poisoning warning we faced last year, the one where the whole Internet was threatened and every major vendor acted swiftly to prevent it from happening (with Apple bringing up the rear, again)? Well, even Microsoft was on top of this one, with the idea that if DNS servers used authentication, they could encrypt communications between each other and secure DNS servers from being spoofed or from having false entries inserted into their lookup tables. Not that it was Microsoft's idea, engineers had actually been considering it since the 1980s. So what if the US Government got in on the act? Maybe that might prevent a telecommunications disaster! Do you think?... The government gets wise later in WN|WN, but first, Adobe and Apple aren't getting any wiser.

Even now, no Flash for iPhone

Rather than lower the cost of AT&T's $70 per month unlimited iPhone data plan, the company may introduce tiered mobile data plans. Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets yesterday said the plans would be similar to the subsidized netbook trials that began in early April in Philadelphia and Atlanta.

In those trial markets, the mobile broadband plans were $40 per month for a 200 MB data cap and $60 per month for a 5 GB cap, options that AT&T found "met the needs of casual to occasional data users, as well as frequent and heavy users." That is, of course, when coupled with Fast Access DSL service (also a part of some plans.)

Geeks have a reputation for happily queueing up to buy new things that show their tribal allegiances -- game consoles, Star Trek tickets, and much of Apple's product line. (I'm sure somewhere in this wide world there was a guy sitting on line three days for the Mac mini.) But with no new consoles on the horizon, Apple suspiciously quiet about their WWDC plans, and your reporter refusing to acknowledge the existence of the new Terminator movie, Pre's the fun to be had at the moment. A cluster of rumors, announcements, and tea-leaf prognostications -- along with one Sprint announcement -- are making the rounds as the end of the quarter draws nearer.

Much of the speculation currently revolves around the single solid fact currently known: Sprint's running a win-a-Pre contest. Signups for that sweepstakes conclude Monday night at 11:59 pm CDT, and the drawing will be held one week later, on May 26.

What were the stories that gathered BetaNews readers' attention, got them talking, made them think more about the meaning behind the technology? Our space-age statistics generator has provided us with the final tally.

#20. Intel readies the world for generation 7 of its CPUs