Steve Jobs still taking an active role at Apple

Back in January, Steve Jobs announced that he would be taking six months off as head of Apple for health reasons.  That hasn't stopped him keeping an eye on the company--and it seems he has been involved with developing new products, as well as taking strategic control.

When he announced his departure in mid-January, Jobs said that he was planning to stay on top of "major strategic decisions while I am out."

According to the Wall Street Journal, however, he is still taking an interest in the development of new products, and is actively involved in the production of the third version of the iPhone OS, which adds several sought-after features like copy-paste and new APIs for application developers.

Even more interestingly, it's also been rumoured that Jobs has taken a key role in the design of a new mid-range computer, to be positioned between the iPhone and the Macbook.  Whether it's a netbook or a touchscreen notebook, plenty of interest was created when the Taiwanese manufacturer Wintek revealed last month that it was producing 10'' touch screens for Apple.

Jobs should return to his full-time position at the end of June.  When his temporary departure was announced a few months ago, the company's share price became a little volatile, but it's been gradually climbing since March and has increased in value by almost 25% since March.