How does the guy do it? Seriously, we need to know, because we're pretty overextended over here as far as available time goes (like we need to tell you that), and we've been reduced to scrounging for spare minutes and seconds that may have fallen behind the couch cushions. And yet, here's Steve Jobs running two high-tech companies, fulfilling his familial obligations, and spending eight to twelve hours per day quashing unauthorized biographies while still somehow finding time to knit, play guitar, and hatch diabolical plans for world domination. Sure, we'd probably be a lot more efficient if we had our own jet, too, but somehow we still don't think we'd be able to, say, take time out to go to D: All Things Digital and regale the assembled gaggle of rich tech-celebrity-hounds with pithy tales of whimsy about life at One Infinite Loop.

But that's just what the Stevester's been doing, for the third year in a row, now-- and you can't scratch your virtual hinder in cyberspace today without falling over half a dozen breathlessly blogged accounts of his most recent charming fireside chats plastered all over the 'net. Take AppleInsider's reports, for example, which say that Steve alluded to "great things" coming soon to the iPod product line, "spoke at length about iTunes and cell phones" (implying the advent of "something totally different and unique"), and more or less confirmed the iTunes Movie Store beyond the shadow of a doubt by answering a question about the possibility of such a service by saying "I'll leave the answer to that question to our actions of the future." (Remember, we're Apple fans; we can interpret a vague and noncommittal answer as rock-solid proof of an upcoming and unannounced product and/or service while standing on our heads and chewing a mouthful of vulcanized tire rubber.)

If you're that freakish sort who only likes to base assumptions of future product releases on plain-stated facts and concrete assertions, well, we accept all kinds, here, but you really should get that looked at by a professional. In the meantime, we'll point out that Steve wowed the D: attendees with a live demonstration of iTunes 4.9, "slated for release within the next 60 days" and with built-in support for podcasting, that fanciful merging of RSS and media files that will turn iTunes into "TiVo for Radio for iPod" by letting you automatically download fresh (and free) audio programming to your iPod whenever new content becomes available. Take that, rival music download services! Speaking of which, Jobs claims that Apple employees are illegally betting on how long it'll be before Yahoo! raises the price of its new $4.99-per-month-billed-annually Music Unlimited subscription service (even Yahoo! acknowledges in purple all-caps that "this price WON'T LAST"), with Jobs himself letting his chips ride on "five months" from now.

There's more, of course, but if you're jonesing for a bigger Steve fix, we're sure you'll unearth the details on your own. Granted, hearing about all this stuff second- or third-hand isn't nearly as satisfying to the drooling fanboy as watching Steve eat soup up close and personal, but then again, this option also doesn't set you back $3,495 for a ticket to the D: conference. Maybe next year, hmmmmm? Heck, if you hook us up with Steve's magic time-dilation secret, we'll foot the bill for your registration ourselves. Maybe. If we feel like it.