John McCain’s loss in November dashed Meg Whitman’s hopes for a White House gig, but the former eBay CEO doesn’t have any plans to leave politics behind. Speculation around Whitman’s rumored run for California governor sparked up again today when the possible future candidate quit the boards of Procter & Gamble, eBay, and Dreamworks Animation. Whitman reps refused to comment on potential political plans, saying the move was for “personal reasons.” And, by “personal reasons,” Meg’s handlers likely mean “stocking up on pantsuits and practicing the politician smirk.”

Apple’s planned exit from future Macworld expos has IDG World Expo, the show’s producer, feeling the pressure for 2010. With no Steve Jobs stage strutting or hyped-up gadget announcements, plans for the future of Macworld remain fuzzy, but rest assured, the show will go on, with or without Apple. Banners around the techie shindig, currently underway in San Francisco, proclaim Macworld 2010 as “The start of a new era” and organizers reportedly plan to field ideas in a “town meeting” (how very John McCain-like) during this week’s conference.

Crowd-sourced magazine JPG folded last week, much to the dismay of fancy photo fans everywhere, but now word has emerged that the mag could rise from the dead as potential buyers eye snapping up the publication. Interested suitors engaging in the reported bidding war include Flickr, Smugmug and Alexander Muse. The company behind JPG, 8020 Media, is apparently only considering cash offers and a deal could arrive at any moment.

Pink slip rumor du jour: the buzz around the business world says Beijing-based Lenovo will layoff 200 employees, including at least 10 at senior management level, at its headquarters. China Tech News reports that the job slashing still needs government approval and could just be the first of the firings that may spread throughout the Asia-Pacific region

Bill O’Reilly is gay, CNN’s resident twitterer Rick Sanchez may skip work to smoke crack and Britney Spears boasts a four foot wide vagina with razor sharp teeth. Well, at least according to Twitter. The Twitter phishing scam that popped up over the weekend has managed to claim some of the site’s most popular members as victims. Even Barack Obama’s account couldn’t escape the sneaky hacking handiwork as his page featured a tweet with an affiliate link to a survey. The Fail Whale Brigade (aka the folks who write the Twitter blog) put out an alert Saturday reminding members to carefully examine DMs and added a red-lettered warning to users’ homepages. Hmm, looks like Twitter will have to add ’security boosting’ to that mysterious business plan.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs wants all the worrying Apple watchers to stop nervously chatting about his health and released a public letter Monday to clear up speculation flying around gossiping tech circles. Jobs blames a hormone imbalance for his dramatic weight loss and reveals he will undergo a “relatively simple” treatment to correct the problem. Jobs and his collection of black mock turtlenecks will continue leading Apple, but this week’s Macworld sans Jobs could also serve as the company’s test run without its fearless leader. Is this kinda like when Hollywood starlets blame thyroid issues and a love of yoga for miraculous weight loss?

Looks like Jimmy Wales has a bright future as a PBS pledge drive host or a well-dressed panhandler as the Wikipedia CEO’s “personal plea” seems to have worked with the community-driven online encyclopedia meeting its $6 million fundraising goal. With just a few days to spare, Wikipedia surpassed the six mil mark, raking in an estimated $2 million since December 23 when Wales broke out his best motivational speech-esque plea and pouted for the camera in a letter to the site’s 275 million monthly users. We better see a song, dance and juggling act from Mr. Wales next year if he starts begging for cash again.

Nick Denton should now have enough cash to supply his doomsday shelter with champagne and a hot tub after the Gawker Media founder sold his Consumerist blog to Consumer Reports for an estimated $1-$2 million in cash. Doom ‘n gloom Denton has been on job-slashing, blog selling rampage since summer when he sold three Gawker-owned blogs (Wonkette, Idolator and Gridskipper) and then folded Valleywag into Gawker.com. Word has it Gawker may even unload its celebrity gossip blog Defamer any day now.

The state of Steve Jobs’ health has everyone gabbing, even a clerk at a popular frozen yogurt shop in Palo Alto who chimed in on the Apple CEO’s rumored illness by claiming a healthy and sprightly-looking Jobs skipped in for a little fro yo only days ago. So, the Steve Jobs health watch continues, only this time topped with blueberries and Captain Crunch.

Coffee getting cold on those long winter commutes? Those fast food fries not quite hot enough for your taste? For the person who has everything (in their car), you may want to look through the after-Christmas sales bonanzas to see if you can dig up one of these nifty In-Car Microwaves. Although some traditionalists will scoff at the convenience and stick to classic engine block cooking, those who would rather stay warmly tucked inside their car will love the convenience of the device, which plugs into the cigarette lighter and comes with an LED screen. Bon apetit!

Digg and ad-selling partner Microsoft couldn’t quite seem to work out the kinks on targeted ads, leaving tech stories with erectile dysfunction ads and environment stories littered with Hummer advertisements, but now Kevin Rose and co. may have gotten their act together. Digg’s auto section now features car ads and the gaming section boasts a sexy animated chick hawking Grand Theft Auto IV. Better late than never.

Despite a nearly fourteen year ban on trade with Iran, Hewlett-Packard printers continuing flying off shelves in the Middle Eastern nation faster than George W. Bush dart boards. The Boston Globe uncovered the backdoor way HP printers have snuck into the country–a Dubai-based third-party distributor, called Redington Gulf, has sold the devices in Iran since 1997 and if Hewlett-Packard execs knew the company planned to sell its products in Iran, the deal could violate trade law. The trade ban has made HPs a hot commodity, with some accounts putting the American tech corporation’s Iranian printer market share at more than 40 percent.

Dallas Mavericks owner and loudmouth extraordinaire Mark Cuban has snapped up a 9.4 percent stake in Carmike Cinemas, the United States’ fourth largest movie chain. So, does Cuban have a secret fondness for romantic comedies and Jackie Chan flicks? Not exactly. Cuban declined to talk specifics, but did discuss his belief that out of home entertainment will expand more and more beyond just movies, leading some to speculate that the billionaire has plans to broadcast 2009’s 3D NBA All-Star game in some Carmike theaters. Whatever his reasoning, Cuban always has some plan brewing in his noggin.

YouTube’s crappy ad revenues and somewhat chaotic approach to business has the head honchos from some major music labels eyeing a partnership with Hulu. Sources say discussions between execs from Universal MG, EMI, Warner and Sony BMG have already started and involve different plans, including the Hulu deal, formulating a new destination website or the creation of a premium service on YouTube. Chatty folks with an inside scoop on the possible deal say Hulu has emerged as the favored potential partner.

The cutsey, teeny-tiny laptops that have everyone from business execs to soccer moms looking like squinting giants caused a selling bonanza on Amazon. Netbooks nabbed 17 of the 25 top-selling notebook spots on the shopping giant, putting big smiles on the faces of laptop manufacturers, who had spent the last couple years nervously watching notebook sales slip. Santa also reportedly enjoyed the whole netbook trend thing as it meant a lighter load and more room for doggie bags filled with cookies and booze.

Kevin Rose has decided to hop in bed with Biz Stone and Ev Williams for some sort of nerd threesome–get your mind out of the gutter, Digg has just decided to make the plunge and finally join Twitter. Heck, Rose even went in full-force with like 15 accounts. Although, with all those accounts, Digg will have something to do with its excessively large workforce.

Facebook and Twitter have both enjoyed a fantastic 2008 (even though neither really has a revenue-making plan) and the two sites often found themselves lumped together on year-end lists of web winners, but a couple calculations reveal Twitter still has a long way to go to reach Facebook status. Read Write Web’s Marshall Kirkpatrick broke out the math nerd hat (again, here at Truemors, we leave number stuff to folks with more time and better calculators) and calculated that, if Facebook stopped growing today and Twitter’s growth numbers stayed consistent, it would take the Fail Whale Brigade 36 years to catch up with the social networking site. Sheesh!

Apple’s green initiative has Dell VP Bob Pearson red in the face, which works well with the Christmas holiday. You know, green and red? No? Ok, move on. Apple has promoted its new aluminum Macbooks as “the world’s greenest family of notebooks,” but Pearson finds the environmental schtick laughable, claiming Apple has lacked transparency in its supposed green efforts. The Dell exec points out that Steve Jobs and co. don’t attend industry meet-ups on the environment, set energy-efficiency or mercury-avoidance goals or make a genuine attempt to go carbon-neutral. Pearson somehow linked Apple’s no blogging by employees policy to the company’s fake Mother Earth-loving facade, but understanding that would require spinning in a circle while balancing bowling balls, so don’t try.

Hubspot’s “State of the Twittersphere” has provided enough tiny Twitter tidbits to impress and probably annoy your family throughout Christmas dinner because really, who doesn’t want to hear about the microblogging service’s stellar year over a honey-baked ham? A few interesting items from the report: 70 percent of all Twitter users signed up in 2008 (including the 20 percent that joined in the last 60 days), Wednesdays and Thursday see the most tweeting action, 35 percent of Twitter users have ten or fewer followers and only 9 percent of all Twitterers don’t bother following anyone. Remember not to share all the fun facts at dinner, Grandpa surely wants to hear about those anti-social Twitter users while indulging in gingerbread cookies.

Troubled smartphone maker Palm has received a helping hand in the form of a $100 million bailout from the Elevation Partners investment firm. Elevation’s managing directors include U2’s Bono (hence the company’s name) and investor Roger McNamee, who already dumped $325 million into the Treo maker last year. Palm hopes to regain its footing in the iPhone and Blackberry-dominated smartphone market with the introduction of its new operating system, Nova, which could debut as early as January. Sounds like the investors might be “Stuck in a Moment (and ailing company) They Can’t Get Out Of.”

The Associated Press has lured Hulu under the mistletoe and went to town with smooches. Ok, not exactly, but the visual will stay with you. The AP selected the NBC-News Corp. joint venture as 2008’s Website of the Year for being “a trailblazing answer to how professional content can thrive on the Web.” Hulu launched March 12 and hosts over 1,000 shows, including the immensely popular election season Saturday Night Live clips and Joss Whedon’s quirky musical “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog.” Hulu’s plans for 2009 include world domination…or at least expanding internationally.

Attention gold diggers: PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and his $1.3 billion net worth have landed on CNN-IBN’s list of the most eligible, filthy rich bachelors. The “Rich and Available” list highlights men with enough money to make up for their physical shortcomings or, in Thiel’s case, his political leanings.

Blogging-made-easy company Posterous has reason to toast eggnog-champagne cocktails as the San Francisco-based start-up raised $725,000 from XG Ventures and angel investors that include Guy Kawasaki and Mozilla Foundation chair Mitch Kapor. Can Posterous’ cash infusion help it compete with bigger, more cash-backed Tumblr?

Only 41 days until some of the most brilliant and innovative minds come together to spread ideas and spark endless conversation at the annual TED Conference and now we know who will take the stage. TED 2009 speakers include Bill Gates, Seth Godin and Herbie Hancock. Wannabe attendees would have better luck scoring Super Bowl tickets on Venus, but if you want to lurk around in hopes of spotting, take note that the TED crew has moved to Long Beach. Check out the full list of program speakers and prepare to get your mind cranking.

The Chief Privacy Officer at Facebook would reportedly rather hang with Arnold Schwarzenegger than Mark Zuckerberg, and really, who wouldn’t? TechCrunch claims Chris Kelly plans to make a run for California’s Attorney General gig in 2010. The Harvard Law School grad will run as a Democrat and faces tough competition from already-declared candidates like San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, Torrence assemblyman Ted Liu and Pittsburg assemblyman Gerald Canciamilla.