Edible Apple

In January of 2009, Apple announced that CEO Steve Jobs would be taking a 6-month leave of absense to focus more fully on health issues that had noticably caused Apple’s co-founder to lose a significant amount of weight. A few months later, Jobs was off in Memphis, Tennessee at Methodist University Hospital where he underwent a liver transplant procedure to alleviate a serious hormonal imbalance.

When news of the procedure broke, there was a bit of controversy regarding how Apple and Jobs chose to handle the matter. Specifically, there was sentiment among investors, or perhaps Apple critics, that Jobs and co. should have been more forthright regarding his condition and the exact reasons behind his leave of absence.

In any event, Jobs was given an excellent prognosis following the procedure and 1-year later, Apple’s fiery CEO appears to have immersed himself back into work at Apple at full throttle.

Though Jobs is still struggling to put on weight, people close to him told Bloomberg that Jobs is doing well otherwise and is fully entrenched in day to day activities at Apple, even appearing from time to time in Apple’s cafeteria.

Jobs has been answering customer e-mails, ruminating on everything from technical issues to the fragility of life, according to exchanges on Apple fan blogs. While releasing the iPad tablet and unveiling iPhone software, the 55-year-old Jobs has stepped up acquisitions in a race with Google for mobile technologies and engineering talent. He recently vacationed in Hawaii, said two people familiar with his schedule.

Earlier this year, Jobs also took to stumping for a proposed bill in California that would require prospective drivers to indicate if they’d like to register as organ donors. Currently, California drivers have to take pro-active steps to sign up as organ donors.

Also of note is that Jobs has agreed to appear on stage at this years All Things D conference in June for what we imagine will be an engaging and informative sit down chat with Walt Mossberg.

Yep, Steve Jobs is back in the mix.