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CEO Steve Jobs (with a veritable chorus of board members and execs answering backup), took his annual grilling yesterday courtesy of Apple's shareholders meeting.

Among the iPhone related news:

  • When asked why Apple doesn't take games seriously enough to acquire their own Halo-class developer (ironic, as Halo was originally intended for the Mac), Jobs highlighted Thurday's iPhone SDK event as opening a new door for Apple gaming.
  • With regards to the still languishing .Mac online service -- specifically the possibility of blogging tools -- Jobs responded that we'd see more from .Mac before the end of the year, and with the iPhone SDK, if Apple didn't provide a mobile blogging tool, a 3rd party would be able to. (Then El Jobso kindly suggested the questioner learn Cocao and write the app himself!)
  • On the subject of iTunes movie rentals, and why Apple does not yet have the 1000 movies Jobs said would be available by now, the mustache-twirling serial villains at Big Media were handed the blame, specifically the longer-than-anticipated delays in securing download rights for older films before such rights were ever foreseen, much less clarified. (Perhaps next time someone could ask Le Steve about international downloads for those of us outside the USA?)
  • Tim Cook, as previously reported, fielded the question on the iPhone in China, and in Asia in general.
  • In what some are interpreting as a rare slip in the long tradition of Jobs not commenting on potential future releases (his ship don't leak from the top!), longer than normal pauses apparently prefaced Jobs' no-comments on questions about an X-Serve Mini style embedded home server and an Apple TV supported by advertising rather than download purchase fees. Not iPhone specific, but either bit of tech could substantially impact the iPhone's capabilities or content models.
  • Lastly, when asked why the iPhone always has half the memory of the iPod Touch, Jobs pointed out that things like the cell radio take up more space in the iPhone, leaving less for memory, and that the iPod would likely always take the lead in storage size.

Be sure to check out AppleInsider's complete coverage on the shareholders meeting in general, including the Mac, Apple Retail, and more.