Steve Jobs, who has led a stunning turnaround at AppleComputer Inc., hasalso made his stewardship of the computer maker a more permanent affair.After 2-1/2 years as "interim" chief executive of Apple, Jobs, said he woulddrop the qualifier from his title.

"I'm going to be dropping the `interim' title," Jobs told the Macworld expohere amid a standing ovation from the crowd of Apple devotees at SanFrancisco's cavernous Moscone Centre.

Apple also said it would take a seat on Earthlink's board. Earthlink, whichhas about 32.5 million shares, is set to merge with Mindspring EnterprisesInc, creating the No. 2 internet service provider after America Online Inc.The agreement with Earthlink is similar to a service thatGateway Inc. -- amaker of so-called Wintel personal computers that use Microsoft software andIntel chips -- has been offering for some time. The largest PC makers haveteamed up with Internet access providers to boost sales through add-onservices amid a brutally competitive PC market.

At the trade show, Jobs also unveiled the delayed Mac OS X, a completely newversion of its well-received operating system software. It grew out of anearlier version code-named Rhapsody and will boast a new interface calledAqua.

Apple also revamped its web site, at www.apple.com, to include featurescalled iReview, a web site review guide and iCards, an electronic greetingcard site.

Separately, Microsoft Corp. said it will release its latest Macintosh-basedInternet browser by early March and bundle it with the next version ofApple's operating system later this year.

Apple stock jumped 4-13/16 to 107-5/16, defying an earlier broad sell-off onthe tech-heavy Nasdaq index. In late trade, the index climbed 22.14 to3,923.83 after earlier falling as low as 3,734.87.

"Our new iReviews, iCards and the revolutionary iToolsoffer amazing new waysfor Mac users to take full advantage of the Internet," Jobs said.IToolsinclude Kidsafe, a new way to protect children onthe Internet, specifyingwhat they can see rather than trying to filter out what they shouldn'T see.Apple's computers have more than 50,000 sites it deems safe for children,and is adding 10,000 new sites each month.

Apple also unveiled Mac.com, an E-mail service that thecompany plans to run,giving users and exclusive address on the Internet and works with standardE-mail programmes. Users can easily set up automatic replies and forwardingof their E-mail to other addresses.Apple also is offering something it callsiDisk, which is20 megabytes of storage on Apple's Internet server computers,and Apple said it was as easy to use as a folder on the Mac desktop.

HomePage also introduced what Apple called an easy way tobuild a personalWeb site in less than 10 minutes, which would then be hosted on Apple'sserver computers. The iTools services are free to Macintosh users runningMac OS 9.Earthlink will become the exclusive Internet serviceprovider inApple's Internet setup software included with all Apple Macintosh computerssold in the US.

Mac enthusiasts had speculated about the biannual MacWorld show, at whichJobs typically gives a rousing speech and takes the wraps off closelyguarded secrets. Rumours for this show, unsubstantiated so far, included anew PowerBook computer, an iMac with a bigger,monitor and a G4 servercomputer running two processors.