Wouldn't it be nice, if you were a cancer survivor suffering from a serious metabolic disorder, to be told by your doctor that you'd be good to go in June? Wouldn't it be comforting to know that, come June, you'd be able to pick up right where you left off at the top of the tech world?

I mull over those questions every time I read another reassurance that Steve Jobs, on medical leave since January, will be back on the job at the end of June. The most recent affirmation came at the Apple board meeting 10 days ago, which Jobs did not attend. (Disclaimer: I own Apple shares.)

Given the perilous uncertainties of our daily lives, wellness rarely lends itself to being date-specific, especially in one's mid-50s. Alex Rodriguez merely has a torn labrum, and doctors are unsure how it will affect his season. As remarkable a visionary as Jobs is, I wonder if his medical prognosis is not handicapped by insider knowledge. After all, in his official notification he weighted his desire "to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products" as much as health concerns in his decision to take a hiatus.

If I were the inveterate showman that Jobs is, I would not want to return to the office as the sole focus of attention, having to answer endless questions about my health and well-being and the future of my company and the stock price and blah blah blah. Instead, I'd want my reappearance to coincide with some huge attention-getter that I could leverage into a triumphant re-entry, galloping at full speed aboard a white stallion, holding aloft something cool.

Besides the maestro's return, the end of June (the 29th, to be exact) happens to mark the second anniversary of the debut of Apple's market-changing iPhone. It also happens to be the original expiration date of Apple's exclusive arrangement with AT&T to provide iPhone service in the U.S. (a USA Today story quoted anonymous sources saying the contract had been extended to 2010; other speculation sees openings in the arrangement). With the iPhone due for an update, June would be a propitious time to roll out an expanded strategy involving the phone that shook the world.

The never somnolent Apple rumor mill has been extraordinarily antsy in recent weeks. One speculation is that Apple will roll out an iCheep phone — at, say, $99, with a few key features disabled — a common strategy for the company. Other reports have it that Apple is working on a deal with the other big cell phone carrier, Verizon, to offer iPhones. (I'm hoping the latter is true because I prefer Verizon service and have been holding out getting an iPhone for that one reason alone.)

I would not be surprised to see a few iPhone enhancements at the upper end, either. Video is an obvious one. Improved optics is another (not just megapixels but better sensor). Some new killer apps. And something entirely unexpected, too, that only Jobs and a select few know about, and which is undoubtedly speeding his recovery.

Along those lines, an Apple netbook might just blow the doors off any Jobs return. Mac fanatics have been hoping for something like this for a long time, but in a rare misjudgment of an emerging and ripe market, the company has failed to take advantage.

Its most recent explanation, from Jobs himself, was that ""We don't know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk."

OK, I'll bite. How about building a computer for ... $500?

At that price point (or even $600 or $700), a Mac netbook would fly off the shelves. Apple undoubtedly has resisted the netbook market as a cannibalization of its MacBook line, which now starts just below $1,000. But MacBooks, like all personal computers these days, have slowed in sales. So have Windows PCs. What is booming is the netbook market, mostly running on Linux. As much respect as I have for the many weird and wonderful iterations of Linux, I'm in no hurry to subject myself to the vicissitudes of open source software in a tiny albeit lovable package. Windows provides even less a temptation.

But I'd stand in line the night before ship day to get a Mac netbook. And it wouldn't mean I'd give up my MacBook or aging PowerBook. A netbook does a number of things that I, a peripatetic cyclist who needs more than a phone but less than a laptop or notebook for much of my computing, shamelessly desire.

Finally, I'm thinking something dramatic needs to happen with AppleTV (or just make it go away). I'm not sure what, because I'm not sure why AppleTV, the company's most ill-defined product, existed in the first place.

All of this is highly speculative, given the secrecy around Jobs' illness and Apple's storied tightness with product development. We are left to hope first and foremost that a much healthier Steve Jobs comes back on the scene. Whatever else happens would be gravy.

But there is just one more thing.

Like most journalists staring into their fiscal future and seeing nothing but a bottomless black pit, I yearn for someone with appropriate clout, credibility and technologies to step forward and provide a transaction model for Web content — you know, the stuff that's supposedly free, even though it takes real time, work and money to produce.

Some of us have proposed an iTunes model (mine is called a penny a click, but before you run to your keyboard to hammer out the flame mail, it's an idea, not a blueprint for the global economy, OK?) for pay-as-you-go, or micropayments, for content that people really like, want to share, and are willing to pay for. Not just print, not just news, but all forms of Web content, including podcasts, photos and video.

With the Web providing a natural convergence point for digital content in the 21st Century, an AppleTV "second coming" (not that it had a first) with an innovative and workable payment mechanism (just as iTunes' dollar-a-song proved to be) might be just the ticket. A key entry point could be the iTunes bar-chart ranking system, based on popularity of downloads. The simple but effective methodology could help users determine the worthiness of any piece of content, and guide their willingness to pay for it accordingly. Such a system could work on the iPhone as well, given that cell service providers already have a micropayment system in place.

Somebody needs to crack this nut and get us started on the road to paid content. It might as well coincide with the Second (some might say Third) Coming of technology's greatest maestro ever, Steve Jobs.

Paul Andrews, co-author of "Gates," is a former Seattle Times technology columnist now doing online journalism. Find him on Twitter (tweetPaul) and his personal blog, paulandrews.com. He also runs BikeIntelligencer.com, focused on bicycling. Read all of his TechFlash columns here.